How do you balance creativity and consistency when editing commercial photos?

Request the client to provide examples or create a mood board that represents the desired aesthetic for the project. These visual references can include images from their competitors, other campaigns they admire, or even samples from your own portfolio that resonate with their vision. Visual references help you align your creative direction with the client's expectations.

While it is crucial to stay creative, it should not be done at the cost of consistency. To ensure consistency, create separate portfolios of work with your different ideal clients in mind so that you don't confuse them and avoid any surprises. Develop your creativity within the parameters of these genres. With time, your personal style will mature, permeating all genres of your work and will be the uniting factor contributing to the consistency of your work.

Understanding the brief in photography goes beyond just following guidelines; it's about immersing in the narrative the photos need to tell. I focus on grasping the emotional and thematic essence the client wishes to communicate. This understanding guides my editing process, where I aim to amplify the inherent story within each photo, ensuring the final product is not just technically sound but also emotionally resonant and thematically consistent with the client's vision.

Adding to Nedas post, you want to relay back, exactly what you've understood they want and again create a mood board and a shot list that helps paint their picture before you capture it. Once they sign off you're good to go!

Editing is certainly a big piece of the art that you’re making as a photographer. Over the years I have come to appreciate and adore having my own signature editing style. Each of my shoots, unless specifically requested by the brand, follows my signature style. Practicing and experimenting with your editing on a regular basis is absolutely the ideal way to hone in on your preferred editing style. There’s a big difference between creating bold and vibrant imagery or more subtle and muted tones, and figuring out which final look you prefer is part of the fun process to building your creative identity.

Having a style guide is so helpful! I've found creating a collaborative style guide for each project to be very useful in both planning a shoot, and the editing process, to keep you and the client on the same page. It can help you and the client be on the same page about which shots they want and what products or props they need to bring, and help ensure that you as the photographer, have all the correct equipment, lighting, and lenses. In the editing phase, it helps show your client your particular editing style(s), and can help you align your edits to the client's brand or style. A style guide has helped me immensely as I feel it's a great reference for each project and aligns me and the client.

You should always create a colour grade preset ( colour palete) as part of your mood board. Keeping within your style as this is what you are being hired for, but giving your client the visual to your approach.

Whilst presets are useful, they’re also not ‘one size fits all’. You will need to tweak each image to make sure that they truly are uniform/that you achieve the desired outcome. This will be especially valid if you utilise natural light to shoot, or spend a lot of time shooting outdoors. Within a controlled studio setting presets may be easier to utilise, but from shoot to shoot you will be making use of different lighting techniques, different styling, and different colours. Slapping a preset on and calling it a day isn’t going to have the desired outcome without a lot of tweaking.

I do all my own retouching and editing and there is a golden rule . Batch process your colour temperature and settings and as many stages as you can . Also apply a rule that whatever you do on one image you must do on all . I can get half way through and then realise I’m not happy with something in my frame and so I’ll start removing it . Then I have to go back and see if it features in all the other images and if it does , does it work in that photo or need taking out . A consistent approach is everything.

Customer specific Lightroom presets are in my experience very useful if Customer has a style guide for the imagery. Presets allow you to quickly and easily apply your Customer specific style to your photos. Presets save a lot of time and effort, and it speeds up the editing process while it also helps to create a consistent look across all customer photos. Here's a couple of tips for creating customer-specific Lightroom preset: Start from scratch or with a "base" preset you like. Make adjustments and experiment with different settings to find the look and feel to meet customers style guide (or your own style). Name your preset so that you can easily find it. Save your preset to Customer folder.

I'd say this is most helpful with something like e-commerce where the lighting is absolutely consistent. However, it is still important to go through each image to make sure the product is reading accurately on camera (preferably you can catch most mistakes WHILST shooting). Dynamic shoots with multiple light setups or daylight require a much more hands-on approach to ensure the images read as cohesive.

Trying out new ways to edit in your style is a game changer. You will find your work may look different but the same at the same time. I call this style evolution. Big named brands are always levelling up their style but also keeping it static. Don't be afraid to add an extra this and take away a little bit of that.

Balance is everything. As one of my great instructors said regarding retouching, “Just because you could, doesn’t mean you should.”

It's crucial to create as many presets as possible and use outsource vendors. Time management is critical. It's important for me to not have projects in post with more shoots on the calendar.

Presets and batch processes can be useful for technical steps where they can save you lots of time. However, images can require such a unique color treatment and process that this batch editing can actually slow workflow, in the case of having to go backward to undo some of the preset steps. It's definitely a matter of using the right tool for the job.

Batch editing, for me, is exactly that it’s a tool to help with consistency. Once my images are looking consistent that’s when I’ll take them further when needed and software like Photoshop. Also, shop is very powerful and can be overdone, that’s where you need to work on a lot of images and learn to when it’s too much. In portraits, especially head shots, often times I’ll get clients who will ask me to retouch an image in an extreme way, because they saw an Instagram filter or something like that. I let them know, kindly,that I don’t edit like that. My intent is to create a natural representation of them.

When working with clients, I've had them pick 3-5 of their favorite shots at the end of the shoot. I can then edit a few versions of those shots, and come back to the client with the edited images and let them give some feedback. I've liked being able to collaborate closely on projects, and make sure that I'm giving them what they're looking for before editing the whole shoot. This "sneak peek" can help pare down the amount of changes you're making later on, and make sure you and the client are on the same page at the beginning of the editing process.

Client feedback on images is so important. It's my favorite when the project is treated as a collaboration, where clients get exactly what they are wanting but also value your opinion and expertise as a retoucher, this makes the best work!

Before a full edit I always consult with a preview on how I will edit the images and how they would look. I usually do this towards the end of the shoot. This way its fresh in both our minds and the approach is set in stone for both parties.

Workflow is very important when retouching for clients. Everything must be done in editable labeled layers which are logical and easy to find. That way no matter what (often unexpected) edit a client asks for it is easy to do in a nondestructive way which preserves all the other editing that was approved. Many retouchers utilize actions to quickly create the same layer structure on each image they retouch which will make it easy to find the correct elements to edit and quickly and efficiently meet client expectations.

Here are some additional tips: Use a color calibrated monitor. A calibrated monitor will help you to see your photos accurately. Use a good lighting and viewing environment. Make sure that you are editing your photos in a well-lit environment with no glare. And a bonus tip: Take breaks! Don't overwork your eyes. Take breaks to do and look at something else and you will see the benefits in the results!

Even if your creative vision is better than your client's, you have to deliver on their vision as close to their specification as possible. Time permitting, shoot and present your ideas as an alternative. This allows you to exceed client expectations, even if they do not use your preferred version, and develop your creativity to use as examples for gaining future work.

I've found it very helpful in my experience, to get everyone in the same room to review images. If possible; (especially if you're working on something for OOH (out of home)) looking at a calibrated printed proof all at the same time with art directors can ensure that everyone is seeing the same color in one controlled environment. This can be difficult during these times, as we have become so accustomed to doing color reviews over zoom, or via a Google slides presentation. If this isn't possible, just be aware that everyone is seeing the images slightly differently, some are looking on their phones, some might have a calibrated monitor, etc- so just keeping this in mind and educating clients on this subject can be helpful.