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Boutique Hotel Photo Editing Workflow

Jul 9, 2025

Overview

The creator presents a time-lapse video of their editing workflow for a boutique hotel photo shoot in downtown Nashville, offering brief commentary on selected images and highlighting challenges and techniques used.

Photo Shoot Overview and Approach

  • Conducted a three-hour photo session in a downtown Nashville boutique hotel, capturing 41 images but showing only a portion in the time-lapse.
  • Due to time constraints, relied on ambient lighting and rearranged furniture for better composition instead of using supplemental lights.
  • Used a CamRanger with an iPad Pro for real-time image review and composition adjustments.

Editing Workflow and Techniques

  • Imported images into Photoshop for manual hand-blending, basic color correction, and removing unwanted color casts.
  • Utilized luminosity masking for tone control, especially in window areas, to balance exterior and interior lighting.
  • Employed Topaz AI Sharpen for targeted sharpening, particularly due to potential softness from using a tilt-shift lens and adapters on a Sony A7R IV.
  • Removed distractions like cables, people, and vehicles, and addressed clutter using object removal tools.

Challenges and Solutions

  • Faced issues with limited time for staging rooms and late arrivals by staging staff, restricting lighting and setup options.
  • Managed a mix of lighting sources and extreme color contrasts in decor, requiring careful color correction and blending.
  • Overcame the inability to move some objects (e.g., a parked moped) by compositing sections from other images.
  • Edited exterior shots to clean up streets and enhance twilight ambiance via artificial lighting and sky replacement.

Final Selections and Client Preferences

  • Produced small vignette images and detail shots by request, even when subjects (such as doors or decor) were initially unplanned for final delivery.
  • Preserved some natural imperfections in images to maintain the unique character of the venue, based on client guidance.

Commentary and Viewer Engagement

  • Limited commentary to 25 seconds per image in the time-lapse; acknowledged this may have constrained the depth of explanations.
  • Invited viewers to join an open book club for detailed, step-by-step editing demonstrations.
  • Encouraged feedback and questions for future content improvements.