It’s been a long time between blog drinks and after almost a year since our last post and a lot of “hurry up and blog!” here we go. Since the last post a lot has happened, lots of shooting, new experiences and plenty more shooting lined up. Follow our facebook page as we seem to keep that somewhat more up-to-date then our website :/
This post however is to address a lot of questions i receive on twitter as well as in random conversation “How Do i Minimise Post-Processing?”
In a digital age where we have mountains of applications available to us for various effects, retouching etc in most cases the new photographer gets lost in it all spending countless hours editing a single image. A common phrase i hear used a lot is “Don’t worry about it, i’ll fix it up on Photoshop later”. Now for those of you who have been the photographer of an Event (Wedding, Corporate etc) you’ll know that “I’ll fix it later” can become “this is taking too much time…i’m over it”. So here are a few things to consider when using your camera for your next job.
Understand your camera
This is the most crucial element before jumping into any photog job and it will also take time to develop the understanding of your camera’s limitations. In short, PRACTISE…A LOT. If you are starting out take it off Auto and change it to Manual Mode. It’s not as scary as it seems and it will provide you with better and more consistent results. Over time and with a lot of shooting you will be changing settings extremely quickly and be able to change to settings that are spot on or close to the right settings for a specific location, environment, lighting. Examples of this is choosing the right:
-ISO
-Shutter Speed
-Aperture
How will this help minimise editing? If you know your camera, you’ll know the limitations one of the main limitations is understanding your ISO and when notice noise creeps in. This makes even more sense you consider framing (read further below).
Choosing the right Lens
Regardless if you’re shooting events, travel, studio etc the standout for any photo is choosing the right lens. Been to a few weddings where i’ve heard people say “argh, i should’ve brought my X lens”. Make sure that’s not you! Yes they can be a pain to carry around but it will save you heartache later on when you need to get ‘that shot’. For those who’ve seen us shooting at a job, you’ll notice we walk around looking like paratroopers with our Vests and Belts. It looks and feels ridiculous but being able to carry around different lenses and other gear is a lifesaver for us. A perfect example of this was out a recent engagement we were shooting where there was such a big crowd it was too tight to use our regular 24-70 lenses and not long enough to get the true candid photos without being intrusive or being obvious. Thankfully hanging off our belts were a 24-105mm lens for longer range candid shots, and a 17-40mm for getting into the crowd.
The right lens will also provide you with the sharpness, and speed you may require. If you’re in a lowlight environment having a fast lens is always essential even more so if your camera struggles with noise at lower ISO’s. Additionally if your lens is too short, chances are you’ll end up having to over crop and too long means you’ll be too close to capture useful background info.
Framing and Cropping
So you’ve figured out your camera, you’re carrying the right lens – what next? An area which is most crucial is Framing your shot, understanding through the lens what you’re capturing and how it’ll look afterwards. There are various different guidelines and articles regarding how to frame shot (eg. rule of thirds) but this is also subjective – the way we see it, if you think it looks good in the viewfinder – take it!. The fundamental mistake i’ve seen people make which adds to extra editing is not trying to accurately frame their shot initially meaning a large amount of cropping is needed later.
Sure, cropping is not a huge task or overly cumbersome however if you’re having to OVER-CROP this can be an issue and lead to additional editing requirements. Over-cropping brings in a couple of issues:
-Loss of Clarity/Sharpness/Detail
-Introduction of Noise
If you’re cropping so much that you’re essentially zooming into a photo the overall sharpness is being lost. Take any photo you have and start zooming in, notice how as you zoom in edge sharpness disappears?
Over cropping will also introduce and emphasize noise as you crop tighter. If you’re shooting at a higher ISO and know that there may be noise (again, understanding your camera) then ensuring your framing correctly initially will save heartache later in editing. Fundamentally sometimes you have no choice but to shoot at a higher ISO, so make sure you get it right.
The major thing when shooting is if you zoom too far into your subject whatever is outside of your frame cannot be recovered. On the other hand if zoom too far out and try to capture everything, you may need to crop too tight which will effect the image. Point here is GET IT RIGHT first time (or at least try).
Custom White Balance
This is probably the biggest time saver for editing. Countless hours can be lost in post-processing in adjusting white balance of images. It doesn’t matter if you shoot a few photos or thousands of photos, if you understand how to use the CUSTOM WHITE BALANCE of your camera you will go a long way to saving mountains of editing time. If you use Auto WhiteBalance you’ll know straight away how difficult it can be to correctly colour balance two photos taken at the same place, time, venue, environment etc. Auto White Balanced photos will vary shot to shot which is a painful exercise to adjust later on. There is nothing worse than going through an album of photos of the same event and seeing each photo a different colour (excluding any filters use for the photos). The best way to resolve all this is using a Custom White Balance setting, whether it’s utilising a Grey Card, White Card or CBL using something is better than nothing. (Our choice of weapon is CBL….it’s ridiculously awesome)
Very important to know that you should adjust your custom white balance every chance you get or anytime you change location, change light setups, etc (eg. Indoors to Outdoors, or Well-lit room to a lowlight room). So what if you forget to re-do your Custom White balance when changing location? The beauty about using Custom WB is if you do forget you can just BATCH update your WB Settings in Post Processing. Example, Indoor shots and Outdoor shots are using the same Custom WB. To fix in Lightroom (it’s what we use), you adjust a single Outdoor image to how you like it, copy the WB settings and paste across to all the outdoor shots. Simple right?
Don’t Shoot Everything
This is i guess one of the negatives about the digital age. No film = low cost. As you start out you’ll go snapping crazy and shoot anything good or bad. If you start considering all the points above, you should be able to pick your shots. There is no point taking eg. 500 photos if only 100 are usable, you’re only making editing more difficult for you later. The way we shoot is we almost consider we’re shooting with Film or shooting with only a 1gb card. Your aim should not be Quantity over Quality but rather Quality & Quantity.
Ok this is where i’ll end it for the time being. I’d love to add lighting, but that would be a mammoth of an entry…would love to go on but those are some of the main things we consider when we shoot (that and this post is getting incredibly long). I’m sure there are others who may agree or disagree, this is the beauty of photography. Everyone has their own time-saving ways, and everyone has their own style 
.
-SUSHISNAP
