The importance of the editing process

 The majority of a wedding is an uncontrolled event for a photographer, the slightest movement can change a multitude of things that affect a picture. Things like lighting, composition, the emotion portrayed, the story  the picture is telling - all are affected moment by moment in every move the photographer makes. The subjects are in their own environment doing what is natural to them as we are looking in without controlling what they do. We do not have the option of interrupting the ceremony to ask for the bride to shift to the right a bit, or the groomsmen to loosen up, so we have to work to create the picture from what we have in front of us to communicate the beauty of the moment. This is the part that I enjoy the most, it's exciting for me and why I love the challenge of wedding photography.

At every moment we have to anticipate not only the picture in mind but what the camera is doing, just a few minor adjustments can change the picture dramatically and just moments later, if adjustments are not made again, the next picture can be a total failure. Picture the sun shining through a window onto a brides face. It's a nice warm light so I do not want spoil it with a flash. I will see this and know the light is on her face and expose properly, a second later I hear laughter building up behind me, I turn and now the people I am taking a picture of are back lit, or the sun is behind them. This is a different setting now. So I must adjust and take a picture without losing the moment. This sort of thing happens fast and all day long in the candid moments.

So what happens to the pictures once the day is over? Do they move from camera to CD or album and nothing more? Probably not. Some pictures may be suitable for print right out of camera, however it is more often that most of the pictures need a subtle (and sometimes drastic) edit to bring out their fullest potential and intent.  Much of the magic happens on the wedding day, but only begins there. That's why I spend hours editing every wedding that I shoot.

Below I am going to post some examples of some of the things I do to my clients pictures. Kate likes to say, "I want our clients to feel like they have gotten a gift when we present our work to them". The work that goes into that presentation in extensive and as important to what we do as our camera is to the wedding day.

Here is a before and after of a beautiful bride, I was shooting available light, (no Flash) to communicate the ambience of the sun lit room she was in. This situation can change, if a cloud happens to pass by the sun the lighting changes, if she turns her head it may enter the shadowy area. This picture was candid, I was not communicating with her at all.

In the before picture, the bride is dark, the window behind her is a bright spot distracting the eye from her beauty. Her fascinator is flat and blended into the picture.

 In the after photo, I have lightened her up. I sharpened her head piece and put a light vignette around her to bring the eye onto her face, I put extra local sharpening on her eyes and hair to pop her out of the picture and give it depth. The image is no longer flat and dull, she has become the centre of attention.


The next picture is one of my faves from this summer. The adjustments I made are very subtle, but as I often say, I'm pretty picky when it comes to my art. These two had decided to forgo the 'glass tapping' reception game to have the bride and groom kiss, instead someone had to sing a song, Greg is a musician (Listen Here) so it worked for them and was a lot less annoying than clinking glasses all night. :) Anyways, I had known that they were going to kiss as a little boy had just finished singing 'twinkle twinkle little star'. So I set up in front to compose the shot and noticed two young boys spying on them in the window - very cute!

The before is a good picture, I had ample opportunity to get ready for it, however, it is a little flat the mid tones need some pop and I think the subjects could be more dominant.

I cropped the image down a little to make the subjects more pronounced. Added to the natural vignette that was in the picture and sharpened the bride and groom up a bit. I also removed the steel vase from the lower right that I found distracting. Not much, but it certainly communicates the moment more.

The next picture I took was another moment shot, the bride had just gotten out of the limo, she was running late and I was on my way in to get ready for the ceremony. I turned and saw her maid of honour fluffing up her dress. I set up my camera fast and took a shot. Later I felt the picture really communicated the majesty of her dress. I spent a lot of time on her dress in post production editing to bring out its beauty.

 The bride is back-lit, meaning the sun was behind her, you can see the loss of detail in her dress in the bright spot. Her face is turned from the sun and is dark (no flash). And the image has high contrast from the harsh sun with dark shadows and harsh transitions into bright spots. I thought her dress was outstanding and the look of quiet beauty on her face made for a decent picture worth editing.

You will see that I brought back the detail in the bright part of the dress. I have to say, something that annoys me is wedding pictures where the dress is blown out, or way to bright. A bride takes so much time and spends good money on a dress, I don't want her looking like a lit-up lamp in her pictures.  So you will see I spent the time to pull the texture of the dress out of the picture. I lightened her face to bring attention to it and removed the harsh shadows in the faces of the people around her. I did a light blur and lowered the contrast a bit over the rest of the image to make her the centre of attention. She is now a princess in a moment of commotion before her vows. A dull picture turned into a story and will compliment the rest of the album nicely.

Here is another example of how an edit helps tell the story of your dress.

Without the edit, the dramatic beauty of the dress gets lost in a flat looking picture.The tiny crystals edging the veil, the jewels and detail of the bodice, the pickups and ostrich feather rosettes that were sewn into the gown, are made as pronounced and dramatic as I saw them that day.

The last thing I want to talk about is something called a colour cast. In my opinion, it is the most common problem with pictures, it frustrates me to see a good picture that lacks proper colour correction. Everywhere you look there are casts of colours. For example during a sunset you will notice the warm light, everything you look at seems an orangey-yellow. It is a beautiful winter day out today, cold and blue tinted but just beautiful. The colours that you see, the camera picks up as well. Only the human eye has the ability to filter most of it out so when you look at your fiancee's face in the sunlight it looks warm, but not overly warm. Your eye knows how to remove some of the colour. If it didn't,  when you went to work at the office everyone would be green, florescent lights have a green colour cast. That is unless you work with with Shrek, and then we can't help you.  The camera, however, tends to put a colour cast on everything, like fog but in colour. We counter this problem by adjusting the white balance, or using a grey card. However the colour may still persist and the over all picture becomes lost in this dominating colour. There are times where this cast can be useful but there are times when it is not. It can make an image look very flat, or overly 'retro' (which is not going to be in style forever) and frankly I find it unattractive. However, the image below has a colour cast that works (after the edit) and I will show you why.

The shot was taken at The Scottish Rite in Hamilton, Ontario. The colour cast is absolutely despicable, and we needed the grey card to help fix the colour problem.  Behind me there was a massive brass elevator door reflecting the light making it even more yellow, not to mention the tiles on the floor were a red colour adding to the problem. I wanted to maintain the warmth in the image so I was adjusting my white balance manually, this picture was taken before I had it where I would have liked it however the shot worked out nice for composition so I would use it.

In the after you will see that I pull the image back to its natural colour, I wanted to keep the warm feeling so I left some yellow color cast in, but the overall image is much better. Now it is what the eye would see, her hair still holds the golden light of the setting sun, but her face is not taken over by it and the whites of her eyes are just that - white. And lastly, her tiara and earrings don't look like a smoker was blowing on them for a year.

Well I hope these few examples help give you an idea of the work that takes place after your day, these are only a few techniques we utilize to create your story. The flow of the images must work like a story line for success, if they are flat and not properly cared for you will end up with a lacklustre feeling at the end of the album. Our gift to our clients is the extra care and we put into their work. We want to ensure that they know their pictures are in good hands, that nothing  that can be brought out in an edit will end up on the cutting floor simply that is important to the client, we are not a production line wedding business. We want to make every wedding an adventure in art, and care for it with the same passion brides and grooms do in their planning. The biggest part of this is the post production ethic we bring to the table. Your pictures will be cared for and brought to their fullest potential.

For more blog posts on who we are and what what to look for in hiring a wedding photographer, click here.

Thanks for reading!

Mike :)