When handling a large number of photographs, an organized and logical workflow is essential. The following paragraphs summarize a basic workflow based upon use of Adobe Lightroom.

Most photographers capture their images in RAW format as this provides the most flexible basis for changes of exposure, colour temperature, white recovery etc. It is also worth synchronizing the time stamps of all the cameras used for a wedding. This provides a simple way of presenting in chronological order all the images taken by all photographers and cameras. Lightroom can also be used to change the time stamp for a particular set of images and hence synchronize shots of the same event taken with different cameras.

Once the images are all loaded in to Lightroom, the first step is to flag unacceptable photographs as rejected. Then pass through the images again, this time marking the best image in each sequence of similar pictures as your "pick". Having made basic choices, set Lightroom to show only the picked images. This should reduce the number of images involved in the next steps. However, the other images are still all available should it be necessary to change the selection.

Some images may need cropping or straightening, and others may require changes of exposure, colour temperature, or selective adjustment to particular areas. Red-eye can be removed and selected spotting completed. The next stage might be to choose images which may work better in black-and-white. This change can be made to selected images within Lightroom.

Finally, the selected and edited images can be exported to a new folder ready for transfer to a DVD or the pages of an album.