If you’ve ever sat down to edit “just a few photos” and somehow looked up to realize it’s midnight… welcome.

We’ve been there.

Your eyes start burning. Your coffee is cold. You’ve adjusted the white balance on the same image five different times, and now you’re questioning whether it looked better before you touched it.

Then you remember you still have 800 more photos waiting.

Sound familiar?

For years, editing was our least favorite part of photography. We loved being at sessions. We loved connecting with our clients. We loved delivering beautiful images.

But getting to those final galleries? That felt like climbing a mountain every single week.

We kept telling ourselves, “The next gallery will go faster.”

Spoiler alert…it didn’t.

Instead, we found ourselves spending countless evenings behind a computer, especially during wedding season and fall minis. The more sessions we booked, the further behind we got.

Eventually, we realized the problem wasn’t that we needed to work harder.

We simply needed a better workflow.

Our old editing workflow was exhausting

Our editing process wasn’t anything fancy.

We’d import the photos into Lightroom.

Cull the gallery.

Edit one image.

Sync those edits across similar lighting.

Make adjustments.

Then question everything.

The next day we’d open the gallery again because suddenly everything looked too warm…or maybe too cool…or maybe not.

So we’d edit it again.

If you’ve ever done this, you’re not alone.

When you’ve been staring at a screen for hours, it’s really easy to start second-guessing yourself.

The result?

Editing took forever, and our galleries weren’t always as consistent as we wanted them to be.

Even worse, editing started stealing the joy from photography.

We tried every Lightroom shortcut we could find

Before we ever considered changing our workflow, we tried all the usual time-saving tricks.

We synced edits across similar lighting.

We copied and pasted settings.

We built presets.

We culled before editing.

And honestly?

Those things absolutely helped.

However, they only saved us so much time.

When you have several senior sessions, family sessions, or mini sessions waiting to be delivered, even a faster Lightroom workflow can still leave you spending hours behind your computer.

Eventually, we realized there had to be a better way.

We were skeptical about AI editing

When we first heard photographers talking about Imagen, we weren’t exactly rushing to sign up.

Actually…we were pretty skeptical.

We had all the same questions you probably have right now.

Would our photos still look like our work?

Would AI make everything look generic?

Would we lose the creative part of editing?

Would it actually save time?

Those were real concerns for us because we’d spent years developing an editing style our clients recognized.

The last thing we wanted was for our galleries to suddenly look completely different.

Here’s how we use Imagen in our editing workflow

Of course, editing thousands of photos in minutes is incredible.

But honestly?

That wasn’t what impressed us most.

The biggest difference was the consistency.

Before using Imagen, we’d often notice small differences throughout a gallery because we were editing over multiple days.

One image might feel slightly warmer.

Another might be a little brighter.

By the end of a long editing session, our eyes were tired, and it showed.

Now our galleries feel much more consistent from beginning to end.

And because the editing starts from our own profile, they still look exactly like us.

Actually…we’d argue they look even better.

What changed after we improved our workflow

The biggest win wasn’t faster editing.

It was getting our time back.

Instead of spending every evening behind Lightroom, we could focus on other parts of our business.

We could spend more time with family.

We could plan future sessions.

We could actually relax after a busy week.

Plus, our clients received their galleries sooner, which meant happier clients and a smoother experience for everyone.

Editing became something we no longer dreaded.

Is Imagen worth it?

For us?

Absolutely.

If you’re only editing an occasional session, you may not feel the need for it yet.

However, if you’re balancing photography with a full-time job, juggling family life, or booking multiple sessions every week, the time savings add up incredibly fast.

One concern we hear all the time is cost.

Honestly, we thought the same thing.

Then we realized how many hours we were getting back.

When you compare the cost to the amount of time it saves, it became one of the easiest investments we’ve made in our business.

Final Thoughts

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