6 – Time to edit the images
This is just as important as shoot day, and in many cases, has more influence on the final look of the photos.
The signature of a photographers style is often in the edit.
The sort of things we do at this stage are:-
- Look at every shot and flag the ones which we like – this takes ages on a big shoot!
- Do a “part edit” on the shots and send you previews to choose from – we part-edit them so they look a little more “stylish” or “punchy” – the RAW files in the camera are actually pretty flat and boring before they’re edited!
- Blend any HDR or Panoramic shots for you – this takes a while believe me
- Correct the colours – so they look real, the light in a room can make images look really strange – we can sort that AFTER the event.
- Sharpen the shots – this is where we sharpen things like eyes, food, bubbles in champagne and other key features to make them stand out
- Contrast – this makes things really “jump out” of the screen and grab the attention
- Crop – this is chopping off bits we don’t need in the photos
- Creative effects – if you like a slight vintage look, or textures adding to a shot, we do that too.
- Size the shots for you – I usually deliver high res, and web-res – so you get a set for printing, and some smaller ones for websites, so they don’t kill the speed of the internet.
There are many more things that can be done, skin retouching (or airbrushing as most call it) is popular – removing things from backgrounds (bins and crisp packets on the pavement, “To let” signs on buildings, cranes on the skyline… )
I usually estimate that this all takes the same length of time as the shoot in my quotes, which shocks most people!
