I used to spend 3–4 days editing after every wedding. Now I deliver the same quality in under a day. Here are the 10 changes that made the biggest difference — starting with the ones that save the most time.
Manual frequency separation takes 20–45 minutes per photo. A good plugin like RetouchLab Skin Pro does the same in 30 seconds. For 100 photos that's the difference between 3 days and 2 hours — just on skin retouching alone.
Apply your base exposure, color grading, and lens corrections to all photos in Lightroom first using Sync Settings. Only send the final selects to Photoshop for detailed retouching. This alone cuts editing time by 30–40%.
Any multi-step process you do on every photo — sharpening, noise reduction setup, export settings — record it as a Photoshop Action. Play it with one keystroke. Takes 10 minutes to set up, saves hours every week.
Most photographers edit too many photos. For a 1-hour portrait session, deliver 20–30 final images — not 80. Use Photo Mechanic or Lightroom's star rating to reject blurry, duplicate, and unflattering frames before touching Photoshop.
The most underrated time saver. In Photoshop: B for brush, J for healing, [ ] for brush size, Cmd+J to duplicate layer. Shaving 2 seconds off every action adds up to 30+ minutes per editing session.
Do all your culling first. Then all your Lightroom edits. Then all your Photoshop retouching. Switching between tasks constantly kills focus and speed. Batch the same type of work together.
Build or buy a set of presets that match your style — one click applies your base grade. You'll still tweak per image but starting from your style saves 5–10 minutes per photo on color work.
Many photographers over-edit because they're afraid clients will complain. Set clear expectations — "you'll receive 30 fully retouched portraits" — so you're not endlessly tweaking hoping they'll be happy with more.
Convert layers to Smart Objects before applying filters. This means you can re-edit any filter setting later without starting over. Saves huge amounts of time when clients request changes.
Most photographers have no idea how long they actually spend editing. Use a simple timer for one week. The data is usually shocking — and it makes it very clear where you need to optimize first.
RetouchLab Skin Pro — skin retouching from 45 minutes to 30 seconds per photo. From €7.99/month on Adobe Exchange.
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