Batch Editing

You've probably done the same thing as me over the holidays, take a ton of pictures in the exact same spot, just different people. The good thing when you have pictures that look the same - and when I say the same, I mean similar exposure, clarity, or hues. Solution? Batch editing! This was something I did not think would work for me, since I individually tweak each photo, but it does. You will save so much time doing this - and remember, you can do this with jpgs, but of course, RAW files are ideal!

1) In Bridge*, select the series of photos that appear similar in exposure and color tones.

2) Once they are all highlighted, right-click and choose Open in Camera Raw.

3) Select one photo (I typically choose the first one on the list) and edit as usual.

4) Once your edits are how you want them, click the Select All button and then click the Synchronize button.

5) A pop-up window will appear prompting which edits you want to copy to the images. Most will be automatically checked. The only ones I don't have checked are: Crop, Spot Removal, and Local Adjustments. Lens Vignetting is not usually checked, but as I only do a slight slide of the bar on this field, I let it copy through to all my images.

6) Scan the images - if you click on one, you will see a larger version. You can make individual adjustments this way.

7) Once satisfied with the lot, click Select All again.

8) If you want to edit all of them right away in Photoshop, you can choose Open Images, but if you have more than 4 or 5, I suggest clicking Done instead and then individually opening them when you are ready to edit. (It will open Camera RAW again if they are raw files, but just click open right away).

If you have Photoshop, you have Bridge! :-)