| Good editing can make all the difference to a | | | | One of the biggest mistakes I have made is wasting |
| wedding shoot. The following tips may help you to | | | | time editing photos that will never look really great. |
| pull the most out of your photographs. | | | | There is really only so much you can do even with |
| This article is intended for wedding photographers | | | | RAW, so unless it's an important shot keep your |
| who shoot with digital cameras. | | | | editing simple, that way you will have more time to |
| Tips: | | | | focus on your best shots. |
| Shoot and edit in RAW. | | | | Tricks: |
| I can't tell you the number of times I have used | | | | Use Vignettes |
| RAW to save shots that would otherwise have been | | | | I use vignetting extensively to add depth to, or to |
| unusable. You obviously can't do all your editing in | | | | frame my images. The trick to good vignettes is that |
| RAW but since RAW captures much more in | | | | they shouldn't be noticeable. If a vignette is noticed |
| formation than the highest quality JPEG most | | | | by a non photographer then it's to strong. I use a lot |
| adjustments will look better done in RAW. | | | | of feathering and sometimes even multiple vignettes |
| | | | to achieve a more powerful vignette effect that is |
| 1. Adjusting Exposure. The biggest advantage of | | | | still not obvious. I even sometimes use this vignetting |
| RAW is the ability to adjust exposure, and restore | | | | technique with color filters to create depth through |
| blown out highlights or detail lost in deep shadows. | | | | color, or to liven up an otherwise boring sky. There |
| Often however I will adjust exposure to increase | | | | are several ways to create vignettes with |
| already dark shadows, or blow out already bright | | | | photoshop, but this level of detail goes beyond the |
| highlights, to achieve various artistic effects or just | | | | scope of this article. |
| to just increase the intensity of the photo. | | | | If your shooting with a full frame sensor then the |
| 2. Use RAW when converting to black and white. | | | | vignetting technique is less needed as full frame |
| Generally if you want a black and white image you | | | | sensors capture the natural vignettes present in |
| want to do the conversion in RAW, not JPEG. | | | | many lenses. |
| Converting to back and white in RAW will result in a | | | | Dodge and burn |
| higher quality black and white image. | | | | This is one of the most traditional photography |
| 3. Go easy with saturation. Over saturating a photo is | | | | techniques and was used in the darkroom long |
| an easy way to ruin a photo, and can easily look | | | | before computers where invented. For those not |
| great on your screen and really bad in print. | | | | familiar with dodging and burning it is basically a |
| 4. Don't over sharpen images. Sharpening artifacts | | | | manual way of lighting and darkening different areas |
| look awful on large prints, be very careful how much | | | | of a photograph. I will often further burn, to darken |
| you sharpen images. I prefer to just shoot with a | | | | shadows and give greater focus to a subject. Or, I |
| sharper lens and then use no sharpening or noise | | | | dodge to soften the shadows on the brides face. I |
| reduction, for the most natural look possible. If you | | | | recommend dodging and burning because it gives you |
| want to add punch to your images consider using | | | | a lot of artistic control over the photographic |
| curves or dodging and burning instead. | | | | process, whiles still allowing for a natural look. |
| Don't wast time on bad photos | | | | |