From newbie to ultimate test

[grumly6]

Hello

I am new to PM. After some testing during summer, I have bought the license in September and carefully prepared my first real use... which is also my most difficult use case of the year.

Professionally I shoot a lot of fashion and some event... but we are talking 1500-2000 photos a day. But I also help a Rhythmic Gymnastic club and last Sunday was the first competition of the year... and it was in my club ... so the only photographer was me.

I had 166 different gymnasts to photograph, 15sec between each (2 sets of judges to speed up) and it was also the first real use of my Nikon Z8 sets to 20fps to catch the best moment of any performance.

... and that ends with ... 74500 pictures in a day.

I experienced every test to the limit problem, like overheating, computer slow to copy the 1To cards...

BUT I have photomechanics.

So 4 days in advance I prepared a Excel sheet with all gymnasts infos linked to a folder number on my memory cards with code replacement.
Sunday I arrived home at 8PM. At 11h30 all my pictures were ready to process... I pray a lot... and launch ingest.

After a short night I discover all my 74500 pictures in a directory for each gymnasts, with clear name.

then the culling begins... and OMG it is way way way faster than LR.

Monday afternoon I was able to deliver all the shots of my club and I am already finished to sort and crop more than half the pictures to the other clubs.

Before Photomechanical It would hav been more than a month of free time spent on that.

..so OK it's a bit expensive but I am now a huge fan of PM.

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

We love to hear it! That's some serious workflow. Nice work on nailing it, and thank you for sharing something positive.

Cheers!

Mick

[grumly6]

Here is my second pro experience.

I was this weekend the official photographer of a Con with lots of cosplayers and guests.

Far less pictures : around 1500 but some pictures must be delivered very quickly.
In that case photomechanic allow me to sort, rename afterwards. It took me less than 30minutes do to that… and give to Lightroom just the small selection.

So I’m happy, Lightroom is happy (far easier for it to manage just a few pictures, my computer is happy… and my client is happy.

Of course, I would be the happiest man on earth if a iPad Pro version exists… (I have the M4 and I have sold a few month ago my MBP) or else I would maybe buy a new MacBook. BUT a big plus is : an entry level MacBook Air is perfect for Photomechanics, when Lightroom needs far more memory and power when you have a lot of pictures. So I can manage, if I have to buy a new portable computer.

[elianoimperato]

..so OK it's a bit expensive but I am now a huge fan of PM.

Hello,
I agree with you, also if in another thread you wrote that Photo Mechanic before was cheap...

[ejatpa]

Hello,

I was reading your post about code replacement.  I have a rough understanding of how to use code replacement, but I am confused about the part you spoke of regarding setting up of the memory cards.
So 4 days in advance I prepared a Excel sheet with all gymnasts infos linked to a folder number on my memory cards with code replacement.

• I did not know you can put several different folders on a memory card and then switch between them on the card as you photograph.  Is this what you were doing?

Then, when you ingested, did you select each folder on the Disk and set the primary destination to a corresponding name on your hard drive?

After a short night I discover all my 74500 pictures in a directory for each gymnasts, with clear name.

I am thinking of trying to use code replacement during volume headshots.

Thanks for your input.

[rww]

After using using Photo Mechanic for about two months, I too am a huge fan!! 

I shoot motor racing and sailing events. I commonly shoot 8,000-10,000 shots in a day which I have to sort, process and publish at least 50 images in as short a time as possible (within an hour or two) after the events.  Previously, I have used only Lightroom for this process and struggled to meet my self imposed deadlines. By adding Photo Mechanic to my workflow (sorting and cropping), I have greatly reduced my turn around time. 

I have, however, found it necessary to work from files copied directly from my cards to my computer rather than using the ingest process, which I found took too long for my purposes. I bypass some of the metadata features etc by doing this, but they are of lesser importance to me than the speed.