Samay Studio: the blog

Qureshi Family - Life Session Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:48:00 +0000

Oh boy...where does the time disappear. After months without an update, here's something which should make everyone smile. The Qureshi family have been great clients of mine for some time now and when Tayyiba, Cody, and little Z-Man were in town last fall, we got the chance to take some fun family portraits.

This was actually Tayyiba & Zamaan's second photo session with me in 2009. Here's some of the previous session with his masis

With family portraits, we never know what exactly to expect, so the sessions are way more loose and playful than usual. As you can see from this sampling, Zamaan didn't leave us much chance to pose for shots...which is a great thing!

Aparna & Jeff's Engagement Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:46:00 +0000

Earlier this summer, I took Aparna & Jeff all over San Francisco for their engagement portraits and what a fun time! We got to try out some new spots on that beautiful summer afternoon so it made for some wonderful moments. It was also great since they didn't mind a little public display of affection while we were taking their portraits :)

We started out in North Beach, then headed to the Presidio, and finally to Baker Beach. With each location, since we had extra time, we were able to find some cool little spots that helped their photos to be as unique as possible.

Here are some samples!

I just love this next portrait due to the wind blowing Aparna's hair just so and especially that look in her eyes!

Aparna & Jeff, I can't wait for your wedding next month!

Rajan Family - Life Session Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:03:00 +0000

Mamatha & Ranjeet got married a couple of years ago and I was lucky enough to photograph their wedding in San Ramon. Fast forward to this spring and they had a son just a little bit after we had our own daughter. So it was a pleasure doing a life session focusing on their one year old son, Ishaan. We started off with some clean portraits with a background then moved onto their backyard and finally to Piedmont Park nearby. I've gotta say, photographing a child in his or her own environment is key to capturing great moments...

I went a bit more abstract with some of the editing. Since I was getting so many great expressions from Ishaan, I just had to go out on a limb with some of these photos.

The dreamy look in this next photo really just hit it for me. I knew it was out of focus when I took it, but I couldn't let go of it. I'd say it's my second favorite from the afternoon.

And what's my fave shot from this session? The next photo! The sheer joy on Ishaan's face with Ranjeet in the background is what these sessions are all about!

And finally...the happy family!

Thanks guys for inviting us to your home. We had a great time and hope to see a lot more of Ishaan as he grows into the rockstar he's destined to be!

Gellon Family - Life Session Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 03:02:00 +0000

The Gellons are close friends of our's and with their son Zaver's first birthday coming up earlier this year, I wanted to make sure they had memorable portraits before his birthday. Instead of going out to a park or the beach, we decided to take advantage of Vic & Sophina's lovely home. We all thought this would not only lead to fun portraits, but make them much more personal.

I had trouble narrowing down the selection of photos for this session, so enjoy this cute and handsome young fellow!

The next bunch of photos are actually from the galf course which is in their backyard.

Raj & Jag's Engagement Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:24:00 +0000

One of the most popular spots for taking portraits has been Stanford University. While it's not as popular nowadays as it has been in the past, it still provides some really classic elements like the columns you see in the background of the first photo. There are also great little spots around campus which provide for great variety. In addition to the Stanford campus, we took a little trip to downtown and had some fun walking in the streets of Palo Alto.

This shot is one of the very few where I do any really visible editing. Usually, the photo speaks for itself, but in this case, I felt that adding in the layers of texure & blur helped to give the shot some extra oomph!

When we moved onto Downtown Palo Alot, I was just in love with all the brick facades!

Raj & Jag, congrats and I wish you all the best in married life!

Molly & Vid - Wedding Day Sneak Peek

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:09:00 +0000

One of my favorite things about photography is sharing my work with clients. And a part of that is giving little teasers to whet their appetite for more once the full set of photos is complete. I just had to share these few photos with Molly & Vid earlier this week and I figure blog readers would love to see these too....so here's just a very few from their big day. Many more to come....

Patel Family - Avila Beach Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:52:00 +0000

We did a fun & relaxing family session last month in Avila Beach. Where is Avila Beach, you ask? It's in Central California near San Luis Obispo & Pismo.

We photographed Tejal & Nalin's wedding last year. And this year, her big sister, Roshni, wanted to do family portraits before the first birthday of her twins. So I joined the whole family at Avila Beach close to where their mom lives. And what a wonderful day it was! The weather in mid-June had been so unpredictable, but we all lucked out and get an absolutely gorgeous day at the beach. Besides the awesome weather, it was great catching up with the whole family since I hadn't seen them in over a year. It was also pretty cool doing 3 or 4 mini portrait sessions since the whole family was there.

Here's just a few of the photos from the session:

Happy Birthday Aiden & Alina! I know your mom loves these photos...when you grow up, I expect you to love them too :)

Shefali & Hitesh's Engagement Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:36:00 +0000

Catching up on some Spring & Summer sessions we've had...

I met up with Shefali & Hitesh after a bit of extra planning & coordination...I live in the Bay Area, but Shefali was in San Diego and Hitesh was in Chicago. So where to meet for portraits when everyone's in a different city? Los Angeles!

It was actually a lot of fun planning this session out. Shefali really wanted to do some interesting with modern architecture as well as mix in some traditionally romantic photos. So we settled on 3 great spots in LA & the Westside...the Disney Center in Downtown LA, the UCLA campus in Westwood, and the pier & beach in Santa Monica. So let's get onto the photos!

I just love, love, LOVE the Disney Center's architecture. The shapes are just so interesting and offer a lot of options for us. And when you get closer, this awesome exterior surface of the walls just draw your eyes in.

This is one of those little nooks that I love about the Disney Center. It's such a tiny spot and it's the type of thing I love to find.

For this next shot, Shefali & Hitesh look totally calm, but what doesn't show on their face is a bus hurtling at them at full speed :) I didn't know about this bus until after I took the shot since my back was towards it. Needless to say, we ran very quickly :)

And moving onto my alma mater, UCLA is always a fun place to do portraits. It's always so relaxing there on weekends and it really lends to a more fun & relaxing shoot. Plus there's so many spots for a lot of fun stuff. Here's just a few of the spots....

And who could complain about Santa Monica on a nice spring afternoon?!

Out of the entire shoot, I have to say, this is my favorite shot. It wasn't something I asked Shefali to do, but the look in her eyes is just so memorable for me.

And with that, I'm going to end this post. Shefali & Hitesh, thanks for a wonderful afternoon of portraits. I can't wait for your wedding next month!

Mayuri & Kunaal's Engagement Ceremony

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:58:00 +0000

You might recall a previous post on Mayuri & Kunaal's portraits. Well, the couple had their engagement ceremony back in May to make it all official. Yes, their engagement was more elaborate than many weddings, but I'm sure a lot of Indians will relate to the importance of the engagement ceremony.

Everyone joined the couple at the Sunol Valley Golf Club for breakfast, the ceremony itself, and a lunch reception afterwards. Without further ado, onto the photos!

Kunaal even got down on one knee to put the engagement ring on Mayuri's finger!

Check out that bouquet! And don't forget about the groom in the background ;)

The lunch reception started immediately after the ceremony ended. And since the clouds and winds had hung around all morning, people were happy to head indoors!

Mayuri and her friends had a sweet Bollywood dance for Kunaal.

Congrats you two! Can't wait to hear about your wedding plans in Seattle!

Patel Family - San Francisco Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:15:00 +0000

Catching up on one of the many portrait sessions from the Spring, here are some highlights of the Patel Family from a sunny April afternoon in San Francisco.

We started out at Baker Beach...it was Aarav's first time at the beach and above all, he was just confused by all the water and sand. So it was definitely cute to see him make new discoveries about this 'wierd stuff' :)

We then moved onto a nearby playground where Aarav really opened up. When photographing kids, I always love to catch them in moments that they just LOVE. In this case, Aarav just loves swings and playground equipment...

And just in time for Aarav's first birthday party, the family had a couple of gallery wraps made to hang in their house. We wanted to do two completely different looks so the first one with black & white photos just have a simple background. The second one is more playful and colorful.

Aarav, I'm glad we got the chance to spend an afternoon photographing you! It's going to be a blast watching you grow up!

Engagement Portrait Session with Kinjal & Alan

noreply@blogger.com (Asad Ali) — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:09:00 +0000

Kinjal and Alan were the lucky winners of our Engagement Portrait raffle last year. We started our shoot at the Embarcadero center in San Francisco and walked over to Union Square. We had certain places that we definitely knew we wanted to cover in the photo session. However, as usual, we stopped and took impromptu pictures as we made our way through the City trying to capture the essence of San Francisco.

With great weather at San Francisco and a fun loving couple, it was no surprise that the 3 hours session just flew by

Congratulations Kinjal and Alan, it was a pleasure spending the afternoon with you!

Bhumika & Bharat's Sign-in Book

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Wed, 13 May 2009 01:22:00 +0000

We love taking couples out on portrait sessions. We love it even more when they get to show off their photos to all of their guests! To that end, custom sign-in books are a great way to show off photos and create a topic of conversation at wedding receptions.

Well, Bhumika & Bharat just got married over the weekend, and here's the sign-in book I made for them. We printed it in a really nice 10x10 hard cover book, metallic finish on the cover & thick, lay-flat pages inside:

(pop-up window)

Mayuri & Kunaal's Engagement Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:01:00 +0000

A little springtime vacation meant this blog was quieter than planned! Sorry about that :)

Here's a few shots from a fun portrait session we had in Half Moon Bay with Mayuri & Kunaal. This shoot was ALL about what they love to do and what's meaningful for them. As you'll see from the sampling of photos, we started at some local stables since Mayuri grew up with horses. We went to the Half Moon Bay Ritz since that's where they became a couple. Had some fun on the putting green, and had a little picnic on the beach. All in all, a very unique session since Mayuri & Kunaal really spent time thinking about what they love about each other and what they love doing together!

On to the photos!

The stables had this AWESOME barn. And the light?! To die for!

A little wine tasting never hurt anyone...

I personally love the whole series of these putting green photos. Mayuri & Kunaal had so much fun there, it's hard not to notice how much they love each other...

I just love unplanned shots. We found some green spots along the way to the beach and couldn't help but spend some time there...

Champagne on the beach? Yes!

Thanks for a great portraits session, see you guys later this month!

Bhumika & Bharat's Engagement Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:45:00 +0000

I had the lovely opportunity to photograph Bhumika & Bharat who are getting married next month. Even though they live on opposite coasts, they wanted to do a fun session that was all about their time in the City together.

The shoot was a lot of fun, just like the two of them. As you can see from the favorites I've picked out, we went all over the city and founds lots of neat little spots.

As everyone who know me will realize, photographs for me aren't about the location, they're about the emotions. And I've gotta say, this photo in Union Square is my absolute fave because of Bhumika's smile. I just love it!

It was actually pretty difficult to get these two to NOT smile at me :)

Busy, busy, busy...Bharat struck this pose without Bhumika knowing and she kept wondering why I had a funny smile on my face.

And who can complain about the colors of these murals! We could have stayed in this area in the Mission all afternoon if we didn't have to get back over to the Embarcadero!

Bhumika & Bharat, we can't wait for your wedding!

Pallavi & Neil's Reception

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:57:00 +0000

Finishing up on Pallavi & Neil's wedding weekend, here are some highlights from their reception....Enjoy!

They had a cute fuschia & orange theme going on...

I love the texture on the fondant on this cake!

Neil's cousins had a lot of fun with some dances they did for the audience.

And, of course, everyone spent the rest of the night dancing away...

The sweetest thing at the end of the night was when Neil & Pallavi's friends conspired with the DJ to play their First Dance song while all their closest friends & family did a nice big group hug to end the dancing. I must say, in all the weddings I've photographed, this was about the sweetest way to finish the night!

Congrats Neil & Pallavi. Thanks for having us at your wedding!

Pallavi & Neil's Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:40:00 +0000

Following up on the previous post about Pallavi & Neil's truly multi-cultural wedding, here are some highlights from the wedding ceremony itself. The wedding & reception were held at the Canyon View Dining Hall in San Ramon. It's a beautiful venue with a view out on the hills in the back. The ceremony itself was held outdoors so the light was just amazing especially as the sun was setting.

For folks not accustomed to Indian weddings, the fact that the ceremony was held outdoors is a bit of novelty since it's actually pretty tough to find a nice outdoor location that can hold the large number of people that are usually invited to such affairs. Safe to say, we photographers are so happy when we get such amazing light ;)

Onto the photos!

The ceremony was split into 2 halves. Following her Tamil tradition, Pallavi changed her sari half way through the ceremony. Amongst other tradtions, the second half included the mangala darna where Neil ties the traditional Tamil Thali around Pallavi's neck as she sits in her father lap. This is different than the North Indian tradition which usually involves a small Mangal Sutra and the bride doesn't sit in her father's lap.

I just absolutely LOVE the look in Pallavi's eyes here! Can ya guess she's happy?! :)

And as with most Hindu ceremonies, it can get chaotic on the mandap. In this case, numerous people had to help Neil tie the thali since it was actually difficult for him to see around all the flowers, etc. It's actually pretty fun to watch & document the little things going on like this. It's not something which the audience sees since it's usually hidden behind a bunch of people on stage who are all trying to help. So many times, I feel blessed at the chance I get to capture these little moments between family members like this one where Pallavi's aunt is explaining to Neil's sister just how the knots should be tied.

Just one more post to go for Pallavi & Neil's wedding! Watch out for the highlights from their reception coming shortly!

Pallavi & Neil's Pre-Wedding Traditions

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:10:00 +0000

As we mentioned in the previous post, Pallavi & Neil had an action packed wedding weekend with elements of both Gujarati & Tamil wedding cultures mixed in. There was a traditional North India baraat, Tamil oonjal, and lots of other tidbits pulled from the variety that is Indian Hindu culture.

So let's start off with the events leading up the actual wedding...

Of course, a beautiful blushing bride starts her day with her sisters and mother in the hotel room :)

These are actually Pallavi's sister's saris...dontcha love the colors?!

Everyone wants a sneak peek at the bride!

If you're wondering why that umbrella's there, it's not because of rain, it's part of the tradition of a Tamil groom going to Kashi for his education. The tradition goes that the groom doesn't really want to get married and would rather further his religious education. Before he meets the bride, the priest and families must convince him to get married for the good of both families. Here, Neil's coming back to the wedding milni with his grandfather who convinced him to return to his wedding ceremony :)

A little Gujarati tradition with Pallavi coming out so that they can both garland each other. It may not look like it here, but their both on the shoulders of their relatives. The game it to prevent the other from getting the garland on. As usual, a wedding day is filled with lots of little games to keep it fun!

And just to clarify, even though Neil is following the Tamil traditions and Pallavi is following the Gujarati traditions, it's actually Neil who's Gujarati and Pallavi who's Tamil. Basically, the whole family ensured that everyone participated in the various traditions and made the entire weekend a load of fun. Some people say that a marriage isn't just about two people getting married, but actually about two families coming together. That may be a cheesy line during many speeches, but I truly believe that to be the case for multi-cultural weddings.

And moving onto more Tamil traditions, Neil & Pallavi had a Oonjal (swing) ceremony...

And to finish this post off, an afternoon portrait of the bride, groom, and groomsmen. Love it!

Look out for more from their wedding day soon!

Pallavi & Neil's Garba

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:03:00 +0000

We had the pleasure of covering Pallavi & Neil's wedding weekend and since it combined both Tamil & Gujarati traditions, it was a wonderful mish-mash of cultures & events.

Here are some highlights from their garba which was held at the San Ramon Community Center. Since it's a semi-circular hall with a half-dome, I always feel like it's the perfect place for garba!

We're used to capturing all the action & movement at garba-raas, but this time, let's start with some of the details. Neil's family added some cute little touches throughout the hall to make sure people know this was a Gujarati affair :)

And the unique Ganesh statue's they had were just wonderful! These were true works of art and I couldn't help but spend some extra time getting some interesting angles on these statues.

Onto the dancing!

Watch out for more from Pallavi & Neil's wedding weekend coming up on the blog shortly!

Sharan & Manny's Engagement Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:09:00 +0000

We got the chance to photography Sharan & Manny on a really quiet weekday in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago and we couldn't wait to share the fully processed photos. We took Sharan & Manny to the Palace of Fine Arts & Baker Beach for a wonderfully fun afternoon. Even though we only met in person for the first time during the photo session, we had talked on the phone a lot before so it really helped to understand what Sharan & Manny wanted. As you can see in these photos, we were definitely going for a really romantic look and the additional processing you see like the textures, blurs, and embellishments are all about bringing out more of that in the photos. Hope you enjoy!

This weeping willow is always so beautiful, but the location is usually way crowded. Lucky for us, it was pretty quiet and we got more than enough time to get some really stunning angles. Funny enough, this is the only photo in this blog posting that doesn't have significant artistic post production done to it!

This is my ABSOLUTE fave from this session. As usual, we time our sessions knowing where the sun will be; Asad noticed this angle and we just had to stop and get some crazy cool backlit photos with some sharp sun flares. Yes, there's artistic post work done on this photo, but a lot less than you'd imagine ;) Yes, the sun's real, yes, the blur's real...just some texturing & color touch-ups added...

Sharan & Manny, thanks for giving us the opportunity to photograph your engagement portraits!

Sai's Arangetram Recital Album

noreply@blogger.com (Asad Ali) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:28:00 +0000

In our last post, I mentioned the custom designed album we made of Sai's Arangetram. The main objective of the album was to tell a story on every spread about a particular course during the Arangetram performance. This is sort of like doing a wedding album, but since Sai is essentially telling a story with her dance, we have to ensure we relay that story with a relatively small number of photos. Here are a few of the album spreads we included in her album.

While designing albums we think about & try to incorporate into our spreads are things like textures & embellishments as well as detailed photos for use in the background (in this case, Sai's bells, hands, etc). As you can see from the examples below, we try to take a few moments captured in our photos and tell a dramatic story.

We'd love to show some of these albums to you in person, so please schedule a consultation time with us so we can talk to you in greater detail!

As an example of laying out each spread such that it tells a story, the above spread is all about receiving blessings from Sai's Guru and family. Mixed use of color and b+w images in the spread helps to bring attention to the main picture without creating any clutter.

Designing unique layouts for each album really gets our creative juices flowing. We know this album is way for Sai's family to treasure their daughter's arangetram for years to come and compliments like "The album looks INCREDIBLE." from Sai's father inspires us to keep innovating with our album designs!

Sai's Bharathanatyam Arangetram

noreply@blogger.com (Asad Ali) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:18:00 +0000

Last year, we got an excellent opportunity to photograph the portraits and Arangetram coverage of Bharathanatyam performance by beautiful and talented Sai Radhakrishnan. Bharathanatyam is a classic dance that originated in the state of Tamil Nadu in India.

The amazing hand gestures as means of communication and the delicate neck and eye movements by Sai showed many years of her practice in perfecting this dance form. This first set of photos taken in advance of her recital for use in her invitations, program booklet as well as for the custom sign-in book which we designed for Sai. You'll notice all of the colors in these advance portraits are intense against a deep black background. This helps to create a really stunning set of visuals for everything we design and print.

Following the portrait session in April, we covered the amazing performance by Sai for her Arangetram in August. Arangetram in Tamil means "ascending the stage". The 2-3 hours debut performance was filled with high energy and amazing display of delicate dance movements. The beautiful background images along with colorful stage lighting created the perfect ambience for capturing this dance form on the stage.

As with all staged performances, we don't use any flash so what you see here highlights all of the intense colors as intended for the audience in the auditorium.

This very dramatic lighting with additional shadows is something we look out for since the lighting is part of the story.

As mentioned up above, we designed a guest sign-in book for the Arangetram which was available for all of Sai's guest to view & leave messages on the day of her Arangetram. We also created a custom designed album of Arangetram recital itself. We will be posting the blog for the layouts of the albums soon so check back!

Congratulations Sai for an incredible performance!

Photo of the Week...Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:09:00 +0000

Well, I don't like to gloat, but heck, I will :)

The previous gallery wrap montage which we featured here on the site has won "photo of the week" honors from Pieces of the Picture.

If you're curious about family photography, Pieces of the Picture goes beyond the typical photography tips type of site since it's about more than just a "how to"...it goes into a lot of the thought process and challenges to capturing a family's moments. Have a look at their site as well as their Flickr group if you have a chance.

As we've been getting more into family portraiture, we've been trying a lot of different things so that our work is fresh and can provide lasting memories for our clients. So that might mean portraits in front of a backdrop or outdoor portraits. The way it's presented, I think, makes a huge difference also. So the online versions of the montages we've shown might look great online, but I love seeing people's reactions when they see these huge wraps in person.

Here's the winning photo montage again in case you didn't see the previous blog post:

More Gallery Wrap & Montage Goodness

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:55:00 +0000

We've been getting such a great response on the Gallery Wraps using photo montages, I figured I'd share a personal example of my daughter Sophia. These gallery wraps have a lustrous metallic finish to them and hang without any need for a frame. It's great any where you want something a bit more modern, but as you can see with the background, we can mix it up for a wide variety of look.

This was a Valentine's Day gift to my wife and now hangs in our family room next to the couch. Safe it say it brings a smile to our faces every time we look at it!

If you're interested in a portrait session for you or your children, or you just want to create a unique enlargement like the example here, drop us a line.

Le Family Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:53:00 +0000

Keeping on the Family portraits tips, here are a few highlights from a shoot we did last year of the Le family.

Mom + Daughter + Dog = Lots of fun!

I had met Abra, Asia, and Bodie before, but I had never had a chance to really talk to Asia or play with Bodie. The great thing about doing small portrait sessions like this is that we get a chance to talk, get to know each other, and have some fun along the way. So when Asia's ready for her Senior portraits (hint, hint), this will be an old hat for her!

Somethingt that I just love is parent & child interactions. On a wedding day, there are certainly chances to see and capture those special moments, but it's such a stressful and agenda packed day that I don't think any parent or child can really appreciate things. In a relaxed session like that, we always find some time to let everyone have some fun not just with their poses & the camera, but with each other.

In this case, Asia had a lot of mock anger/angst like any teenager, but we could see right through her facade :P Of course she was just having fun with it and she ended up having a good deal of fun with shots too :)

Isn't Bodie a sweetheart! He was just happy to be out and about and I wanted to make sure we got some of him into the photo session. I have to admit, he didn't want to do EVERY pose imaginable, but he was a real trooper and was smiling throughout!

Thanks Abra, Asia, and Bodie! It was a pleasure spending the afternoon with you and I'm glad you all love your photos!

After the Shoot

noreply@blogger.com (Jigar) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:18:00 +0000

When we talk to prospective clients, we always try to give them an idea of what to expect before, during, and after their wedding. After all, we pride ourselves on end-to-end service. The last thing we want to do is just show up on the day of the wedding, shoot a few pictures, then disappear. Well, when we talk abut the process we go through after any wedding, we usually talk about our interaction with our clients, but there’s a lot of detail we leave out around our actual photography workflow – what we do with the photo files, what tools we use to edit, and how we finally deliver our clients’ photos.

These details are actually of wide interest amongst the photographer’s community and a few folks on twitter have begun a string of blog postings to describe their photography workflow. It’s all about learning from each other and improving our work to be the best possible. Well, here’s our contribution to that. For our clients, this may be way more details than you care to know about. You can just trust that you’re in good hands :) For other photographers, I hope this run-down helps you and we’d love to know more about your workflow. So post something on your blog and let us know on twitter.

Thanks to Ariston Collander for starting this string and getting all of us to spend a little time talking about the behind the scenes work we do! Seshu Photography is also part of the impetus for documenting our workflow.

So what happens when we leave the wedding or finish your portrait session??

1) Back-up

Since we shoot digitally, ensuring that files are not lost is a huge concern for us. We actually start our back-up process at the events themselves using a portable memory card back-up device. Currently we use a Hyperdrive Colorspace since it’s fast and double-checks all the files before finishing the copy. We copy off cards as we use them up and them store the used CF cards away – we don’t re-use cards until we’ve verified everything the next day. So even before we leave the parking lot, we’ve already got two copies of your photos.
Since most wedding receptions last well into the night, we pick up the next morning with backing up photos onto our desktop computers and external drives. Remember, we always want at least two copies of every photo we take! We only re-format memory cards after we’ve verified that these computer back-ups have completed properly.

2) Photo Organization

This is a MUST for weddings we do since we take several thousand photos on a wedding day. Without organizing the photos, it would be near impossible for our clients to easily find photos they’re looking for later on, and we definitely don’t want to deliver just a stack of photos. So we do this organization up front.
Our main tool for organization photos and doing a variety of photo editing is Adobe Lightroom. The integration with Photoshop and the rest of our workflow is so great that we often wonder how we got stuff done before Lightroom was released!
In Lightroom, we create a folder structure to match our client’s events. Each event will have a top level folder. Portions of each event will be broken down into their own folders. So a couple’s portraits in their wedding outfits will be sitting a Portraits folder which is within the folder for their Wedding. Lightroom makes it easy to move around photos quickly so we can create folders on the fly and keep everything as organized as possible. Typically, for just a wedding day, we’ll end up with around 15-20 folders to ensure it’s easy for our clients to find specific photos. The folders may range from Getting Ready Shots, the Groom’s Baraat (Procession), Portraits, etc. Since each tradition is different, the folder will vary to match our clients.

3) Photo Editing

As mentioned, Adobe Lightroom is our key tool which allows us to do a variety of editing on the photos we take.
The first thing we’ll do is actually select photos which we think meet our final presentation standards. We tend to shoot many more shots than we expect to deliver to our clients. We may take a dozens of photos during the couple’s first dance, but not all of them will have the lighting and composition we love. So we’ll pick the best of the bunch. We do this for the entire set of photos first.
Once we have our narrowed list of photos, we’ll begin with basic editing like color correction. This is pretty critical since the ambient light outdoors or in various rooms can affect the general tone of the photos we take. To ensure we have consistent color balance throughout the day, we correct against baseline photos which we take throughout the day using a white balance card. This ensure that the bride’s dress or sari looks the same color throughout the day. And since the South Asian events we do have such colorful elements, we really need to ensure we get the color right. Pink should always look pink, and not mauve, purple, red, or whatever! Much of this can be automated since Lightroom has great ability to match white balance and other elements across a series of photos.
After we’ve done the basic color correction, we begin on the creative editing for every photo. This might include sepia, black & white, or other color conversions. We don’t always provide multiple versions of each photo, since usually, a photo looks best based on the editing we’ve done. For example, It may be an impressive & memorable photo when finished with a smooth sepia, but it may not be as remarkable when in full color. There’s a host of presets that we take advantage of in Lightroom, but rarely do we just leave it at those presets…they’re just a start. In case you're interested, Presets Heaven is a nice source for LightRoom presets.
While we’re doing this creative editing, we’ll also do a number of touch-ups. Since the latest versions of Lightroom allow for a lot of control in this area, we tend to stick to Lightroom; previously we would export out to Photoshop to do some of these basic touch-ups. This includes some skin smoothing, brightening of the eyes, and selective darkening as needed.
In parallel, we also think about the enhanced edited we can do such as adding textures or illustrative elements to the photo. We never want to over power the photo itself, but many times, these extra elements can add oh-so much punch! For this enhanced editing, we use Photoshop exclusively. We tend to stay away from pre-built photoshop actions since the type of editing we’re doing is so customized to each photo. However, there are a few actions from Kevin Kubota that we’ll utilize. Once we’re done with this editing step, it’s back to Lightroom!
As we go through this process for every photo, we may add additional photos to the mix or remove photos which we originally thought would match our clients’ expectations.

4) Photo Delivery
Once we’ve completed editing our clients’ photos, there’s a variety of things we do to deliver photos:

With the final editing complete, we re-name photos to a standard format which indicates the couple, the folder, and photo number. So our couples don't get something like IMG_XXXX, they get something which actually makes sense to them!
For weddings, we actually deliver an online Webshow to them within a week of their wedding. So this happens before we’ve competed editing ALL of their photos. We tend to pick 100-200 memorable photos from the wedding day and go through the editing described above. We then deliver that Webshow set to music on a page on our site dedicated to the couple. It’s a nice little plus we like to provide our clients very quickly after their wedding. Since everyone loves to get a peek into the photos, this is a great way for our couple’s to share a small number of photos with their guests very quickly.
The entire set of our couple’s photos will be delivered in a password protected section of our website and on disc for them to keep. The low-resolution photos go onto a photo hosting & ordering system we maintain ourselves. The high-resolution photos are delivered to our clients on disc in a nice package which couples can store away. Both the online & disc versions of the photos are organized in the same way that we’ve organized our Lightroom folders. It’s the easiest way for them to view their photos and select photos for future use.
In addition to individual photos and the Webshow, we provide a DVD montage to our clients which can be played on any TV. The DVD montage is usually 10-15 minutes and set to music. The photos we use are the fully edited ones that our clients receive online and on disc. We’ve found that this DVD montage is especially appreciated by the parents of the couple since they don’t always have parent albums and the DVD is a great way to remember their children’s wedding as well as share those special moments with guests.

So what happens after we deliver all of these photos? Well, there’s album design, gallery wraps, photo montages, and host of other things which our clients may be receiving as part of their overall package. We’ll talk about that in another post!