JP: Hi, this is JP. Today I’ve got Jose Alvarado here with us. We’re going to take a look at his photo life and how Imagen makes that easier for him. Jose’s a wedding photographer in Pasadena. We’re going to take a look at how he works his business and what he does. So, welcome.
Jose: Thank you for doing this. Hey JP, thank you so much for having me. It’s a pleasure.
JP: The process of doing weddings is time intensive. You’re on the shoots. You’re working weekends. The editing process, the culling process can be overwhelming. And I’ve talked to a lot of wedding photographers that that is, you know, something that is very difficult for them to do. And Imagen kind of solves that problem. It helps you get your time back and helps you work on your business.
Jose: Yeah. I mean, I wish I had this 5 or 10 years ago when I was shooting 30 to 40 weddings. I would have for sure had a lot more time to focus on other things.
JP: So, this is really great for wedding photographers, event photographers, anybody who’s dealing with a lot of images that you can go in now cull and edit really quickly. Some fashion photographers, you know, a lot of commercial work, you’re doing a lot. We’ll shoot three or four thousand images in an evening, you know, and it’s not unheard of at all.
Jose: I want to say even sports photographers, they probably are just holding on the shutter for each shot.
JP: Yeah, that’s really interesting. I’ve never talked to a sports photographer. We need to talk to sports photographers and see how this will affect their workflow. But yeah, anyone who’s doing high volume types of work, this is really a timesaver. I love your wedding work. I’ve seen you kind of go from very beginning to now really established and so I am just curious about where you’re at and what you’ve done. So tell us where you’re located and what you do.
Jose: So I’m located here in Pasadena, California. You know, sunny California. And I’ve been shooting weddings for 12 years now. It’s been a great journey. It’s been fun. I’ve enjoyed every part of this business. My wedding photographer was actually kind enough to like let me second shoot for him. And he was pretty established at the time and I was able to like build a portfolio that way and I’ve been doing this for 12 years now. It’s been a pretty great journey.
JP: That’s incredible. So, I know you told me the story that your job started to go, “Hey, you can’t do a side business like this.” And so, tell me, so they kind of made you transition, didn’t they?
Jose: Yeah. So, unfortunately, I was working in finance and they did not allow me to have a separate business or anything like that.
JP: Even though it was unrelated?
Jose: Yes, even though it was unrelated. So, I had to step away from that job and I went all in on photography.
JP: Was that a hard transition?
Jose: It was definitely hard. I was really scared to just go all in on this. But this is what I wanted to do and I had way more fun doing this instead of sitting in front of a desk.
JP: So, in looking back, would you have changed that?
Jose: No, no regrets. I’m very happy I made that decision.
JP: That’s awesome. So, do you want to talk about your editing style?
Jose: Yeah. I mean, this is a really good question because it took me a while to find my editing style. In the beginning, when you’re starting off as a photographer, you see so many different looks from just trying to look up to other photographers. So, there’s so many different styles. And in the beginning, I was just all over the place. I liked the dark and moody.
Jose: I liked the harsh flash. I liked the super bright and airy. But with time, you really, the more you shoot, I feel like that’s the main key.
Jose: The more you shoot, that’s how you figure out your style. So, I would say my style is very light, clean, crisp and to the point. I don’t overdo it with the lighting. I like things to just look natural how they look in real life. I don’t like my images to look orange or brown. I like the skin tones to look exactly how they look in real life. So, that’s my editing style. I don’t over do it when it comes to posing.
Jose: I really just like it to feel natural. I don’t do anything like super cheesy or anything like that. I give certain directions to my couples or prompts that will hopefully just bring out their natural expressions and that’s my approach when it comes to that.
JP: That makes a lot of sense. I mean, if you change your style all the time, brides don’t know what they’re getting. I mean, you kind of…
Jose: That’s true. Yeah. And that was one thing I learned in the beginning. You definitely need to focus on one style. Otherwise, if you’re posting stuff inconsistently, then wedding planners and brides can catch on to what they’re going to get, like “Well, what are we going to get for our wedding?” So, you definitely need to narrow down what your style is like.
JP: I think that’s a great point because if they look at your Instagram, they look at your website and there’s a consistent style there, then they know if they love it or not. I love that.
Jose: Yeah, I heard this from one photographer. Your images should pop out to people who follow you, they should be able to pinpoint your image without even seeing your name. And that’s kind of like what you want to get to where some person can see your photo and be like, “Oh, that’s Jose Alvarado’s photo or that’s JP’s photo without even seeing who shot it.”
JP: That’s a great point. Now, you know you’ve got a consistent look and people are going to hire you because they love the look.
JP: So, the reason you try a software like Imagen is because you want to save time. So, click on the link, go to Imagen, you get your first 1,500 edits for free. So, check it out. Get your life back.
JP: So that kind of gives us a segue into equipment because equipment either helps you get the candids or it gets in the way of getting the candids. So tell us about your setup. What’s your setup?
Jose: So I do have two bodies, one side by side on a harness. Those typically are usually digital cameras. And then I also shoot on film. So I do have one film camera around my neck on a strap, which is the Holga. The Holga which is a medium format camera.
JP: In my day that would have been like a really low-end medium format camera.
Jose: Well the thing is that with the film these days, celebrities have really made an influence on wedding brides and they love the look of a point and shoot camera and also like film, like medium format, just quick shots.
JP: How many rolls of film do you with it?
Jose: I shoot like probably 10 to 12 rolls.
JP: 10 to 12 rolls? Do you charge them per roll? Or is that part of your package?
Jose: That’s part of my package.
JP: And then you said you have a fourth camera. What’s the fourth one?
Jose: A point and shoot camera. Another film camera, but just on 35 mm film.
JP: What camera is that that you shoot?
Jose: It’s either a Contax TVS or a Canon 3. So, I really look like the camera guy on a wedding day.
JP: Yeah, very easy to point out. But then you’ve got a second shooter, right? Lindsay shoots. Your wife shoots.
Jose: Yes. So, my wife does shoot with me and she usually has two to three cameras, too. So, we have a lot of cameras.
JP: So, how many images do you shoot in a wedding day, do you think?
Jose: Yeah. I mean, I wish I was shooting a lot less, but we are averaging somewhere around 7,000 to 8,000 images on a wedding day.
JP: Oh my word, that’s a lot. So, tell us about that post process.
Jose: Yeah, 5 years ago, I was looking through every single image one by one, 8,000 images. It was not fun. But in the last two years, I discovered Imagen, which is a game changer. It changed my life. I have so much free time now. Just to tell you how that works, I basically submit my photos to the software and it starts doing the culling for me. So, I’m spending way, way less time.
JP: So, you are using the culling now? Because when I talked to you a while back, you were using the editing but not the culling.
Jose: Yes, yes I am doing the culling now. Love it!
JP: That is really a game changer for me. It is definitely. So now, how has Imagen changed that process for you?
Jose: Yes, Imagen definitely made things a lot simpler for us and for me because I’m the one that typically does the editing. So I upload all the images to Lightroom, just all 8,000 photos to it. And then I open the Imagen software and then you upload the 8,000 photos to the software. From there, Imagen does its magic by culling it for me. And you can have it do very little selections or a lot.
JP: So you tell it a large number or a small number? Yeah. Depending on what you want.
Jose: Yes. Yes. So after like 20 minutes, it’ll give me back from 8,000, it’ll bring it back to like 3,000.
JP: So you’re pretty generous. You’re still looking at 3,000.
Jose: I’m still looking at a lot of photos still. But it’s definitely a lot less. So I do love that.
JP; You were editing in Imagen before you were culling. So you’ve been doing that for quite a while.
Jose: Oh yeah, Imagen has definitely changed my life. So Imagen, once you’re done with the culling process, it’ll ask you if you want to edit. And in the beginning, it’ll ask you to submit like 5,000 to 6,000 images so it could learn your style. Once you’re done with the culling, it’ll take the images and edit the photos with the style that you created with the profile.
JP: Is it pretty close? I mean, sometimes you get in lighting situations where you got to make some adjustments.
Jose: Honestly, 90% of the time it’s getting me there. It is.
JP: So, do you go back in to Lightroom and look at each image and make sure or do you kind of skim through them or…
Jose: I do look at the portraits for sure, the important or the ones that are my favorites. I definitely look at those and just make sure it’s exactly how I want it to look.
JP: So, how many images do you give to the the bride and groom? I mean, how many do you end up delivering?
Jose: For an 8 hour day I’m delivering anywhere from 1,000 to 1500 images.
JP: That’s awesome. So, how many weddings are you doing a year? Are you doing three? Are you doing 10?
Jose: No, that would be a side job, JP.
JP: That’s right. That’d be hard to pay the mortgage.
Jose: Yep. So, I’m doing 20 weddings a year right now. That’s a good number for us.
JP: That’s down. You were higher than that at one point.
Jose: I was, we used to do 30 to 40. But we for sure were getting burnt out doing that many weddings with all the editing and everything else that’s involved with the running the business. So, yeah, we just raised our prices and obviously supply and demand. That’s kind of the rule that I use. So, yeah, we’re doing about 20 weddings right now.
JP: That’s incredible. So, are you going to do this forever?
Jose: I mean, as long as brides are still hiring me, I will continue shooting weddings. To me, it’s still fun, especially now with like Imagen that I can edit a full wedding in like two or three hours. Like, why not? Like why not make the money that you’re gonna make at a wedding and still have fun doing it. So to me it’s fun.
JP: It’s kind of taken, not the drudgery, I mean some people love editing, you know, but I think it’s the harder part of the process. It’s not the creative process for me. I mean some people may feel like it is, but it isn’t for me. I love to shoot, you know, and so something that will get me to where I can to just make final decisions. I’m loving that. So Imagen does that. So that’s awesome.
JP: Let’s open up a wedding in Imagen and let’s just see the process for you.
JP: Okay. So you’re starting in Lightroom.
Jose: I start in Lightroom. I’ve already imported the images for this wedding of Natalia and Paul. And from there I have 5,423 images that I need to look over. From there, I’m going to open Imagen, and I’m going to create a new project. Here, it’ll ask me to cull or edit. I’m going to select cull.
JP:And you’ve already set your criteria for your culling, like if you want a generous number of images or smaller number.
Jose: It’s actually going to ask me right now. How I want to set that setting. So, let me look for the wedding. Here we go. Natalia and Paul. And I just shot this wedding this month. Once you name your project, you just hit next here in the corner. So once you create the project, it’ll ask you to keep the best of each group or cull to an exact number. I’ve always just started using keep the best of each group. I may change it to the other option in the future, but for now I’m just going to keep it at that.
JP: Yeah, it gives you the best.
Jose: Yep. And then it has me rate the images. I select one star and then the grouping criteria. This is a cool little thing where it’ll show you the group and it’ll pick the favorite of each group.
JP: I love that because you see the the best, but you can look for others if you want, but I found that most of the time it’s giving you the best image.
Jose: Yes, it does. And I’ve even tried it to see if it is consistent. And yeah, it usually does pick the best one. So then you just hit upload and it’ll do its thing. You probably have to wait probably like 10 to 15 minutes. Actually the culling probably takes 20 minutes or so for that.
JP: So, while that’s culling, let’s just look at another wedding that you’ve shot after it’s been edited. This is culled and edited, right?
Jose: Culled and edited. Yes. So, I’m going to scroll down to here. Sarah and Jeremy wedding. And if you see here under my little folders, we shot almost 6,000 images. Okay. And since I asked Imagen to highlight my favorites to one star, I’m just going to filter that. And now we’re down to 1,700 images.
JP: And is it edited each one of these?
Jose: Yes, these are all edited already.
JP: So in the beginning of that editing process you load in like 5,000 of your images or you know, a good sampling of your images. Then it knows what it is that your editing style is like and how you handle your highlights, your shadows, all the things you need to do.
Jose: Yep. It does a really good job. So these are already edited. It’s already exactly how I want it to look. So, I’ll look it over either way just to see if there’s something, if there’s something that sticks out to me. But as I’m scrolling down here, it looks good.
JP: Looks very good. So, did you ever try other people’s looks? Because they have profiles where you can take a look at some other people’s.
Jose: I did try some other photographer’s profile, but it wasn’t that close to mine.
JP: So, it really, it wasn’t you.
Jose: It wasn’t me. So, I ended up just creating my own and I use mine now.
JP: That makes the most sense.
Jose: Yeah. So, as I’m looking through these, I’m just seeing if there’s anything that sticks out. Like maybe this one could use a little bump in exposure. So, I’ll probably just go into the develop module and just kind of bump it up a little bit. But very minimal retouching that I have to do at this point because Imagen already did most of the work. I’m only touching like exposure, maybe the temperature or tint, but for the most part it’s looking good for me.
JP: So, is the cost of this worth it to you?
Jose: Oh, absolutely. I was spending close to 16 hours to do a full wedding from beginning to end. And now I’m only spending 2 hours to get everything from the culling to the editing and then starting to upload on Pixieset. So I’ve definitely got my time back.
JP: That’s incredible when you look at it from how much your time is worth and your life, you know.
Jose: It’s definitely a game changer. I wish I had this before.
JP: If you’re doing 20 weddings a year and you used to do 40 weddings, you do 20 weddings a year and you’re doing 16 hours in editing and culling. That’s 40 days. That’s 40 days that now you’ve boiled down to like two or three days. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
Jose: Oh, Yeah. Running the business of photography definitely has a lot of perks. Like I have a lot of free time during the week. Yes, my weekends are sometimes sacrificed because I have to go work. But being able to use Imagen to edit my pictures has definitely brought so much more time for personal stuff and I can work on other things. I don’t have to be editing in front of the computer. I can work on other parts of the business like marketing or networking and that I feel is more important and that’s going to help business grow.
JP: Yeah, absolutely. So, this is really great for wedding photographers, event photographers, anybody who’s dealing with a lot of images. You can go in and now cull and edit really quickly. Some fashion photographers, you know, you’re shooting a lot, and commercial work, you’re doing a lot. Even sports photographers. But yeah, anyone who’s doing high volume types of work, this is really a timesaver.
Jose: Yeah. And the best part is that it’s very, very affordable. It’s only 5 cents an image. I mean for a wedding of 1500 images, I’m paying what $50 to $100. That’s worth it for me.
JP: Oh, absolutely. If you use one of those services where you send all your stuff to and have them look through it, it’s quite a bit more expensive.
Jose: Oh, yeah. I’ve never used it. I definitely looked into it just because I got to the point where I wanted to outsource my editing, but I think they’re charging anywhere from 30 to 50 cents per image.
JP: Oh, wow. So, significant.
Jose: It’s a no-brainer to use Imagen if you want to let go of that part of the business.
JP: Yeah. So, this isn’t meant to be a software demonstration. You know, just like how does this affect your life and your business. And yeah, and it seems like it saved you a lot of time.
Jose: It’s definitely saved me a lot of time.
JP: Yeah. All right, let’s wrap this up. So, I mean, the process of doing weddings is time intensive. You’re on the shoots, you’re working weekends. The editing process, the culling process can be overwhelming. And I’ve talked to a lot of wedding photographers that that is something that is very difficult for them to do. And Imagen kind of solves that problem. It helps you get your time back and helps you work on your business.
Jose: Yeah, I wish I had this 5 to 10 years ago when I was shooting 30 to 40 weddings. I would have for sure had a lot more time to focus on other things. Now that I have it, it’s definitely allowed me to spend more time with family or just work on other parts of the business that can use more of my time that I used to put like on the back burner.
JP: So, that’s awesome. If you’re serious about saving some time in your life. Click on the link and try Imagen. You get your first 1500 edits for free. It’s going to give you some time back.
So, there’s a look at Jose Alvarado and his photo life and how Imagen has given him a lot of his time back. So, you keep those cameras rollin’ and keep on clickin’!
