But my photos look ok without post-production...

Well, that may be, but careful post-production on any digital photo is only going to make it better!

Post-production is the process of altering digital photos on a computer, in software like Photoshop. I might also call it editing, just to keep you on your toes ;-)

There's a few different reasons for wanting to edit photos on a computer:

• To 'save' poor quality photos
• To make good photos better
• To add creative and artistic effects
• For advanced editing e.g. removing people or background details from a scene
• To add creative and artistic effects

Professional wedding photos should always go through some form of editing. If not, they're called proof images.

I'm going to show you the journey of one of my wedding photos from start to finish and point out the most common things that need adjusting on digital photos.

The Original Photo

The bride's wedding dress has tricked my camera into thinking the scene is brighter than it actually is (because the dress is bright white). So my camera, in it's infinite wisdom, has made the whole scene darker to compensate for it.

So here's what I'm going to do...

Step 1 - Exposure (a.k.a. tone)

This is pretty much how light or dark an image is. Exposure is measured in 'stops'. This photo is quite a bit underexposed, so I've increased it accordingly.

Step 2 - White Balance

Have you ever noticed how normal light bulbs give off a warm, orange glow, whereas fluorescent strip lights are colder and bluer? That's called colour temperature. Sometimes digital cameras think a scene is warmer or colder than it really is, which can be easily corrected.

The above photo is too cold and so needs warming up!

Step 3 - Contrast

Now it's time to give the photo a bit of bite. Increasing the contrast makes the image more defined - it's like adding seasoning to your cooking!

Step 4 - Saturation

Saturating colours makes them bolder and stronger. They come alive and jump out at you!

This should give you a little insight into what will happen to your wedding photos when you're on honeymoon!

To see how far we've come with just a few simple adjustments, this is the original image!

To find out how photo-editing affects the price of professional wedding photos click here.

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