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Lesson Info

Post Wedding Workflow: Culling

Now we're going to go into the edit right so basically this is going to sound like my workflow on dh trust me I'm still fine tuning that I'm getting to the point where I'm realizing that there's just certain things that I just shouldn't be doing on my own and I have people do it for me so I'm gonna talk about who I used the vendors that I use for my for my work flow in stuff like that but we're going to start with editing right I had to take all these images and edit him down so I'm going to switch back over to my computer and I don't know if that's what those guys there it is okay and these guys on it okay so um what I've done here is so like what do you do right you got like you know ben seven thousand images my four thousand images like how do you get it down so you had asked me at one point I think was it you that said how many images do you deliver to the client was that you asked me that today so I am a very big advocate of a tight at it right remember editing and cooling same th...

ing I call editing on dso the thing the thing that the reason why is I think I personally think that it's a disservice to a couple to give them thousands of images for their wedding I I think that like my whole theory is is like if I can't get through them all, how are they going to get through them all right? And how are they going to see the best ones? Right? And this is my theory, right? And I hate editing remember that and I don't like tony so therefore I don't want to be toning and cropping thousands of pictures, right? So it's just something that I just literally can't help but toe on li get it as tight as I possibly can, right it's almost like the same way I shoot, right? So I shoot like all these images, but I know that one example show today with a mom can on the steps and she's like whatever I think the one photo to give the client out of all of those right, I probably should have put a couple extra now that looked at it again, but don't tell her may I give it to her later just kind of give it more context in this story, right? So so bottom line is my average so let's just say so this wedding I shot I shot four thousand forty five images, right? You see that brought down there, okay, right? And I don't know exactly how many I ended up, I don't know what my final was, but maybe we'll see that let me see if I can go down to the very bottom so my final for this wedding why is four hundred twenty day so that's what around ten percent something like that? So I usually tell my clients that you're going to get seven to ten percent of your images that I shoot that day and what's really interesting about that and that's always a big debate with people when photographers they're like, you know, I feel like, you know, they deserve more and something would give a lot of pictures there's nothing wrong with that at all I think ben and erin probably give you know, they have way more than I do right? And that and that and it's totally totally up to whoever and whatever but it's just something that I just I just can't bring myself to like it's almost like in the newspaper world, they're like people are like don't ever give a magazine editor a picture you don't want published, right? Because inevitably are going to show you two put that picture up it's getting back I hate that. Make sure you know, but I don't know that's my thing, I just can't just can't give them a lots of images and I don't want them to choose the best one, so I rarely hardly ever do I ever give like a three or four pictures sequence um, and then let them choose when they like, because I'm the pro I'm going to choose the best picture, right? So, um, I, you know, and it's really bullet down it's? Like, how many photos you really need of your wedding? Think how much going to an album, you know, like, one hundred hundred fifty something that, you know, so there's still plenty of pictures from their wedding, and I do get some people saying, like, very rarely, but it happens where it's like, oh, you know, if you have any more pictures of this and I don't think they're looking at the number of images I think they're actually looking at like, oh, you don't have to exert my aunt, do you have picture my aunt? You go look, you know, stuff like that, I mean, I hate those questions because I I ultimately something you usually know the answer. Sometimes I'll find something here and there that I could be added back in, but, I mean, we do like at least three rounds of edits on every wedding, right? So fortunately for me, my wife pam, does the first round of edits for me, right? So actually know what these are not all my pictures so this is not I didn't even shoot four thousand images on this wedding so she does the first round of edits she will go through and photo mechanic and she would just go through and just tag all the good ones now here's the key thing right key thing to editing and I'm gonna I'm gonna has uh you know do you wanna talk quick question when you edit a wedding okay and you edit down your images do you edit in or do you edit out you know what that means? Do you keep the good ones or do you remove the bad ones yes that's the opposite of what you should be doing ok right and that's why I used the same thing right until somebody told me this you need to edit in okay because what happens is editing and means you just go through all the pictures and just pick the good ones because think about what you're doing you're actually wasting all of that energy and time taking out the majority of the pictures right? So if you only shoes the good ones you're going to a speed of your process tremendously right but b you're not going to be overly focused on all the things you did wrong right because now you have to look at all the bad ones and be like hit hit hit hit hit hit wow wow oh there's when I like you know so try it the opposite way edit in it's going to be huge right? So what I actually do is I hand it in and then I edit out makes sense right? So my wife tags all the good ones and then and then I go in and I and I put him into into a photo mechanic I am not to the place where I can really let relinquish this task completely and I had to for the first time to come here and teach because we had a wedding they had to get done and I was like, I can't get to it and I'm like pam, you tend to go for it so I'm probably going to look over it before I go but you know, I always like ideally it would be like, awesome to have like just somebody do everything at it and there's a lot here that do that there's a lot of photographers that do that I just can't let that go because I was at the event I know the story, you know what I mean? So I can't totally let that go yet, you know? So anyway, so what? But but but what happens is is one trick that I do is I actually edit in thumbnail view right? Who edits picture by picture everybody right that drives me insane right, because if you have a sequence of photos, this is that framing one if you have a sequence of photos you're like, oh, that one's I can't remember how many right it's kind of a hard thing to dio in my eye, but if I do, in thumbnail view, I can actually look through the thumbnails really quick and the good pictures will usually pop off the page, right? That really helps me tremendously without with getting bogged down visually sitting in front of that computer for two or three hours trying to edit down a wedding. Right? So if I could, because I can look through here and thumbnail view and I could be like that could be like no, no, that might work no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that might work. And so what I do is I just kind of like I go through and I and I and I tagged ones that I think will work and I might even tag more than one right cause I'm on lian thumbnail view I'm just trying to go fast oh, that's kind of a look and see his eye and then later when I when I when I go through and only look at the selects then I blow up the picture and I look at each one to decide what I want right because if you go one by one you're going through so many photos you look down here like oh my god I'm only a quarter of the way through who feels that right it tries me insane and so I'm like I'm like you know what I'd rather just like go through this way and make sure I hit the big points but what I do is I also like I look at pam's at it when I run through and I'm like okay good good good good good well you know what this one might be better so I'm gonna try this one or whatever and I could just see kind of like the whole overview of it and then what I do so I go through that first segment and so basically you know you can kind of see do you see our tags on here this is the only one that I could find that was a that that we're already you know you know the tags were already saved basically so I kind of go through and I see like you know we wouldn't even choose what any of those and like you can see kind of like how many so how many photos did it take and I probably should have taken more on this wonder how many photos did it take to get this one it's only twenty three that's. Actually, not that bad. I thought I would have shot more, but, you know, so see, see how that's all kind of like moving and trying to wait for that kind of line up in his face. So they so they kind of go through and that's what I do, right? Um, I mean, they're the shower. Well, he was shaving longer. Okay. Here's, what happened? Okay, I got you. So what I did was he was shaving for for for wow, right? But I didn't wantto on ly commit to this idea. So what I did was I went and I and I jumped into the shower and, you know, I'm like, hey, if he's going to make it, I'm gonna be naked. I'm kidding. So I jumped into the shower, right? And you can see me right there, senior right there. Creepy guy. So the shower was kind of foggy, and so I think the door is open. So I jumped in the shower to kind of shoot through the fog to kind of give it a different feel, you know, so just trying different things. And in the end, that light is horrible, I made it worse on myself. But I was just trying to do something different, right? You know, so I was just trying I was trying to get to different options of the same thing but you see how many photos I'm shooting that basically all exactly the same you see that and then bam I actually end up using that one I think I burned myself down so I wasn't some creepy guy in the background the camera um look that see how many that was like that hope there's even more there's even more there's even more there's even more and then he and he was done so basically I just shot in theory there's one in there that's my assistance um what just happened here? Roland I just shot uh only about eighty photos but eighty photos of a guy shaving to get to get like two or three you know? And in the end this is the only one that really matters right? You know, so it's just a simple situation I'm trying to that's how you work through situations, but so so yeah that's how we edit right way just kind of worked through and figure out what we might want and what we might need and and then of course, once that initial edit, so usually the initial edit is like down to like maybe eight hundred all right that's usually about the initial first pass is we cut it down to that far and then I cut it down even further and and I don't honestly there's no reason to do it that type quite frankly what what's the hurt and giving people war right? Why not? You know, but I just can't bring myself to do it like I can't be like here's ten pictures of you shaving when really in the end only one is the good one, so I'm like, I'm just going to do it and pick the ones that need to be picked right now when it gets to the reception that goes up dramatically because I'm just trying to get people right? I'm never going to leave anything I'm never going to leave anybody out of anything out really, unless I totally blew it, but I'm going to I'm going to keep it keep it as tight as I possibly can, so we just go through, I do that first round and then we get it down to like, you know, you know, we go through all this stuff you can see interesting thing about seeing this is you can kind of see what I'm doing with the camera now these one nighters interspersed are my assistant and we didn't we didn't sink our cameras up properly, we have a horrible time trying to decide that but are trying to remember that but, you know, you see how I'm just kind of working was working with her here with the flash her getting ready to kind of get the university of kansas in the background when they went to school, you know? But I mean that that takes a lot a lot of work to kind of get those see, I kept working on it, going back to it, working on it, changing it, I would back far away with the flash and that's a horrible picture um, right, you know? And then just trying all kinds of different things silhouettes that you know, all that kind of stuff, but you see, how do you guys see how kind of, like, deliberate the shooting is, right it's almost like it's, almost like, you know you're you just see, you just seen me I mean, look at her, put it in her ear rings from her grandma, we're never right like, look how that process started stupid, stupid, not bad still working through it, and I change this see all that, trying to see how on track so I'm moving it, trying to get where I want, right? And these are not great pictures don't get me wrong, but I'm just simply trying to show you and there's the one because she looks beautiful, doesn't she? Right so I mean I'm not always concerned with people not looking good if I'm going if I have a beautiful picture of somebody over not so beautiful picture of somebody it's the same picture I would think the beautiful picture why would not right but if there's a moment that is good and they don't look that great I'm not going to care about that I'm gonna still put it in the in the proofs right? So anyway right so basically it's just you know see how the editing in helps because you just had these little ones here and there that the ones you're keeping your not overwhelming yourself with all the trash okay does that make sense? Yes I'm sorry I mean you saw me in the in the video right? I did and you could hear my tea yeah so it's not verse mo it's on motor drive okay but I'm actually doing this a lot and then if something happens I'll just kind of mash it down so that way they just you know, little little bursts okay but not like but you know that's that spray and pray where it's like you just woke something happened right? I'm very deliberated you can see I like the way that I'm moving, moving the little tiny micro adjustment like ben said, you know, just to kind of make it exactly like I want but the way it works for me a lot of people can probably do that and then hit the button, but for some reason for me, I had to just let the camera go and then I can work on everything else that makes sense, you know? So anyway, all right, so I'm just going to go through all this it's just kind of interesting to show you I wanted to see to see, I think this really helps to understand how I make pictures. And now it's not just me. It's everybody's been it's all these other guys that, like, do the same thing and girls, of course, you know, here's an example of him riding his letter, you know, is is I, you know, that's great light right on dh luckily, he wrote it over by that window. I didn't tell him to do that, but see how my exposure change open my exposure up. Now look what I'm doing, do you see what I'm doing here? And you see how this is distracting, I'm going to try and get rid of that, so I'm moving to try and get rid of that see what do you see what I'm doing? And then I finally got rid of it, just do you guys just see how I put it behind there? I've over the new one, right? Exactly I don't know what's worse right? You know so so I just keep trying to do and then I'm like steed what did you say? I just did I went up open but I opened up a worse one did you see how it went there and then I went back you see that? Yeah I still went so I eventually settled but then I kind of like the reflection so I settled on that one it was in between you said I did it's not that but it's not that either right there see how I moved it and now it doesn't hit his face it's the best I could do and that's the one I chose but you see how long it took me to get to that place just moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving but if I don't keep shooting that I might miss a moment of when he just like quickly goes or something like that, you know what I mean, right? So that's why I had to do it that way. So you just kind of just like really working on on making my decisions and then perfecting the photo right and there's of course I take I take beautiful pictures of people when they're getting ready, you know this is just her mess with the dress but I like the way her hair was flowing and so I'm always trying to look for beautiful pictures always if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen you know um I think her I thought her dress the backdoor draft it's pretty cool um but you know, just really, really working through it this is this is her walking up to the ceremony from the hotel so these air usually like really crappy photos trying to, like show somebody walking through something is really hard except for maybe courtney's through the through the kitchen that was pretty cool so I'm just starting to try and like, you know, walk and get you know, that's a nice little moment with her and her dad, you know, um I was walking up and I saw these people sitting on this bench who that could be cool stay sprinted up to them and I tried to get them and look what they did nothing they didn't they didn't wave or anything, but this is the interesting take a college town, you know? So the university of kansas I tried to run up and get that in the foreground with dad and her walking to the you know, it is that they are amazing, right? But I'm trying I'm just going for it I'm doing the best I can write makes sense um so uh yeah so so you get it love this moment here um his sister and mom where I was waiting for them to come down the aisle on they were in the front and they started talking and then all of a sudden I had this really great moments how sweet it is I wish I would have gotten their hands all the way, you know, ben's probably yelling at me right now but uh but you know, I got the moment it didn't last very long so you guys seeing seeing kind of what's going on cnn I'm just like when when people come down the aisle I mean, I'm just like I'm right on it look how many I shot at them come in the aisle boom boom boom boom, boom, boom, boom, boom! I finally get one that works, you know, trying to get that light to someone, be behind his head trying to get me in focus, you know? So yeah, that's how I soothe this stuff, it just kind of just go for it and then and then hopefully all the gyms will kind of pop up looking for backgrounds, but what did you see how I edited and I wanted you to also see kind of ah hole, you know, shot I mean, this is like this is it. This is me being being a crappy photographer sometimes. Okay, so sister read something, then she went over and she cried back in the corner. Kind of a nice the moment, but it was, uh I need a more context. So any way you see all that, you know, we're just doing I'm just shooting, shooting a ton of frame. See all this. You guys seem like boom. And you saw that yesterday in the video, didn't you kind of how I how I do that, right? So basically, what you do is you go is you edit in, and then you go in and then you go tighter and you go tighter and you go tighter and so you just can't get it any tighter. Oh, um, somebody uses about formals? Yeah. How? How you can get through it quickly. I have very little of them, right? That's the key. So I tell my clients I say I highly, highly, highly. I can't say highly enough. I go it's your day, dude. Everyone by how they recommend you keep it to immediate family and grand parents on lee, right? And that's. Usually how it happens that wake is usually there's, not like huge families. But when they have like divorces and stuff like that, it takes longer you know? But I have that list with them in a meeting and I go with that whole list so basically I'm in control I'm in charge at that time and I don't let anybody like chime in because I'm just I mean nice but you shouldn't get this done right because if you start going is there any other pictures you want right then it's like a snowball, isn't it? And and no one wants to be a jerk and they all want to be like if aunt someone such is over on the corner there going to be like I want one with her oh yeah and then just turned into this big mess right? And then you start eating up time so basically I'm like, okay that's great, we got the list and if they if mom's like coming get one more picture sure you can I just want you know I go it's just I know it's not on my list, but I'd be happy to do it for you and then the bride would be like but we have we don't have much time, you know? And I'm like, yeah, I don't have much time I go, but I'll try and get it done, you know? And sometimes they'll be like, you know, I mean, I got no problem doing it but I don't want them to know that it's like it's just gonna can't turn into a big thing is we don't have any time to get it done, it's not that I don't want to do it for them. We have to get to the reception, whatever, right? So we keep it to immediate family and grand parents only if we can. All right. And basically what I tell my clients is all right, you got it, you got to think, like, worst case scenario, right? But the devastation factor would you be devastated if he didn't have a picture with this person from your wedding? If they say yes, then we better put it on the list and make sure we do it right, because I can't guarantee any image on this wedding and I and I can almost guarantee formals, but I can't completely because it's an uncontrolled event, I don't know uncle bob will decide to go to the bathroom and get locked in the bathroom, you know? I don't know, right? You just never know, so so. So yeah here's my formals, I actually shoot a lot of formals because that is what people's faces. You know? I just kind of just keep going, see that, just find a nice place and just just pick him off there you go see that you know right and then what we dio I already went through all this little is formals I shot look at all these formals look at him all look at him aah look at them all we'll get him ah look at him all looking on holy moly let's check this out quick I'm gonna totally throw myself under the bus here three hundred eighty formals right seven thirty three o nine too e seven thirty three o nine tio eight oh two so is a little longer on that one about half hour yeah you know and that's what I mean that's like that's like you know I say like fifteen twenty minutes you know that's not horrible and that was more than I would normally do that many formals you know so you just just do what you gotta do but half an hour is not bad you know I don't think that's anything to shake its ticket oh that also included the bride and groom straightforward formals that's just not that's not just family you know so family oh just family that's interesting let's look at that quick um just family would be seven forty six forty nine and we started just family at seven. Thirty three so what is that thirteen minutes right there right pretty close and then you got to do brother party it's not like that, you know but yeah formal but like whenever you do it how do you do it like do you kind of direct them? Are you can I just say lineup just line up right there make it make sense I'm like you know, I wanted to balance of everybody like if everybody had stands and like a verizon you know, like like commercial where they do that whenever I'm like this looks kind of silly you know? So I just kind of rearranging a little bit to make it look symmetrical imbalance and I just I just let him be and I and then it there too stiff whatever and I know the family's better I'm like it's okay if you just want to just relax a little bit you know andi just gonna shoot up but I'm shooting real quick I mean like you saw I mean that's like fast yeah yes I'm gonna get it done not only because I don't want to be there doing them I don't care it's actually quite fine whatever it's easy yeah and I liked doing them because it helps me feel better where it's like okay, well I have a picture of grandma just in case you know, whatever right, but I don't want to take up time I don't want it to be moment I don't want I don't want for most to be a moment killer and pictures you're own your own pictures khun b moment killers because he interrupts the flow of where real moments are happening, what I think and I want to get back to the real moments as fast as possible. So and then after that, after we did all the formals itself, I went and just took them for a little bit for some portrait time, right? So eight o six, we started that portrait time and and and I went back to the hotel was because we had a little bit extra time and did some stuff in the room, so I spent more time with these guys that I normally dio eight o six to a thirty eight, right that's not as much time as I thought. S o so that's my portrait time, right? Like like just what the bridegroom that was that was about thirty minutes I usually have a lot less than that, but see how many things I'm getting done, right? I did like, you know, so so I did this silhouette in front of frasier hall, which is where on the university kansas that's, where they met, they got married, so I wanted to try and use that I don't I don't love that photo, but it's just like as ben said it's a starting photo and then I got my flash out and I and I back let him you know, just give a little bit more right? And then that was just me getting warmed up on dh then I went and I found this and I love this this is a this is one of the like on campus is that kind of a building that people recognize and so this is called lippincott hall whatever and they had this this I love this portrait here where I under exposed a lot with these good that these guys here you can't really tell you what you can and I back let them up there so they're just like, just like a really small part of the photo, you know, that's that's kind of a cool, cool portrait, right? Something that could hang in their houses other what? Him but it's not of their wedding, but, um, anyway, so I did that and then oh, and then and as we're walking back to the hotel, which is down the street, remember, I realized I don't have a picture of the outside of the church as I'm talking to them walking, I just try to picture the outside the church real quick just so I have it right was really just walking and just kind of shooting it right content kind of blueberries, so see, I mean, my brain is like on like overdrive the entire day you know? So that's why ten hours about all I can do so this is so then we went back and we try to do seduce importance of her and I wasn't really happy with him but whatever they get the job done it wasn't what I was expecting, you know? I put them together that's really silly looking so I didn't want to look at these quite frank with you but they but they loved him, you know, that's fine, right it's whatever I'm just trying to get it done for people and trying to do my best to be a fashion photographer and obviously I am not right, so we're going to leave that to the fashion photographers, okay? I'm trying my best I'm like yeah, I could do it just like this cool like she can sit in this chair and do this whatever in a sight till I didn't work, you know it's like do what you do well, you know, stop making him run, you know, type of thing so you like this? I didn't tell him to sit like this he just did this but like that's like total like g q and so it was silliness I only used a few of us anyway and then we just go back to the reception and, uh you know this is where I just start kind of going I mean, you know this is the speeches you know, trying to light these guys and this was fantastic that's awesome I'm getting there right one of these days light acquisition deficiency yes like e t t l r manual all manual flesh okay like I said I used that I used those she does yeah, whatever yeah, yeah and then now I use that magma and might of fire which is really yeah it's all explained in those pds like I was telling you about what the gear I used I know I just can't get into it right now that's a whole nother that's a whole nother segment on how I light stuff you know and I don't know you want to learn it from me right? I get there eventually see I fixed it it's so funny when like pam's editing she's like she's like oh, okay, you fixed it you know? So I'm just trying to like, you know, light this stuff and make it look natural you know and just kind of really working hard on all of this so my assistant's holding that light um and it works really well but you see how many I was shooting and then I look over to the people to the crowd to matera mom and somebody else or like having you know, having a good time together um hugs but you see and how many pictures do you guys see the pinks those of the keeper's right? There's not very many I mean there's just like there's no reason to keep any more than just like this one photo of her hugging her sister and stuff like that and this is no reason to so you know, then that warrant more speeches sometimes I'll change from flash to ambient just to kind of make sure I'm getting it um you know, first dance uh that they had had a pretty good first dance if I remember right? But I don't think I was ended up I don't think in the end I was really happy with it um unfortunately but, you know, it's all right, whatever that was bounced flash there, I think maybe I think I just want to figure out what was like, the best way I'm just trying on all kinds of things, you know? It takes me it takes me a while to get there with the lighting and really, really fine tune it like I wanted um anyway, so you guys see, you see kind of how I'm I'm doing all this stuff here any questions on is that making sense? Yeah, right, yeah for the lighting are you telling how are you communicating with your assistant who's holding the texture raids basically it's like I'm trying to like explain like down uh ok would be smart if I were like some sort of head piece in baseball signs I like this you know, like e and I feel like a swat team I think I actually my my my son alex was talking there night and he saw my video of me shooting and he's like dad you look like swat team when you shoot no my jack crap like that's the complete opposite of what I'm going for you know? So you gotta listen my kids sometimes you know yeah I just trying like communicate where I want the light and then that's why I want an assistant to work with me for a year because they had to learn me and we had to learn each other and that's where kate and I were so great because we were she was using she she knew I mean she could light stuff she knew when I see one time remember that years ago I was shooting with a certain camera that I used to use lens hood's I thought the lens hood off and she goes, she was here I need to put that lends it back on what you talking about she goes, well, everything you took it off I can't tell what lends you have on and that determines how I light it for you and I'm like holy crap you know like please can I clone you I mean she's just so good you know and and my other guy that was just let the story you know she ended up being quite fine at it but it took a little while in that year for her to get it down and now I knew what my news isn't sam it's the same thing you know it just takes a while to learn that process you know but over seven years kate and I got really on track you know so I really need to kind of that's why I want assistance to stick with me for as long as I can you know it sounds like your assistant is adjusting the level of the flash of our where they're pointing it okay I do that in two ways to do that via I can do that from like a remote that it just said but I can also do it with my aperture can't yes essentially right yeah if it's too it's too if she's too close and I could just stop down and she's too far away that I can open up so again knowing your gear right knowing that black box so anyway you see what I'm saying right? You get it um and so you just kind of working through this whole scene and just tryingto I mean even when you know so when one like a whole bunch of people when a whole bunch of people pop up together, I'm like there's my chance to get people done. Move on, right, so so I still have to shoot for the client, obviously, but in the end, I'm chu I'm actually shooting for myself overall, but I had to always remember, okay? It's their wedding. I got to get their people, you know, that kind of stuff, right? I'm shooting the pictures. I want to shoot like those wonderful little details. I love that stuff. No, but you know, it doesn't matter, though, but every picture on every picture I'm doing I'm trying to make it the best I could make it right. This is a picture of a mason jar, right? So but look att I'm trying to make it look that you see that I'm still shooting that many pictures of a mason jar because I want to make it the best I can make it right. So cool. So that's kind of how we edit, right? So we take it down really far, okay? And we and we keep just to keep, you know, just that four hundred. Whatever. Fifty, three hundred forty fifty images, usually.