Shooting & Editing Styles

Single Shot

• Exposures Per Frame
  1

• Shooting Pros

  Moderately fast to shoot

  High control over lighting

  Final images appear natural

• Shooting Cons

  Requires flash equipment

  Large spaces can be complex

  Hiding flashes can be tricky

• Editing Process

  Standard adjustments plus color cast correction and occasional removal of flash hot spots and light stands. Images shot in RAW allow for maximum flexibility and control during the editing process and typically produce the sharpest final images plus image management is easier with less files to manage.

• Editing Cost

  1 Credit

High Dynamic Range

(HDR)

• Exposures Per Frame
  3 or 5 commonly
• Shooting Pros

  Quick to setup & shoot

  Good for windows views

  Renders consistent output

• Shooting Cons

  Requires tripod

  Less control over lighting

  Final images may look less natural

• Editing Process

  Images are first processed with HDR blending software with the final blended image processed with standard adjustments. One downside is standard editing adjustments are applied to a JPEG rather than a RAW file, which does slightly reduce the quality and control during the editing phase.

• Editing Cost
  1.25 Credits

Flambient

(Flash + Ambient)

• Exposures Per Frame
  2
• Shooting Pros

  Moderately fast to shoot

  Good for windows views

  Final images appear natural

• Shooting Cons

  Requires tripod

  Requires some flash equipment

  Large spaces may be complex

• Editing Process

  Effectively a blend between single shot and HDR, the base ambient image is typically edited in RAW format and then exported to Photoshop where the flash layer is blended in with opacity. The flambient style attempts to capture the pros of both single shot and HDR while looking more natural than HDR.

• Editing Cost
  1.5 Credits

Manual Blending

• Exposures Per Frame
  Variable

• Shooting Pros

  Maximum image control

  Common in architectural editorial and luxury photography

• Shooting Cons

  Time consuming to shoot

  Time consuming to edit

  Typically requires lights & tripod

• Editing Process

  By far the most complex type of editing style and one which requires the photographer to have a specific process already well documented, frames with variable amounts of bracketed images are imported to Photoshop with each bracket being manually brushed over the base frame to create a dynamic, highly stylized image.

• Editing Cost
  3 to 5+ Credits