#jpegonly

One of the best ways to speed up your photographic workflow:

Only shoot JPEG, don’t bother with additional post-processing, and just share/upload your photos directly!

The benefit of only shooting jpeg is this:

Less lag/latency/friction in your photographic workflow.

I’m not saying post-processing your photos is bad. If you enjoy processing your photos, by all means go ahead, and spend as much time processing your photos!

But I’ve realized for myself, I prefer to live life, shoot my life, and to share my photos directly. If I have an option, I’d prefer NOT to process my photos. Why? Instead of the time necessary to process my photos, I’d rather be reading a book, spending time with my friends and loved ones, blogging, or shooting new photos!

My current workflow

My workflow that I’m experimenting right now is this:

  1. Shoot JPEG on Ricoh GR II (positive film JPEG setting, contrast and saturation set to max). Often shoot (even during the day) with flash.
  2. Import photos to iPad pro with SD card/lightning adapter.
  3. Look through photos, and select photos I like in the default Photos app with the “favorite” function.
  4. Upload photos directly to this blog from iPad
  5. Upload my favorite photos to Dropbox from iPad

This has helped speed up my workflow and is simpler, more fun and interesting for myself!

Post-processing gains are 10-20%

This is what I learned:

For myself, the aesthetic gain I obtain from post-processing my photos is only around 10-20% more, but takes a substantial amount of time.

Thus processing my photos (assuming I like the high contrast/saturation color photos), post-processing my photos isn’t an effective use of my time.

Figure out how to best maximize your enjoyment in photography

Make the photographic process of photography as fun for you as possible.

For me that seems to mean #jpegonly

Only shoot in-camera JPEG and don’t bother post-processing your photos.

To me this is fun; almost like shooting film! This is what I like about film:

I shoot the film, get the film processed and scanned by a lab, and I don’t do any further post-processing to the photos.

This keeps photography simple to the max!

Or always another option:

Shoot RAW, but always use the same filter to post-process your photos.

Never stop experimenting with your photographic process. And to me, it seems simplicity is the ultimate elegance (Leonardo da Vinci).

ERIC