Let's start with this, sometimes I get a little carried away trying to make what I think is the perfect photograph. This can mean blending two photos together to bring together a vision, trying to make a photo wider in view than it actually is for that perfect Instagram crop or taking out random people/trash/rocks/etc. I will even include a few before and after images of just some simple color grading.
I personally color grade and touch up all of my clients photos. This, at a minimum, is color correction, but as you'll see sometimes I take things a bit beyond the simple edit.
In the first image here you'll notice that the bride's dress, while beautiful, doesn't show nearly the shape and form you'll see in the following shot. To achieve this I found an image where the dress was just perfect and blended the two together to bring my vision together! I also removed the puddle in the background because why not?
Here are some simple color grading and corrections. I like simple edits that look natural and keep natural skin tones.
Here are some occasions when I have an image that was perfect in camera just to
realize later that I wish it was wider. This also helps when Instagram cuts your image due to their silly 4x5 crop. Luckily I have found quite a few ways to fix this problem by making the image wider without effecting very much at all!
This is an image from one of the first handful of weddings I shot on my own. I always loved this shot, but couldn't stand the dark upper right corner. As my abilities to retouch got better I came back to this shot and removed the dark portion and replaced it with more "veil".
As a big fan of Wes Anderson movies I am just a sucker for symmetry. While being a wedding photographer and working quickly I try to find it anywhere I can. This sometimes means recognizing scenes that could be symmetrical with a little work.
Here are some simple color grading and corrections. I like simple edits that look natural and keep natural skin tones.