When you hire Photography by Keel to photograph your wedding, our commitment to bring you the best doesn’t stop when we snap the shutter. Each and every print that we deliver undergoes intense scrutiny to determine the best treatment to draw out the best performance in it.

The first step is to ensure that colors are true and accurate. It’s easiest to do this before capturing the image, but in some cases, minor adjustments are required in post-processing. In this particular image of Allison and John, the mixed lighting in the hanger made it virtually impossible to ensure that the image was color corrected in the camera. Our job then was to make sure that the dress and skin tones were accurate before going to print.

The next step in post-processing is to adjust the overall exposure to create the most pleasing image. Because Allison and John were exposed by different lighting sources in this image, we needed to adjust those slightly on each of them individually to create the desired effect. Also, there were too many distracting elements in the background for our liking, so we decided to darken the overall background slightly. By leaving some detail here, we allow the viewer to focus on the couple yet still provide enough detail for additional context and depth to the scene. We also determined that the chrome accents on the engine shroud and leading edge of the wing were distracting, so these were darkened.

Next we look to make the picture more dramatic by increasing color saturation and contrast. This is a relatively easy step but most images benefit from it.

Next we look for distracting elements in the image. In most images this includes some amount of removal of skin blemishes and the whitening of eyes. In this particular image, we brightened Allison’s eyes and removed several distracting blemishes on the floor of the hanger and side of the plane.

Finally, we evaluate an image to determine if additional “special effects” are required. An image may look better in black and white or sepia. It may benefit from the addition of texture, blurring or other treatments. This is the most creative part of post-processing and where the biggest mistakes can be made. At PBK we have a preference for subtle effects that will stand the test of time. For Allison and John’s image, we decided that to draw the viewer’s eye to the center, a slightly dark vignette around the borders would be added. Because we also determined that the focus of this image needed to be on Allison, a bit of additional blurring was applied to John.

Although the original image was quite nice, this final image is clearly superior and representative of what it means to give you nothing but the best!