The 500-Photo Problem
You have just shot a wedding. You have 500 selects to edit. You have a two-week delivery window and three other shoots coming up. The editing mountain feels overwhelming before you even open your software. Here is how to attack it systematically without burning out.
Start With a Good Cull
If you are starting with 500 selects, the culling is already done. If you are starting with 3,000 raw captures, do not begin editing until the cull is complete. Use imagic to analyse the full shoot — its AI scoring system will identify the technically strongest frames and group burst sequences. Your editing work should always begin from a clean set of selects, not an uncurated card dump.
Break the Session Into Segments by Lighting
Editing 500 images as a single undifferentiated block is exhausting. Instead, segment your selects by shooting condition:
- Getting ready — window light, indoor mixed light
- Ceremony — outdoor natural light or church interior
- Portraits — controlled flash or golden hour
- Reception — indoor artificial light, dance floor
Each segment gets edited in a focused session with its own base correction. This approach means you are making consistent decisions within a segment rather than constantly readjusting your eye between radically different lighting conditions.
Build a Base and Sync
Pick the most representative image in each segment. Apply your full correction and grading to that image. Then select all similar images in the segment and sync those settings. You are now one-click away from a coherent starting point for every image in the group.
Expect 80 percent of your images to be fine after this sync step. The remaining 20 percent — frames where the light changed or the flash misfired — get individual attention.
The 30-Second Rule
If an individual image is taking more than 30 seconds of adjustments to look right, stop and ask whether the image is worth the effort. If it is a backup image or a near-duplicate of a better frame, let it go. Your selects should be your strongest work — if an image needs extensive rescue work, it may not belong in the delivered gallery.
Use Keyboard Shortcuts Exclusively
Mouse-heavy editing is slow. Every click you replace with a keyboard shortcut saves one to two seconds. On 500 images, that compounds. Learn the rating, flag, copy-paste, and next/previous shortcuts in your editor before you begin a large session.
Work in Sessions, Not Marathons
Two focused two-hour sessions produce better results than one four-hour grind. Colour perception fatigue is real — after two to three hours of colour grading, your judgement degrades. Build in breaks, step away from the monitor, and return with fresh eyes for the next segment.
Export While You Sleep
Queue your full export before you finish for the night. imagic and darktable both support batch export queuing. Set it running and come back in the morning to a completed export folder ready for delivery. The export step for 500 full-resolution JPEGs typically takes 20 to 60 minutes depending on your hardware — there is no reason to sit and watch it.