Organizing the editing work behind two sets of footage.
Working with a second shooter doubles your coverage, and it can also double the merging, matching, and culling that happens before editing really begins. This page helps you estimate where that extra work sits in your pipeline, using your own inputs, so the second set does not quietly become a backlog.
Estimate it with the calculator
All fields estimate-onlyWhere the second set adds time
Two photographers means two card sets, two color profiles, and two takes on the same moments. Before culling can even start, those sets often need to be combined, time-synced, and reconciled so they read as one consistent gallery.
The calculator does not guess at this overhead. It uses the hours you enter for each stage so you can estimate how much of your editing load comes from handling a second set specifically.
Stages worth estimating separately
When two sets merge, the extra cost usually hides in the matching and culling steps rather than the final edit. Breaking the pipeline into stages can help you identify which handoff is slowing delivery.
- Ingesting and organizing two card sets into one project
- Matching color and timestamps across both shooters
- Culling duplicates and selecting the strongest coverage
- First-pass editing and final delivery on the combined set
Turning overlap into a clearer plan
Overlapping coverage is the point of a second shooter, but overlap is also what creates extra culling. Estimating culling time on its own, separate from editing, can help you see whether the duplication is worth the delivery time it adds.
Common questions
Does this know how long merging two sets takes?
Can I separate culling time from editing time?
Will it improve consistency between two shooters?
Related pages
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