How Important is Photoshop Correction?

Original Image - No Corrections

Photoshop-Enhanced Image - Color & Exposure Corrected

I recently had a bride decide to hire another photographer instead of me because the other photographer offered on-location printing and I didn't. Budgetary concerns also played a role in her going to the other photographer as well. We never met for an initial consultation since she had cancelled our appointment, but we spoke on the phone several times.

That got me thinking about how important post production work really is for wedding photography.

If you look at the two images above, the top image is "straight out of the camera." This is how most images will look if you don't do any work on the image and print them right away. In the past, this is what would be referred to as a "proof print."

The second image has been corrected in both color and exposure. It takes time to do this, but the results are well worth it in my opinion. Skin tones are richer and the photo just has so much more "snap" to it, don't you agree? In this example, the original image has pretty decent exposure. But many images (especially flash images) can vary quite a lot in exposure range (too dark or too bright.)

In addition, to offer immediate printing would most likely mean that the camera would be shooting in JPG format rather than RAW format. RAW format offers the photographer a lot more control over the image quality in post production, whereas JPG is more limiting... although faster to deal with. Every correction and save done in JPG is a degenerative step to the image. RAW images requires post production work before it can be printed whereas JPG can be printed immediately. However, RAW files can be modified as many times as you like without degenerating the image quality with each pass.

So to offer immediate printing at a wedding, you would end up with prints that look like the first photo or worse. Don't you think it's better to get prints that would look like the second photo? Plus, immediate printing would mean that the prints are made with an inkjet printer. My prints are made on large machines that do chemical processing... just like they did with film prints. They usually look better and they don't fade anywhere as quick.

This is why I post process each and every image I shoot at weddings and have my prints made on a quality printer from a real photo lab. Sure it takes time and it costs a little more to do this. But that's why people hire me. They want the best not only in image capture, but in the final prints too.

I don't offer prints immediately at weddings. It is impossible to offer the same level of quality service by simply going for the convenience of an immediate print sale to the guests at a wedding.

Besides, wouldn't you rather have quality for every image taken at your wedding for your album rather than the convenience of having quick prints to be sold to your guests? Where's the logic in that?

Who actually benefits from this immediate sale? Most likely the photographer since he doesn't have to do post production and gets a reprint sale at the same time. You don't benefit from it at all and neither do your guests because they will end up with an inferior print.