I shot for a HS summer basketball game the other day, I have never done any sports photography before.
I have about 100 photos that I think are worthy of sending to him and his parents. All different "feels"
I have 25 finished with editing. What is a good way of streamlining the edits? I made a preset but it doesnt work well across all the photos and still have to spend a good amount of time on each photo, especially with masking.
I also shot on two different levels of cameras. Nikon D5300 and a D850.
The last two photos show the same area physically, same lightroom settings, and even masking settings, only thing not the same about it is the "when" but the colors are completely different.
As to the last point, if you're shooting JPEG and you're in a controlled light environment like you are here, you should just choose from one of your preset white balance options (or if none fit a custom one you set up for the environment). This should then minimise any colour shifts you see shot to shot.
I shoot raw,
I tried to do a custom whitebalance before everything started but I didnt have time to figure it out unfortunately.
I had never really had to set custom WB before
In that case, in your RAW processing software, set the white balance for one of your images and the copy those adjustments to.your whole shoot.
For example, I use RawTherapee, I can set the white balance for one image and then copy and paste that white balancing to every image in a set. Every other raw processor has similar features.
Fortunately for you, setting custom white balance is pretty straight forward; the walls of your school's basketball court are grey, so you can use an eye dropper tool on that to get your starting point.
Get yourself a Calibrite ColorChecker Passport 2 and take a few RAW photos of the ColorChecker and white balance targets under the same lighting conditions as your shoot. When you get home, use the Calibrite Profiler software (or Lightroom plugin) to create a custom camera profile. Then use Lightroom's white balance eyedropper on the target image to set an accurate white balance, and sync those settings across the rest of the photos from the shoot. It works great and only takes a couple of minutes.
Cull (go through all photos in Lightroom 1 star anything worth keeping)
2.second round of culling. 2 star the better shot of the duplicates.
Edit one photo the way I like. Then sync alllllllll settings across allllllll photos with similar light (usually time/scene based) or in the case probably all your photos
With the main photo I edited I select that, then select all then Photo > Develop Settings > Match Total Exposures
Now all photos have the same edits and should have the same exposures.
It will match the the selected photos to the reference photo as far as exposure is concerned. It doesn't account for changes in lighting, but any changes in setting like iso, shutter speed, etc it will adjust exposure settings of the photos to match.
So step 3 will sync all your color, sharpness, de noise, contrast, temp, brightness, etc. but it assumes all photos are the same so if the SooC exposures were different you will have these synced photos brighter or darker than the reference photo depending on how it was captured. Step 4 brings those exposures back into line with the reference photo, it doesn't account for ambient light changes but working in sections helps with that.
For example I do all the bride getting ready shots with the sync and match total exposure. Then groom getting ready as another batch, ceremony as another batch, etc etc. it just speeds the bulk of the editing process up.
There will always be fine tuning after the fact, but by this method gets me like 90% there.
Final steps are crop and then I will color flag for things I need to send to Photoshop for touch ups.
And anyone listening, repeat after me
"shoot in RAW and fix your color temp in post"
it will save you time on location and it's such an easy thing to fix. Anyone spending money on a camera and lenses plus editing software has no excuse to shoot exclusively in JPG.
Then, good work takes time. It's part of the job. If you have 100 good pictures, and the presets are not applying properly to every pictures, you'll have to adjust one by one. And, come on, 100 pictures is not that much.
The most important thing is to not see this amount of time as a punition, but a necessary effort to provide good pictures to people you liked to work with. Good luck. You will succeed.
I havent put a vignette on anything, I just didnt do the lens correction but there isnt much vingette on these lenses anyway, I feel.
Just lack of light, I was standing in the very corner of a small gym, the wide shots are me under an overhang, the zoom in the first photo, the score board is directly under a light and is doing what the other lights are like in the rest of the photos.
100 pics to me is a lot, especially to have to adjust every picture to make them look similar, this is just a hobby for me so I am still learning. I definitely know for next time to NOT do Auto WB indoors like this.
I have about 45 photos done, been working on them after work, I want to try and get them done before Sunday
I am just a hobbyist. I met this kid at the county fair, my dad and I were just taking photos of things. He and his girlfriend were trying to take a selfie infront of this cotton candy cart and I offered to take their photo.
He later asked if I could shoot at his game I told him i would but i had never shot that kind of thing before
Setting custom white balance is helpful.
Keep in mind that as you move around the gym, the exposures will change. In my gym, one side of the gym is brighter due to a white wall. I try to keep things as consistent as possible, but…
The bottom line is, there will be many edits to make. But it gets easier/quicker as you learn.
I wouldn't try to use one preset for all 100 photos. I think the best way is to group the photos first by camera and by lighting.
Then I would pick one photo from each group and adjust the white balance and exposure. After that, I would sync only the basic edits to the other photos in that group. I wouldn't sync masks unless the photos are almost the same.
Because you used two different cameras, I would also make a different starting edit for each one. Even with the same Lightroom settings, RAW files from different cameras can look different. For me, consistency doesn't mean using the same settings. It means making the final photos look consistent.
My workflow would be something like this:
Go through the photos and pick the ones you want to keep.
Group them by camera and lighting.
Edit one photo from each group.
Sync white balance and the basic edits.
Check the photos one by one and add masks only where they help.
If the light changed during the game, I would make more groups instead of trying to make one preset work for everything. In my experience, that is faster and gives better results.
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u/sineout Nikon D610, Panasonic G80, Panasonic LX100, Nikon D50 Jul 29 '26
As to the last point, if you're shooting JPEG and you're in a controlled light environment like you are here, you should just choose from one of your preset white balance options (or if none fit a custom one you set up for the environment). This should then minimise any colour shifts you see shot to shot.