As a wedding photographer I’m frequently asked by couples or potential clients about the editing process that I apply on my photos. How much do I edit the images? Are the photos coming so light and colourful straight out of my camera? Or, do I use Photoshop to enhance people’s appearance? (such a controversial topic!) These are some of the common questions I get asked many times.
Thanks to my years of experience photographing beautiful weddings, I’ve developed a post- production workflow that allows me to deliver a full wedding gallery in just few weeks, even during busy seasons!
It’s important to know that an image is made in the moment that is taken. A bad photo will never become a good one just because of “the magic of the editing process”. On the other hand, every single photo needs to be edited. There’s no way I can deliver straight out of camera photographs! Professional cameras produce flat images with dull colours in order to keep all the possible information in them (“RAW” format).
In my first weddings I was crazy retouching every single imperfection and trying every preset style on the market. This were wrong things! But now, after years of experience, I know what I need in a photo, I know what I can achieve in post-production before even taking it and I have developed my own standards for my editing process.
Shooting consistently is vital for my light and airy style and my workflow. This way I can batch edit a lot of images with my preset and only a few clicks, being able to deliver photo galleries so much faster.
Here are some “before and after” examples and cases. Move the slider in the horizontal images to see the editing process.
Planning: Sevilla de Fiesta
Venue: Hacienda de Montelirio (Seville)
Venue: Hacienda Los Miradores | Bride Dress: Pronovias
Planificación: Sevilla de Fiesta | Vestido Novia: Pronovias
Planning: Bodas Cumpli2 | Florals & Rentals: Pedro Navarro | Venue: Hotel Las Arenas (Valencia)
Venue: Cortijo el Chamorro (Sevilla) | Bride Dress: St Patrick | Hair & Make-Up: Eva Romero
Planning: Tucco Weddings | Florals & Rentals: Pedro Navarro | Venue: Hotel Fuente de la Higuera (Ronda, Málaga)
Planning: Tucco Weddings | Florals & Rentals: Pedro Navarro | Venue: Anantara Marbella (Málaga)
Planning: Bodas Cumpli2 | Florals & Rentals: Pedro Navarro | Venue: Hotel Las Arenas (Valencia)
Extra Care
I like to take a little bit of time to work on photos that I present in a slideshow, blog post, social media or the wedding album. That’s when I use local adjustments to enhance the photo even more. This may inclube the brushes to dodge and burn certain parts of a photo or the “Spot Healing Tool”, to eliminate distracting elements. All of that is done in Lightroom!
If the photo requires a more elaborate retouching work (see the next two examples below), such a difficult background to fix, I outsource the task to a professional retoucher. I love using Photoshop and that’s how I really started in photography!, but it’s a very time consuming work and not worthy for me at this point.
Panoramas
Sometimes, a landscape (or interior) is so spectacular and epic that needs to be photographed in two or more images. In this case, I use my software (Lightroom) to merge them perfectly into one amazing photo!
Matching my second shooter images
My editing process is all about delvering a consistent look. That means to color correct all my pictures, and also the images of my second shooter in order to match exactly one another. This task requires extra attention, mainly if we use different camera brands with slightly different color rendering. Nothing makes me happier than delivering a cohesive and beautiful wedding gallery.
Black and White Conversions
I choose to turn an image into a black and white mode when the moment is so emotional and deep that all color around may be distracting. Also, when the image has a “fine art” or nostalgic feeling, or when the lighting of the scene is tricky or there’s a mix of different light sources with varying temperatures of color going on.
