Photography & Videography Workflows

Join the Imagen Community on Facebook to continue the discussions between episodes.

Ready for a creative jumpstart in your photography workflow? Discover why portrait photographer Meg Loeks swears by analog planning, how she carves out time for creative exploration, and the secrets behind her unique painterly images. Plus, why sometimes less is actually more.

Meg Loeks is a portrait photographer based in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Inspired by motherhood, rural life, and memory, her work embraces the beauty and imperfection of domesticity, using color and nostalgia to balance tradition with individuality. A teacher and international workshop leader, she also serves as an ambassador for Imagen, Sigma, Profoto, and Lightroom, and volunteers with The Gold Hope Project, offering portraits to families facing pediatric cancer.

Meg shares how her process evolved from lifestyle to intentional portraiture, reveals the surprising benefits of using a physical planner, and discusses the power of well-crafted routines. She opens up about batching, culling, editing, and how “creative play dates” keep her inspired and her photography fresh, even in the busiest seasons. Whether you're struggling to organize shoots, searching for your signature color palette, or longing for a better editing workflow, this conversation is packed with honest tips and relatable solutions.

“There’s something to be said about physically writing things out… It’s also super satisfying to cross things off once you’ve accomplished something.” - Meg Loeks

Resources
Why You Should Listen
  • Get practical advice to simplify photography business organization and scheduling.
  • Find new inspiration for client work and personal projects with creative “play day” ideas.
  • Learn clear techniques for developing and communicating your signature style.
  • Hear how Meg blends family life with a thriving photography business.
  • Discover the real-life workflow tweaks that can help you save time and boost creativity, no matter your specialty.
Tune in to boost your photography workflow with hands-on strategies and fresh inspiration from Meg Loeks!

  • (00:00) - 71
  • (02:20) - The Importance of a Physical Planner
  • (09:08) - Workflow and Time Management
  • (15:48) - Creative Play and Experimentation
  • (20:03) - Pre-Shoot Preparation Tips
  • (21:35) - Improving Workflow Efficiency
  • (23:11) - Composite Photography Techniques
  • (29:14) - Embracing Color in Photography


Creators and Guests

Host
Scott Wyden Kivowitz
Community Manager at Imagen
Guest
Meg Loeks

What is Photography & Videography Workflows?

Ready to enhance your photography workflow? Welcome to Workflows, a podcast by Imagen that transforms how photographers like you manage their business, making every minute count.

Each episode offers advice on optimizing your photography workflows so you spend less time at the desk and more time behind the camera. It also tells real-life stories and shares innovative tools to optimize your operations, helping you maximize efficiency and creativity in your photography business.

Join host Scott Wyden Kivowitz, who, despite challenges like dyslexia and color blindness, has mastered the art of efficient workflows to excel in the photography business, as well as building and leading one of the most popular global photography communities on Facebook – the Imagen Community. Through insights and conversations with photographers fro m various countries, backgrounds, and walks of life, discover how structured workflows can save time and alleviate stress in your professional and personal life.

Get ready to overcome common industry hurdles and boost your photography business's profitability through effective strategies, innovative tools, tech, and automation.

Join the Imagen Community to continue the conversation and connect with fellow photographers, share stories, and access unique resources tailored to the challenges of managing a photography business.

Don't let workflow inefficiencies hold you back — tune in to Workflows for inspiration and guidance on crafting a thriving, productive photography business.

For photographers who prefer creating stunning images to getting bogged down by business tasks, Workflows is your gateway to a smoother, more rewarding photography career.

Join us today at workflowspodcast.com

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​[00:00:00]

[00:00:15] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Meg, I am, I'm really, really excited about this conversation, not only because your work is absolutely incredible, but because it's also a genre of photography that I feel like sometimes, doesn't get enough attention in the industry, especially in when you're talking.to a lot of wedding photographers, a lot of event photographers, a lot of volume sport photographers, this fine art, this, portraiture work that you do, which is absolutely stunning.just, it needs more light for the, for a, a good pun going on there. and so I'm excited about this for those two reasons. So thank you [00:01:00] for for joining me to to talk about this today.

[00:01:02] Meg Loeks: Thank you. Yeah, I. You know, my work has shifted over the years. When I initially started out, I mean, we're talking like way back in the day when I was a tween teen, and, I was on, I was doing film at that time, so I was developing my own prints and everything, and when I, started to have a family, I switched to digital.

Because I wanted to photograph my kids. And I, at that time, when I first started out and, and even launching my, my bus business about 10, 11 years ago, I was much more like documentary lifestyle. and it shifted over the years. And several years ago I realized I was just really into portraiture and all types of portraiture Were talking, you know, conceptual, photography, fine art, you know, just classic, traditional portraiture.

because I really like [00:02:00] to, like, control my environment. I, I like the entire process of portraiture from planning to styling, uh, working with lighting, and then. Of course, the editing portion is also really important to me as well. Yeah.

[00:02:16] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. And we're gonna dive into a bunch of that, today, which is, which is really exciting.

[00:02:20] The Importance of a Physical Planner
---

[00:02:20] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so let's, let's get right into the first thing that has been working well in your workflow. do you wanna share what that is with, with everybody?

[00:02:30] Meg Loeks: Yeah. So, there's an entire process that's involved with it. And, and funny enough, I feel like the, the shooting process itself is. The shortest part of the process. Uh, it's all about, first of all, the concept development. and I have like a planner that I live by. and I'm old school, but it's, yes, I'm old school.

Yeah. I. I don't know. There's something about, I feel like I'm on devices, devices all the time. Like I'm on my computer all the time, uh, my [00:03:00] phone. And so for me, having a physical planner works really well, and that's where I like, organize my thoughts and keep a shooting list, a running, shooting list in that planner.

So that's like the very start for me is, is coming up with the ideas, sometimes even drawing them out in my planner. Uh, and, going from there.

[00:03:20] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so can you talk about this, this, this planner because,

uh, it's, it's, I'm going to, just based on like many conversations I've had about workflows over the years. I'm going to make an educated guest that's probably 20 to 30% of the industry uses physical planners that are asked, just go with the digital thing. So can you talk about the how, how this planner, how does this look? Is it one book that you update every year? Because obviously days change and stuff like that,

is it. Multiple books where you've got like a calendar and then there's, you've got another one, which is blank pages for, for mockups [00:04:00] and sketches and ideas.

Like, how is it all, how's it all come together like that?

[00:04:05] Meg Loeks: Yeah, and sorry if you've heard in the background, my dog is snoring and talking in her, her sleep, so she was making noises in the background. She's a puppy still, so, yeah, the, the planner. Okay. So I've been doing this for a very long time. when I say very long time, it's like at least eight, nine years.

If, if not like, since the very start of launching my business and it's always been just one single planner for me. and every December I order it. It's a custom planner, which is what I like. I order this planner through Golden Coil. they are not like paying me or anything for mentioning them. I just absolutely love their planners.

And this is where I order every year and every December, so that I have it by the beginning of January. And I like that you can customize it. I have it broken down week by week. so that I can like, schedule in my shoots. I, I literally physically write down and schedule in my shoots, um, based off of what I've got going [00:05:00] on.

And again, I, I mentioned I keep like a running shot list within that planner. and then in between each week I have like blank pages so that I can draw out ideas and everything, but I just have this one. and I find that it works well for me because I feel like if I had any more than that, it would.

Actually make me less productive. So, so just having the one planner, where I keep like everything, my notes, my ideas, all of that, um, just in one central location.

[00:05:26] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Have you considered from a business standpoint, because

that's also,even though it's not photography in particular, but because it's related, have you considered contacting Golden Coil and trying to sell your own branded planners for people who wanna learn from

you and learn your methodology?

[00:05:47] Meg Loeks: No, it's such a good idea. I, I never really thought of it, you know, I'm like, I'm like the worst when it comes to like collabs and stuff like that. I usually don't like reach out. you know, and I don't know why, but like, I, I think that's such a great idea [00:06:00] and, and could be potentially something really fun because I've been ordering them from them for many years and I've actually.

Talk, spoke to several friends and, um, about my planners and now they have, planners from Golden Coil as well, just because it's, I dunno, it, I really like how they operate and they have a lot of like, really cool like cover options to, from like, you know, um, fabric material to like different designs and stuff, which I love.

and again, that you can customize it too, but that's, that's such a great idea.

I think, I think it could do really well for the industry, for, you know, because there's, there are, while it is probably the minority these days for people too use physical planners for their, for their jobs, whatever it might be. There's a, there's a market there and I think, people would appreciate something that is well thought out for their work.and I think [00:07:00] there's a lot of potential for expansion there as well. Like you could start one for families and then make another one for something else. And maybe it's a little different or something. I dunno, just, Yeah.

[00:07:09] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Something to, something to chew on.

[00:07:11] Meg Loeks: I think I, I think, you know, everybody operates differently in how they organize things, but I do think there's something to be said about physically writing things out. And like I said,

I dunno, I've always operated this way. So even in college, I would rewrite my notes all the time, like physically write, rewrite, everything, just.

To like for memorization, from, you know, learning and all of that. So for me, being able to just write ideas and thoughts down, there's again, something to be said about that I think in regard to creativity. And then it's also super satisfying to like be able to cross things off once you've accomplished something.

So I feel like that's like a kind of a little bit of a mood booster. so that's why I gravitate towards that. But yeah, thank you for that idea. That's a great idea.

[00:07:55] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah. I, I personally have never been able to do. [00:08:00] A physical planner or like, sometimes I'll take notes with a, with, with a, with a notebook, but my handwriting is so bad that I wouldn't be able to even read it

afterwards. Everybody says I should have been a doctor.

[00:08:13] Meg Loeks: Oh, yeah. What Do you just use your phone or?

[00:08:17] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Um, I typically use my phone or, um, you know, if I'm at the computer, I'm just typing it

out in, in Apple Notes and then it syncs to my phone and I always have it handy. But I also do have a notebook if I'm traveling. I've got a little one with me,

like a little one of those little, pocket

ones.and then, I mean, I've got notebooks on my desk and it's pen is ready and stuff.

It's just, it depends. It depends on like if I, if, if I'm in a meeting, for example, whether it's with a client or whether it is, with someone at, you know, at work with Imagen. I'm using a meeting note taker and it's doing it for me instead of me having to take notes. But if it's, something else, you you never know.

I, I might, I might

need a piece of [00:09:00] paper. It all depends on the situation, but still it's very hard for me to read my own, my own handwriting. but it happens. It happens.

[00:09:07] Meg Loeks: I get that.

[00:09:08] Workflow and Time Management
---

[00:09:08] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So what else is going well in your workflow? Well, the planner. Fantastic. I love that you're doing it. and I love that we now have a business model for you for the future with that and, what else is going well in, in your business

workflows.

[00:09:23] Meg Loeks: another thing that I think is going well in regard to my business workflow is. My organization just in general. I think I've, I guess I feel like I've learned like the hard way, like what works and what doesn't work. I think everybody has, you know, like, and I think time management is like, can be a, a really tricky one and I still struggle with it.

but I have a system down, especially when it comes to like. Not only shooting and, you know, planning, shooting, and editing, all of that. but also like posting on social media and stuff. I'm pretty routine in how I do things. so for example, [00:10:00] every morning I wake up and I am on my computer, usually about 7:00 AM.

I start to edit my image for the day that I'm going to share on social media. So I like to wake up and do that with fresh eyes. I'm not someone that likes to edit in the evening. And I think because I'm not a night owl, I'm a morning person. And so I usually, if I edit at night and I wake up in the morning and like look at my edit, I'm like, what?

What was I doing? Like, what was I thinking? 'cause it looks way off. So I like to wake up, edit. Um, and then after I've done, you know, editing my image, I'll share on social media and engage for a little bit and then start tackling work throughout the workday. And that system's worked really well for me. You know, Monday through Friday, that's what I do just about every single day. And then I take the weekends off and kind of unplug, and spend time with my family and all of that.

[00:10:52] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That's great. having, having that routine in place and try not to break from the routine is really, really important. especially for the family [00:11:00] time.when it comes to social media content, and like editing that photo that each morning, how do you try to keep a big backlog like. At the ready that you can choose from, or is it just based on your own personal work combined with what you know client work you have at any given moment determines your backlog that you have? Mm-hmm.

[00:11:20] Meg Loeks: Yeah, yeah. I try to, like for example, right now I've got at least four or five images that I need to edit and could potentially share. and that's ideal for me to have at least about that number. I'm shooting a lot less than I used to, partly because a lot of what I am shooting takes a lot of time to create.

So from the planning to the styling, setting up the lighting, all of that, we're talking hours. So,it is, I shoot a lot less than I used to. it sort of depends on the shoot. So if it's like studio shoot, which is about 75 to 80% of my work. You know, um, [00:12:00] that's extensive stuff. But when I'm shooting outside, it's much more like lifestyle.

Um, you know, not as styled, of course. It's much more like. Um, nature's driving me. So like the weather, the, the season for example, like right now it's fall, which is my favorite season, so I'm outside a lot, soaking up the peak color. so it just kind of depends on all of that kind of stuff. But yeah, I like to have around four or five images, like ready, like in the queue basically to ready to be edited and to to share.

Um. I feel like when I don't have a cushion like that, it, it does kind of stress me out a little bit and sometimes, like during like busy season, event season, I don't have as much to share the backlog, so yeah.

[00:12:49] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Interesting. yeah, that's good. It's good to have some sort of backlog, especially if you're working that, that, you know, day after day of having that, that routine in place. So it's good that you've got [00:13:00] something there, pretty regularly to, to, to be able to, pull, pull from at any, at

any moment. you brought up studio and sort of out in nature,

[00:13:11] Meg Loeks: Yeah.

[00:13:12] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: two very different situations with lighting. So let's talk about your typical lighting setup and then something else that's going well when it comes to lighting for you in your, in your workflow. what's your typical. Lighting set up for both studio or

or outside? Mm.

[00:13:29] Meg Loeks: So I would say typical lighting for me is anywhere from just like a simply two to three lights in studio. sometimes I'm doing like five or six, maybe even seven lights, which is a lot. Because I do like to light really big environments, and like to have things from like, you know, practical to motivated lighting, all that kind of stuff in regards to studio set up.

But a normal, uh. Traditional light setup for me is anywhere from two to three lights. Um, so I, [00:14:00] I like to have like a key light, main light and a fill light to kind of lift the shadows a little bit. And then if I do have a third light, it's usually like my creative light is like what I like to call it. So maybe hair light, back light, maybe it's motivated light somewhere, like near a lamp or something.

outdoor. I live in the upper peninsula of Michigan, so. the weather here is often very cloudy. foggy too as well, which I love. so I'm typically outside working in that type of weather, so it's cloudy right now actually. Um, so cloudy weather. I love fog. I do love to, of course, shooting back light.

Um, but I, I don't often do that as much anymore, especially 'cause I think just schedules, you know, 'cause I've got five kids and they're all going to school, and my little sister going to daycare, so. You know, mornings and evenings are super busy and I just don't often shoot, during golden hour like I used to.

And I think, I think also for me, it's, it can be a [00:15:00] little bit more stressful sometimes. I think shooting, uh, in outdoor environments now, because I'm so used to shooting in studio and I love that I can control things so much more. Like I don't have to rely on weather, you know, for my shoots. I don't have to like, worry about it.

I mean, I will use my lights sometimes outside. But not often because it can be kind of tricky. It can be challenging. 'cause usually you need maybe like an assistant or somebody there to help you, with your lighting because of wind, which we get strong winds here, especially this time of year. and all those kind of factors, right?

So, um. It's just I love that. Again, I can, with indoor studio work, it just kinda takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders because I can control everything. I don't have to rely on natural light and weather and all that kind of stuff.

[00:15:47] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.

[00:15:48] Creative Play and Experimentation
---

[00:15:48] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: and you mentioned to me that, you, you schedule these like creative play days. can you, can you talk about what that, because if you've got your setup right for typical

[00:15:58] Meg Loeks: right.

[00:15:59] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: [00:16:00] sessions or whatever, you're, you might be doing both indoor or outdoor, but, Experimenting and playing is so important for, for our creativity, right?

If the more we get into this system of it's the same over and over again, the less creative you feel. And as, as photographers, you wanna feel creative, even though it's a business. So talk about what you do for the creative aspect.

[00:16:26] Meg Loeks: Yeah, that's, it's so important to like, talk about this. I think it's like a really important topic because I, especially this time of year, right, like in, in the fall, I feel like you, you see more often than not like photographer burnout because they're, you know, a lot of photographers are just slammed.

With client sessions, right. You know, 'cause it's autumn, it's fall. Uh, you're, you have that beautiful color. People want their Christmas cards, they want all this kinda stuff. So, they get slammed and the next thing you [00:17:00] know, it's all like just client session after client session after client session. And you're not blocking off any time for creativity.

Um. And I, I always like, suggest, and recommend no matter how busy you are, to carve out like at least one day a month for you. Like you just mark that off your calendar as being unavailable that day. You don't schedule anything, no clients, nothing. Uh, and you have that day be like something that you want to work on, that you want to shoot just for yourself.

Um, maybe, you know, learning a new technique. Um. A lot of this stuff, I think helps not only for growth, but also just for sessions too. Like a lot of the, a lot of my creative play dates that I have, I end up using those ideas for like my workshop shoots with models and stuff. So when I have in-person workshops, I'm like, this is, we're gonna do this with model.

And I, I know exactly how I want my light. I know [00:18:00] exactly what, like the theme is gonna be, all this kind of stuff. Uh, because I, you know, I played in practice with it in advance. Um, so again, not only helping with growth, but also helping with like ideas, maybe things that you, you would want to do with clients too as well, like client sessions or something like that.

So, uh, I think there's a lot of benefit to it.

[00:18:18] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I, I totally agree a hundred percent. there's, there's so. Much value in, in just playing with no pressure.

'cause the pressure in itself could degrade your creativity. So the, the,

if you remove all pressure from it, there's, there's, no intended goal, but you never know, you could come out with something that is absolutely incredible if you to redo in the future, or like you said for your workshops or whatever it might be. it's, it's really, so, so you're doing, you're doing one a, one day a month, or is that what you just, you recommend for people and you're doing more? Like,

[00:18:54] Meg Loeks: I'm doing more.

[00:18:55] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: are you doing? I'm doing more. Yeah. But I do recommend that, you [00:19:00] know, at least once a month. I think it depends on, like, so for me, I don't take as many clients. I only have, I only take on client sessions from July to September, typically, and I only take on about two a month. So very, very limited like client sessions, because.

[00:19:21] Meg Loeks: Outside of that, like for the rest of the year, I'm like busy with, events and in person workshops and online workshops. That's my full-time gig. so it might look a little bit different for someone who has, you know, their, their main thing is, is clients. so, you know, I always just recommend once a month, but for me, I do do more than that and I, I feel like I kind of need to, especially with the amount of, of in-person workshops I do have and everything.

Um, it, I'm able to like, change up these ideas, for shoots. you know, things like, you know, experimenting with different lighting, like I mentioned, experimenting with, uh, fun [00:20:00] tools like Mylar, for example, which can be a lot of fun.

[00:20:03] Pre-Shoot Preparation Tips
---

[00:20:06] Meg Loeks: You know, and I, another thing that I recommend, I recommend this to my students, Is that, you know, when you're wanting to learn a, a new technique to set up the day before, you kind of like touched on it a little bit, but setting up the, the day before you actually want to do the shoot. So you're just kind of like the day before playing and you're, you're practicing and you're experimenting and you're making mistakes and you're allowing yourself to make mis mistakes without any sort of like.

Pressure on your shoulders and you're fixing those mistakes. Um, so it's all about kind of experimenting the day before so that the day of the shoot you're ready to go. You know exactly how you want to style everything, compose everything how you want your light to be. So that's another thing that I recommend, especially when it comes to, again, learning a new technique or, you know, maybe creating an image that really means a lot to you, that has a lot of meaning that's really important to you, that maybe you've had on your shot list for a long time.

[00:20:59] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. [00:21:00] Yeah, it's very well said there. There's, there's so many advantages to it. so hopefully people get inspired to set aside at least one day a month to to, to do it for themselves, no matter the type of photography, you know, photography that you do. always room, right? yeah, you could, for example, like wedding photographers, they're typically right, especially here in the us, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, right?

The occasional midweek wedding. But for the most part, you've got the whole middle of the week to take a day off if you want,

and spend it on for yourself creatively. okay.

[00:21:35] Improving Workflow Efficiency
---

[00:21:40] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Let's divert now into an area where.it, there's a, there's an area that you're struggling in your workflow, but you, you wanna, you wanna improve, you're working on improving now, what would that be in your workflow?

[00:21:50] Meg Loeks: Uh, I would say just this, the speed in which I get things done, especially when it's like batch editing. So

I, well, [00:22:00] there there's actually twofold. I should, I should back up a little bit. So first culling, like. I that I, I'm not a big fan of. I don't, I mean, I don't know if there's anybody that really enjoys calling.

Maybe there is, but I don't enjoy it at all. And that's one of the reasons. Also, I love studio work because I really, with studio work, I don't have as much to call because I'm very intentional and slow about my shots. But when I'm shooting outside, I'm often shooting like through the moment. And so I have a lot more to call usually, and it can be so painful.

So I would love to speed that up. And then also I would love to just speed up like batch editing, whether it's clients, or like even personal work. When I do like edit. I mean, I often, when I'm sharing images, not always, but most of the time it's just a single image. But there are times when I'm, you know, doing a batch edit and it's.

I am so tedious about my editing, like I nitpick everything. [00:23:00] and color is really important to me, so there's a lot of color grading involved, but there's also like, you know, even some like selective color tweaks and, and everything that I make. So that's the other thing that I struggle with.

[00:23:11] Composite Photography Techniques
---

[00:23:11] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: how much of your work is composite versus just, one photo edited?

[00:23:20] Meg Loeks: So anytime you see an image where there's maybe more than one subject, not always, but excuse me, most of the time. Excuse me. So anytime there is more than one subject, or if there's like an animal involved, so again, like maybe a kiddo and an animal that is usually a composite. for a number of reasons.

the biggest reason is that it cuts down on shooting time. So, uh, I kind of like break my image up into parts basically, where, um, you know, I focus on one section of the frame, photograph them, then [00:24:00] focus on another section of the frame, photograph them. Um, and it, again, it just cuts down to the shooting time, which is so important, especially if I'm working with.

Kids or animals, like, I want it to be super quick. Like we're talking one minute, two minutes max, and then they're done.

Um, so yeah, and whenever there's images like that, it's often a composite.

[00:24:22] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And are you always doing. Own photo for the composite images. are you always using your own photos for each part of the composite or are you now using a generative tool in Photoshop or, or

whatnot to, to, to build pieces here and there, whether tiny piece or a larger piece to the puzzle.

[00:24:43] Meg Loeks: Yeah, great question. So about like 98 to 90% of the time, it's all my stuff. So I'm like taking every, like, every ounce of that frame is usually something that I own. I, I like it to typically be that way. Every now and then, [00:25:00] I might actually use Adobe stock for, um, I'll give you an example. Like, uh, if I want wallpaper and I, it's not a wallpaper that I have within my studio or house, I might like purchase an overlay from Adobe stock for wallpaper or like a TV screen.

That would be an example, but it's rare. It's very rare. so, and then I occasionally, I use generative fill, but I use generative fill typically for like removing things. So like, I use it, like, I would, like the clone tool or the spot healing tool is, is basically how I use it. If I, if I'm gonna clone something out or spot heel something, I'm like, okay, well I'll just use generative fill.

That's about the extent of what I use generative fill for because I kind of have problems with it. Like sometimes I feel like when I do use it, if I zoom weigh in, I might see some issues with it. Like I

[00:25:59] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Some [00:26:00] artifacts or something.

[00:26:01] Meg Loeks: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're not talking like really crazy issues like the third arm that's happened, you know, or like, you know, really weird things are like, that's not supposed to be weird, you know, that's not what's supposed to be happening.

Right. But, um, like I will, you know, sometimes my images get blown up pretty big and so what I'm zooming in, I wanna like make sure that there's not like weird pixelation and stuff. So I sometimes still even like, instead of using generative fill, we'll use go old school and use clone tool stuff because I know that I can perfect it.

And, you know, hide certain things much easier. You know, if I just do it by hand.

[00:26:36] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, so there's two aspects to your. Your editing workflow, one being when you do have a batch of photos, to edit, and the other being when you're doing a composite work, right? There's two, two versions of this. One being there's probably solutions that you could use for the, [00:27:00] for the batch, right?

and I know you're trying a bunch right now,

and then there's the composite, which I don't know if there's a solution out there that can. Help. Like you would think that generative fill, generative remove, et cetera, would speed up a composite workflow. But at the same time, you also have to spend the time zooming in to fix bits and pieces here. That is it really saving the time. Right? so it's very interesting, on both ends, right? One. If there's options, the other don't know if there's options yet,

[00:27:38] Meg Loeks: Not yet,

but I think there will be. You know, and I. I don't know. I, I know for a fact that I am operating, I could operate much better than what I am, and I, I kind of am notorious for like. Getting new [00:28:00] things and then sitting on them for a really long time before I really start to get the hang of them or understand them.

So a perfect example would be like even buying a new camera and then like holding onto it, not using it for six months to eight months, just because I'm like, oh, I gotta devote time to learning this new thing. You know? Um, but then once I do, then it's like this whole new world has opened up, right? And so I know there's a lot of things, especially when it comes to like.

Skin, like I, I, you know, edit skin. not heavily, but like, 'cause I wanna have like the texture still in skin and I, I don't wanna have it, you know, look like, my subject is plastic. But I do oftentimes, want to remove imperfections and especially smooth things out specifically like in the shadows. So, like, I know I can operate so much better with that kind of stuff in regard to ai.

and, and color grading is another, another aspect as well and stuff. So yeah, [00:29:00] composite work that's tricky. And I don't know if there's stuff for that just yet, but, other areas for sure. I know I'm like needing to speed up.that process. 'cause I know I would save me so much time,

[00:29:14] Embracing Color in Photography
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[00:29:14] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: you definitely have a distinct style to not only the, the overall color grading of your work, but also the, how you manipulate the skin to give it this, this. This look that still, like you said, doesn't look plasticy, but you can tell that something's been done to

[00:29:33] Meg Loeks: it. Um, and it's, it's very distinctive to your style, which I think is fantastic. Um, you know, I, you can pull up a, it's, it's definitely at the point where you can pull up a, a handful of people's portraiture and, and you can pull, you can point yours out 'cause you've got, you've got your style down and, and it's, it's beautiful. Thank you.

[00:29:53] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so. Hopefully as you're exploring, different tools for the, for [00:30:00] the color grading, for the stuff that we know there are solutions.

You know, hopefully you, you find one that you're happy with, you find something that works for you. I think, I think the solution is there and, and it'll be, it'll be interesting to see how much time it will save you, even for, you know, the, the volume that you are doing every minute still. Accounts, right?

That's, that's more, that's more time that at the end of the day, you can spend with your family afterwards, right? And on weekends and not have to think about, doing more editing and, and, and whatnot. and, and then you can take the time to focus more on the, on the, the, the finer details of each piece instead of focusing on color grading, for example.

[00:30:42] Meg Loeks: Right. Yeah. I mean I, when I was like experimenting with my profile, it was interesting, like when I applied it to one of my images, it was one of my studio images. So. With that said, I feel like the straight Outta camera shot was already pretty solid. Like, and actually the person I was working with when they were looking at [00:31:00] it, they were like, is this already edited?

And I was like, no, it's not. But it was just, you know, because I could control the lighting and everything and I applied my profile to it and it was so interesting 'cause it, I immediately, after seeing, you know, applied, I immediately could see. The color grading changes that were made. They were subtle, but they were there and they were changes that I would've normally made.

Like I could see that some cyan was brought in, um, in regard to the color grading. And I could see that also some like yellow green was brought in to the highlights, which is what I almost always do. 'cause I always finish with color grading when I'm editing. So I do like basic. You know, edits, global adjustment edits first, any sort of like, you know, adding contrast if I need to adjust exposure, white balance, all that.

I do that first. And then I do like my selective color tweaks. next. And then after my selective color tweaks, I would do skin. And then after skin, I might do some more like highlighting and shading. And that's, I think one of the things that makes my work a little bit more like painterly is because I do [00:32:00] kind of like brush on highlighting and shading everywhere, like on certain details on my subject.

And then I finish with color grading. And I have certain things I do every single time on all of my images. Some, it depends on the image, but some have stronger scion than others because of the mood that I, you know, want to have within the image. And it was so cool to like see, you know, when I applied my profile, like, okay, I could see these changes and these are the changes I would already typically make.

And it was like one click and email.

[00:32:29] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Yep. I'm gonna ask you a question to that. I don't know if. Tell me if anybody else has ever asked you this question. you like to use green in your photos, like the

green of the shirt you're wearing right

[00:32:40] Meg Loeks: yeah, yeah. I.

[00:32:41] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: and to me, so I'm, I'm, I'm partially colorblind. but I can tell in each photo that you've got this, it's, it's, some of 'em, they're, it's subtly there, but it's, it's, from what I can tell, it's in every single photo.

Obviously that's intentional,

[00:32:59] Meg Loeks: [00:33:00] Yeah.

[00:33:01] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: are there any photos where you don't have that green in it at all?

[00:33:05] Meg Loeks: I think so. Yeah. I mean, I, I like monochromatic color schemes too, so sometimes I'll have like, actually blue is my favorite color, so, um, I have lots of like, monochromatic, just blue. you know, it's so interesting that you, you just mentioned just like color and color being colorblind or partially colorblind.

'cause I just listened to this really awesome, I don't know if you're a fan of Radiolab. Uh, but I, I listened to a. episode on color and they were talking about how you know, a lot of people are who are colorblind. They have like two cone receptors. Most humans have three. so most people have three cone receptors for them to be able to see color.

and in the grand scheme of things, that's really not a lot. There are some women, 10% of women have four, so. They can see color a little bit more than others and they can see like ultraviolet color. And it was just really cool episode to like, listen [00:34:00] about like color and, and what sort of species like on earth even have like way more like butterflies have five.

So they see like a lot more color than what we see. It just kind of blew my mind, like learning about this, um. And how it could like, alter the way we see things. and so yeah, it's, I, I do have my color palette, like I have like a favorite color palette and I, that's repeated quite often, I think, in my images.

and it's, it's actually something that I teach about, quite often too as well. Like I try to help others. Uh, kind of discover what colors they're really drawn to and like what color palettes they really love as well. And, um, I encourage complicated color palettes too. So like, for example, with my client clients, I send them a welcome guide.

And in the welcome guide there's a bunch of examples in, in that welcome guide for them for different like. Wardrobe [00:35:00] wardrobe choices got tongue tied there. So like encouraging them to wear multiple colors and patterns and all of that. because typically when someone's hiring me, they're hiring me. For probably like my use of color as, as one of the things like, they like that I have pretty rich, vibrant colors within my work.

So they probably are gonna wanna see that within their images and in, in the session. So I think for someone who isn't, um, artistic, it might be hard to like figure out what to wear and like how to style that. Right. And so I like to provide. Like information to my clients too, showing them like lots of different choices.

'cause I wanna see a client and like a family, show up in like three to four colors, if not more. I wanna see like at least one pattern, if not two. Like I wanna see a, a mix. And again, that can be really hard for someone who's not artistic to like wrap their mind around that. [00:36:00] Like, how do I even go there?

How do I even do that? So I spent a lot of time with, with color palettes in general and like. Trying to help people and guide people into like discovering what they like, what they're drawn to, and how to like cohesively and harmoniously, like pair that together.

[00:36:16] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Providing a guide like that is so valuable for your clients, but also valuable for yourself because you know that if they follow your instructions. gonna give you exactly what you know will make the photo successful, which again, good for them, good for you. So it, it's super valuable for any photographer in any genre to pro, to create a guide to, for your clients to, um, make the absolute best for the session, whatever the session might be. and you knowing your, your style. Knowing what works really well for your work and what [00:37:00] your clients have loved over the years. Throwing that into a, into A PDF and giving that to your client and saying, review this. and, you know, if you could show up wearing this, you know, or anything from this, from this document, it's, it's gonna help. Take it from like, to like a 99.9% success rate for your session. Right. In, in less businessy words. So, it's, it's so valuable. So it's great that you're doing that. it's, I, I have, so I have a, I have your, your portfolio up on my, on another screen right now and I'm just keep browsing. I'm just like, I, I just love seeing, I just love seeing the, the colors.

[00:37:38] Meg Loeks: It, your work is just so, so beautiful. I,

you know, it's funny, I think.

[00:37:41] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: much fun to To browse.

[00:37:44] Meg Loeks: Well, I think as I, it's, as I get older, like my work gets more colorful and I, I, I don't really know why.but as, as I've aged, it's gotten like more colorful and more colorful. But I've also kind of realized like. I, I, I guess with age tube just [00:38:00] comes like the realization that I can do whatever I want, like when it comes to my work.

Like I, yeah, maybe it's a little bit saturated at times. Maybe too saturated for some, but I'm like, but I like it, you know, like I, I love this, like, I love this like vivid color. and I, I wanna see it, you know, and so, and maybe it also has to do with where I live. Like we have a six to seven month winter, so all I see outside is like white for like half the year.

And I like am craving greenery and I'm craving color and we just don't have it. And so, um, so that's, I think another reason why too, like even in my house, like there's a lot of like. Paint colors in each room from like blue to green to purple, you know, and it, and it just changes. And I, I just, I don't know.

I, I live that in all aspects of my life. I think having just a, a colorful life.

[00:38:52] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: it definitely comes through, right? Your,

your your love of color. definitely comes through in, in your work. It's, it's [00:39:00] so nice to see. Meg, this has been a fantastic conversation. I, I love, that we've been able to cover a wide range of things from, from planning to lighting, to even social media and. Your editing methodology and, and color. It's just, we covered a lot in a short period of time and I'm, I'm, I'm sure that people are gonna walk away just like blown away and inspired to, to try new things. Um, hopefully plan some creative days for themselves and so much more. So thank you so much for, for joining me. for. Those listening who have no idea where to find you, can you share where, where that everybody can look you up and, check out your incredible photography.

[00:39:44] Meg Loeks: Yeah, absolutely. So, I share. Most frequently on, Instagram, so you can find me. My handle is meg_nlo I also try to regularly update my [00:40:00] website, which is just my name, megloeks.com. But if you go to megloeks.com, that's where you're gonna really also kind of see more of like the workshops that I'm offering, so in person and online and just all of all of the things that I have to offer for photographers specifically and, and clients too as well.

so those would be the, the two places that I would recommend.

[00:40:20] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Amazing. Thank you again

for, for this incredible conversation.

[00:40:24] Meg Loeks: Thank you. It was, it was an honor. I had a great time.

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