Heather & Brian… Such a Beautiful Occasion!
April & Kurt’s Wedding at The Ponte Family Estate Winery.
Lea & Eric’s Half Moon Bay Wedding
Chris and Heathers Wedding Photographs from the La Venta Inn
Kaylinn and Steve’s Wedding at The Los Angeles Athletic Club
Palos Verdes Wedding Photographer
My Editing Process for Weddings
Many people think photography is such a great job. I get paid to take photos? Taking photos isn’t even a 10th of my job as a photographer. Most of my time is sitting in front of a computer editing. I know several photographers that shoot and print but I’m not one of those. I think the editing process is as important as taking pictures.
After shooting an event I go home download and backup all my files. Then I load all those photos into a laptop so I can go through and check focus. Which means I blow up and check thousands of images, to make sure the focus is exactly on the focal point. (When I was in school one of my instructors was nicknamed the focus Nazi. He scared me for life.)
After the focus check I do a quick run through looking for images that aren’t up to my standards, then I batch process for the initial color saturation, rename the files, back up and re-upload.
At this point, I’ve put a couple days of work into the event. Once the files are all re-uploaded color and I go through correct each file. Then I organize the files and upload them on to the online gallery. At this point, I will email my clients and let them know that the gallery is up and they can start picking out their final images and share the gallery with family and friends.
Once they have made their final selections I will double check their final images, confirm their address and mail them out a disc.
While my process is very long I really think it’s the best way to ensure that my clients receive quality images. I know most photographers limit their editing and some only spend 4hrs max. Can’t imagine their clients being happy with the final result but….
The Natural Light Photographer
First off I prefer natural light to artificial light. However, if you understand lighting you can have amazing results with artificial light.
Recently there has been this flourish of “natural light photographers.” Most photographers use natural light but for the purpose of this blog we’re only going to talk about wedding photographers that only use natural light. Since I’ve been doing weddings for almost 10 years I know the idea that a photographer would claim to use only natural light sounds like a disaster after sunset especially during the winter, outdoors at night and dark venues with no ambient light.
I recently met with a bride whose sister hired a natural light photographer for her wedding and had less then amazing results. When she told me she hired a natural light photographer I just shook my head. She laughed. “I know right, I didn’t think about. What if there wasn’t any natural light?”
As a seasoned wedding photographer, I will say I use flash at all my weddings. The only reason I’d use natural light for an entire wedding is if it was a June wedding during the day but even then I’d probably want to flash fill a little.
Tip: If you’re planning to meet with a photographer that only uses natural light ask to see wedding he or she has shot at your venue or venues with lighting similar to yours. Also, ask to see lots of night photos.
Jason & Ken got Hitched!
Wedding Planners VS Location Coordinator
When it comes to weddings people often get confused between site/catering coordinators and wedding planners.
Typically the job of coordinators that are supplied by locations and catering companies only make sure the reception is set correctly as far as plates and cake. They also will make sure people are following the rules and guidelines as far as the venue. Wedding planners are the ones that help the bride with wedding planning.. timelines, vendors, day of management.
Every year I have several brides get the two confused. The brides think the word coordinator means wedding planner and on the day of when things don’t go right they look to the coordinator for help and the coordinator has to explain to the frustrated bride “that’s not my job.”
Unless you’re eloping weddings are overwhelming, especially the day of. You need a good wedding planner to help the day run smooth.