When I speak with other photographers, I commonly hear that editing is their LEAST favorite part of the job. It doesn’t HAVE to be, though! I am going to share tips for shooting images, editing software that I LOVE, how we do our post processing, and things to do and not do when editing!
When I speak with other photographers, I commonly hear that editing is their LEAST favorite part of the job. It doesn’t HAVE to be, though! I am going to share tips for shooting images, editing software that I LOVE, how we do our post processing, and things to do and not do when editing!
Hi, my name is Catherine Gidry. Thank you so much for joining me today, where we're going to be talking about editing. Before we dive into the content, if you're interested in learning how to establish your base price in photography, be sure to download the free pricing guide below. If you're listening on podcast app, it's probably in the description. I appreciate you tuning in, because we all know that editing is probably one of our least favorite parts of photography. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could just photograph and then the images would be complete? But we all know that's just not the way that it works, unless maybe you're a film shooter and you ship your film off and you receive the edited scans back from your lab. But not even all film labs do that. Some just give you the auto process and you still have to tweak the images. So, needless to say, post-processing is a huge part of photography, and it's also a big part of what makes your images unique. It makes your style stand apart, everything from colors to cropping, which we're going to be talking about in this episode.
Speaker 1:
Before we even dive into the details of editing, however, let's talk a little bit about your camera. In addition to having a high quality, high res camera that takes amazing photos, one that you've spent a thorough time researching and comparing, figuring out what lenses you like, what focal length and all of that sort of thing. I want to make sure that you're shooting in raw. The reason why is because when you do go to post-processing and fixing up those images to make them look complete, you're going to have a lot more editing capabilities and information in the raw files. I have accidentally photographed a portion of a wedding in JPEG and it was very, very difficult to edit the colors and the quality of those photos. So when you go to photograph, make sure that you're shooting in raw and, like I said, spend some time really honing in on the lenses, the settings and what makes your images feel unique to you. For example, right now I'm loving shooting on my Nikon Z6-2 with a 51.2 Nikkor lens. I love shooting at 1.2. And, yes, I am even shooting big groups like wedding parties at 1.2, which oftentimes, if I would say that, people might think I'm crazy. But you know I came from shooting film at F2 and I know that if you back up far enough, that those images will still look sharp and good. So that's neither here nor there, but all that to say, you really want to know what focal length you like to shoot with. Do you like to be really close or really far away? Because all of those things are going to have an impact on your final product.
Speaker 1:
But when it comes to editing, you want to shoot in raw and make sure that you're getting things as right as you can in camera. I do personally shoot in auto white balance. That's something that I know some people do not do. They like to get a little bit closer to the actual color. But I let my camera do the work and, if I need, when I am post processing in those programs, I will allow the program to help me in terms of the white balance. And then, of course, I'll tweak even further.
Speaker 1:
Speaking of in camera, if you're ever unsure of how you're going to prefer the final image, don't hesitate to take it a couple of different ways. So, for example, sometimes when I'm photographing in a church, you know those formal photos after the wedding is over and I'm not really quite sure if I really want to shoot with my speed light, artificial light or not. I will go ahead and do some photos natural and natural light, without artificial light and then I'll pop my speed light on and do some with artificial light. So when it comes to, you know, the in camera photos, just remember that you can never go back. So if you're thinking something or if you're having doubts, just take some options, do some different things and that way, when you go to post process, you can pick which one you like the best.
Speaker 1:
Let's talk a little bit about software and choosing the right software for your business. I am just getting to the point where I'm learning about AI culling. I'm not quite there yet. So currently we do have a whole system which there's a video on YouTube about how we offload our images onto the computer and back them up. So be sure to check that out. I won't dive into that here because that's a whole video in and of itself, but I do pass currently my images to someone who helps me call, which basically means that they pare down the photos for me and they are trained. It's someone I've been working with for several years and they understand the story that I like to tell. When those images have been called, I put them into Lightroom.
Speaker 1:
Lightroom is our preferred software for processing a lot of images at one time. Those Lightroom images are run through Imagine. Imagine is the AI software that we use to edit our images. I will put a link in the description to be sure that you can try this out if you want. It has been an absolute game changer. We also have a whole video on artificial intelligence for editing, but once you get set up in Imagine, it has saved us so much time. We run images through Imagine based on our profile, which was created based on edited images. So you are going to have to have some edited images to upload into your profile, but then we can bring it back into Lightroom and treat those images in a lighter edit because they've already had the bulk of the editing done through the AI software. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:
I also think it's important to know Photoshop things like the spot and patch tool, being able to tweak things that might stand out or be very distracting for you in your final imagery. Photoshop is not something that we use for every image. Yes, I did start my business way back in 2008, 2009, 2010 using Photoshop, but once I moved into Lightroom and realized how much of a time saver it was to edit lots and lots and lots of images, I've pretty much stuck with Lightroom, since Lightroom has evolved in so many ways, including pairing with Imagine. Even recently they've come out with a de-noise feature, which will take images that have a lot of grain, smooth them out and make your blacks look really good. So I'm very happy with Adobe Lightroom and I highly encourage, if you're a photographer, to make sure that you do sign up for that suite with Lightroom and Photoshop so that you can use those editing tools.
Speaker 1:
Some of the things that we do do in regards to edit and this is in our contract as well we sell our contracts in the contract shop at catgeducationcom. But we do crop and straighten images. I think this is a real part of the final product looking its absolute best and one that should absolutely not be overlooked. We try to eliminate any distractions in the edge of the photos. We'll take photos that have too much information that's irrelevant and move it from a horizontal to a vertical photo. We'll crop in on, you know, really strong moments of a photo that we want to highlight, and just straightening in general makes a big difference. So as you're going through your photos, try not to be lazy about that. Imagine does have a feature that allows you to use artificial intelligence to assist in that process, but I do think in the review you want to go in and make sure that the cropping and the straightening and like what is being shown and highlighted in the images really makes sense. We always make sure to adjust exposure and contrast color. These are things that I feel are a given in terms of photography.
Speaker 1:
You know, if anyone is ever asked you for your raw, unedited files, absolutely no, say no, that is not completing the process for your clients. When you go and you buy a piece of art, like a painting, the painter is not going to give you a canvas that's half done. They're going to give you that final product. And our final product is these types of edits, these things that I'm talking about with you in this episode, that allow that photo to feel finished and complete in a part of your portfolio. And so if someone's asking you for those raw files, unedited, maybe to save money, really stand in your art and be proud of the work that you're doing and make sure that whatever is going out the door is representative of you. What you don't want happening is someone posting that raw, unedited file and saying photo by so and so, and then you feel insecure about the images that are being shared. Also, try to educate your clients that they shouldn't be altering or editing them and, if they do, maybe that they don't tag you so maybe people do not confuse your work with their edits. But ultimately, I think we do want credit. I think that we do want clients sharing, and so it's important to educate them on the type of edits that you do and to let them know that if they have any questions, they can come to you.
Speaker 1:
First I will say this when it comes to color correction, it's a journey. It's just like any other aspect of photography that you learn and you get better at and you perfect as your style grows and as you learn what you, as an artist, do and don't like. One of the biggest and most helpful factors for me learning color correction in my photography journey was shooting film. In 2014, I picked up the contact 645 and learned from Jose Villa at his workshop how to shoot in film. I shot on Fuji 400 medium format film for years.
Speaker 1:
I would duplicate. Sometimes I would shoot just film, but oftentimes if I was duplicating, I was matching my digital to my film, which really helped me learn how to get those colors that I was looking for. Nowadays, I know there's a ton of presets out there that can help you achieve a more film like look, some of these presets I've had great experience with, but there's not really one at this time that we stick to. Our final edit is really based upon our most used settings and what works best for our business. But if you feel like you're in those earlier years and you really need a little bit of help, feel free to search around and find the presets that work well for your images, your location and look the best to your eye. But I do really encourage you to consider maybe picking up a film camera and testing out some different film stocks. It pushed my business to the next level and my portfolio to the next level, and I think I'm a much better photographer because of that experience.
Speaker 1:
There are things that we do and don't do when it comes to editing. Distracting things like even if it's an exit sign and it's really bothering me in a photo, I will take it out. I think that that's also part of our job is to sort of see those things before the client does and remove them or make these images look as close to perfect as possible. Right, but at the same time there are things that we don't do, do not, without fee, remove people from images or do head swaps or liquifying or any of those like really fine tuned Photoshop tools. There's a really amazing. I don't have any affiliation with this company, but there's a really amazing company called retouchupcom who can do a ton of things to images if clients do have specific requests, and so what we usually do is, if a client comes to us and says, hey, you know we have these really specific edits, is this something that you can do? I'll say, look, you know, if it's something that I'm able to do, I'll say, look, we'll do 10 photos complimentary and outside of those 10, I will outsource the additional edits at a cost per image. Once you have your list, send it over. I'll put together a quote and then we can make a final decision about what's next and I give them an average cost per image. Make sure that you are compensating yourself for the time that you're putting into the company you're outsourcing to if you are going to outsource those images, because it does take a little bit of back and forth uploading images and your time. So you want to make sure that you're compensating yourself for that as well. But I feel like this has been such a great compromise. I'm not having to tell my clients no to edits and giving them options and allowing them to make the edits that they want.
Speaker 1:
And the most recent tool that we've been experimenting with is Photoshop's new beta artificial intelligence software. It's pretty crazy what you can do with this program. I have some different feelings about it because I think, if used in an inauthentic way, it can change the story and can almost make us distrust what we're seeing. Right. But if you're doing something like maybe, extending a backdrop or finishing out an image in a way that makes it look complete so, for example, like right now, I'm shooting on this white backdrop and if I wanted to make this the cover art for the YouTube video I could go into the Photoshop's beta software and extend the backdrop very quickly, very easily. You can. You can select your subjects and do things that you know took a lot, a lot of time and work way back when, when I was in architecture school learning Photoshop, and so I think in a lot of ways, the Photoshop beta tool is really incredible and can really help our industry, so that would be a tool that I recommend experimenting with as well in the post processing journey, there's a lot of questions that might come up.
Speaker 1:
You know, editing can be so deep as far as what we can do. You, as the artist, have to sort of take your position and a stance on how much you are and aren't going to do in that post processing journey, and I would suggest that you do outline those things in your contract and answer those questions in the initial meetings with your clients. That way there are no surprises and you guys are all on the same page. This is the way that we do things in our post processing journey and the softwares that we use. But if you have any specific questions, please don't hesitate to drop them in the comments below. Thank you so much for tuning in, whether you're listening on YouTube or the podcast, and I appreciate you so very much and wish you the best on your photography journey. Don't forget to subscribe and I will see you in the next episode.