Lessons

Lesson Info

Post Wedding Workflow: The Edit

I hate hate toning I'm not good at toning I think I can get it done but it takes me forever like light room kind of baffles me you know I I've been meaning to buy if I was doing it myself I would totally buy you guys ever heard of quick kees bye q oh man that's like no motive odo I'm sorry motive oto by it's like amazing this skin and you like it was like I hear it's amazing and david quinn er are friends of mine and I've been talking with him about it but I just I just want to do it myself I think is what it comes down to you know, I think I just wanted to spend my time doing other things on dso so what I've done is I've had over the years I've really been trying to find somebody toe like post production companies you know, to kind of outsource my post production and it's been really hard really, really hard to be also the like I think I've gone through like four five companies and individuals and oftentimes they're great and they're fine and they're wonderful people and what they do ...

sometimes like some individuals I've used, they just can't keep up with it so they because they have their own jobs so they're like I can't keep up with the but you know, you know, with everything that's going on so I can't go, I can't do all your wedding, all right? But some of the companies that I first started with, like they would they would they would color correct to industry standard, right? And I'm like, but I'm not, and then industry standard, I don't want my pictures looked like that I go, it is ninety percent like it's, ninety percent in the camera, what I wanted to look like, I just need you to kind of, like, make the contrast better and kind of exposure and stuff like that, and there was one company years ago that there was a silhouette, right? Um, I did, and it was on j peg, and that company was amazing, and they actually color corrected it to not be a silhouette, okay? I don't know how they did it, but I'm like, see, that doesn't doesn't you know, that's not what I'm looking for us it's really hard to kind of find a balance with that. You know, andi it's are we just may I know there's tons of people, they do a wonderful job at that, but so I'm really excited now because another friend in the industry, daniel and davina kudisch there like you. Ridiculous, right? I love his toning. They're actually starting a post processing company, which is really exciting, and so he I'm actually one of their first kind of a few of their first kind of testing people, and so I'm s oh, they're doing my tony now, and I love it like it's so easy to work with and there's still some learning curve il like I had to give them feedback and eventually hopefully we'll get kind of sync up and to think the same vision, you know, but overall it's really good. And so I really excited but it's called the image salon, it says that, you know, you know, you shoot, we edit and so that's it's not launching into like october, I guess, but it's something I mean, if you guys were looking for something it's actually pretty reasonably priced and they do a really great job so far, so I'm I'm excited to see the thing is is like, I'm learning not to do things that I don't want to dio you know what? It's taken me a long time to get there, but I'm gonna I'm gonna try to find the right people to work with, and then hopefully and creative live doing creative lives actually taught me that tremendously. Because there's so much work to get involved and get ready for this that like I'm learning that it's like, you know what I know where my limitations are and I know what I'm not good at and I'm going to start really hiring people to do that correctly so there's like strength in numbers, you know, I didn't do the best thing possible so it's kind of fun so proofing so then what we do is we we is we is we have two folders in our workflow one's called the cart and one's called the finals right the finals I think I talked about this the finals is all everything, everything in color and the cart is every is like what the proofs are and I want that because when I do album design or or somebody comes back and they're like can I get that picture in color? Yeah, I got it you know I don't have to go back and try and go back to the original and try and find you know, so I had those two folders in every everyone and I do it's called the cart in the finals and it's just the way that I like to do things and it works really well on dh then we and then we we upload to our proofing site and we use a shoot proof which is a new new us andi I'm really happy with it it's just a really easy thing to do and you know, we've got fortunately for us in kansas city as you know, everybody's like cocaine the city what what you want to live there and I'm like well because we have google fiber s o I have like crazy upload speeds like nine hundred megabytes per second upload speed internet it's incredible and so I could just like zip it up there real quick it's so awesome you know anyway, so so so shoot prove is what we use for that and then and then we just sent you know, that's what they go through for all that you know, you guys have one of those you know, but I'm just telling you people out there don't have one set up it's just something interesting to look at, you know? She proof is kind of cool there's probably a lot of better ones I just found that one it seemed easy so we went with it, you know, that could be ones just is good, but so now so then I had to present everything right now that I've gotten to this point of the present everything and you know, I don't want to just like, you know, dump it on them and here you go I want to make it an experience for them as much as they can and that all starts even with putting together their their proofs right? So I spend a lot of time rearranging the photos that were so if I sorted by capture time right it would sort of buy chronological in the day but like oftentimes will be like two pictures of the bride getting ready and then there's like one picture of the groom and then it's back to the bride back to the groom so I want them when they go through their proofs I want them to experience the day in a nice way and it's like really easy so I will actually spent a lot of time rearranging the photos I'll put all the guy photos together sometimes and then then I'll break it up so it kind of gives them a visual narrative as they go through all choose like I'm not going to start you know, you know the gallery out which in the end it doesn't matter it's proof right? Like, you know who cares? But I think they're still looking at those pictures I still get the feel of a story you know, like starting out with wood starting out with an establishing shot you know, maybe the dress or something like that and then going to her just, you know, it's just kind of it's the same way I put together my slide shows and stuff but not but just not, um it's just not for that right? Does that make sense? And so that takes a long time too, but I just can't I can't deal with it being all out of order and just sloppy, you know, that's what it feels like to me so the slideshow this is what you guys saw one yesterday, right? And so, uh I need to try to think how to do this with the best way the slide show so basically, what you've got here is you've got all these pictures you shot right? And then you got the cart in the shopping cart the proofs, right? And then you got the slide show and then you've got the album and then you've got the block, right? So that's so that's what we're gonna talk about this whole like funneling it down into the best of the best right and what's interesting a cz well is uh a wonderfully awesome photographer in spain. Her name is her name is susanna. Barbara has ever heard of her. Yeah she's amazing legs street photographer and stuff like that she was speaking at a conference and she said this so wonderfully about the whole theory of like when people asked like, can I see your out takes you guys dealt with that? Can I you know, people say that can I see all the photos you know right and people and for talking no photographers ever want to do that obviously right? And so she's someone someone wants to ask like, you know, how do you deal with that? And she says I had a situation one time where I was dealing with a a client who is a writer like he was a novelist or whatever and he asked for all the pictures and she she was so awesome this she says what I told him was she says when you start to write a novel right, you probably write it on told it paper kleenex you know, anything you can get and then you put it down on paper right? And then that goes to an editor and then they edit it down and then another copy writer maybe does that and then the final book is the final book, right? And she goes, do you want to see my told her paper, you know? And I thought that was brilliant like and the guy's like you're right it's the same thing with photography, right? I'm trying to get to the final product when I'm shooting pictures, so therefore I'm just going to pick out the best ones, you know, I thought that was a really great way of putting that I kind of want to use that someday, you know, but anyway she's she's really great so okay so so this is angela and evans cart okay, so it's every image so there's one hundred and thirty eight pictures right from the front from the day okay um and I kind of want you know I kind of show all of them right? So you guys saw some of these right? We're just gonna kind of go through real quick you didn't see that one no, we saw that one you didn't see that one you saw that one? I think you saw that one I love that picture solve that one I love that one be naked when I get home you didn't see that one you didn't see that one you didn't see this one I actually think I like this one better in that one I like the eyes being cut off I think it's kind of funky you know saw that one saw that one saw that one didn't see that one did you there's the tax? Remember I told you yesterday that I'm like I forgot what that picture in there I did put it in there right? The tax stuff right there is you know you didn't I don't think you sell that one saw that one of course you saw that one there's no way left me I'd leave that one out saw that one saw that one saw that one saw that one saw that one didn't see that one yeah you picking that up yes let's see so I'm I'm I'm going through and I'm editing you didn't see that one I'm editing down for the slide show right you didn't see that when I don't think you did that's in there but it's not in there then I wonder what that is oh no blues black and white blues black and white because I do all color and you know everything in color so my file name do you see my file names zero three one underscore be underscore angela evan so be means it was black and white originally so if you go to a color photo there's no be in the file name you see that so the blue is my b is my black and white okay so what I'll do is so that way if I'm building an album with everything in color and I want to just and then I want to decide on the spread which I can looking like oh those were that was originally black and white should I keep it that way you know so that way kind of read does that make sense yeah so so what you see so I don't think you saw this one all right you saw a lot of these photos right but there's some that you didn't see um you didn't see that one in this light show because what happens is you didn't see that one in the slide show um what happens is is that you can't you can't put everything in there because it's not going to have a flow it's not gonna have a story it's gonna have like it's going to be really choppy and jumpy and all that you know right so so basically what I'm doing is I can't show both of these you didn't see this one in the slide show but you saw this one right but like in a slice of that silly to put both of those because then people would be confused like what just happened the focus just went you know right so you got to just shoot I didn't show this one I showed this one in the slide show I still love look at this and that amazing on that light went right around that heart so great um so right so you're kind of seen all the photos look I had this one you didn't see this one right? You saw that one you saw that one that one you know? But you didn't see that one so there's just interested in you you don't see any of those so see how many photos I didn't include right? Because I want the story to flow and I want people to see just the best ones even though quite frankly there's a lot of them in here right there's all these portrait see the portrait ce that portrait see that right that's a good portrait of him I loved these portrait's of angela loved them right love that love that even more okay you saw that one you know saying so I'm going to show you I don't think you saw all of those you didn't see this you didn't see that right you didn't see that he saw that you saw that you saw that you saw that soc but so anyway so there is that right and then so this is what I did was I was I I went through when I edited for down for the slide show and I showed so here's what I showed so I showed eighty nine pictures out of a total of one hundred thirty eight right so that that quite a few because I wanted it to be the best of the best and I wanted the narrative to flow right so I'm starting with the kids you know just waking up you know trying to kind of let people kind of settle into this story you know and let it start kind of flowing through right and setting up the scene and there's mom and then there's dad you know this actually would have been a pretty interesting one to start to start off with actually now I think about it but um so this is all that was in the slide show so you guys remember all this and you see and how that all flows together so I'm making sure that it makes sense now, here's what's interesting about this. I went to go put the slide show together, right? And so I always I always like to start off. I think I thought it was nice starting off of the portrait, right, which defeats the purpose, but it's almost like a movie poster, you know, it's almost like the preview of who this is because if I would have just jumped right into the kid being asleep, people would be like, what? I'm confused, you know, so they might have still been confused, you know, but at least then they see that it's about angela and evan. Right? So then that way, when angela and evan start coming into the picture taken reference to what it's about is that makes sense and the story starts to make sense, okay, right. And I portrait accomplishes that a lot. The thing is, in my choices for my slight shoe, I had this portrait of her right and you didn't see it in the final cut. Did you know? Because I only have one of them, right? So if this story for the slide show was moving along this great moments and all the sudden it's like portrait, it was just like it would jar you and you wouldn't pay attention and you wouldn't be invested in the story, right? So even I love that photo I had to let it go so often times you know, editing is really hard to do you have to just let it go let it weigh just let it go right? And so I had to get rid of that. Now the other thing that was interesting was is that I had to also I realized that I didn't have a good transition so I was watching this and I was like, I was going to the slide show and all of a sudden I go from here I go to this which quite frankly, nobody has any idea what's happening there could you just bring some guy walking in a field, right? I go from there to that to that and I'm like doesn't make any sense I had dang it side to go back to my originals, right? And I had to go find these two photos this one and this one right? And I left him out originally because they weren't good photos. This photo is horrible like it's really bad, right? Do you see the problems focus on nowhere focuses I think it's on heaven, you know right there's so many issues, but what it did in the slide show was it started to set up the fact that grandma's got her arm and says look right and then it goes to in the actual in the actual let's do this this will be cool alright so I'm gonna bring those who would they go with the guru so when you we bring that down uh come on let's go to arrangement when you bring those photos down teo up up to where they belong right people at home are probably going out because they don't know how to use photo mechanic um okay right okay so so when you have this when you didn't have those before you see how weird it was it felt like it was just like a family in a field in a wedding dress plain right? But if I went back and I got this to set up this story this to start setting the scene this so you know wow, that looks like a ceremony doesn't it right and then you have what I messed it up so I didn't yes I did okay right so then you have this to set the scene then you go to this picture right? And then you go to this picture so that sequence now makes sense to a story so I had to put in crappy photos to make my other photos better to make my story makes sense see what I'm saying right? Yeah right and so I I went back to my car that's a horrible photo I can't be doing this but you know what in the interest of the story had to go for it right that's like literally like it's almost like I took one of the guest photos they took on their iphone just used it just it's not good, but I got to do it right. So anyway, now now look what happens now you can sit at the moment and you can get a feel for what's going on can't you right? You see that? So that was really interesting little exercise that I had to go through and I do that all the time and often times I will have to rearrange photos that are actually technically and sequential or cunt, you know? Um what is that consequence? Sequential there we go this sequential order how they have been chronologically that's what I was looking for biologically, how they have been chronologically, I might have to rearrange that sometimes in order to get the feeling of the story that I want to come across right? So you're saying, well, that's altering, reel out, you know, reality, I'm like it is to a point, but sometimes if I had to make that, I want that story to kind of come across some I had to do that, you know, so this is the, uh, program I use for slide shows it's called photo magico really sounds like I bought it at wal mart or something you know that that's not bad but you know it just sounds kind of funny but it's an awesome program and it works wonderfully well right and so it's so easy you literally just take the photos dump him into a timeline you can adjust him all for the seconds you want and you just can rearrange you can add the music to it right and then it just it just and then you could move things you're gonna have blank slates I can literally make a slide show on like twelve minutes right? But I'm also really good at it and I thoroughly believe in the photo magical gods okay because I will be down to the wire trying to get a slide show done and all of a sudden like try to find a song that fits and I'll put it down and it fits perfectly and then all of a sudden like I'm watching it in the beat like hits problem like oh my god they just smiled upon me again you know it just really weird and that's just luck of course but but that's what I used to build slide shows um and it's just really great it's a really good it's only for max but it's a really great program so you know okay now here's your here's your funnel right okay so you got four thousand images that goes down to four hundred for me right and then it goes down to the album which I'm going to do next right and the album is like one hundred images is what we pre designed for people right hundred image hundred hundred twenty some like that and then it goes down to the block right now I got kind of a bone to pick with people out in the industry and photographers about blah dogs because it it's like this needs to be said there are way too many photos on people's blog's in my opinion right I limit mind to thirty five or less sometimes more if I have to convince myself of more but often times it's like I'm going to some of these people's blocks there's like a hundred plus pictures of a wedding on there and I just I'm tired of scrolling I'm just done I don't even I don't want to watch that quick question is that thirty five per posting per wedding per wedding thank you thirty five per wedding yeah yeah so only thirty five images from a wedding from right thank you and it took me a while to get there ben was actually the one that said fifteen he told me fifteen and I'm like you can't do that and I don't think he lives up to that personally but I don't count his blood post but the bottom line is we gotta ask ourselves a question, right? Who's the blogger for is it for your client or is it for you it's for you right? The blogger post is not for your bride you just shot the block post is so you can sell your photography to the next bride right? So there's no reason to get hung up in the fact that you're going to need to include pictures that you think they're gonna like right? So therefore I just put whatever I love on there and that's really hard especially when you're a storyteller because you want to do what I do with the slideshow and you want to put in fluff you know and pam and I would fight over this yu yu know she like there needs to be a father daughter dance it there's a mother son dance right? And I'm like what the father daughter dance was not good it was a good photo and she's like but and I don't know I can't do it so um basically the bottom line is it has to be just an amazing photo to get onto the block right and that's what I'm hope that's why I tried to keep myself to every times that's why it's always um it's like that's what I always said and now I was saying so I'll see the wedding I'm back I don't feel good about that wedding at all and then I'll edit it down on my it's. All right. And then I do a block what's that that's amazing, you know, because it's just like boom boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, right? You know, so so, yeah, that's kind of my my theory on that is I think it's better especially people don't have any time nowadays, people. I mean, if I can't get through I mean, there's times where I'm like seeing, like, literally and start scrolling with my mouth. You know what? It's like just picture at their picture and I just tune out on people's blocks. I don't want to I want to be that way, you know, that's gonna be captivated. You know, less is more type of thing. You know, the kiss method. You get you guys on the kiss method, keep it simple. Stupid. Yeah, like michael, I'm on this. Any questions on that kind of stuff makes sense. Gotta go. Alright. You try to tell a story, though, right? Yeah. So I still try and tell a story, but I can't tell a chronological stories a lot of times because a lot of my images in between just aren't strong enough for me. Right, it's, kind like my instagram feed, where I just always want to put good pictures up it's the same thing. I just want to put, like, great photos up and then all. And then I'll figure out a way to kind of tell the story or are just hard right captions. You know that nobody reads anyway. I don't think anybody reads block post. I freak out thinking four hours to a block post hate block posts because I'm trying to figure what's, right? And I don't think you've ever grease it. I don't think they even care anyway, you know, but that's, okay, so makes you feel better.