Okay, if you’re a photographer who culls using Lightroom, you might be thinking that culling a wedding in under two hours is impossible. I’m here to enlighten you!
There’s this little powerhouse of a program that I started using 3 or 4 years ago called Photo Mechanic 5. It’s like a gift straight from heaven, this thing is. This is something that I use ONLY for culling (which means sorting through your photos to decide which ones to keep!) despite the fact that it has more features that can be used!
When I get home in the evening after a session or wedding, I immediately set up my folders on my hard drives, and start “ingesting” the photos into Photo Mechanic. Once they’re in there, I can cull through 4-5,000 images in less than two hours, if I’m not getting distracted by something. Then, I drag the “tagged” photos into my To Edit folder on my desktop, and then add to Lightroom!
This used to take me HOURS to do in Lightroom. The reason that Photo Mechanic is so so fast is that it renders its previews faster than lightning. So you’re not waiting for a photo to load to see if it’s sharp before deciding if you want to keep it or not. I really love Lightroom for editing, but I no longer use it for culling images! I only cull in Lightroom for personal images, because I’m dealing with less than 100 images at a time!
Bonus tip: When it comes to culling, I don’t linger on the photos. I make a split-second gut reaction to an image. If I have to stop and think about whether or not I want to keep it, then it’s not something I’m going to keep. I go through photos so fast! So while having Photo Mechanic can definitely cut down on a lot of time, you also have to be efficient at choosing which images you’re going to keep!
Photo Mechanic is a one time purchase, and I have it on both my laptop and my desktop! It’s been worth EVERY. SINGLE. PENNY! So, if you’re a photographer who is buried in sessions and weddings that need to be culled and edited, I strongly encourage you to check out Photo Mechanic!! It’ll change your life!
Linda is a Boston-based photographer specializing in weddings and creating family legacies. You can see more of her work online at lindabarryphotography.com, on Instagram, or on Facebook. If you want to reach out directly: linda@lindabarryphotography.com. To sign up for the monthly newsletter full of encouragement and real life, click here!
If you liked this post, you might like these also!
comments +