I’ve been busy. Yes, very busy. Last week, over the course of eight days I shot three weddings, three engagement sessions, one bridal shoot and an event for Tyler Today. Over those 8 days, I took nearly 8 thousand pictures. In other words, my trigger finger is sore and I need a good nap. But in the spirit of proving all you guys fresh new blog content, I decided to give you a little insight into my editing process. I’ve decided to do this because I love embarrassing myself by showing images straight from my camera, and I also love showing off my photoshop skills. The following picture is one I took Sunday at Candice and Alex’s awesome Castle on the Lake wedding. You’ll definitely see some more of them in the next few days.
Essentially, my editing process is broken down into four steps. 1) Straight from the camera images, 2) disc images, 3) creative edits, and finally 4) super creative textured “Wild’n'Crazy stuff”.
When I get home from a wedding, my images look something like this. They’re boring, dull and lifeless. They need some spice from a fancy program called Lightroom.
In Lightroom, I adjust exposure, enhance detail, make dark things light, and light things dark, and spice up the image in a quick, easy and generally excellent way. (I also write sentences with lots of commas.) This brings us to the second step, which is the result of the Lightroom edit. This is the kind of edit you will receive on your wedding images disc. You can see that the sky is darker, the bride and groom are lighter, and the lake is not so bright. (Note: I tried to make a fancy animation to show the difference between the photos, but come on, it’s 2 in the morning so you’ll just have to scroll real fast)
The next step is what you will most likely see on the blog. It’s what I call a “creative edit.” This includes some fancy Photoshop actions and expert retouching. If you buy a print or an album from me, the images go through this process. It has a certain artistic feel that I absolutely love. The photos above don’t really have a “mood” to them. This step introduces the mood.
The last step is one I use rarely but only when I feel it’s due. It’s a texturized edit, and I only do this for very few images. If you order an image from me, it will NEVER include a texture unless you specifically request it. If I use the texture in an album, you will get final say whether you like it or not. If I include a texturized image on your disc, I will also include a copy of the original. I personally love textures on certain images, but I do think it can be overdone.
That’s all for now folks. I’ll do a few posts in the next couple of days with some images from the weddings I shot this weekend. Have a great week everybody!
