Event Photography and the Art of Editing

Sep 16

3 min read

I just love when I can apply my knowledge of something I JUST learned in photography to a session and it actually takes my photos to the next level, who would’ve thought lol ✨sarcasm✨

I recently had the pleasure of shooting the inaugural The Carolinas Fashion Week (TCFW) held here in Charlotte Monday, August 31st - Sunday, September 5th, for three of the seven scheduled days. It was so much fun; I was only shooting behind the scenes content!

It was also a learning experience since it was my first time ever shooting a fashion event at that capacity. My first day shooting was day three of the fashion week, “Una Emergencia Moderna - A Modern Emergence” at the venue, Project 658. Photographers scheduled to shoot BTS content were to arrive three hours before the event start time which allowed us to get shots of designers, models, hairstylists and make-up artists as they set up in the back and got the models ready.

I used my Godox TT600 speedlite as an on camera flash throughout the three days of me shooting in order to properly illuminate the people I shot regardless of where I was. I believe I stayed between 1/4, 1/8, and/or 1/16 flash power (nearing the highest flash power of 1/1), while I floated around the venue to get shots of everyone in the back then guests in the lobby as they waited to enter and again as they watched the fashion show in the main event area. My exposure settings were between 1/125-1/200 shutter speed, f2.8-f5.6, and ISO 1600 the whole night. When I first got there I had to adjust my exposure quite a bit, especially my shutter speed and aperture in order to let in just enough ambient light so that when I used my speedlite, the photos weren’t blown out. My RAW photos straight out of camera were okay but some of them were a bit overexposed. See example below.

Additional note: I was bouncing my flash off of the surrounding walls so that I did not point it directly at people and really drown them in light. What that does is create a soft light on the subject but it also carries with it the color of whatever I am using to bounce flash. I think bouncing flash off of the white walls also added that hazy white layer in the RAW photos.

This takes me back to my opening comment of learning something new then being able to apply it. Y’all, the new thing I learned was color grading and boy did I have a fun time using it while editing! I won’t share all of my editing secrets but all of my photos displayed here were mostly color graded with some additional adjustments. What I understand about color grading so far is that I am able to adjust the colors of the midtones, shadows, and highlights of a photo to help make some colors pop or get more creative and change a color completely.

I was able to really make some photos more interesting and vibrant given the liveliness and the excitement of the event. Enjoy some more of my before and after (RAW vs. Edited) photos below. This is work I’m truly proud of as I continue to be a student of the game.

Check out photos from other amazing photographers who participated in The Carolinas Fashion Week on TCFW’s instagram page @thecarolinasfashionweek.