Special effects?

[julie_young3]

Hi everyone-

I have been looking at a lot of books lately, mostly pertaining to

photojournalism and weddings, and also at a lot of different websites- I

especially love Ben Chrisman! Most of the images I'm seeing a processed in

photoshop (I'm assuming) and seem to have some "special effects" applied to

them. I have had several brides love the look of grainy, black and white, and

sepia images. My question is, how many of the images that you guys take do you

apply a special effect to? I think that a collection of wedding images with

some special effects and some regular, non-processed photos sometimes looks

odd, but surely you can't apply effects like this to all of the images? Or

can you? I'm just curious about your opinions and suggestions on how to mix

these processed images into the rest of the album/ proofs and still making it

look good and cohesive.

[stephen dohring]

This is where talent and creativeness comes in. Despite sometimes shooting for post effects it is only when the shots are on the computer do I really get a feel for which ones would look good with some Photo shopping. In any case I duplicate the image so the client has both. This could be one or two in a wedding or as much as 10-12.

 

With some great pre-sets in Lightroom and Kubota actions this has become lighting fast but it is a personal decsion on what effect will look best. However I can tell you for black and white conversions when you have a real emotional image they tend to look best in Black and white as the emotion comes through stronger to the viewer without the slight distraction of color.

[david_schilling___chicago_]

Agree with Steve above, I'll typically play with about a dozen out of 600-850 images.

[paul_sokal___dallas__tx]

I tend to be a photoshop minimalist but will do something on all shots that are going into an album, and basic WB and exposure adjustment on all shots going into a gallery.

 

For album images I'll adjust contrast/levels on all images, convert many to B&W and use some kind of vignette on most images, but very subtly. Typically my vignette layer will be no more than a 20% opacity. I rarely do anything fancier than that.

 

Paul

[suzanne carey]

Julie, thank you for asking this question! I have been thinking about this myself. For the most part, I will hand over "straight forward" images without any effects added. I like the ideas I have gotten from the other posters about taking a handful of images an "play" around with them to give the client more options.

 

Another question along these same lines, if Julie does not mind me piggy backing on her thread, is images on your website. Again most of the images on my site are very straight forward without much PS work. I see other websites where it looks like a lot of PS is done on every image. Does that mean that is how they present their images to their clients? My concern for me is this, if I put "artsy" photos that I really like, I am afriad that is what the clients will expect for all of their pictures. Do you do a mix of both on your website?

 

Thanks so much!

 

Suzanne