Being a wedding photographer is one of the most rewarding jobs, allowing you to capture the love, emotion, and joy that two people share for one another on their special day. With a variety of venues and lighting changes during a wedding, photographers need to acquire a set of tricks that allow them to take the best photos possible. When it comes to editing all of the images afterward, there are many wedding Lightroom presets that make the process more efficient while retaining the high quality of the wedding photos. Thankfully, we have a few quick tips for photographers looking to drastically improve their wedding photography.
Wedding Photography Quick Tips
- Meet with the bride and groom before the wedding to get a list of must-have shots they’re wanting.
- Shoot a variety of candid and posed images that capture the emotion of the day.
- Don’t forget to capture the little details – the flowers, the dress, the invitations, the decorations, etc.
- Keep lighting conditions in mind and adjust your camera settings accordingly.
- Determine the overall style and look you’re going for. Stick to this style to create a consistent portfolio and branding.
- Download Lightroom wedding presets to cut down on editing time and give your photos a uniform look.
Lightroom Presets and Editing Tips to Improve Your Wedding Photography
Weddings are once-in-a-lifetime events that mark the love and commitment of couples, yet as a photographer, the challenge of perfectly capturing this meaningful moment can be daunting. Prior to the event, make sure you meet with the couple and listen to their wedding photography must-have shots list. Then during the event, be mindful of the technical settings you’re using to capture photos. For wedding photographers, the higher the quality and clarity of the pictures taken, the easier the editing process will be in Lightroom.
Must-Have Shots:
For every wedding, there is a wedding photography must-have shot list. These are the images brides and grooms expect you to take during the event. One of the best ways to organize the day is to make a list of certain wedding photos that will showcase the event. Some of these include pictures of the venue, family photos, close-ups of the bride and grown and action shots of the ceremony and reception.
The Details
When thinking about these must-have wedding images, focus on the little details of the venue and decor. The bride and groom put a lot of thought into creating an inviting space that reflects their personalities. Take pictures of the flowers, dresses, programs, decorations and other unique aspects of the wedding.
The Bride
As the focal point of the day, having a list of candid and posed photos of the glowing bride is very important. Follow her footsteps during the day, which begin with shots of her getting ready. Don’t forget to get a few candid pictures of her bridesmaids and mother helping her put on her white dress. Throughout the wedding, try out different wedding photography styles – candids, poses, flat lays, etc. – while capturing photos of the couple’s joy and happiness throughout the day
The Emotion
Candid shots are arguably the most memorable and important photos of the whole event. The ceremony is one of the most touching parts of a wedding, and it is important to capture emotion by taking photos of tender moments. The expression of a father walking his daughter down the aisle or the look of excitement and love on the groom’s face as his bride walks toward him make stunning, memorable pictures.
The vow exchange is another opportune moment to capture emotional pictures. Zoom in on each of the couple’s reactions as their new spouse reads their sweet commitments to each other. Weddings are filled with affectionate moments and smiles from the couple, their friends, and family who are sharing the day with them, so try to capture guests’ expressions as well.
The Lighting
While taking photos of all the important moments, be aware of lighting conditions and play with your camera’s settings to take a variety of wedding images. The lighting will drastically change throughout the day, especially if you’re shooting an indoor/outdoor wedding late into the evening. While the brightness, exposure, contrast other technical parts of photos can be fixed to a certain extent in Photoshop and Lightroom, it is easier to edit pictures when the original raw image is clear and properly exposed.
Benefits of Editing with Professional Lightroom Presets
Lightroom presets are very useful when it comes to editing wedding images because photographers need to capture thousands of pictures during the event. It is the preferred editing program for many professional photographers because wedding Lightroom presets have a wide variety of effects and allow for a more efficient way of creating high-quality edited pictures. The library of saved wedding Lightroom presets are saved adjustments that are built into a template. Instead of manually adjusting every single photo, Lightroom allows photographers to make edits in a matter of seconds.
A Big Time Saver
Using wedding Lightroom presets has many benefits for photographers, and the time-saving aspect is one of the most popular reasons photographers choose to edit in Lightroom. Lightroom saves, reuses and duplicates the edits made on a collection of photos. This cuts down on time during the editing process because a raw image can be perfectly edited in one click.
Consistency of Images
The consistency of the final look within the finished collection of wedding photos will help build your credibility as a photographer. Having a brand and signature editing style creates client trust, and will ultimately result in more business because clients know what to expect from your wedding photography style. Wedding Lightroom presets make it easy to produce a consistent editing theme throughout the gallery with a single click.
Educational Tool
Whether you are new to wedding photography or are an established professional photographer, presets are useful to use as a learning tool. The effortless way of completely changing the look and feel of an image with a diverse selection of effects through a single click on a preset allows users to quickly see how different adjustments can ultimately influence the temperature and style of the finished product.
Downloading Wedding Presets for Lightroom
Wedding Lightroom presets are essential for wedding photography, and Cole’s Classroom is filled with informational tutorials and access to many paid and free presets. We have a variety of professional Lightroom presets and effects that will enhance wedding and portrait photos by giving them a professional and consistent look.
How to Download Lightroom Presets
We have a large selection of presets for Lightroom available that are easy to install, and if you sign up as a member of the site, we’ll send you your first set of free Lightroom presets. We also offer a wide selection of premium presets for purchase. Each of the Lightroom presets on Cole’s Classroom have been hand-crafted to meet the demands of busy photographers, cutting down the time you spend editing while creating the professional-quality images your clients expect.
Free Lightroom Preset Downloads on Cole’s Classroom
As mentioned above, we have a few free Lightroom presets available to download to help you get started. Some of our most popular presets that transform the feel and quality of an image include Winter Haze, Bitchin’ Summer, Color Me Rad and Crisp Clean Color. Each of these Lightroom presets can influence the different tones, contrast, smoothness, and softness of an image.
Premium Preset Downloads on Cole’s Classroom
The Prestige Portrait & Wedding Lightroom Presets Collection is a combination of color and black & white presets that are best for editing groups and portraits. The collection is very versatile and offers many alternate versions of a similar look, which change the subtle features in an image such as the haze, matte, and clarity. This classy collection has more than 25 Lightroom presets that give your photos a pop of color and definition that noticeably improves the final image. The presets are especially useful for editing raw images of people because they are complimentary for all skin tones. Some of these unique presets include Marry Me Haze, Bridal & Bright Clean, Costa Haze and Sweet & Sass Clean.
Perks of a Cole’s Classroom Membership
To learn more about the many aspects of wedding photography and wedding Lightroom presets, Cole’s Classroom offers a free membership—perfect for amateur and professional photographers alike. The membership gives you instant access to many useful tools such as a Photoshop Fundamentals Mini-course, a Photo 101 Mini-course, Flash Photo mini-courses, 15 free Lightroom preset downloads, a Lightroom Quickstart Guide and more! It’s great for connecting with a community of photographers and learning the technical and artistic aspects of photography.
Tips and Tricks for Lightroom Presets
When it comes to choosing a wedding Lightroom preset to use on an image or collection of photos, it is important to learn the different tips and tricks for editing in Lightroom. Lightroom is a favorite editing program for many photographers because it turns average photos into extraordinary images almost effortlessly. While there are hundreds of free presets and Photoshop actions available to download online. Lightroom also allows users to manually manipulate the adjustments of each photo.
The left-hand side of Lightroom stores all of your saved Lightroom preset folders, while the right- hand side of the application allows the user to manipulate details such as tonal adjustments, white balance, and lens aberration corrections. Having the ability to tweak every photo after applying a preset makes the program very popular and user-friendly.
Photography Branding
It is very important to take the overall style of the edited collection into account because it’s a reflection of your brand. As a wedding photographer, consistency is key when it comes to editing the gallery of pictures. Clients often want a uniform look and tone to their wedding photos because a collection of consistent images is more aesthetically pleasing when creating a photo album or framing prints to display around the house. Having a brand builds a positive reputation for your photography business and will attract more clients.
Artistic Style
When editing photos in Lightroom, choose presets that enhance the final quality of the photo. Keep an overall artistic style in mind while processing the collection. There are many wedding presets for Lightroom to get the lighting, theme, and mood just right.
For example, a popular Lightroom preset for weddings is our Crisp, Clean, Color set. It brightens the overall exposure of the photo and adds a deepened, smooth color.
For outdoor wedding shots, you might consider using the Debossed Haze and Debossed Clean Lightroom presets, included in the Prestige Portrait and Wedding Lightroom Presets Collection. The difference between the clean and haze version is the matte and definition of the photos. Depending on the intensity of the sun, it is useful to either add contrast and definition to an image in Debossed Clean or use the matte version of Debossed Haze to add softness to the photo.
When it comes to editing wedding photos, there really is no better program than Lightroom. Not only can the presets enhance the final look of your wedding photos, but it cuts down your editing time as well, giving you stunning results in a quarter of the time you could manually edit on your own. And after a bit of time and practice, you’ll soon be a wedding photographer pro–capturing the abundance of love and happiness on a couple’s special wedding day in your own signature style.
