My Love It / Hate It Relationship with Photoshop

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As an event designer, I love Photoshop. 

As an event designer, I hate Photoshop. 

Let me explain....

What I love:  that photographers I can fix...adjust...tweak images.  Make it more romantic, give it depth and feeling.  Fix a myriad of sins.  Make greens greener and blues bluer. 

What I hate: that photographers can fix...adjust...tweak images.  Make colors not what they really were in real life. 

A tough conundrum to have because when a couple shows an image of roses and they want THAT EXACT color.  I sometimes have to tell them that the color does not and never could exist.  It's in the lighting and in the tweaking and the adjustments or actions that made it look that way in the image. 

Are they disappointed?  Most often, yes.  Do they argue with me as to WHY??  Sometimes, yes.  

I've arrived at a point in my career where I can almost always look at an image and pick out those that are not true to color or nature.  I say MOST of the time because Photoshop is great with a light hand but more often than not it's not done lightly. 

There are many times when I review images and see the adjusting on the images that I have painstakingly put our design touch on.  The green just slightly more teal.  The orange has a hint of red.  Do I like it?  Sometimes yes but more often I have lost sleep over whether or not that charger was the RIGHT thing to do.  To see it not true, makes me kind of sad.  I'd love to have my cake and eat it too.  To see the images in their raw form and then again with the photographer's idea of a more beautiful event.  

When we do a consultation with a couple and view their inspiration, Leah, my lead floral designer, and I will look at the images - turning them this way and that - trying to figure out *maybe* what the true color was of that orchid, the name of that rose.  It's almost funny to watch to an outsider.  It's taken me a lot of years to have such an extensive knowledge of flowers, colors and availability which has helped me understand images that are presented and process the information to best advise our couples. 

So for the brides reading this - go easy on the tones of your flowers and how exactly you must have the rose match the bridesmaids shawls... 

For event planners - sometimes the picture isn't exactly as it was...

For photographers - can you give me the option of seeing the real images, please?  I'd love to see how my original vision turned out. 

Comments

[Mary Kidwell]

I totally agree. It's so easy to completely change an image with Photoshop. Definitely both a blessing and a curse, especially since so much (especially weddings) are beautiful in their own right, without any alterations. Thanks for posting from an event planner's point of view, since most of us are on the receiving end of edited photos.

[IntimateWeddings]

This is so interesting. I'm dabbling in photography and I've been playing with Photoshop. It's so easy to take a decent photograph and give it the 'wow' factor with a few clicks of the mouse. Now that I know some of the tricks, it's sorta ruined the magic for me. When I look at photos from photographers I know how they have been manipulated. I can understand how photographers are keen to use this and why brides love it. It makes reality look even more beautiful... sometimes. But at the same time, will we all look back at the photos of this era and not get a true picture (no pun intended) of what was?

[kelly mcwilliams]

Oh this is a marvelous post Sasha. You nailed it and I couldn't agree with you more. I find the inconsistency of the coloring the most frustrating. When the bridesmaids are wearing tiffany blue in one picture and apparently they switch to periwinkle blue later in the day. Yes, 2 fabulous images exist. But oh, my bride really liked the sea blue dresses she actually chose.