FAQ: Editing Wedding Images.

And now, time to answer some readers Frequently Asked Questions.

How do you find time to edit all of your wedding images in post processing, I’m super overwhelmed?
Well to be honest, I do spend a lot of time in front of the computer, because I am a perfectionist, but with that being said, I do not edit every single image in Photoshop. After I upload/import my cards to Lightroom I begin the editing process with culling the images by flagging the keepers. Then I sort by ‘flagged’ images and adjust the temperature, tint, exposure, recovery, blacks, contrast, and sharpening on every photo. This is my basic edit, and all images a client receives get this treatment. Then after I’ve exported the images, I only pull certain images through Photoshop for my fine tuning/artistic editing, which includes masking out scars or blemishes, smoothing/retouching faces, actions, and dodge/burn certain areas if needed. I don’t use a lot of actions on my images, because I like them to look as natural as possible, but the few I do use are Totally Rad Actions or Kutota Photoshop Actions, both used at very low opacity. Images that get this special treatment are all of the images that go on my blog, slideshows, and any image that a client receives in prints, canvases, or in their albums.

How do you get your images to look so sharp straight out of the camera, mine are always gray and flat?
The colors produced straight out of the camera with digital cameras are, by default, much more gray and flat than film cameras. By changing the contrast in Lightroom or with an S-curve in Photoshop the image gets a major color boost. And all of my images receive an extra sharpening in Lightroom, or in Photoshop with the Kutota Sharpen for Web action. But, the first step to making your images better starts with you and your camera. You need to perfect your images in your camera first because you cannot make a bad image good in Photoshop, you can only make a good image better. This only comes with learning your camera inside and out, learning light and different lighting situations, and practice, practice, practice. Here are some examples of my work before I have edited them with the camera settings I used. The ones on the left are straight out of the camera, and on the right, after I have edited them.

Hopefully this helps inquiring minds, and if you have a question that you’d like to see answered on my next FAQ, feel free to email me at megan@meganbeth.com. Happy Tuesday!