How to create Light and Airy style photos for your photography business in 4 Steps

I’ve been a wedding photographer full-time for 10 years and I always leaned towards the light and airy style, especially because my main shooting location is at the beach (although that style can look lovely anywhere).

And it took me awhile to nail the look, consistantly. And let me tell you guys, consistency is absolutely the number one most important thing in your photography business. 

So how did I get a consistent light and airy look for my wedding photography photos?

1. I try to shoot in the same quality of light as much as possible. 

   1. My prefered quality of light is shaded, window light, porch light or backlit. This gives me soft skin tones and lower contrast from the start.

2. I shoot underexposed. 

   1. This preserves the details in the highlighys and colors in the sky if you’d like to bring them back. So no, I do not shoot “light and airy” in camera. Also, I do’t know the science behind it, but shooting underexposed, gives you really creamy skin tones when you bring the exposure up post editing. 

3. I created my own preset, called Sueña Presets. 

   1. For years, I tried different popular preset brands that mimicked Fuji 400 film, but it was always too “washed out” for me, or too pink, or didn’t retain colors well. Then I tried Kodak Gold. I loved the warm sun-kissed skin tones, but it leaned too yellow. So I worked for a year with different softwares to blend the 2 films- and at last I finally have my perfect light and airy preset that retains colors, and has a warm skin tone.

4. I decrease contrast and lift shadows in direct light. 

   1. For times I do have to shoot in direct sunlight (like wedding ceremonies), I lift the shadows and reduce the contrast with my preset to give me the softest look possible. 

Those are the 4 most important things I do to achieve my light and airy wedding photography look while retaining colors and warm skin tones. I hope this works for you and happy shooting!