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March 8, 2017

WHY I DON’T OUTSOURCE MY EDITING | WEDDING WEDNESDAY

WHY I DON’T OUTSOURCE MY EDITING | CLIENT EDUCATION

Lately I’ve been approached over social media about people who want me to outsource my editing. At least once a week, I get a little notification about someone wanting to be my friend on Facebook but what I come to find are random people asking to be my friend and sending me private messages about how they “like” my work and want to know who does my retouching/editing. Well friends, I do AND I like it! Some photographers choose to outsource their editing which is totally fine! There are a number of reasons for doing so! Maybe they don’t like editing or they have other things to do and it just eats up their time. I’m not saying that outsourcing is bad, at all! It’s just not for me (right now) … who knows, maybe I’ll change someday but I’m one of those people who actually LIKES editing… like I really like it. Lemme tell you why.virgina wedding photographer

As I’m taking photos of at a portrait session or a wedding… I’m envisioning certain images and how I can’t wait to see the picture on a full screen. I can’t wait to bring that image “to life!” When I’m editing, I feel like I’m putting my personal touch on it. Photos are a multistep process from the start! Setting up the image composition, choosing which lens to use, which settings, how far away I’m going to stand, what I’m including in the background then actually clicking the button and taking it. When I get home I get to see these images again and decide how I want to “finish” it. That’s the part I get excited for! The RAW images are the rough draft and when I’m sitting at my computer I get to decide the outcome. It’s just another step of being an artist that I enjoy! That’s not to say that people who do choose to outsource don’t care about their final product. Typically how outsourcing works is having your editor edit your photos in the style that YOU want. I’m not the expert but from what I gather, photographers will work with their editor to show them what style they like and the editor will continue to “edit” the rest of the images. It’s basically just a huge time saver for the photographer. So you’re thinking… who doesn’t want more time in their life… why wouldn’t you want that… I guess I’m just weird?! haha. I imagine it like the days when I used to develop my own film (in high school and college)… on a film camera, you HAVE TO wait until the end to see your final result. You can’t just look at the screen on the back of your camera and see what you got. You HAD TO develop it. So with digital… the editing part is the development for me. There are so many ways it could come out and I get to decide how it does! I like the whole process… I’m working on writing a blog post about that for all you workflow nerds.EmilyMatt-Chesapeake-16_WEB

It didn’t always used to be easy. I used to struggle with editing. It took me FOREVER! I tried out so many styles of editing because I was trying to find what worked for me. When I first started, I liked super dark and highly contrasted images then I purchased some filters and added all sorts of crazy presets to images that just didn’t feel like me. Now – I’m at the point where I know exactly what my style is – clean, fresh, colorful, and timeless. More on how to find your editing style coming soon on the blog! Stay tuned for that!

Who knows, maybe someday I’ll outsource, but for now I can’t let go… in fact! I’ve started doing some private editing for another photographer this winter!

View more Client Education posts, HERE!xoxo bd