PHOTO EDITING
Today’s brides have many options when it comes to photography. As Technology becomes better and better, we can utilize the creative software tools available to us to polish and finalize our client's wedding photos.
If you are wondering how we produce your images from start to finish. This page will give you some insight into what happens in post-production behind the scenes after we capture your images.
Step 1: Upload
Time approximately: 1 Hour
Your images are captured in their RAW format or NEF which is basicly another name for RAW files.
Shooting in the RAW format allows us the most latitude in terms of post-production. RAW images cannot be displayed as is, but have to be converted to the more universal JPEG image format after we apply adjustments.
The RAW format takes up quite a bit more space, with a full wedding photographed in RAW taking up between 200-300 gigabytes of information before any conversions take place.
Once we finish shooting your session, the same day, your session is downloaded to a local hard drive, and then immediately uploaded to our production server. Having two copies of your pictures, with at least 1 off-site is known as a 2-1 backup system and is essential for protecting your images.
Once backups are complete, then we move onto image selection.
Step 2: Image Selection
Time approximately: 3-4 Hours
We use software to select the creatives wedding photos. This software also allows us to add color tags, keywords, or star ratings to your images.
From here we will sort out your pictures “in” first and remove blurry images, unflattering expressions, or duplicate photos to best tell the story of your wedding.
We then go back and sort out any images that don’t lend themselves to the story, perfecting the final product we deliver to you.
Next, we add keywords to images and tags to help us organize them better for you, this would include things like “details,” or “bridal prep,” or “ceremony,” to help us quickly search and navigate images in the future, and also organize images inside your gallery.
Then we create several folder structure for all of your files.
Lastly, we then tag the creative edits that we will be doing for you. These images are a selection of the pictures that are designed to tell the wedding story in the form of an album.
Step 3: Color & tonal Correction
Time approximately: 8-12 Hours
We shoot as correct as possible in-camera but will make adjustments on our calibrated monitors to get the best results.
Color and tonal correction are essential to polishing a final image. During this stage, we take each individual picture and analyze its:
1. Color
We will fix an image’s color temperature. Weddings are often shot in mixed lighting situations. This will sometimes cause an image to have a mixture of colors that don't necessarily blend together.
We will adjust the images color balance between orange and blue, and the tint between green and magenta to help find the most neutral color possible.
2. Contrast color & Exposure (luminance of the image)
This process is to run each image through specialized software that will Target the skin tones by utilizing the orange channel in an image and separate the texture from the color, allowing us to create smoother skin tones and better color gradations on our subject’s skin.
4. White balance
Next, we will target individual color adjustments. Most often, we are adjusting the Hue and saturation in the red and orange channels to correctly display the color of our subject’s skin tones. It is essential to make sure that the images accurately reflect the appearance of the scene we were photographing in when printed. This is why we always use calibrated monitors using specialized hardware to make sure that the color is as accurate as possible.
5. Black and white points
We want make to ensure that it is correctly displayed
6. Highlights & Shadow detail
Making individual adjustments to highlight and shadow detail and making sure to preserve as much information at both ends of the spectrum. This can be a little bit more difficult in high contrast environments such as images that were taken outdoors at noon; however, modern software does a great job at handling those situations.
7. Clarity.
Lastly, we will add sharpening to an image, and noise reduction in two photos that were taken in low-light situations. This will ensure the highest quality digital file that can make beautiful prints.
Step 4: RAW Conversion to JPEG
Time approximately: 30 minutes + computer time
Images must be converted to JPEG to be displayed online, like this Wedding photo in Söderköping.
When color correction and image organization is complete, we then have to convert images from the raw format to the more common jpeg format that will allow for printing, and displaying online. Utilizing hardware from our custom built production computers, we employ software to create this conversion process. We allow this to run overnight since it takes several hours. We will convert images at full resolution, and then develop web-size copies.
Step 5: Creative Edits
Time approximately: 4-5 hours of initial time per wedding
Creative Edits are done to select images in your gallery, this consisted of dodging, burning, vignette, and color adjustments in addition to retouching stray hairs and fixing highlights on the bride's chin.
Earlier we selected creative edits back in step 2, Now is the time to edit them. These images have already gone through color correction, and now we will apply localized edits to each of them. This means we will go through by hand and individually make color and tonal adjustments to specific parts of an individual image.
While step 3 had us adding global changes, on Step 5, we will break each particular image down into sections and add localized adjustments to make the image stand out.
This can include brightening parts of an image, darkening parts of it, removing some elements like exit signs, or background distractions, and in some examples, opening or closing subject’s eyes or swapping heads.
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 the client requests.
Step 6: Signature Edits
Time approximately: 1-2 hours per image
Our Signature Edits are unlike any other wedding photos that you have seen, they are shot from the start with a signature edit in mind, and will go through a process of taking an image from excellent, to exceptional. These images require a significant more amount of time than our color correction and creative edits.
Signature edits are hand edited by KGZ Fougstedt. This is the reason why our images are unique, and although many studios have tried to replicate them.
We have always believed that the creative process needs to be segmented by specialty, which is the single reason why we can get them done quickly, and correctly.
The first step in a Signature Edit is art direction.
Then our team will complete our standard editing process on an image; however, they will first maximize dynamic range, and then add selective contrast to parts of an image as a whole. We will create subject selections, remove distractions, and may darker or lighter the sky, increase symmetry by moving subjects or background elements, and then add color toning to each individual part of an image.
Our Signature Edits are designed for wall art, album covers, or full-page spreads and is intended to tell the story of your wedding day in a single image, much like a poster used to advertise a movie. These images are designed to be impactful and unique.
Step 7: Upload and Create Online Gallery
Time approximately: Gallery Prep time 30 minutes
Once your full image set is completed, an online gallery is then created to store your images. This acts as a 3th backup device as well, securing your pictures in the cloud. After you come in for your reveal and album selection, we will then send you the online gallery via a web link. However we require that we meet with you in person to review your images before submitting them to you to ensure satisfaction and go over your album options.
Your gallery can be accessed anywhere in the world, and you can download your images as many times as you want.