In this article, I explore how AI is reshaping wedding photography by streamlining post-production editing, speeding up album design, and impacting client expectations (to name a few).
I started my photography career as a wedding photographer’s right-hand woman. I learnt quickly that the top requirement for capturing sensational, memorable wedding photos is being multi-skilled.
A wedding photographer requires a keen eye, hyper-switched-on personal skills, and advanced technical skills.
Portrait photographers excel at capturing subtle emotions, and no occasion requires this skill more than a wedding.
However, behind the scenes, there’s a lot more that happens. Photo editing, editing and more editing, adding filters, cropping, balancing light and culling. Did I mention editing?
This is where AI jumps to the rescue. It becomes a photographer’s helpful, magical genie, fulfilling editing wishes with a quick tap of a computer button.
How Can Wedding Photographers Benefit from AI?
Let’s get stuck in and review how wedding photographers can benefit from AI.
We’ll also examine the potential drawbacks of AI, such as increased client expectations or AI surpassing human roles.
Faster Processing Time
One of the first things we witnessed AI alter for photographers was the successful automation of intricate manual editing tasks.
Photography edits that used to require an entire afternoon, skill, and bucket loads of coffee were suddenly completed with a single click.
Using powerful AI photo editing tools, a wedding photographer can automatically adjust lighting, enhance colors, and remove blemishes.
Credit: Jeongim Kwon
Photography edits you can streamline include natural retouching and enhancement of portraits, composition, cropping and framing, exposure correction and noise reduction.
A photographer can train AI if they desire a specific, unique edit, such as a personalised style.
Ok, you might have to dedicate an entire afternoon to training AI before it can replicate your personal style.
However, an afternoon of training beats spending hours of editing to achieve the same look manually.
AI editing programs like Lightroom and Imagen analyze photographers’ post edits to replicate. Essentially, you’re training Imagen’s AI every time you use it.
I love AI. It’s my best friend when it comes to menial photo editing tasks. Edits that used to involve hours of tweaking are now cut down to mere seconds.
Speeding up the post-production time has allowed me to take on more photography jobs and focus on the creative aspects of the work.
I prefer to spend my time envisioning and planning photography shoots; devising how to weave the couple’s dreams into reality.
Improved Workflow and Rapid Album Delivery
Automating edits had a knock-on effect on workflow, freeing up time for photographers to focus on client relations, marketing, and creativity.
The process that many clients never witness and therefore don’t necessarily value – post-production editing – is now mostly entrusted to AI.
Credit: Mylene Tremoyet
AI software has been trained by programmers to concisely perform and automate edits.
AI software such as Aftershoot and Lightroom can cut down on many hours of editing time by culling.
This means time won’t be as much of a pressure. If a couple wants their album finished and ready to go, pronto, you’ll be able to deliver.
The time to complete post-processing wedding photos has hit record speeds – freeing up your valuable time and cutting costs if you usually hire a photo editor.
An improved workflow means instead of editing, you can sit back and enjoy an extra coffee break or two, or be sensible and dedicate time to marketing your awesome business.
AI Creative Options for Clients
The low cost and speed of AI tools allow photographers to offer an extensive scope of creative options for their clients.
With bountiful free time, I can now research more creative ideas for a wedding couple, focusing on their theme and preferences.
Photoshop has offered interesting creative options, such as changing the style of the photo from photorealism to paint or sketch, or adding a ’60s vibe filter.
Now there are many more creative options for couples. With powerful AI tools, you can replace backgrounds, alter styles, and add elements.
Photo editing programs with integrated AI tools, such as Photoshop, Luminar Neo and Pixlr, can be used to completely revise and revamp the wedding album.
Using AI, you can overhaul the entire photo, or change selected photos to surreal, dreamlike artwork.
AI’s tools deliver the results, but you have the artistic discretion and inspiration to select the style that will suit your client.
However, I would advise you to keep your own authentic style, don’t get swept away with AI fads, and only offer AI-inspired options.
Concentrate on using AI as the tool to deliver the product and make sure your clients know this.
Not all AI creative styles will pass the test of time. In the future, they might look tacky and generic.
Make your client feel special and show them the unique styles that you believe suit them.
People are enjoying the wonders of AI, but as the hype dies down, people might realise they prefer unique human imagination.
Pre-Wedding Shots: Locations and Outfits
AI technology gives wedding photographers the option to create virtual photoshoots for wedding couples.
Using advanced photo-editing AI tools, photographers can simulate a photoshoot at the prospective locations a couple is considering.
Helping couples fine-tune exactly how they want the photoshoot to be on the big day is priceless, as it gives the wedding couple a sneaky but realistic visual preview.
Virtual wedding shoots cut out the expense and time spent travelling to different locations in an attempt to decide which spot they prefer.
Credit: Ulyana Tim
Offering a specialised AI cyber photoshoot service where you pop your client in different locations will give any wedding photographer an edge, putting them above their competition.
An added perk of AI relocations means you can place the wedding couple in overseas locations.
Romantic Paris or historic Venice can be included as prospective cyber locations.
Managing High Client Expectations
On the subject of endless creative options, automated edits, and faster workflow…
AI is a gift when you want to cut corners without actually cutting the corners off. Instead, AI expertly jumps the corners for you.
Due to AI’s speedy automation, some clients have developed unreasonable expectations of photographers.
These customers believe that since AI is involved, they can expect more and pay less.
Credit: Natilyn Hicks
This is something that every freelancer will come across; high-maintenance customers are part and parcel of any job.
When discussing the photoshoot, they will demand unrealistic edits, such as that AI costume changes are included with the pre-wedding virtual photoshoot.
AI can generate outfit ideas, which is fantastic. However, a couple will need to try on their wedding attire. Your AI might generate outfits that don’t exist, wasting everyone’s time.
A client might request a reduced price because they believe AI is doing most of the editing work.
Let your client know that human oversight is essential for selecting the most appropriate images – the ones that capture the emotional essence of the moment.
AI can detect smiles, but it cannot read the glint in a person’s eye or know the nuances of human emotion.
Compiling an album to tell the wedding story involves detecting emotions and ensuring none of the priceless gems are overlooked.
Remember, as an experienced wedding photographer, your skills are invaluable.
Your skills are innumerable. You know how to use photo editing software, how to direct guests, which angle to compose the photo to achieve the most appealing results, and so much more.
Increased Image Manipulation Options
Before AI appeared to improve our world, it was not uncommon for my clients to request that I smooth loose strands of hair, or remove people or objects from wedding photos.
If you haven’t handed these time-consuming tasks over to AI, it’s time you considered doing this.
AI has streamlined my image manipulation edits. Not only for quickly replacing backgrounds, but also for providing many more manipulation tricks.
AI can not only smooth hair, but also completely restyle it. If the bride regrets allowing her hairdresser to persuade her into donning a ’60s beehive, high-end AI can restyle her hair into a classic Cleopatra bob.
Credit: Thanh Le
Ok, although it is possible, completely restyling a bride’s hairstyle would be an unusual request, but just saying, if she wants it, AI can deliver it.
A more common request would be cleaning a bridesmaid’s dress, spoiled from traipsing through gardens for obligatory picturesque photoshoots. AI will provide a time-machine dry-cleaning service.
Plus it will perform other AI image manipulation manoeuvres, including opening eyes, applying makeup, and even putting that smile on grumpy uncle Bert.
Personally, I wouldn’t overly rely on these options. AI is brilliant, but no one wants their special day to become a complete fakery.
Preferably, you want to capture the live event authentically in all its stunning and sometimes messy glory.
You can use AI to patch up unexpected mishaps, such as removing spilled wine or smeared makeup.
Organize Photo Galleries
Using AI editing tools, wedding photographers can easily arrange photos into albums with categories and subcategories.
AI photo editing software can categorise albums based on face and object recognition, similarity detection, or the time of day.
This cuts down on hours of work when you consider there are usually hundreds, if not thousands, of photos to organise.
Credit: Nubelson Fernandes
Photo galleries, like Lightroom, Capture One and Luminar Neo, use AI face recognition to categorize photos.
This means the wedding couple and guests can cut to the chase and search for photos of specific moments, such as the bouquet toss, or photos of themselves.
Let’s not deny it, we all know how egocentric we have become, we love musing over our own image.
If you opt to use Wedding Studio as an online gallery, guests can upload the candid gems they snapped of the special day.
Watch out, there could be a budding wedding photographer on the guest list whose photos will outshine your talent. Just kidding.
Wedding Photographers Are Irreplaceable
If you’re worried you might be replaced by AI in the coming years, you can let out a huge sigh of relief.
Wedding photographers don’t only choreograph and edit entire wedding albums, they inspire and direct to capture precious, intimate moments.
Moments that an AI bot would miss. That split second when a flower girl reaches to kiss the bride. A mother’s tears when she watches her daughter sail down the aisle, and the spark of love between husband and wife.
Every subtle element of the wedding makes a difference. From the change of light to a shift in the bride’s mood.
To capture the best shots, a wedding photographer has to be switched on and alert at all times.
Credit: Luwadlin Bosman
A human has creativity, adaptability, and the capacity to read the nuances of people’s emotions.
Of course, AI wedding photographer bots will be manufactured. Programmed to roam around the wedding, snapping photos of the event.
I imagine people will hire AI bots either to cut costs or for the novelty of having a robot working in their midst.
I would love to see these wedding photos, because I think the wedding album would be full of curious expressions. Expressions that reflect an AI bot’s inability to connect intimately with humans.
Credit: Pedro de Sousa
AI cannot truly replicate genuine human emotion or connect and inspire us in the same way another person can.
A robot might imitate emotion. It might say it’s tired when its battery is low or claim to feel sad as part of a programmed response, but we know it isn’t actually experiencing life as we do.
This inability to connect creates a barrier, preventing us from forming the same emotional connection with bots that we naturally share with other humans.
This makes human portrait photographers irreplaceable. I believe wedding photographers can rest assured they will be in demand into the distant foreseeable future.
Conclusion
So, wedding photographers, it’s time to up your game. Switch that kettle on so you can relax with a cuppa, while AI churns through your tedious, time-consuming tasks.
I am an AI enthusiast when it comes to photo editing.
I am not an advocate for replacing jobs that require personal connection, creativity, or human compassion.
I don’t want to be served by AI at my local cafe; I love my grumpy barista and smiling waitress. I would never wish to lose them.
But when it comes to repetitive jobs like photo editing, I’m more than happy to wave goodbye to them.
Yippee, free time! Plus, I welcome the extensive creative options that AI offers. Photoshop filters were revolutionary, but now AI offers an inexhaustible bounty of creative jewels to play with.
Wedding photographers can let rip a smug smile because although many people will be replaced by AI in the coming years, they won’t.
Sure, a bot could be taught to say cheese and snap, but can they sense a guest’s mood or relate to people on an emotional level?
It would take an ingenious AI bot to surpass the extensive skill set of the humble wedding photographer.
I think it will be a long time before an AI wedding photographer robot will be hired to shoot someone’s significant day.
That said, I do hope I’m invited to a wedding with an AI bot photographer.
There are so many mishaps waiting to happen, and I’d like to be there to record them. Ok, that’s wicked of me, but we all have our dark, devious side.
AI is the pro when it comes to automating, so let’s not forget to praise and use AI where it excels – and safeguard our own creative skills in the areas where they count the most.
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