Your wedding images after the wedding: Digital Files Explained

Digital Files anyone?

Today we have more and more devices with the ability of taking very good images. Many brides are coming up to their wedding photographers with the request of just delivering their wedding picture files and not wanting anything else with hopes of getting a bargain. But are you really saving moolah or just doing a disservice to your self? Below is just one of the things that happens to your wedding images after the wedding.

Digital Files vs Digital Retouch.  Whats the difference and as a bride, what do I care? I just need the 2500+ digital files from my photographer!…  It is a good idea to know the details in which your wedding photographer process your wedding images . This will allow you to have a better judgement when hiring a professional photographer. After all, you are paying big money to save your moments in the right way… and it is a good idea to know how we make the magic of making YOU look fantastic!

Without further do, I will explain in detail some of the processes and techniques we use. I will also show a couple of  samples to illustrate the process that an image goes to be considered a finished deliverable product which you won’t get when just buying the digital files.

Digital Images

When it comes to pictures there are many different file formats—But I will just talk about two of the most commonly use by wedding photographers; JGP and RAW file formats.

Consumer Point & Shoot digital cameras (the camera that any of your Smart Phone has) take the images and transform them to the JPG file format.  In this process two things happen, your camera increases saturation to make your photos look great and decreases the file size to save space to take more pictures. That’s what we are looking for right? …aaah sometimes. If you just want to document your kids or just want to take some photos here and there… then Point & Shoot-jpg format is your thing. But if you want photos to be printed in albums or for your walls like your wedding photos you better shoot in RAW—and thats what professional photographer use.

JGP vs RAW

When the camera does the conversion to jpg there’s a lot of information that is discard to make the file size smaller. This makes the image not good enough for a decent print—and at the end, you want to make that nice album right? That is the reason why most wedding photographers like myself shoot in the RAW format. This format does not discard information—it makes the file size bigger, it produces dull colors (because is untouched by the camera) but it gives the photographer the benefit of manipulating the image for a better final result. It’s like having a vacation with unlimited days! yeah!

At the end, RAW files produce richer images that can be printed in a bigger size and still looks awesome. But for an image to be “client ready” it needs to go througth a few processes. We call them ” Retouching.”

Digital Retouch

In the retouching stage, we do a combination of processes that will enhance the photo in a way that will not kill its naturally—very important.

The whole process goes like this; we saturate the colors to make the image more vibrant and appealing. Burn & Dodge the high and low lights to boost the contrast of the image to make it more interesting and to add depth. And finally we clean the image of unwanted elements that interferes with the story that the image is telling.
Things like pimples, blemishes, hair on the face, we smooth wrinkles, get rid of unwanted surrounding elements and more.  Sometimes… we need to modify the bone structure of the subject… I know, I know but you will still look like you. I promise.

Sample-1

Below is a photo that has been retouched specially for the wedding album. Look carefully, as the image will change.

To this image, I first got rid of unwanted marks like pimple, eyes dark circles, blemishes, and out-of-place hair.
If you notice, I also modified her facial bone structure—this created a more elongated and elegant facial expression. To make emphasis on the eyes, I moved them closer together, made them whiter and accentuated their colors. The skin was smoothed a tiny bit and the teeth were whitened.

To make the image less dull, the high & low lights were increased and the overall colors were saturated and enhanced. Take a closer look as the image changes.

Sample-2

There are times that an image just needs its colors to be pump. On this image, I only worked on the Hight & Low lights, burning and dodging them to get details. Some minor unwanted spots were removed from the sky but very minimum.
If you pay close attention to his clothing, the highlights were accentuated to create contrast—this makes the image more interesting. Also, the eyeglass reflections were enhanced to give power to the whole composition. Take a closer look as the image changes.

Saving your wedding day it’s way more than just pointing and shooting. There’s many other things that we as wedding photographers do to make sure that you will look your best and still look like you.
—To view more photos from the first sample, Click Here.
—Second sample, Click Here

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See you then!