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    Photography

    How to Create a Wedding Blog Post in 30 Minutes!

    June 12, 2018

    CapitolHillDCWeddingStyledShoot-ManaliPhotography-010
    I’m Manali
    Business coach, editor & brand photographer based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. When I'm teaching about systems or editing, you'll find me at a vineyard or cuddled with my cat Keegan on our cozy couch!
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    So I wanted to do something a little bit different and give you more of a behind the scenes look at what I do today! So a huge difference in my life this summer is that my brother recently moved to NYC for a summer internship! This is kinda a huge deal because believe it or not, I’ve never actually spent a whole summer not being in the same place as him since we’ve both always interned and had jobs locally. All my summer memories have always included night time drives with him (the only way I found out about good new indie tracks), going to HT randomly to pick up items for our parents, him rescuing me at least once a summer from the metro, and lazy evenings hanging out, swapping puppy videos and laughing at the funny things our parents said. If we had to go somewhere we didn’t like, at least we could go together. So this summer feels a little more lonely without him there! Every day since he’s been in NY he’s been sending our family group chat these amazing photos documenting his time exploring NYC as not a tourist but a local! And to go along with his pictures he’s been keeping up a blog of sorts. And he made one comment about now appreciating my blog posts a lot more because of the thought and effort that goes into them which spurred the writing of this post!

    So I figured it would be a cool idea to give you guys a bit of a peek into what all goes into creating these blog posts that I love sharing with you guys so here goes! Before I even open up WordPress which is what houses all my blog posts, I actually start in Lightroom. For each portrait session or wedding, I’ll tag my favorite images and the ones that tell the story of the day with 5 stars. For a wedding this tends to be around 100-200 images (it’s always so hard to narrow these down!!) After these highlight images are tagged, I’ll edit them and make sure that they look consistent by looking at groups of them in Lightroom!

    Screen Shot 2018-06-11 at 8.22.26 PM

    After exporting these photos I’ll pull them into a software I use call Blogstomp. Blogstomp allows me to pair 2 vertical images together and resize all my pictures to be the best quality resolution and to look tack sharp for the specific dimensions of my blog posts! The one below is one that completely fits my blog dimensions!

    EvergreenCountryClubWedding-GlitterGoldBlush-VAPhotographer-075

    After doing this time and time again, I’ve been able to narrow down the process to only takes me a few minutes. There’s a couple of key things that I’m considering while pairing images together! I aim to make every blog post look like it could be straight out of an editorial magazine or online blog! In order to do this, each vertical and horizontal image should draw a viewers eye to it. I do this by mixing up the type of images that I pair side by side using some of the following techniques :

    • Close up detail shots of jewelry /decorations/etc with portraits with a wider portrait shot  (so your eye goes to each photo individually! see below for an example, which one is more a esthetically pleasing?)StoneTowerWineryWedding-ElegantBlushMagentaSummer-ManaliPhotography043
    • A candid shot where the couple isn’t looking at the camera with one where either one person or both people are looking towards itHarbourViewWoodbridgeEngagementCeremony-DCIndianWeddingPhotographer003
    • One dynamic shot where there’s movement vs one with the couple standing stillCapitolHillDCWeddingStyledShoot-ManaliPhotography-010
    • Images that I ever taken in the same lightingCapitolHillDCEngagementSessionPhotography-ManaliPhotography-002
    • Black and white shots with color ones!VTGraduationPortraitPhotographer-BlacksburgVA_0287

    Some other key things once I import all the images that are “stomped” together when Im in WordPress:

    • I try to start each post with a really stunning shot (usually one of my top fives!) from the day
    • Switch up which shot have people vs details when I have 2 sets of vertical images stacked on top of each other
    • No more than 3 sets of vertical stacked on vertical or likewise horizontal stacked on horizontal
    • This goes back to editing photos but a lot of times you’ll see me include more emotional moments as black and white images so as to draw the eye to the emotion in the moment as opposed to I the colors!
    • Mixing up ones of the bridesmaids and groomsmen images next to each
    • Alternating between horizontal images and 2 vertical images when possible

    If got to back through my posts you might be able to see how I apply these principles to curate consistent posts editorially! I don’t follow all these to a complete T but I do try to keep these things in mind while creating the posts! Not every post ends up being totally perfect, but I try my best 🙂 I hope this is a kind of interesting look into what goes into each blog posts!

     

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