Processing

Yesterday's backblip.

Here's a link to the wedding favourites..

I didn't see much beyond my iMac at the weekend, this a quick photo of my screen in the spirit of Blip, not a screen print so it's poor quality. Backing up, uploading, processing RAW, categorising, rating photos, adjusting exposure, retouching along with a consultation for a print order on Saturday for another client. I'm fortunate that the subject, Carolyn, looked absolutely beautiful and has a great expressive face to work with. In Aperture, I chose to rate all photos as a 3, then 9 for deletions, then 5 for favourites. That way every photo had an automatic 3 rating and believe it, it saved much processing time. I was so utterly delighted with my rental f1.8 85mm that I didn't switch too often to the wide angle, Big Fella and zoom I rented too along with an additional body (more tech details to follow). I've got into the practice of studying the metadata after in which my favourite shots were unanimously the 85mms. Can you imagine the sight: 2 bodies, one without a strap, 3 huge kit bags and 4 lenses, my 100 must shoot list, the speed of transitions between each element of the wedding, folk asking for technical advice on their own cameras, my eyes shifting continuously to find the best light, ushering the 12 ushers and bridesmaids to create shadow on the bride (my style) and then staying on for the reception for which i wasn't hired because everything was so beautiful and seeing the stunning backlit couple with the bokeh and dancing light I've practised on all year with My Boys portraits. I was in heaven.

I discovered too that the Bride is so caught up with everything that she's not always keen on having portraits so you really have to learn some direction skills. My favourite light is always at the transition between in and outside benefiting from indirect light, or outside into the sun. The Bride's dressing room was hot and humid but through an open door (and the men scurried away) I directed to have that appear in some of the preparation shots.

The Bride's father's a pastor and whilst telling me "You absolutely love what you do, don't you?" he blessed me with his Pentecostal hands.

I've been finalising how I want to present the galleries, and, wanting to get some initial proofs to the couple whilst they're on honeymoon, I created the above with a few favourites that jumped out at me. Only about another 2,000 photos to review.

Perhaps the overwhelming thought one should leave with when shooting a wedding is: Do I wish I was the bride in the photos and being that bride, would I be moved? And on this occasion, I can say a resounding "yes".