Wedding Photos: Post-production

Yesterday I worked with my mentor, Frank Becker, to learn how to be artistic with my photos after basic color and balance corrections. We spent most of our time on two particular photos. When I originally took this photo of the flower girl, I was worried that the sunlight reflected off the wall behind her would be distracting, but when converted to B&W, the angles in this photo suddenly popped. I like the way the lines of the wall and the floor follow the girl's body, and the line of the wall opposite her helps frame her without boxing her in. When Frank first asked me if we should crop this photo and how, my gut reaction was to do a horizontal crop closing in on the flower girl, but we tested it and I could see how she would have been boxed in by that crop. With the vertical crop, I can see how the empty space in the top half of the photo adds a very artistic dimension and gives a better perspective on the subject.

You probably recognize this photo from my previous post. This one *really* taught me how effective cropping can be for achieving an artistic photo.I really like the kids in the background watching the couple through the clubhouse doors, but the original photo had cut them off at the neck, so we decided the photo would be better if cropped down to the couple. We adjusted contrast and added a subtle vignette. Frank also added a Glamour Glow filter (available from Nik Software, Inc.), which made it look a little more dreamy.

**All photos in this post shot for THE TIME Photography**