Weekend Snapshot: It’s our weekend ritual. Every Friday before shooting a wedding, we spend a few hours feasting on inspiration: glossy magazine spreads, favorite Instagram feeds, wedding site editorials, ads for luxury brands, Sprinkles’ cupcake window displays…. It ensures we arrive at every wedding fueled by fresh ideas. Now, we’re bringing a delicious bite of inspiration to you. Start your wedding weekend with a Luke & Cat Weekend Snapshot. The icing on the cake? The hands-on, how-to advice that accompanies each photo. Sweet.

View others in this series:

• Weekend Snapshot #1 Bookend Those Bridesmaids
• Weekend Snapshot #3 Best of Both Worlds
• Weekend Snapshot #4 A Classic Toast

At the Reception

There’s something so retro-cool about this photo of the couple seated together. Everyone’s parents had one, and it’s a classic favorite. Today, we’ll talk about how and why we love this shot.

Not only is it old-Hollywood classic, but it serves as a great transitional photo of the bride and groom in a wedding album or even on a blog post. We snap this image as a first priority at the reception. Just as soon as everyone gets seated, and before people start eating, we head over and grab a shot of them together. We also use this time to let the newlyweds know we’ll be taking our own dinner break, but if they need us, to just come grab us.

Lobster & chardonnay (our two favorite things to see at a reception!,)

Luke & Cat

Weekend Snapshot: It’s our weekend ritual. Every Friday before shooting a wedding, we spend a few hours feasting on inspiration: glossy magazine spreads, favorite Instagram feeds, wedding site editorials, ads for luxury brands, Sprinkles’ cupcake window displays…. It ensures we arrive at every wedding fueled by fresh ideas. Now, we’re bringing a delicious bite of inspiration to you. Start your wedding weekend with a Luke & Cat Weekend Snapshot. The icing on the cake? The hands-on, how-to advice that accompanies each photo. Sweet.

View others in this series:

• Weekend Snapshot #2 At The Reception
• Weekend Snapshot #3 Best of Both Worlds
• Weekend Snapshot #4 A Classic Toast

We can’t help but love the photos of the bridesmaids. Pretty ladies, pretty dresses, and pretty flowers  - it’s the perfect trifecta for great photos. But getting great, natural-looking poses from them requires a little extra consideration from you. Here’s today’s tip for getting perfect bridesmaid shots:

Bookend those bridesmaids!

When lining up people for group photos, try to put the two tallest people at each end. This will anchor the photo and help it look more balanced and symmetrical. We like to see the maid and matron of honor flanking the bride - that’s one on each side. Before taking the first photo, we spend a moment with each person in the group, showing everyone how to hold their bouquets, ensuring visual unity and symmetry. It seems silly, but you’d be surprised how often a clenched fist around one’s flowers can ruin the line of an otherwise perfect shot.

Line 'Em Up and Create Something Beautiful,

Luke & Cat

Has this ever happened to you?

You finish a session, say ‘goodbye’ to your clients, and immediately download your cards. Anxiously, you toggle from one shot to the next, looking for a perfect “Sneak Peek” to post on social media.  Aaah….found one! You apply action after action in Photoshop, trying to quickly achieve a perfect look for your Instagram feed.  But frustration and doubt creep in – you can’t seem to get the look you want to achieve.

We won’t lie. It happened to us. Heck, sometimes, it can still happen!

For years, we tried countless Photoshop actions and Lightroom presets; we even attempted making our versions of both! Finally, we found an editing system that we love—it only requires a few clicks and it yields picture-perfect results time after time.  Take a look…we can go from Before to After in just 15 seconds!

It’s as simple as applying the preset, and adjusting the white balance and exposure. Just a few seconds of editing yields results we will be happy with for a lifetime. And, there’s no need to keep RAW files and re-edit them in a couple of years if we change our editing style.

We’d been using the Fuji 400H preset from Mastin Labs.  We didn’t think it could any better – until it did.  We are now using the newly released Fuji 400H Pushed preset from Mastin. (Full disclosure: We love Mastin Labs so much, we’d tell you about their presets for free. But, Mastin Labs is so cool, they pay us a few bucks every time you purchase this product.)

If you’re not already in love with Mastin Labs, you should get yourself over there right away and check out the amazing set of film emulation presets they’ve created. Fuji 400H is our go-to option for almost everything that we shoot. We also use the Kodak series for receptions and the Ilford pack for a classic black and white moment.

Curious to see what your image would look like edited with a Mastin preset? Our love for Mastin Labs knows no bound, which is why we’re giving away free editing to the first twenty photographers who reach out. Just email your RAW file, and we’ll edit it and send it back!

Note: since we have thousands of photographers on our mailing list, we really do have to cap the offer after the first twenty replies. But, email us anyway - we’d be happy to share some more of our own Before and After examples privately, or answer any questions you may have.  And we have a question for you: What other editing struggles do you encounter? If we have answers, we’d be happy to share them.

Hungry for more of our secret editing sauce? How about a live editing demonstration? Stay tuned….we’ll be announcing the date for a demo soon.  And just like our beloved Fuji 400H Pushed, we promise that our demo will be short, sweet and packed with tips you can use instantly.  

Lightroom Tips & Consistent Images,

Luke & Cat