First impressions

Whether we acknowledge them or not, first impressions count. Clothes, food, places, people, whatever – it’s that immediate thought which stays with us and is very hard to change. Photography is no different, people know what they like, and a glance at a picture creates an instant yes or no inside the brain. It’s because you only get one crack at forming this opinion that editing is so important towards the presentation of your work. I have always tried to treat a selection of pictures as something many people are going to automatically criticize, my objective being to provide as few reasons to do so as possible. I also try and make things easy. People are commissioning me to provide a service, I’m there to solve problems and not create a couple of new ones. 

A couple who are waiting to view their wedding photography don’t want to see 900 unedited shots from which to choose a set number for prints or a book. It bores them, whether they admit it or not. I can think of countless tales of families who waited months to make their selection because they literally couldn’t face going through a DVD full of images which displayed massive content repetition. Promising hundreds of pictures is a tactic some photographers use during initial meetings to convince a prospective client their high price is justified. But there’s only so much material you can obtain from a wedding day, it’s impossible to obtain several hundred without introducing significant padding to bloat the final tally. Portfolios are all well and good, they give a quick insight into a style, but seeing a few full wedding day selections is really the only way to accurately predict what you’ll receive from a photographer. If the quality of material displayed in a cherry-picked portfolio is frequently evident throughout a full wedding shoot, then people will take notice.

My editing process starts as soon as possible after the wedding itself. It helps me to almost seamlessly flow into working on the selection because the feel and atmosphere of the event is still in my head. The photographs are stored chronologically on our server in the office and immediately backed up onto several DVDs, just in case something happens to a hard drive. For a couple of days I’ll play around with colour balance, skin tones, black and white conversions and sometimes order changes. This is because sometimes you shoot things out of natural order depending on available time. A good example would be arriving at a venue where the ceremony and reception are to take place. If you’re there before anybody else, and you’ve got 10 mins to kill, then shooting dining room detail is another thing off the list which also frees up time later in the day. So while the detail content might have been shot at 11am, you’ll want those pictures to appear in your final selection around the time the guests seat for the wedding breakfast, so they are nudged forward a few hours. All these tweaks take time.

Upon completion of the selection, typically 150-200 different images, the files are uploaded to a dedicated web server. The access address and pass codes can be agreed beforehand so viewing is possible on honeymoon (if applicable). Having the previews on-line isn’t much of a step forward for the couple themselves, because there’s always been the facility of seeing contact sheets or a softback proof book. Where the web really comes into it’s own is the mass availability to family, friends and work colleagues. A lot of the people who can nowadays pour over the thumbnails probably never saw the whole selection before, and from a business perspective it’s great exposure for the photographer, not to mention priceless word of mouth, still the most solid form of publicity.

Hopefully the first and lasting impression given is an easy to navigate, high quality set of shots which captures the atmosphere of the day. It’s the culmination of a lot of thought, a few stressful moments and loads of clever pieces of kit supplied by Canon and Apple!!