Adobe Success Story

Full name: Lauren Hillary
Studio name: Lauren Hillary Photography
URL: www.laurenhillary.com
Location: Costa Mesa, California
Inspiration: Bringing forth the raw emotions and feelings that make up life
Quote: “My goal is to create images which record those human moments that make the connection to life, love, and family.”

Project Details

Balancing fine art and photojournalism
Lauren Hillary is a consummate artist. A student of fine art photography, she has effectively translated her extensive background in fine art and fashion photography into a successful wedding photography business. She owns a full-service photography studio located in Costa Mesa, California where she specializes in weddings as well as maternity and newborn portraiture. She also shoots editorial and fashion work on a regular basis for select magazines and fashion designers.

With her distinctive and classic, yet fashionably artistic and photojournalistic look, Hillary is a sought-after photographer who is always thinking outside the box. She uses her exquisite knowledge of lighting and composition and clear vision of how an image should look and feel to produce stunning results for her clients.

Hillary’s fun and easy-going attitude, together with her timeless, simple style puts couples at ease and enables her to capture the true emotion and passion of their special day. She creates enduring relationships with her clients, who frequently return for maternity and newborn portraits.

Like many wedding photographers, Hillary’s business is heavily dependent on Adobe software. She batch processes images in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to adjust lighting and color and applies signature Actions in Adobe Photoshop CS3 that often mimic the look and feel of film. Within just a few days of their wedding, clients can enjoy viewing slideshows of their images on the web using the ubiquitous Adobe Flash Player.

The art of professionalism
For years, Hillary shot in JPEG until some experimentation with camera raw in Photoshop showed her how shooting raw could enhance her creativity. “Shooting raw and importing into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom gives me more latitude with an image and enables me make global adjustments in less time,” says Hillary. “If I need to do more refined editing, I can easily transition from Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to Adobe Photoshop CS3. Overall, my images look better because of Lightroom and Photoshop CS3.”

Photoshop CS3 Actions enable Hillary to retain the natural look she prefers, while fixing skin imperfections and perfecting images. Coming from a film background before transitioning to digital, she still loves the grainy look of black-and-white film and uses Actions in Photoshop CS3 to recreate this effect. “I use Actions in Adobe Photoshop CS3 to more quickly and easily manage my workflow and artistically apply a signature look to images.”

Hillary also loves the print feature in Photoshop Lightroom. With harsh deadlines to meet for her magazine clients, printing tear sheets from Photoshop Lightroom speeds the submission process. The ability to create beautifully custom, branded tear sheets that integrate with the files her studio sends off makes a beautiful presentation that the magazines appreciate. “The print feature in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is one of the best tools in any program I have ever used,” Hillary says. “The finished look is polished, professional, and organized.”

The metadata presets and tagging features in Photoshop Lightroom are also a hit with Hillary. She can easily tag images with floral arrangements from a particular florist, cakes from a particular bakery, or photographs taken at a particular hotel. “Magazines I work with often request images of bouquets, cakes, or locations,” Hillary explains. The tagging feature in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom enables me to easily find these images, request the necessary permissions, and ensure that the vendors I work with are properly credited.”

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