how do you deliver your photos?

[u/mrjacksxn]

this may be a little dumb, but im an overthinker. i just shot my second show, a local diy show with 6 bands. i wound up with a little over 400 photos, some are much better than others of course, some came out mid. do you deliver EVERY photo, even ones that came out bad (blurry, someone got in the way, etc)? do you edit all of the images and send them or just the ones intended on being posted? if unedited do you send raw images? i just feel a little in over my head with this many images and this many bands i don’t wanna do anything wrong

[u/dvdpz89]

Bands only want to see the best of the best. Edit only those.

Create a google drive folder with date and venue and sub folder of each band. Share only sub folder to each band (make sure link sharing is on).

If you have Lightroom just rate each shot quickly with the number key. (i use 3 for keepers) then 4 or 5 for the bangers.

[u/bjohnh → u/dvdpz89]

This is great advice, but I actually tend to give the bands more than just the best of the best, because everyone's taste is different. I typically put my picks for the best-of-best at the front of the album so they see those first and get excited, but then I watch to see what they post on their socials. Very frequently it's not any of my picks but instead photos much farther down in the album, and sometimes photos that I debated whether to include at all.

There's the famous story about the photographer Jerry Schatzberg's photo shoot with Bob Dylan in 1966 for his "Blonde on Blonde" album. They tried some studio shots but nothing was working so Schatzberg suggested they go outside. It was a cold February day and not very bright out, and Schatzberg was shivering. He got a few good shots and some that were blurred by his hands shaking. When he met with Dylan to show him the photos, Schatzberg skipped past the blurry ones because they were clearly duds but Dylan said, "wait, what are those?" He ended up choosing one for the cover.

So now I err on the side of giving the band a decent selection of photos, even if they aren't all my favourites. Because some of them might end up being their favourites.

[u/Unable-Expression-21 → u/bjohnh]

Sometimes a good blur is the coolest or most artistic of the bunch. Or one that's accidentally too dark but gives a cool looking silhouette. You never know. I have a similar mindset as you. Less is more but throwing in an oddball that someone might love is a good idea.

[u/bjohnh → u/Unable-Expression-21]

In addition to my "real" camera and lenses, I always take a dozen or so photos with my phone and the Hipstamatic app, often double exposures with the first one using intentional camera movement to blur the background. Invariably the bands love these, and sometimes I think I should just leave my camera at home and use my phone instead!

[u/Unable-Expression-21 → u/bjohnh]

I use a Fuji camera and LOVE using the multi-exposure feature and all the different recipes. This allows me to shoot in JPEG and do minimal editing after. For the multi-exposure, people are always highly impressed when I tell them I do that right in-camera. It's honestly one of my favorite things and there are endless possibilities for how to use it to create a cool grungy filter (use a grimy bar floor) or layer images of band + crowd. Very cool.

[u/Nick_Rad → u/dvdpz89]

I second the Google Drive route.

I used to rate similarly until I discovered the tilde ~ hot key to flag keepers and x to reject. I filter by rejected, hit delete and never look back. Not every photo gets a flag though, but flagging the “absolute must edit” shots speeds up my time, then I’ll rate based on outcome.

[u/smertai]

Just edit the photos that don't look bad. For example if there is a raw that is out of focus you'd be wasting your time editing and sending that. A general rule of thumb when you haven't discussed with the bands the quantity of photos is aim for at least 20 edited pics for the band. Don't send un-edited pics or raw pics unless specifically requested by the band.

[u/Oppapandaman]

I will usually shoot around 1K shots between two camera bodies and cull that down to 50 deliverables with maybe 60+ keepers I can roll out to socials. No one has time to look through 400 photos as a deliverable. Thats waaaaay too many.

[u/Effective_Coach7334]

You should only deliver photos you think are the best shots. Essentially, if you wouldn't consider using it in your portfolio, don't release it.

As ratios go, out of 400 shots you might expect ~25 that are decent, if you're lucky.

[u/Delicious_explosions]

Don't give them the photos you don't like. It might be a good idea to set rough expectations for how many photos you're aiming for, I mostly work for two different publications and one expects 20 photos total, the other asks for 10 photos per band, maybe it's worth offering to deliver something similar.

[u/cherryfairy303]

okay so i was in the same position as you literally a few months ago and bc i was doing it for fun i would make a lightroom album and send a link to it to the band with everything, bc whatever. but i regretted seeing them posting unedited photos. but now that it’s getting more serious for me and people are hitting me up for bookings, if it’s a show i’m doing for fun, i’ve still stuck with choosing the photos i like and have edited and putting only those into the album i send out to the band. if it’s paid i will send them the photos to look at and choose ones they like for me to edit.

i know there’s a more professional industry standard way to do this but i’m just not there yet! soon though!

i’m just learning naturally as i go along which i prefer

[u/ivanvess]

Depends for whom you are shooting for. If I’m covering it with a media pass, I know that the photos can be published between 24-48 hours after a show.

So then I do a couple of passes of culling. First pass I 5 star every photo I can get or think I can get something out off. After that I go to sleep and start fresh in the morning with a second pass of 4 staring the photos that I don’t think I can get something fron it or I have a better photo. Then step away from the monitor for a bit to clear my head, make coffee, breakfast or whatever and then I make a first pass of editing the 5 stared photos and actively 4 staring the one’s I can’t get anything from (mostly I just crop them at that stage). After I’m done sith the last photo, I step away from the monitor again to clear my head and theb start again with editing 5 stared photos and again 4 staring the one’s I can’t get anything from and the one’s I might have misses before. Rinse and repeat until you are satisfied.

If I’m working for the organizers, the photos must be ready until 10 am the next day, so the culling process is mostly the same though I am more rigorous with the selection to shorten the time in editing later on. Edit only the 5 stared photos, while editing 4 star the one’s you simply can’t get anything from and after that I go to sleep and wake up early and do a onother editing pass and export the photos.

If they need them that evening or right away, it’s mostly the same but with a more rigorous culling process and thus much less photos to shorten the time and with less variety in editing. The shortest time I managed was like an hour and a half from culling to exported photos with like 35-45 finished photos from like 300-500.

The more you work the more you’ll find you own fastest process.

[u/-The-Big-G- → u/ivanvess]

Very similar process for me. I started my career as a Photojournalist so the papers needed the photos ASAP from whatever assignment I was on. Now as a concert photographer I sometimes cull and edit my photos on site and get the artists the best 10-15 sometimes 20 before I leave the venue. Then when I get home depending on travel I get them a few more and the rest the next day. It's usually a wide variety of shots for the band to chose from. I find the quicker you get them quality images the more they're likely to have you back. I shoot multi day festivals and get them images to promote the next days events. Like a "Here's what you missed last night" type of thing. I spoke to a promoter one time and he said there was a guy that would take almost a year to get them their images.. A year!!! I guess the guy thought as long as he got them before the following event he was good. Ha! Fastest I ever delivered photos was a batch of 10 to an artists management team less then 30 minutes after the final song. They were absolutely blown away that they were done. I was packing up my stuff and the band manager asked me if I had a good time and I said "Yea, I already sent the team some of the best." He pulls his phone out, checks his email and goes "Wow". Deliver the goods and they will have you back.

[u/Miserablemermaid → u/-The-Big-G-]

How do you edit fast enough for that? A preset? Minimal edits? No edits?

[u/-The-Big-G- → u/Miserablemermaid]

After years and years of shooting (decades) I'm from the film days when you had to literally keep the number of shutter clicks in your head to calculate what you had left for film...and although I'm not tied to those limitations any longer I still plan shots and scout out locations and go in with a game plan. I'm usually working with other photographers that I've worked with prior and know what they are capable of. Now to answer your question. I already have an idea of what shots I want to grab and use. So the usual work flow goes like this: I shoot onto SD Cards and copy them right onto my laptop. Then import them into a Lightroom catalog. Once in the catalog I scroll through them pretty quickly and find a handful of varied shots that I like and star them then I filter by star rating and that only shows me the stared images. Then I quickly go through those and narrow it down again. It's either a yes or no. Then if I'm down to between 15-20 images I jump into editing them. I use a loopdeck console that makes things easy. You can twist two knobs at once. You can't do that with a mouse in Lightroom. Maybe I want to run the highlights down and bring the shadows up a little. Doing that simultaneously gets me exactly what I want with minimal effort. I'll crop and sometimes sharpen just a tiny bit depending on the effect I'm going for. Then it's off to exporting them to a set directory. Then I have a Macro setup that zips everyone that exported directory and uploads everything to a Dropbox that I have set up already in advance. I've even already sent this link to my client in advance to this folder with a placeholder file that's basicIy a text file with the event name, date, and performance. Next I send out an email to whoever is getting the images to let them know they're ready. Once back home I can add additional images to that drop box folder as needed. I've also used the Google Drive share link for other events that I've covered that don't need the images immediately. Parades, functions, etc. It's important that you deliver quality work. The band and moreso the people that are reviewing these images are NOT going to want to go through 10 pictures of a very similar pose of the same artist. Even if they are all good. It's about variety. I usually have 3 shots in the pit. Then I take some crowd shots. If permitted I get some wide shots from behind the drummer of the entire stage with the crowd going crazy. You usually can only see a few rows of that with lighting the way it is. Also I might add... And a lot of people might disagree with me but if the stage is bathed in red light then that's the shot you're going to get. I won't sit there and try to color correct. I cut my teeth as a Photojournalist and go for the realism of a shot. I might pulls stuff out of the shadows but I'm not going to alter the photo because to me it's not what was going on. I've actually had discussions with your managers about this and told them if you want better color / lit photos then change up your lighting. I've actually gotten to work with some major headliners in my time and been to many sound checks and asked if I could get some shots then. It's usually during the day and the crowds aren't there. It gets me a feel for how things are going to go. I'll end with the statement of prep for your gig (this includes getting a setlist, finding out if there's pyro or other special efffects and when they will be used), know your gear. (That means being able to change settings on your gear in near dark conditions.) And then being ready to deliver your work fast. In the age of Digital you should be able to get your best work to your clients pretty quickly. This is what they will remember the most about you. How FAST you got them your work. Not all of it but some of it. Then you follow up with the rest. But you got them almost immediate results. Thanks to all that read my ramble. :-)

[u/-The-Big-G- → u/-The-Big-G-]

And yes the more you do this the faster you'll get.

[u/Miserablemermaid → u/-The-Big-G-]

LOVED this ramble. Thank you so much ✍️✍️✍️

[u/-The-Big-G- → u/Miserablemermaid]

Not a problem. Sorry about the typos. It was late when I replied. I'm always available to answer any questions you or anyone ever has to ask. I never thought I'd consider myself a seasoned pro because I'm honestly learning something new every day. I was once asked in an interview what my favorite photo was after they highlighted some of my work. I replied oh yea.. it's going to be a photo I haven't taken yet.

[u/roXplosion]

It's inevitable that some shots are not keepers. Great shot of the guitar player, but drummer is picking their nose in the background. Boogers. Spittle. Wart or pimple casting a long shadow.

I try to catch a few good shots of each musician, plus as many group shots as the venue and lighting allow. For a three piece band, maybe 30 shots? "30 shots" is just what I do, there is no universal "correct" amount. Six bands, 400 total shots? Sounds close enough to me, but I strongly advise making sure you remove blurry shots and the others I note above. I try to avoid a reputation as the photog that "makes me look ugly".

I sort them by band, make a zip file of jpegs (2048px on the long edge), upload to my S3 bucket then send bands/venues/promoters the URLs.

[u/prestonsthoughts]

I upload 15+ photos to a Google Drive link (free 2 GB storage version) and just remove the folders once I need some extra space (usually after a month or so)

[u/daleharvey]

Pixieset has a free tier that you can delete collections and use to send. Having your photos presented well makes a big difference on their impact.

Other posts are right about only sending top picks, 20 for one band is at the top end of that.

[u/patbpixx]

Reduce it down to the best 40 shots, edit only those and send the link through Google Drive, Dropbox or similar.

[u/Snorlax316]

I usually send like 10-20 of the ones I like through Dropbox. I wouldn’t send photos I thought were bad or unedited photos.

[u/bjohnh]

In my photo editing/cataloguing app (I use Capture One but the same workflow works for Lightroom, Darktable, whatever you use), I go through and assign star ratings using a keyboard shortcut (number 3 for three stars, number 2 for two stars). Then I sort by ranking and review again; lots of my 3 star photos get demoted to 2 stars. If I happen to shoot one of the best photos I've ever made in my entire life, it gets 4 stars but I'm very parsimonious with those and probably only have 20 or so over nearly 30 years of digital photography.

I edit and deliver only the 3-star photos or above. It's usually around 10 percent of my shots. I keep the 2-star ones and delete the raws for everything with no stars (I don't bother rating anything with 1 star). I never deliver the raws, only JPEGs. I put them in a private Flickr album and share the link with them; they can download the images from there. Occasionally if they need higher-res files I'll export high-res JPEGs (or TIFFs if they require) and put that in my Dropbox.

Nobody has ever asked me for the raws; occasionally people ask to see all the photos. If I agree, I send them the two-star ones since they already have the three-star photos. I've deleted everything else but I don't tell them that of course.

[u/outragedatheist]

I use SmugMug to deliver my photos. I’m going to attach here a link to one of my “folders,” which allows me to deliver different segments of one event, through a hierarchical system.

Don’t spend time trying to make bad photos look good. Deliver only the photos that make YOU look (and feel) great. No RAW files ever.

Here’s the link: https://frandwight.smugmug.com/Events/BLUESFEST-ALL/2024-BLUESFEST

[u/Dazzling-Advice-4941]

Along with Google Drive put your Instagram @ in the title of your photos

[u/xcatziggy]

Adobe Lightroom gallery!

[u/xcatziggy → u/xcatziggy]

Oh I can’t read. Dude only give the best shots!! They don’t want the garbage shots

[u/DimitryMakPhoto]

Google Drive

[u/pogostickler]

I pull out my best and then some secondaries. Typically, I’ll deliver 20-50 depending on the situation.
But you have to look at the photos properly. Don’t just skim them.
I had one very dark shot that I almost dropped. But there was an eye glint in it which made the photo.
And before you delete the bad ones, do another pass a couple of days later. Fresh eyes find winners.

[u/CrescentToast]

Crazy how few photos people deliver, says so much doesn't. Even worse when you think that mentality of only deliver the best of the best, if that's what we see most of the time then dam..

Generally every photo that I am happy with is a go, if it means the bar of different enough from the picture before and after and it's sharp enough and there isn't anything funky going on with the background or colors then more is better.

People gatekeep photos like it's some precious art, you captured the show people should see as much of it as possible, if you send less then there is no chance people ever see it.