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Editing Critique Part 1

Lesson 56 from: Group Mentorship: Grow Your Wedding Photography Business

Susan Stripling

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Lesson Info

56. Editing Critique Part 1

Lessons

Class Trailer

Day 1

1

Mentorship: Introduction and Overview

20:49
2

Mentorship: Business and Marketing

30:42
3

Mentorship: Shooting & Post Production

15:21
4

Social Media Marketing

13:07
5

Google Analytics

29:16
6

Targeting Your Market with Social Media

25:54
7

Social Media Marketing Q&A

10:21
8

Common Issues and Problems

20:01
9

Student Questions and Critique Part 1

26:18
10

Student Questions and Critique Part 2

20:41

Day 2

11

Month 1, Week 1 (Sept 8-14) - Assignment Video

10:28
12

Month 1, Week 1 (Sept 8-14) - Feedback & Weekly Review

53:10
13

Month 1, Week 2 (Sept 15-21) - Assignment Video

09:43
14

Month 1, Week 2 (Sept 15-21) - Feedback & Weekly Review

43:05
15

Month 1, Week 3 (Sept 22-28) - Assignment Video

07:12
16

Month 1, Week 3 (Sept 22-28) - Feedback & Weekly Review

39:17
17

Month 1, Week 4 (Sept 29-Oct 6) - Assignment Video

06:41

Day 3

18

Office Hours Overview

13:42
19

Name Your Business Review

31:41
20

Where are You Running Your Business Review

09:41
21

Get Set Up Legally Review

16:12
22

Personal and Business Finances Review

26:58
23

Banking and Paying Yourself Review

15:42
24

Pricing Problems and Case Studies

35:12
25

When the World Isn't Perfect Review

23:56
26

Mission Statement and Target Client Review

25:46
27

Shooting: Macro and Getting Ready

17:26
28

Shooting: Portraits of the Bride

14:24
29

Shooting: Formals, Ceremony, and Cocktail Hour

16:30
30

Shooting: Reception and Nighttime Portraits

18:46

Day 4

31

Month 2, Week 1 (Oct 6-12) - Feedback & Weekly Review

57:47
32

Month 2, Week 2 (Oct 13-19) - Feedback & Weekly Review

55:04
33

Month 2, Week 3 (Oct 20-26) - Feedback & Weekly Review

57:13
34

Month 2, Week 4 (Oct 27-Nov 2) - Feedback & Weekly Review

47:48

Day 5

35

Details Critique Part 1

28:49
36

Details Critique Part 2

23:57
37

Getting Ready Critique

29:38
38

Missed Moments Critique

11:44
39

Bride Alone Critique Part 1

12:39
40

Bride Alone Critique Part 2

21:04
41

Ceremony Critique

12:36
42

Wedding Formals Critique

19:18
43

Bride and Groom Formals Critique

24:23
44

Reception Critique

18:33
45

Introductions and Toasts Critique

18:14
46

First Dances and Parent Dances Critique

17:47
47

Reception Party Critique

20:08
48

Night Portraits Critique

15:38
49

Month Three Homework

18:45

Day 6

50

Month 3, Week 1 - "Office Hours" Checkin

43:05
51

Month 3, Week 2 - "Office Hours" Checkin

28:11
52

Month 3, Week 3 - "Office Hours" Checkin

36:06

Day 7

53

Get Organized

30:40
54

Editing Q&A Part 1

28:57
55

Editing Q&A Part 2

32:18
56

Editing Critique Part 1

33:32
57

Editing Critique Part 2

31:48
58

Editing Critique Part 3

28:43
59

Editing Critique Part 4

29:33
60

Editing Critique Part 5

21:51
61

Final Image Critique

36:28
62

Album Design and Final Q&A

21:57

Lesson Info

Editing Critique Part 1

So what you're gonna see when we pull images up for editing Critique? If there are verticals, you're going to see the before on the left and the after on the right. If it's a horizontal, we're gonna look at the before first and the after second. I tried to do most of the verticals first, just so we worked through the same format and not we're not trying to fly, but we do have to go pretty quickly. And we had a little bit of a disadvantage in the way that way are we viewed them on my laptop last night, which is the color is pretty accurate were viewing them on the screen here. What you're seeing on your screen is a fairly good representation. We're also looking at it on a monitor in front of us. For the most part, I'm just gonna let Jen's gonna talk heavily about the color. This is one of the things that she's incredibly incredibly good at. We're also gonna talk about composition and then a little bit of actually shooting the images. So, Jen, I mean, I'm not I'm not seeing a lot that I ...

would complain about in this Yeah, you know, I mean, it seems like they brought the highlights down. That's smart. Not really losing a lot. I mean, based on what I'm looking at here, I think this looks pretty good. You could've warmed or touch me. She looks pretty good. Pretty good. All right, you're gonna hear us say an awful lot. Um, why didn't you just shoot it like this? Right, Right. And that's one of the things that I have noticed from a lot of photographers. I'm on a big cropper after the fact. Do you prop a lot of my stuff in host? Like, dramatically like this? No. When you when Gen. Crops for me, it's usually because I've I told my family formals. I can't help it. Sometimes I have gone with the family. Formosan. She'll straighten up. But she's not doing stuff like this with my work like, and you don't do that with your work either. Now, I called things like face snippets like someone's nose is coming into the image like I like to crop that out. Yes, but generally I try to camera one thing that I want you guys to really take away from the mentor ship is there is no reason why you couldn't have shot the image on the left. Like the image on the right. You could have composed it like that. So instead of having to crop your original file and sort of degree, did a propping, You are degrading because you're using less information and making it bigger. So you're never gonna have the quality that you would have had a few child that try to be very careful to crop in camera as best you can. That said, this crop is an improvement. I wish you had shot it this way to begin with. And I like the color. I think the color looks good. It doesn't that, you know, because you you picked an autumn scene and you made it look warm and kind of glowing. And that's what you want. Yeah, it's really nicely done. I think it's fall down, work on cropping in camera next. So, yeah, I mean, she did need to be warmed up. I agree with that. I feel like it's a little hard for me to see, but I feel like the highlights on the left side of her. The left side of the picture of a right side of her face blown, little blown. I would have tried to pull that back a little bit. We've noticed that we noticed this in general, that people kind of have a hard time forgetting their files back. They think that if they bring them back, they're gonna be too dark. Right? I wish I could see there's a little bit bigger on the screen. I don't know if that's possible to Dio, is there any way to just see on the screen in front of us the slide? It is. But then we won't see the slide, the coming that. I believe he can do that. If you can do that, that would be great. I mean, we did look at these pretty extensively, but it it would help if you could see it a little bigger on our screen. Absolutely. Okay. All right. All right. So, I mean, I think this is definitely an improvement. For sure, I do like the second image a little bit better. It's more of an effect than I would apply. Yes. Um, no. It makes me wonder what kind of light source was in the room. Could you taking her closer to a light source when you shot this to get more late on her face. I mean, it doesn't look like she's being lit by any distinctive light sores. My main issue with it is you see over here this right here? Yeah. Why did you take that out? I mean, you know, if you're doing this for the proof stage, why go in and remove the ceiling fan and remove that thing on the wall behind her? You're going to see this. A lot in a lot of these images is stuff that's just taken out of the background that you don't need to take out of the background, right? Like right away. We're finding people taking light switches off of walls, people removing exit signs like, You know, you don't have to do that right time consuming. I mean, if it's something that's like a quick fix, like there's a big smudge on a wall and it's kind of noticeable, and you can just spot remove that in light room than sure. But I probably wouldn't go to all of the effort of removing like fans invents and doorways because it's it's approved and The thing is, if the client sees this or like if the client sees that dot on the wall behind her shoulder, she's not going to say, Oh, my God. Why didn't you take that? Got off the wall? Like that's just not something that the average non photographer is going to think. So sometimes you really do have to curb yourself. Stop cleaning up the background so hard. A lot of times is just such a necessary Just shoot it without having that in there. Yeah, you could have. Really? Right. This is it. Looks good. Yeah. I mean, listen, for some of these, the answer is Looks pretty good. We don't have any critique. If you've done a really nice job again, this is another one of those. This is an improvement because, you know, I can't see the ugly hanger. And I see that you've crop to sort of avoid this down here, which is nice, but I do like that. You fix the color. That was good. Good job. Oh, ceremonies. Yeah. I mean, I'm still I'm still seeing some loss of highlights on her face. From what I could tell from looking at this obviously I don't have an enlightened my camp way said that last night when we're looking at it as well, right? But I mean, you certainly made it better. I mean, and in some of these, like if you're looking at a picture like this and you're thinking what more could have been done to it, there's nothing more that could have been done to it. You know, it's a ceremony picture. You have very little control over it. Nothing that you're going to do to edit it is going to make it look different than this is what it looked like to be there. Yeah, I appreciate the subtle blur at the top, but it's still it was blown out in the before. It's out in the after. Yeah, I mean, interestingly, I feel like this photo would have been a lot better if you had corrected. That brought down the exposure overall because you would have intensified the colors in the trees anyway. It's true, and then you can use our warming brush material if you wanted to intense, very true or I'm not big on the like blur the edges, but you know that's that's up to the personal style. But the main issue is that the subjects air blown out in the first image and the subjects are also blown out in the second grade. We were looking at this last night noticing that it seems pretty similar the before and after. Yeah, I'm not seeing a big difference, at least not on here. They look a tiny bit more magenta. And the 2nd 1 To be honest with you, this is tough. Probably tough scenario. I don't know if they had to take this photo where they had to take it, but I That's not ideal for anybody. It's true. That's very good. Yeah, I see what you did. I mean, you softened up the lines and stuff on her face. I mean, don't get me wrong. I think that looks nice, but I probably wouldn't have done that at the proof stage. And I also again, this right here was taken out over there, and I think they will kind of see the edge of it. By the way, can I touch it here? So I wouldn't do it. If you're not gonna do it here, we Well, you can see it here, but if you're gonna take the whole thing out, take the whole thing out. Like it? Once I look at this one over here, I can clearly see where it was removed. It's kind of like exit funds. If you're gonna take out the exit sign, you got to take out the red glow. So maybe don't do it in the perfect stage and it's the retouching is also a little having heavy handed, and it's more heavy handed on her face and it is on her arm so I can see that in this image, her face in her armor similar in this image, her face and harbour really different. And that's kind of a dead giveaway. Yeah, just speaker less is more less is always more, You know, for ladies out there when you're learning how to put on my makeup much and blend and blend and blend, Go slow, right? Don't don't overdo it, because once you've overdone it, it's almost impossible to step back. I mean, you saved it. I guess you saved it. But you also blew it right? Like this is so under exposed. You can see how hard it's been pushed. When it was brought back, and it still isn't brought back to something that it just doesn't have a great contrast once you've recovered it from the first image. So just be really careful More than anything to just try toe work. First on nailing your technical abilities. Don't worry about how am I gonna say that? How am I gonna fix it? How am I going to improve it? The first thing you need to do is start getting your images out of the camera. Right. So when you look at this veteran left, you should be saying yourself, What could I have done to keep this from happening? Right. And the answer to that is you could have dialed up your exposure compensation because she's got a really bright background. And what do we do? We have a bright background. We go up an exposure compensation so that you can fill in the dark, shadowed party facing you. And this is an image. Honestly, if it were this under exposed, I probably would have dumped it. I would have, because there's not. I mean, that kid is looking at the photographer like she wants to kill her, right? Like she's got a very hostile look on her face. It's not a moment that I think is worth the effort and the degrading of the file to save. Agreed. Oh, okay. I mean, it was cropped to reduce the baseboard, like, get the baseboard out. And I totally understand that, I thought, but the work that was done to the face could have been avoided by lighting the subject properly in the first place. Agreed. And I'd also I mean, if she's posing for you, I'd be careful about the purse crotch area. I mean, not to be indelicate, but I probably would have a battery, a little leadership of the person, the body. And maybe she just turned around and you took the picture. But if you had to influence, I'd ask her to move that purse. But I can't imagine if I were in a situation like that and I were shooting portrait so that I wouldn't have a flash it. True. The only thing I don't like here because I feel like this is a fine job. You anything I don't like here is I feel like they might have flattened her out a little bit. Yes, I think it's OK to have a highlight. You just don't want to have a blown highlight. So I don't mind that highlight on her face. I feel like you could have probably gotten away with leaving that rather than kind of flattening it out a little bit, which is what happened in the second image. But overall, I think the at it is totally fine. It is too much to me way too much. I mean, it looks like the work that's done on the image on the right is to even out the uneven lighting on the face. And it just I mean, I don't want to get any the retouching. You've retouched it too much. Yeah. I don't want you getting rid of the hairs. I mean, if this is a key image, but I think you went a little overboard with the whole like T Zone area getting so right. It's glowing a little too hard. A little one. Realistically, Yeah, the tattoo was removed in the image on the right, and I can see where you removed. I mean, no offense to whoever it's not, but there's a line that's blurred on the dress, and that tells me that's where the tumor is removed. And it's one of those things where it goes back to it, that if you're going to start making these kind of large a lot of role, you you remove the tattoo. But you left the big wrinkle on her elbow. So if you're gonna remove one, why not the other? And did you remove the tattoo because you were asked to write or because you thought that you should if you removed it because you thought that you should you could really offend her? Yeah, that's about it. If you removed it because she wanted you to like, let's say she hates that she got when she was 18. She really regrets it like a good boyfriend, right? Exactly. And you need to remove it where she had makeup on it, in the makeup rubbed off. And now you can see it. You've got to do a better job of removing it. And I mean, it's OK to say to someone, if you want your tattoo removed, you're gonna have to pay over a touching piece so I can send it out to an expert and then send it out. But you know what I would never even mention the tattoo or retouch the tattoo until she kind of came back and said, Oh my God, my mom hates that tattoo and we need to remove it for the album. Can we remove it for the album? That's one thing, but I'm never going to remove it for a blawg put from a blawg post or a proof set unless the client has specifically said to me, If you do belong my wedding, can you take my tattoo out? But I mean, I think the what they did with the hair and the face and the skin tone looks a lot better. And the retouching softening on the skin looks really nice. I mean, this is definitely an improvement. Um, I'm not 100% sure about the color, because it does look a little pinker. Now, I don't know what what I'm what the truth is, because I wasn't there. I was the dress a little cafe, or was the dress a little bit? She might have been a little champagne, but in the final edit over here, it looks like it might have been a little blood. Yes, I feel like Maybe you went a little too pink on the right, but I mean, the direction you took was a good one. Yeah, that's nice. It is nice. I still probably would have darkened it down a little bit more. I would have brought it down a little more, especially in the ceiling part when I had to do a brush for that. But, I mean, even if they had just darken down, the overall I mentioned, dropped the shadows a little bit like her highlight on her face would have popped a little bit and turned the lamp off on the table. Yeah, definitely, actually, just get rid of the land entirely like if you get off the table and said it next to that chair. Because when I look at the image when I'm trying to tell if I've got anything that's blown or distracting, I'll either flip the image upside down. They're all kind of squint my eyes so that it goes blurry. When I squint my eyes, I look at this image. I see window lamp lamp books at the top ceiling floor dress can't hurt over here on the chair candle. And then I finally hit the brightness, that sconce. You know, it takes me a while to get there, so just just be careful for a proof at it. Great. Yep. Just a little hot. Bring it down a little bit, but if you're then refining it from there on out, though, the steps you could take I would never take those extra steps at the proof level. They're just not going to know that they're not going to notice it. They're not photographers. Um, I'm having a hard time seeing this one. Yeah, it the before and after. Even when I put them in there, they look very similar. I feel like she might look a touch green on the right, but I have to admit, it's a little hard. There's a little ring on her forehead. Yeah, a little bit green. First of all, without disrespecting the person who took this photograph it. It's not a very good photograph like, and I'm not saying that toe hurt your feelings, but there is a total disconnect between the subjects. The light on her face is really rough in a bad spot. It's in a bad location like it's There are flaws in the capture right. And then the editing it it's just a little too much yellow, sunny, shiny. And I mean, you've got other issues to deal with. Then Then then the balance. Yeah. This is just This is just a tough It's just a mission. But I wouldn't have kept this photo. To be completely honest. I don't mean to offend anybody, but I wouldn't have. I mean, you cropped it. Uh, probably take out that, then. That's fine. Um, was an easy fix that I can't. Okay, I just I don't see a huge difference in this. You were in a weird lighting situation, so I think if you're gonna go with the lighting than you did fine, Yeah, yeah, again, It's the cross. I wouldn't have cropped up, you know, And I know that a lot of people heard me last month talking about head room, but then a bunch of people turned in images that were excessively crop to remove all head room. And I don't know if I just wasn't clear enough, But headroom is not a problem. Headroom. If it helps tell the story. If it leads your eye into the picture, if it furthers what you're doing? Go for it. But there's there's no need to have cropped like this at all. And also, now that you've cropped it, let's say her mom comes back and wants an eight by 10. You have nowhere to crop this image on the right to right. You're not gonna be able to give it to her. I think what you did made him look a lot better. But, you know, this is a difficult situation. When you have a dark skinned one person, the couple is dark skin. The other person is light skin. It is a little bit more difficult. So at that point, you know, she looks a little blowing out to May know a little bit. Yeah, but he looks better. Yeah. Color looks fine. Skube apartments. All right? Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, you you kept him from being washed out, which I liked. That was an improvement. I think, um, it's fun. I think it's fine. Yeah, exposure is still too high. You had to come down on exposure. That was really your big problem. But otherwise the black and white is nice. It's fine if it'd come down a little. I think it would be great. It would have been were striking like she's just kind of blown out. She's going out. It's that same pretty girl with the highlight on her face. Never, sir. Yes, black and white. What? How do you feel about contrast? How black do you like your blacks or do you move it? You moving around much or I like a black point. But you don't want to block up your blacks, you know, to the point where they're solid and you can't distinguish any detail. So true black. You want to be black in the image, but you don't like. For example, this is This is actually a decent go back. You can go back. It doesn't matter. Look at his suit Now he's wearing a gray suit. So if he was a black suit, it would be easier for me to demonstrate this so you can clearly see the detail in the pant leg, the wrinkles in the pant leg in a tuxedo situation. I want to be able to distinguish where the lapel ends in. The jacket begins, I guess, would be a good rule of thumb. Great. That's another reason why keeping your your monitor calibrated is so incredibly important. Because when you're dealing with blacks, there's a fine. There's black and black on black. And we had an issue recently with how three d 8 10 miles. We're exporting out of light room. And if you haven't been calibrated, I hadn't been calibrated. Would have been very It would have been even mawr troublesome. We had a problem Where the d a 10 exports were just They were very contrasting. Overly shadow. We're trusting not good. Panic inducing. Yeah. Yeah, I like it. I mean, you didn't lose. It was cropped in a little but kind of in a better way. I mean, I don't have a problem with that crop because they got rid of that. The structure right here. Yeah, I get it. But again, strive to shoot it in camera so that you don't need to crop it later. You kept They kept the intensity of a red like Charlie. Nice. The warmth looks really good. And it is amazing. It is. This is good. You enhance the fund set, but she didn't make it look ridiculous. It could have come down even more than I would have dropped my exposure a little because you would have intensified the dollar. You've got enough of an exposure difference between your subjects in the background that you could have come down a major sky even more dramatic. Agreed. That's fine. Good. Look, I'm sorry. Go for your tough scenario. Been there, Done that. You've got 15 different kinds of late temperature in a church. Every single person that picture has a different skin tone. You've got light coming in through that stain glass window. I mean, you did the best. You could get a red floor that were orange skirt that that woman wearing. All I can say is I'm really sorry you had to. I would say maybe it looks a tiny greenish to me. But you know, what about she could Yeah, I mean again. And no disrespect to the maker at all. The images flawed. A little bit in the capture. No, they're not the status across. It's not even the same image. No, but it's not the same image, isn't it? Yeah. I can't. That's a tough Yeah, that's not the same image. It's not the same image because her face overlaps and yeah, in the 2nd 1 and I mean, it's clearly the same people, the same scenario. I mean, it's I feel it's still a little yellow. I probably would have corrected that a little. I mean, I don't want to change the ambient light. I'm sure it was very tungsten in there, but I still would probably go ahead and take a little bit of that yellow out. And it was a little bit better lighting on the subjects. We talked about this one for a long time. This monitor looks so much more yellow to me than this thing. This one, I believe, is a little bit more true. This one's more turned. I think so. Okay, Based on how I remember them looking, we never would have taken the lamp out in a proof situation. It's not that we don't think it makes a better image. It's just that it would have been better if you could have stepped over and gotten her face out of it. I mean, the issue that I have with this image and there's no way to say it without hurting the feelings of the maker, and I'm really sorry if I dio, I just wouldn't have shot this. I know where they took the photo. I know exactly what's happening. This girl is taking a deep breath and she's kind of freaking out a little bit, right? Really wanted to capture that moment. I respect that. But I feel like even if you had shot it through this glass panel, you would have been better off. Yeah, it's a tough spot. The lighting's not great. It's not a very photogenic room. If it's a portrait, it's an odd set up. If it's a moment, I think she's taking a deep breath. I really do. She got her hands in the right place to Yeah, but it's also you. It's tough, right? Like I probably would have pushed the door open a little bit more and shot with the bookcases. The background would have to, and then you don't have to spend the time could. This is a disastrously difficult edit, and I can see that I don't see it. I mean, you did your best, but yeah, yeah, that's half. I feel for you with that one. I still don't like the color balance in this, and I'm seeing some weird poster ization on her chest. Yeah, right up in here. You gotta watch that. And it looks like I mean, it's there's annoying highlights that you've recovered that are recoverable would be my guess. And it's just it's red. Its role Rob very red. I mean, this is tough because I feel like it looks a little green on that monitor, but it doesn't look that green on this phone number when we break again. Weakened, double compare my life. But I seem to remember this one being green. I remember we we extensively went through all of these yesterday. Toe. Look at them one more time. I remember it. Being closer to this, I remember this being a little this monitor turning a little reddish. Okay, really not easy being green, it's not. How long were you holding on that five on the room? It's just, you know, it's a tough lighting scenario, and the light on her face doesn't look like it matches the light on his status. Truthfully, I would have made this black and white and we're not saying like that. Think black and white will fix all your problems and answer all your questions. Sometimes it'll help. It can help you when you're in a situation where the the white balance is just really difficult on one person versus the other. Because otherwise what are you gonna do? You gonna have to create one temperature brush for his face and one temperature brush for her face and one temperature brush for the background? Oh, my gosh, Um, she's still a little hot high. Yeah, but I think overall it's a fine improvement. Yeah, it's an improvement, for sure. I mean, this is fine. I don't know if I would have cropped it, but I think it's fine. It's nice and clean. Just be careful. The cropping off just in a shooting sense, cropping off fingers at the bottom. Agreed. And that's just being super nit picking. But she's really pretty. I love her. Talk to her gold tattoo temporary thing on her arm. I think that's amazing. That's really cool. Yeah, here's when I was talking about cropping out head room and you don't need to. The head room in this picture on the left actually enhances it because it gives you leading lines that bring you right into the frame. There's not a lot of it. Didn't need the crop. I wouldn't. Its on lovely moment. It's a lovely moment, and I like the stairs. I like the edit. Um, but it didn't It just didn't need the crop. I don't think you didn't need Thio. Thio up your exposure on this image. No, it was your You were good. You didn't have to add it. Now her face is a little bit hot. Hot for May. So I like that you warmed it. I think that was a good choice. But you still should have come down and exposure because you know their faces. Air still plenty bright. They're a little too bright. And you could have come down and enhance the highlights a little more. You could have also used a darkening brush toe. Leave their faces the same. But going around your rest of this, you can use a, um, the new thing with the circle in light room, and then it dark in something out there that Yeah, it's a nice little tool If your judicious with it do No, please be Do not turn it into a spotlight. That's good. Yep. Yep. I think it over corrected a little Little to blue. Yeah, I mean better than the yellow. But I may be what I just added. A little bit of warmth, background, and there's There's a lot of blocking up of the blacks. The blacks are careful and it's because you say you're losing his pants. It's like he's got like, you know, leg and you can see over here on the left one. You can see where his sleeve meets his jacket, his jacket needs his pants. And then now you can't at all. Yeah, and I mean, he's got, you know, Leg. There's no definition at all, and it's the same thing with this look. You could see the lovely hydrangea in the 1st 1 and then here it's just gone. So you needed careful. Step back from the block. That's really nice. That's nice. It looks nice. No complaints through break. They're awfully cute question from Amanda Cox, who wants to know Amanda when you until another question for later. But we'll get to that later. She was wondering if you got her photograph on the skin tones. The ivory skin tones question. Well, we can check in a break, so you have a question. Look on your face should a question about She said what she did, we can respond out to her also. But what she did was she sent me other photographers work, asking how toe match it. And I didn't feel quite right, including the worst of another photographer who was not part of the mentor ship in keynote. I don't have permission to use it, and I don't know who shot it got it s So our question is, which is a great one when you've got a difficult white balance situation like potentially this one and you've turned maybe, And yet it's like, Let's see, it's a reception and it's bad white balance you've got, you know, most of them that you deliver in black and white. Do you have to give them anything in color? We don't deliver most of them in black and white. That's not. But that's not what we dio. No, I'm talking about specific situations where let's say you're in a church and the bride sending one side, the groom standing on the other, and the bride has like a bunch of light from the stained glass window, hitting her in the face, making her blue and the groom has the normal light that's in the church, making him yellow. That's the kind of scenario where I might go with a black and white. But you can't go with black and white for all of them. No, you can't. You're gonna have to suck it up and deliver some of them in color, even if they don't look good. And that's why sometimes she'll actually email me and she's like, man, especially reception rooms where they go with the pink purple lights. She'll actually send me a test image and be like this What it actually looks like in there, right? You gotta ask your balance and be consistent with it. Sometimes, even if it's really difficult. Even if you don't like it, you might not like purple, but if it was purple in the room, purple is what they get. You can turn it down a little bit, you know, Don't make him look dead, But you can only warm so much. I like this about really nice. I'm gonna admit I would have gone to black and white here because I feel like it would have really made the faces jump versus the red curtain. We're talking watching image. Not for the whole syriza around it. Right? But it didn't really. But it's nice, actually. Incredibly nice job. Looks really nice. I like this to looks really nice. It's a video black and white conversion. Yeah, very nice. Why the crop? I want a crop. This because if they wanted it by 10 now, it's gonna be hard to get one it just doesn't form. Wanted. Just different. You're not going for interesting composition with? No. If you want it to look like the image on the right, shoot it like the image on the right, but cropping it in post. There's just, you know, there's no need for it. It's an extra step. That doesn't help, but the You know what? It looks really nice. Yeah. Uh huh. I wouldn't have done this. Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's tough because I'm not seeing a lot of shadow detail on one monitor, but on the other, I am. So I'm not I'm not 100% sure. I feel like the color is most accurate here. Well, the color is most accurate here, but the actual cause I remember I've looked at all of these images This is what it looks like. Contrast wise. That's what it looks like, color wise. I'm OK with your converge. This is why we need to calibrate our monitors people, because if you're at home and your monitor looks like this, but the images really looked like this. It's an issue. I'm not saying creative life. You need to calibrate your monitors. That's not where I was going with us. Way are calibrated for the cameras and see that they actually see you guys air seeing studio audience in on on you oldie Internet. You're seeing the right thing. But again, just the little distinctions that we're seeing between looking at two different screens. That's why when you're editing, it's so important to have calibrated monitors. I think the black and white conversion is a nice one. That's just in time. I mean, you know, if you wanted it tighter to shoot a tighter, I'm a little distracted by the bright window frame, but you know it is one of us. That's true. I also want to know what in the world is back here. Do you see what I mean? It looks like it looks like space, but it looks like like a person in a like a screening person in a space suit. I'm fascinated with what's going on. Yeah, here. If you're out there, tell us what that is. We want to know because it looks like one of those, like ghost in a mirror. Things go. We talked about this one for a while. Yeah, this'd tough because so many of these, like high rise type places, have weird tinted windows that make the person look green or blue because the light coming in, I guess. Or, like double paned glass UV filter. Yeah, I think you improved it. He might be a touch bread for May, and the contrast is a touch much. It is a little much on the window. I feel like you might have used a clarity brush on the window, and I don't think you need to. It's just it's a tough situation. It's nice to shoot it that way, though. Yep, shoot it that way. But I think the color is fine. Looks nice. It's pretty good light in the original image. Good treatment with the black and white agreed. Really pretty. I just want to see the face of a little bit brighter. Or is it Is it me? Is it like Are you like in that I struggled preference thing? Because I think anything more. I think it's too bright in the original image you too bright on. I think that it's just right in the other image. But everyone's black and white tastes very. I know what you don't like it, because the dress is pure white. You're looking at the dress right, and you want the right, right? No. One skin. So if you could have easily flipped that by darkening down the dress. But the truth is, the dress is white and no one is. At least unless you're actually like a legitimate like have no pigment. You're not as white as a wedding dress waiting. Jen, Do you have, um, numbers for different skinned people that you say? All right, I want toe RGB value in the middle tones or black and white tonal values that you keep that like that's That's the tonal. That's the number I'm looking. No, I don't have numbers, but I do have certain techniques that employ for, like, different complexions, you know, for example, you'll find that you get a real feel for what kind of color undertones. Different ethnicities, 10 toe. So, for example, Asian clients on I'm talking like Korean, Vietnamese Chinese. Those clients tend to have yellow undertones, so I'm always almost always adding tent to make them look a little bit Pinker than they might otherwise photograph South Asian clients. Indian, Pakistani, Ben Bangladesh's right. They tend to have green undertones, so a lot of times I'm also adding tent. There are adding a little bit of yellow. There are taking a little bit of yellow away. Rather, Teoh essentially neutralize that because I'm not trying to change her complexion. I'm not trying to make them look Caucasian, but what I am trying to do is create the most pleasing skin tone that I can. And when you're working on clients who are dark complexion, whether it's African American or darker complected South Asian people, I find that a lot of times I have to raise shadows so that I don't lose the detail in their skin, especially if they're a particularly dark skin version of whatever ethnicity they are

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Mentorship Launch and Social Media Keynote.pdf
Susan Stripling - Study Packet Spreadsheets for Numbers.zip
Susan Stripling - Study Packet Spreadsheets for Excel.zip
Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 1 - 7.pdf
Susan Stripling - Business and Marketing Workbook.pdf
Susan Stripling - Study Packet Spreadsheets - PDF.zip
Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 8 - 14.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 15 - 21.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month 1 Mentorship Assignments 22 - 28.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month 2 Homework.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month Two Introduction Keynote.pdf
Susan Stripling - Month Three Assignments.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

A couple years ago I attended WPPI and sat in on Susan's class. Out of all the classes I sat in on that year her's was in the top 2 for actual information and not just fluffy feel good hype. So I figured her Group Mentorship course would be a good one and it definitely has! A bit of background on me, I've been running my own wedding photography business for the last 6 years, 5 of those full time. I've taken tons of business courses and have circled back around to taking more classes to improve my craft. Susan's class focuses on both business and improving your craft. The big warning I have for this class is that there is a lot of homework, A LOT!!! But that is not a bad thing at all. I was swamped with weddings as the class started and was late to get to my homework but I'm so glad I didn't skip it because there was a lot of things I learned about my business just in answering her questions. I believe there were homework assignments every single day and while some are quick others will take awhile. So my recommendation is to take this course in your off season and use that down time to really concentrate on doing the homework and putting together questions to ask during the weekly chats. I was not able to do that as much as I wanted because of my schedule and I feel I did myself a disservice by not taking full advantage of what was offered. As another reviewer stated there were a lot of basic questions that were asked like how to get proper exposure in an image, etc. If you aren't sure how to do that then this class is not for you. I believe this class is geared towards those who are past the portfolio building stage and are looking to set their business up for success on the back end while improving their craft. Remember to ask questions, keep a notebook and write them down while doing your homework. Don't focus so much on what she uses for everything but why she uses it, if you understand the why you can apply that better to your business vs just the what. Again I would say to properly allocate time to take this class, treat it like a college class with weekly homework and study required. Don't buy it to watch later as you will lose out on most of what this class is about which is access to Susan for questions and feedback. Do the homework, I found the questions she asked us to answer led to a lot of revelations for myself in my business. Her questions led me to ask my own questions and review a lot of historical data for my business to get a better grasp on where I am. Luckily for me I'm doing way better then I thought ;)! Also I recommend for image critique to not just submit your best images, while we all like a pat on the back that won't make you better. She requested a mix of your best and areas of struggle. The images I submitted that I was struggling with are the ones where her advice will improve my craft.

a Creativelive Student
 

I found this course helpful - but I also did all (well most) of the homework and I think to get the most out of this class you really need to be prepared to do the homework - which does require a reasonable time commitment. I found the business information (month 1) invaluable, and Susan was very, very active in the Facebook group, constantly answering our questions, which was great. Month 2 was a big image critique and I also found this very helpful. Month 3 was about editing and it was also a critique, which was helpful as well. Susan, Sandra (her assistant), Jen (her post production person) and CL worked very hard for us so we could get the best out of this course and I really feel I did get the most out of it that I could have gotten out of it. It is definitely worth it if you are willing to do the work. All of my questions were answered and I feel like my work is going to improve for the better now. If CL run any more mentorships such as this one, I would highly recommend them as I found I learned a lot more than in a regular class - because of the homework and the feedback (direct from Susan) on the homework. I am so glad that she was honest about my images because now I am seeing them in a new light (no pun intended).

Carissa
 

Susan, simply amazing photographer, amazing woman, amazing business woman! If you want your but kicked then this the course for you! A kick start for your 'business', awesome .. honest .... brutal.... critique.... don't take it personally.This is a course for beginners and for those been in business for 4 + years. I have been in business for 4 years and this helped me seriously start from the beginning again on the business side of things and fine tune my processes. I learnt so much.... but was also great to know I was on the right track. For those beginning - oh I wish I had this as a guide 4 years ago!!! Enjoy! worth every penny! cheers Carissa www.capture-t-moment.com

Student Work

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