Photo Editing Process
Making Artwork from Photography
Maybe you’ve heard the phrase “edited images”. Today’s professional photography standard falls in line with some sort of photo enhancement that stretches past “raw” or “unedited” images that come directly from the camera. As technology grows so does the art of editing imagery with its endless possibilities. These creative tools give us the ability to edit raw photos into a look that’s more pleasing to the eye…and much further beyond. This page was created for you If your curious about how we produce your images from the very second they come out of our camera until the minute they arrive in your gallery or usb drive.
Step 1: Upload & Backup your images.
Your images are captured in RAW format as .CR2 or .ARW files directly from our cameras (professionals should be shooting in RAW on most occasions). Shooting in the RAW format allows your camera to capture all the data it receives from the camera's sensor. This means that no details from the image are discarded (which is often what happens with JPEGs). RAW images cannot be displayed as is, but have to be converted to a JPEG format after the images are edited and client ready. The RAW format takes up much more space because of all the data it collects per image. A complete photographed wedding in RAW can take up to anywhere between 200-300 gigabytes of information. And that’s before we add the RAW images into the editing process.
After your wedding or photography session, we immediately download your images onto multiple hard drives for back up and for the protection of your images. Once complete, we get into culling your images.
Amount of time spent: At least 1 Hour
Step 2: “Culling” through your images.
A master folder is created for your image files to live in. We use programs that specialize in organizing images which makes it easier for us to browse through your RAW image files. During this process we “cull” your images which is the process of going through a large collection of images to select those that are the best. During our culling process, we remove blurry images, eye blinks, unflattering expressions, or duplicate photos to best tell the story of your wedding or photography session.
Once we narrow the images down to what’s best, we tag the images to help organize them better for us and for you. This would include phrases like “detail shots”, “formal family pictures” or “reception”. This helps us quickly sort and navigate through many images and also helps organize them inside of your client gallery.
From that point, we get into the editing process and mark the creative edits that we will be processing. These selection of images are designed to tell your wedding story or photography session in the form of an album.
Amount of time spent: 3-6 hours
Step 3: Color & Tone Correction
RAW or “Non Edited”
Color Corrected
Color and tone correction are necessary to the polishing of an image. During this part of the process, we go through every individual picture and correct its exposure level (we photograph exposure as correct as possible in camera), color, contrast, white balance, black & white points, highlights, shadow detail and clarity. We make these adjustments using specialized software & calibrated monitors to get the best results.
Weddings and other photography scenarios are often photographed in mixed lighting scenarios. This will sometimes cause an image to have a mixture of colors that do not translate well. We adjust the color in an image to help find the most neutral color possible. Preserving highlight and shadow detail can be more difficult in high contrast environments like photographs that were taken outside at noon on a clear blue sky day. With that said, modern software does a great job at handling these tough scenarios.
It is necessary to make color adjustments on all of the images. Generally speaking, we are adjusting the hue and saturation in red and orange to give skin tones their best look. We will also add sharpening and noise reduction into images that were taken in low-light situations to ensure the highest quality digital file for making beautiful prints.
The last step in the process is to make sure that the skin tones in each image is treated by utilizing the orange channel and separating the texture from the color, allowing for smoother skin tones and a better color grade.
Total time: 8-12 Hours
Step 4: RAW File Conversion
Once color correction and image organization is complete, we have to convert images from the RAW format into the JPEG format that will allow for printing and displaying online. We use our specialized software to do the conversion process and convert images at full resolution and web-size.
Total Time: 30 minutes + computer time (we allow this process to occur while away from the computer)
Step 5: Creative Image Edits
Creative Edits are done to certain selected images in your gallery. This image consisted of dodging, burning, skin softening, teeth whitening, vignette, color adjustments and the retouching of stray hairs. Creative edited images have already gone through color correction prior to their creative edit but now we apply localized edits to each of them. This means we go through by hand and individually make color and tonal adjustments to specific parts of each individual image. Step 3 had us adding global changes but in step 5 we break each particular image down into sections and add localized adjustments to make the image stand out.
This can include brightening or darkening parts of an image, removing elements like street signs, or background distractions. In some cases, we can open or close a person’s eyes or even swap heads like on little kids. A classic example is a picture where a little kid didn’t smile but did in the next photo one snap later (almost exactly the same image) and you wish they smiled on the picture prior but didn’t (hopefully not to confusing for you to understand).
This process is very meticulous and will be done to a selection of images that we recommend to use in your album. We also can do this process to photographs that a client chooses for their album or prints in addition to our recommendations if requested.
Total time involved: Individual images varies & 4-5 hours of initial time per wedding
Step 6: Signature Photos
Our Signature Photos are unique and are taken from the beginning with a signature edit in mind. These customized photographs go through a process of taking an image from excellent to extraordinary. The editing required is a significant more amount of time than our color correction and creative edits.
Signature edits are hand edited by graphic design specialists with art direction by David. This is the reason why our images are stand out further than many other studios. We believe that the creative process needs to be divided by specialists, which is the main reason why we can get them done quickly and properly.
In the art of making film, cameramen are not the people that do the editing, and the people that do the editing are not the same team that is doing other specialized duties like the special effects team. Our graphic design team is essentially our special effects team and specialize in creating the Signature Photo look.
In the Signature Edit process, our specialists will first maximize dynamic range and add selective contrast to parts of an image as a whole. From there is to create subject selections, remove distractions, maybe replace the sky, increase symmetry by moving subjects or background elements, and then add color toning to each individual part of an image. Once the initial editing is complete, the images(s) are sent to David for review for approval or to make necessary adjustments.
Our Signature Edits are designed for wall art, album covers or full-page spreads. They are intended to tell the story of your wedding day or photography session in a single image, much like a movie poster does for advertisement. These images are designed to be impactful and one of a kind.
Total Time Involved: 1-2 Hours Per Image
Step 7: Uploading to Online Gallery
Once all of your images are complete, an online gallery is then created to store your images. This is also a backup device as well, securing your images online. After you come in for your viewing and art work selection, we send you the online gallery via a web url link. We require that we meet with you in person to go over your images before sending them to you to ensure satisfaction and go over your album options.
Gallery Prep Time: Up to 1 hour
Wedding Post-Production Timeline
You are probably getting the picture now that a photography session takes a descent amount of time from beginning to end and a wedding production can take up to almost 30 hours per wedding to deliver a quality product to every single client. Working with a team of specialized individuals and dividing tasks with checks and balances allow us to deliver quality results to our clients while maintaining a 2-3 week turnaround time for your images.
Post production begins on the Monday following your wedding at which you’ll receive an e-mail to schedule your preview. We recommend bringing your friends and family to view your images for the first time to a champagne toast.