More and more I'm going to be posting images from my weddings and shoots that contain the before and after shots to give a better understanding on some of my photo techniques and to show that you must "take" great photographs, you can't "make" great photographs.I always say that you can't make a good photograph great, you can only make a great photograph a little better. We're not talking about full on graphic design where you bring in fake skies, different backgrounds, etc...because that's not photography, that's just graphic design. Many times I'm asked where I get my backgrounds. I NEVER use backgrounds in my imagery, truthfully I take a lot of time to make the NATURAL background look great and shoot it properly. For that reason I'm sharing this image from a wedding I shot in Maui, HI in January 2011.
In order to make this image the way I wanted it I had to make sure to shoot it at the right time of day, use the sun the naturally light the bride, and remove any debris from around the bride. I hate spending extra time in PS cloning out things I naturally should have taken care of BEFORE I took the shot. Do I use photoshop to fix acne for example on a brides face that will be the cover of the album? Of course I do. But that's something that's unavoidable. My biggest point in writing this is that photoshop needs to be saved for the unavoidable things, and that any thing a photographer can do before taking the shot is their responsibility to get right.
Any questions please let me know!