We are often asked for help with a botched wedding or portrait shoot. Unfortunately, we are normally so busy with our own work, that we don’t have the time to try to “save” photos.
The problem we see the most, is in the areas of incorrect lighting, major color noise issues, and white balance issues. For some the fix has been, just turn everything black and white, and hopefully those issues go away. Unfortunately they don’t. If shot incorrectly in the first place, you can’t correct overexposure problems. Noise is a devil to take out of a photo. And white balances can be tricky if you don’t know what your target is.
For others the answer is to shoot everything outdoors because it’s easy peasy. Unfortunately not all weddings happen outdoors, and the outdoor reception is even more rare.
The reality is, most times we have to stand in the back of a very dimly lit church, a football field from the bride and groom. The receptions are most times even darker. The bride and groom work hard to produce perfect romantic lighting, so dragging in a bunch of annoying stobes is not the answer. At least it’s not for us.
So what happens if it is a rainy day and you can’t shoot outdoors….at all? What happens if you are having problems getting super noisey, super over/underexposed wedding/ceremony images. If your ISO is too low, you get a bunch of out of focus images. They need to be TACK sharp. If your ISO is too high, you get really noisy images which are equally sucky if the bride and groom need them for an enlargement or album. So what to do? What to do?
Well…you can contact people with hundreds of weddings, in all conditions, in all lighting, for help. In short: Us
You will learn to properly expose in the first place. You will learn how to shoot in low light and full blazing sun. You will learn to white balance correctly so you don’t have to show everything in black and white. You will learn how to stop action so you don’t end up with slightly, or fully out of focus shots. You will learn to “sense” what is about to happen next and look for that emotion.
In short, you will learn how to properly shoot, and process a wedding or portrait session.
In the last few years we have seen so many people come and go. We want to help the new photographer, but we don’t have the time to “fix” bad wedding photography. Or even make it passable. We want to give back, and help newer photographers though. So the best answer for us, is not to “fix” botched things, but to make them right in the first place. And to help those struggling with unexpected issues in post processing. Pimping colors, hitting photos with contrast, and turning all the rest to black and white is not the answer.
It’s hard for us sometimes to hear about people we know and care about losing everything because of disgrunted clients, or a “bad day” or an experiment gone wrong…whatever. The simple fact is that we DON’T work in perfect conditions, with perfect lighting, in a stressless, timeless environment. We work in super dark places, with people who are crunched for time, who are under a lot of stress to make things perfect. These are someone’s memories for a lifetime, and “passable” doesn’t cut it. It’s important. Not just to them, but to your future as a photographer.
Soooooo…..long story short, we have decided we will help photographers get it right in the first place instead of trying to help people “fix” things. You will need to bring along a FULL wedding sample disc. Not the highlights. Everything. We will review the images and tell you where it all went drastically wrong, or help you fix the images we can help you save. We will also tell you when it was fantastic. We will show you how to process things correctly without having to resort to the blown out black and white, slightly out of focus version. But most of all, we want to help you figure out how to get it right, staight out of camera.
This service for a one on one session is $500. They must be done during weekdays or on Sundays. It is a full day session, from Raw images to final images.
So the best answer is to get it right in the first place.
Below are some before and afters. They are really good out of camera, but what happens next really matters too:
Before and afters. We get it right, straight out of camera, but there is a lot more work to be done:
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And that is what it takes, basically, to stay in business year after year….with huge client referrals….100 percent happy clients, and living your dream. It’s hard work and lots of learning.
We don’t do “half measures” here, and if you are an up and coming photographer, I hope you agree. It’s just way too important. Being cheap isn’t always the best alternative to great wedding photography.
Or at least we hope as near to perfection as we can get. 
