4 Pre-event working with Lightroom tips

Lightroom is a great tool, but sometimes there are things that we need to do to make it easier. Here are 4 Lightroom tips that make it easier for you to manage lots of pictures from an event.

Lightroom Tips

So often the tips are related to actually using features of lightroom, this list comprises things that should/can be done in advance to make lightroom use easier.

Synchronise Watches

We all know from the movies that military missions are preceded by the synchronising of watches. Well photographing an event is a mission and Lightroom uses the date and time stamp on the images for sorting. This makes sense, but can be a problem if different cameras have different times.

This is significant if you want to select the best image from a scene from multiple cameras. If the cameras have different dates and times the images will not appear next to each other in the Lightroom thumbnails. So you are forced to jump backwards and forwards to compare. This is annoying and means that you can risk editing and delivering a shot that is not your best.

Notes in the back pocket

Discussing and getting a briefing from a client before the event is important. But it is a waste of time if you forget it when you are actually doing the job. Under pressure to get the shots, be in the right place, check the settings, swap lenses, take time for a coffee can all lead to a memory overload.

Creating a list, including the times and locations of important aspects is critical to compensate for forgetfulness. Also this is important when working in a team. We need to check with counterparts to ensure that all aspects of the event have been captured and in the way the client wants.

Make the list on a small piece of card or paper to fit in the back pocket and don’t forget a pencil to mark things off.

Photographic Clapper Boards

We all know that Hollywood movies use clapper boards, marking the scene, the take the date and time. This helps in the cutting room to ensure that the right scene and take is found and used.

A small business card sized piece of card with the “label” of the phase in a complex event can be photographed. These label shots help to identify the beginning and the end of each of the parts or phases of the event. This makes it easier to find the images for a particular part of the event.

Presets for correction

In some cases clients need fast turnaround on images. When this is the case, we do not have time for sliders and scrolling. My solution to this is the creation of problem solving presets.

By understanding what typical problems I am likely to encounter I can make “fixes”. I will do another video to share mine, but you should create your own suitable to your needs.