Photography is a lot like football in some ways... You have a goal, and you have to do everything you possibly can to reach it. It's competitive. It requires hard work, late nights, unpaid overtime, problem solving, creativity, diligence, and endurance, endurance, endurance. Like right now... I am 55 photos in editing a session with 753 more to get through this evening {I mean morning}; they've got to be off and in the mail by tomorrow morning. Between then and now, I will (Lord willing) have all of the photos edited, select which ones I want to be black and white, write a card to the clients, sign a copyright release, and, of course, look up my client's address so that we're ready to go when it's time to ship them.
What I don't do during late night editing times:
-Listen to harp music
Though absolutely lovely, I already feel quite tired, and harp music is a bit like sleeping medication when you're exhausted... Don't listening to anything that will make you wayyyy calm down. It's probably time for a good Leonard Ravenhill sermon! He'll keep me awake!
-Lean against anything
Right now I really wish I could just jump in bed and completely forget about all the beautiful photos that await me on my computer - they do constantly call my name - and just sleep. For five whole entire hours... But that may or may not happen, depending on how much time I want to have to finish the large amount of communications homework that's due on Monday. Humm....
-Think about the level of exhaustion I have reached
Sometimes when I am editing, I find myself praying over an over that I would make it. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I'm going to die from over-stressing about the photos or anything like that... I am praying for endurance. I had no idea when I got into photography how important persistence, and overjoyed diligence would be to my business - and only He can supply it. :) I really try not to dwell on how many sessions I have done, as if I deserve a break or something; I try to loose sight of the distractions, and I pray for full focus on Jesus. It's the only way to keep on.
Football requires strategy. Photography requires strategy. When I sat down to start editing, I started going through each pose and deciding which of the shots looks the loveliest. I have broken my editing process down into portions:
~ Find the best photo from each pose, and delete all other pictures.
~ Upload all photos to Photoshop.
~ Check histogram, if necessary, or if any issues are noticed.
~ Airbrush away under eye circles, redness, bruises, and the like.
~ Run through all the photos, double checking for anything I may have missed while editing.
~ Select which photos to make black & white copies of. Decide between a light, semi-light, dark, and very dark black & white tone for each photo, depending on the white balance, amount of light, kind of lighting, and textural tone.
Sounds slightly complicated, but it really isn't. And no two photographers do every single thing the same way. A well educated photographer incorporates elements of design, the rule of thirds, good control of the camera, posing technique, and good lighting, but other than that, it's really up to the photographer to be creative and find out what will best suit their clients and business. Make every session unique; they chose you to take their photos out of many, many other available photographers. Give them the most wonderful images you possibly can. {And be so totally excited about doing it! Remember this is all for Jesus!}
Post photo editing all-nighter instructions: Be so thankful! You've made it! Maybe you should get a little sleep... But, hey, you're a photographer, and more than likely, you've been up past 3:30 before on this - so it's nothing new. Take a moment so stand in awe of who He is - the Faithful One - who has sustained you through editing each of the photos. Now it's done. Excellence was applied; now rejoice!
Well... It's 2:21... I think that's a perfect, random note to end this blog post on. Trust Jesus, and keep going! :)