How it works

STEP 1: Send us your shoot

Most photographers we work with edit in Lightroom Classic, which means you can send Smart Previews (small, fast to upload, and no RAWs required for standard edits).

If you use Lightroom Classic:

In the Library module, go to:

Library → Previews → Build Smart Previews

Smart Previews are stored inside your catalog folder.

Locate your catalog files (they’ll be together in the same folder). You’ll usually see:

- YourCatalog.lrcat

- YourCatalog Smart Previews.lrdata

Zip/compress these together (include the .lrdata exactly as-is, you don’t need Previews.lrdata.)

STEP 2: Upload the zip

Upload the compressed file to your preferred storage (Dropbox/Google Drive/WeTransfer), or we can provide an upload link.

If you have any images that you would like to have professionally retouched, you can also upload the RAW files for those specific images (only when necessary)

STEP 3: Tell us your style (we can match it)

To match your style accurately, we use one (or more) of these:

- Your Lightroom preset/profile if you use one, or we can apply one of our in-house presets as a starting point

- A handful of previous galleries

- 20–50 reference edits from the current job (optional)

- Notes on skin tones, greens, contrast, warmth/coolness, etc.

We’ll dial in a match, then keep it consistent across the entire set.

STEP 4: Editing + optional retouching

Standard edits (exposure, WB, colour, tone, consistency) can be done entirely from Smart Previews.

Photoshop / detailed retouching (when requested) requires the original RAW files.

Workflow:

- We edit everything via Smart Previews

- We flag any images that need retouching (or as requested by you)

- You upload only the RAWs for those selected frames

- We retouch and return them into the set as TIFFs or high-quality JPEGs (your preference)

STEP 5: Delivery

We can deliver one of the following (your choice):

- Lightroom Catalog back (Smart Preview workflow) ready to export

- XMP sidecar edits (where supported) so edits stay with the files

- Final JPEGs exported to your desired specs

We can also match:

- Your export naming rules

- Folder structure

- Metadata/copyright templates