These are just a few tips for photographers that want to save time and money while producing top notch work.
- Use the sRGB color editing space. sRGB works well with skin tones and the various situations we encounter in wedding and portrait photography. It holds contrast in check, which is important when working with dark skin tones and bright white dresses, and it helps to keep caucasian flesh tones from getting that saturated ruddy red look to them. sRGB is easy to adjust and you can work with a lot of files quickly when adjusting in sRGB.
- Work on your exposure. Much too many people's surprise, digital has a fairly limited latitude when it comes to exposure, especially when you are working in the JPEG mode, which many of us do when making a lot of exposures. (We often see weddings with over a thousand images.) The over and under exposure latitude is much more like slide film than negative film. The biggest problem we see in producing quality pictures is poor exposure. In general we find it easier to correct a slightly underexposed image than one that is over exposed. Once the highlights are blown out it becomes increasingly difficult to correct without pulling it into Photoshop. (so much for profit then)
- Work on getting your flash exposures right on and using the white point settings on your camera along with working in the JPEG mode. Photographers that do this find they can capture a huge number of images that require very little if any adjustment afterwards. The less adjustment needed, the more time you have to market, shoot more, or play with your kids.
- Don't try and fix the really bad stuff if it is in JPEG. Better to throw it out. JPEG files have a very limited range of values. This is why many photographers want to shoot in the RAW mode and set up their files afterwards. Some photographers become very proficient in this and can move through a lot of RAW files very quickly. If you shoot JPEG and have trouble getting consistent results you might find it better to pay us the few cents more to do the color correction work for you. In this case it is best to not make any adjustments yourself after the capture. Just transfer the images you want printed to us or burn them to CD before touching them in Photoshop. (If you open them in Photoshop, make sure your color management settings are correct. Many photographers inadvertently mess up their files by having their settings wrong. You can ruin your files just by opening them in Photoshop.)
- Don't shoot everything at the highest resolution possible unless, of course, you have a camera that only shoots 3 megapixels (MP) in which case, upgrade your equipment. 90% of all pictures ordered are 4×6. So, unless you do a lot of cropping or specialize in 16×20's there is no reason to shoot everything at 12 or 14 MP. It just wastes space and adds to upload time. A 4 to 6 MP file makes great prints up to 12×18 and allows for a lot of cropping on 4×'s, 5×'s, 8×'s, and works great for album creation. With today's interpolation options you can make pretty much anything you might need as a wedding photographer from a 6 megapixel file.
