When I began my photography business, I was constantly amazed by how MUCH of my work day was spent on tasks that didn’t feel specifically photography related– that is, that didn’t involve me just taking pretty pictures with my camera!  And now that I have moved a bit into the education space of this industry, that has only expanded…I find it hard to explain to my friends and family what exactly a work day entails because it isn’t what people typically picture as the jobs a photographer would do…”Well, I usually spend a couple of hours working on content creation for my blog, newsletter, and social media, I answer about 50 emails a day, I work on timelines and schedules for weddings, I make graphics all that content I created for social media, and I edit photos all before lunch…”. It isn’t what people expect to hear!  And when I began, I was pretty overwhelmed by one MAJOR thing (before I realized all the other things that were to come on the business side!): Editing.  I am not a photoshop kind of girl, and never was. I have never liked the idea of making pictures look very different from real life…the whole reason I feel in love with photography was to CAPTURE real life, not what I wish my body looked like or what someone’s hair would look like without a breeze of wind!  So I struggled for a long time about whether people would really believe I was a photographer if I wasn’t a photoshop wiz!  Because the digital age has trained us to just say: “Well, can’t you photoshop that out?!”.  And while I still giggle nervously when my clients say it to me, the true answer is…NO!  I just don’t believe that knowing how to use a computer program to heavily manipulate the work I just did to capture true life is a part of every photographer’s job and journey, and it definitely isn’t a part of mine (though I highly respect those who can use it well!).  Now, it is definitely a useful skill to be able to do a headswap on a large family group for that ONE PERSON who just can’t keep their eyes open, or take care of a pesky scrape the 3 year old girl got THE MORNING OF her session that her mom really wants out!  But I send out big jobs to someone who IS trained to do that work, and I spend my time on what I am a master of…and that is not photoshop!

I do however LOVE Lightroom for photo editing, and I believe in editing photos!!  Mild corrections to get perfect color and light– to help the images look exactly how the moment looked, even when your camera doesn’t quite get there, are definitely my thing! I would never deliver unedited photos to a client and don’t recommend anyone else to do the same– I just like photo editing that is about the photos, and not about making changes that aren’t real!

So what is all of this about anyways?!  5 years in (wow!!), I feel like I have really hit my stride with Lightroom editing.  While I do outsource most of my editing, I still edit everything I post on social media and had to really perfect my style before handing it off to someone else to perfect!  Most of my work comes out of my camera similar to what I want it to look like in the end with just small changes.  I am not a preset girl (those are pre-made edits that you can apply to your images) in the traditional sense because I just believe all images are different and require different edits.  But over the years, I have developed a few presets with minor changes that CAN be applied to every image that really give my images the Jill Gum style if you will…and I am so excited to be sharing those presets with YOU!  All you have to do to grab them is sign up below, and you will download a zip file with my 3 signature Presets!!  You will also get instructions for how to use them with LR or LR classic (LR Classic makes it much more difficult, so these instructions should help a lot!).  It includes a black and white preset, the preset I use upon import of EVERY image, and also a preset with a bit more of my signature “style”, which I consider light and airy but still true to color!!

It takes a lot of time and practice to really find your style with editing.  What will it be for you? Matte and moody? Bright and Airy? Colorful and full of pop? There are so many options– but my number 1 recommendation is to find what you LOVE, and stick with it!  Your clients want to know what to expect from you, so you want to edit for similar style EVERY TIME so they know what they will get when they hire you!

And if you are looking for 3 beautiful presets to get you started, or move you along your way…just sign up below!

Click HERE for a Lightroom introduction!

Click HERE for more info about editing with Lightroom!

Click HERE for a tutorial on editing black and white images!