Same Day Wedding Edits With Sasha Leahovcenco

I have a deep admiration for wedding photographers. I believe wedding photography is probably one of the most challenging things you can tackle in photography. The pressures of shooting and then editing hundreds of photos from the event can become daunting. For photographer, Sasha Leahovcenco, he takes on the added pressure of same day edits. Sasha explains how he accomplishes his wedding reception-ready slideshows. 

Fstoppers: When shooting a same day edit wedding, do you normally shoot on your own, or do you have a second shooter accompany you?

Sasha Leahovcenco: I do everything myself. I sometimes have a second shooter, but a lot of times I put together a slideshow myself even though I was shooting alone.

Fstoppers: How do you juggle shooting and editing the wedding?

Sasha Leahovcenco: I copy images as soon as the cards are full. (I shoot with 16gb cards). As soon as they are done copying I export them to Lightroom 4. So, after I’ve copied my first card, I go ahead and start editing and exporting the photos using Lightroom 4, meanwhile dumping the second card, and so on.

Fstoppers: Which file format do you prefer to shoot in RAW or JPEG?

Sasha Leahovcenco: I shoot RAW only. I know, it would be faster to shoot RAW+small Jpeg and use Jpeg for the slideshow, but I still want to make sure I can edit the way I want it, and that’s why use RAW files.

Fstoppers: When do you find the time to make your edits?

Sasha Leahovcenco: I do it during the getting ready, before the ceremony and during the reception. By the time I get to the reception I put my last card/cards to copy and during the dinner (which usually last about 20-30 minutes) I finish editing the photos and put them for export to a video slideshow. It takes usually about 20 minutes or so. Afterwards, I’m ready to show it either from my computer or just give a video file to whoever is responsible at the wedding. For example, this slideshow took me about one hour in total to make.

Fstoppers: Is there anything that helps make the process go by faster?

Sasha Leahovcenco: Couple of things which make the process faster is a SSD drive and Lexar Firewire 800 card reader. Also, when I start looking through the photos, I pretty much know what photos I want to have in the slideshow. I keep between 40-70 images, depending on the wedding, and try to make it as personal as I can.

Thank you Sasha for taking the time to answer my questions. If you have a question for Sasha be sure to comment below. If you’d like to see more of his work you can visit his wedding photography website: You + We Photography, his Twitter or his Facebook page.

Also, be sure to check out what happens when you attempt a same day wedding video edit here: Same Day Wedding Edits Can Be The Ultimate Stress