4 Small Camera Adjustments That Save You Time in Post-Editing
As an editor, I can’t express how much unnecessary time is wasted during post-editing when just a few quick in-camera adjustments would prevent extra work. Sure, we ALL get lazy and snap images hurriedly from time to time. But, for the best results, these 4 small camera adjustments save you time in post-editing… and are life-giving to any photographer spending lots of time editing their photos!
Below, I have listed the top 4 offenders that I regularly encounter. So, without further ado and in no particular order, the 4 small camera adjustments that save you time in post-editing are: white balance, alignment, exposure, and time and date metadata.
4 Small Camera Adjustments That Save You Time in Post-Editing
1. White Balance
Biggest offenders:
Indoor scenes captured without flash
Early evening outdoor scenes
How to adjust in-camera:
Adjust your camera's white balance settings to look true to the eye before you shoot. Perhaps your camera features preset light settings. Those don’t always work for every scenario. Wedding photographers particularly understand that lighting shifts from room to room and everything changes again when venturing outdoors! How do you fix this issue? Acquaint yourself with the location of your Kelvin settings to manually adjust for cooler/warmer looks. The more you use your Kelvin settings, the process will feel intuitive and you can achieve the most natural look in-camera. You can adjust the color settings throughout your session as the light shifts. Give it a try!
(Bonus - New to white balance? See this in-depth post from Shot Kit!)
2. Alignment
Biggest offenders:
Wedding reception dance floors
Wedding group formal photos
Open areas with trees in the background/horizons
Subjects in motion
How to adjust in-camera:
Use natural lines in your scene to capture a straight image, also, use a tripod for consistency when capturing multiple group photos. No matter your location, something can be used to compare your alignment vertically and horizontally within your viewfinder like trees, buildings, door-frames, etc. Nothing around? The horizon or floor both work as the great horizontal lines! Chances are good that something exists against which you can align your image. (In the image below, I used the trees. While I was still crooked, it didn’t take much to straighten out the image in LR!) Secondly, a tripod comes in handy when capturing multiple groups of people and you want a consistent look throughout your gallery. Straightening your images on-camera prevents the possibility of having to choose between a crooked image or grandma’s body being half chopped off! Instead of differing angles from image to image, keep your camera consistent on a tripod and crop in closer as needed during editing, knowing that your angles will remain the same! Your clients will appreciate your consistency when they print several images that look good together on their walls.
(Bonus - you're developing good habits! Extra bonus - Shoot group photos with a little extra room around the edges for various crop sizes and to make sure you don’t lose any body parts… no one likes that!)
3. Exposure
Biggest offenders:
Indoor low-light scenes with and without flash
Outdoor scenes with bright background or at "high noon"
Indoor scenes in front of windows/bright light sources
How to adjust in-camera:
Test and set your exposure in your location before you capture important moments. Take some practice shots. No one wants to receive their wedding photos back where everyone in the family walking down the aisle looks like ghosts because the photographer didn’t take an extra thirty seconds to adjust for the lighting. (Below, you can see a before/after where we tested the exposure on me first, then found a better one for the second image. I’ve just applied a basic preset to these images.)
Practical application: During posed sessions, give clients a few “practice” shots to get comfortable in front of the camera while you set your exposure and white balance. This way, you can all put your best work out there! Wedding photographers, If you can’t check out the venue on a separate day at the same time as the wedding, plan to arrive early enough to scout each location you’ll photograph.
(Bonus - Here's a helpful article explaining all things exposure from the genius pool over at Adobe!)
4. Time and Date Metadata
Biggest offenders:
Events/sessions captured by multiple cameras at one time
How to adjust in-camera:
This is the biggest time waster. Picture this: An edit job comes along with the main shooter’s camera in the wrong year, date, and time of the wedding they covered, and the second shooter’s camera has the right date but shows the wedding took place at 4 AM. If I’m lucky, one of them got the invitation with detail shots and I can correct the time of the bride walking down the aisle, and correct the others from there! It can become a big headache with multiple cameras. This issue is so simple to solve on the front end and will save you from post-editing headaches. Before capturing your session, sync your camera’s date(s) and time(s) metadata when you arrive at your venue. Then, your files will load in perfect order when it comes time to edit and will flow beautifully for your client in their galleries.
(Bonus - if you're stuck editing errant metadata timeline info in a pinch, here's the method I use, aptly described by the folks over at SLRLounge!)
These 4 Small In-Camera Adjustments That Save Time in Post-Editing really do save loads of time on the back end of your photography workflow. A few extra preparatory minutes before you photograph reap the benefit of saved time in the long run with greater enjoyment while you edit. As a whole, you will deal with less color correction, cropping/rotation, exposure/highlight adjustments, and timeline hassles.