When I first started shooting, I quickly realized that post-processing takes a significant role in how your final image will look. I had met a few photography “purists” when I started who insisted that using Photoshop made you a less talented photographer. As I looked around I found that this simply wasn’t true…you absolutely need to know how to take a good picture but post-processing can really add to your image if you know how to do it correctly. In a way, post-processing is part of the art of making an image. I made a TON of mistakes with my post-processing when I first started, so I thought I would share a few tips I learned along the way.
1. DEFINE YOUR STYLE
I think it’s super important that you decide what style of photography you want to provide. I played around with so many Photoshop actions that I bought from other photographers at the beginning of my career. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it was for me because I was using actions that fit someone else’s style not mine. I had pictures that looked vintage, others that had overly saturated colors…etc. I was all over the place. As I became more aware of my style, I realized that what I wanted was to provide my clients with timeless images. This means that when my clients look at their pictures 20, 30, 40 years from now…they won’t look back at their pictures and think…”Wow…what was going on here?!”. All they will be able to see is the emotion and beauty of their wedding day just as it was the day of. I also wanted the flexibility to play with a more editorial style, if I chose to make my pictures all vintage looking, that wouldn’t have been possible. So, all that to say…. pick your style and then stick to that! If you do use an action…please don’t run it at 100%.
2. GET RID OF YOUR VIGNETTES
Seriously…get rid of them!! I have honestly only seen very few photographers use them tastefully. I fell into this trap at the beginning too. Somehow, I thought making the edges of my pictures darker made them pop more. Truly, I think they make your images look too dark and not very clear. IF you use them, use them tastefully…if I can’t really tell, it’s probably better! 🙂
3. FIX YOUR SKIN COLORS
This one is HUGE on my list. I still see wedding photographers that do this and it bugs me every time. If the people in your picture look like they have a hint of blue or yellow, FIX it!! Go into Lightroom or Photoshop and slide that Temp slide towards the yellow a bit if it’s too blue and slide it towards the blue if it’s too yellow. Play around with it and really try and get those skin tones looking more natural. It makes a world of a difference! You can see my friend Ryan’s looking a little blue…like he’s in an ice box! The image on the right was done with just sliding that temp slide towards the yellow a little.
4. DON’T BLOW OUT YOUR HIGHLIGHTS
This is another big one for me. This is so easy to do with a wedding dress. If all you see is a white blob, you’ve lost a lot of your detail because your highlights are blown out. One way to try and fix this is by using the recovery or highlights slide in Lightroom or Photoshop. If you do it too much it will start doing funky things to your images so be careful…this is why it is so important to get it as perfect as possible in the camera. You can also try to use a mask in LR or Photoshop that is underexposed and then brush it onto the dress on whatever part was blown out. You can see in the image below that the left image has little to no detail in the dress. Brides spend a lot of $$ on their dress…it’s important that the detail is there, in my opinion :).
5. DON’T OVER SATURATE YOUR COLORS
I can usually tell an amateur photographer because they’ve tried to saturate the colors in their images so much that they no longer look natural. In fact, if you’re just using the saturation slider, your skin tones will also become saturated and then you’ve got a big ugly mess. If you are looking for a more natural pop to your color, use the vibrance slide. I usually set mine around +12 and then add a little bit of contrast. Below you can see how using the saturation slide can affect your skin colors…can we say Ooompa loompa?! The colors are just a bit unnatural too.
and last but not least…
6. SHOOT IN RAW
Yes…your images are not going to look as pretty as those JPEGs you usually see…but I promise, editing in RAW is much easier and sooo much more forgiving. The reason they don’t look as nice at first is because the camera is assuming that you will be editing the RAW file and adding in contrast later whereas JPEG files will have that done already. RAW files keep a ton more information from the image you just took so you have more flexibility when editing highlights, shadows, color balance etc. You also don’t lose as much information in your files as you edit. A JPEG is already compressed and therefore cannot give you the same flexibility when editing. I know it takes a lot more room on your hard drive but if you want the most control over your editing…this is the way to go!
Have you discovered some other ways to get that timeless look? Share below! 🙂
~K
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