A change for the better

Do I, as a professional photographer, use photoshop (R) or airbrush my images to enhance their overall appearance? Yes I do!

There is a video on you tube entitled "Would you let your wedding photographer do this". Well before I go on, I think you should take a look.


Whilst the title suggests that wedding photographers do this, the video is actually of an advertising shoot, probably costing thousands of pounds for the one photograph. So where the title comes from, I have no idea.

Yes it is over the top, but that's what the advertising world is all about. Should it put you off having a little enhancement work done on your wedding photographs, no it should not.

I believe that a small amount of photoshopping can enhance an image. It does not mean that you are creating an unreal image.

Here is an example:-


This first image is what is commonly known as a grab shot. A shot taken randomly during the early part of the reception to catch a moment.

The problem with grab shots is in the name. It is a moment in time that has to be grabbed or it is lost for ever.

As you can see from this image, there are a number of problems. Firstly the exposure was off and secondly the lady on the brides right shoulder is unsightly. Normally with an informal shot, guests are part of the scene, if she had not been drinking at that precise moment I may have elected to leave her as part of the background.

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So as you can see from this image, I have taken out the person behind and also bumped up the exposure to improve the brides skin tones.

You may also notice that after altering the exposure, the details on her dress have blown out but I considered this a minor thing seeing that this was a "moments" shot and not one taken to highlight what was in fact a gorgeous dress.





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Finally, I also made a black and white conversion, so that the bride and groom had choices

So with this simple, and probably more normal use of photo manipulation we can see that images can be enhanced without going over the top..... simply ask your photographer for some examples of his work.... then concentrate on having a fabulous day.