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Education
Cinematic Wedding Photography with Eric-René Penoy
By Kyle Wilson
What does it take to craft cinematic stories from a wedding day? For Eric-René Penoy, it’s all about capturing thousands of moments and turning them into a story that couples can cherish forever. A destination wedding photographer based in Portugal and Mexico, Eric has shot over 250 weddings across 30 countries, perfecting his storytelling style. In a chat with James Broadbent, Narrative’s CEO and Founder, Eric shares his unique approach and how he uses Narrative’s software to streamline his workflow, allowing him to balance his passion for photography with the freedom to live life on the go. From culling thousands of images to delivering a cinematic wedding day story, Eric’s approach to photography is an artistic journey.
Eric, do you want to briefly introduce yourself to those who don't know you?
I'm a French wedding photographer. I started my business as a wedding photographer when I was living in Scotland and then I moved to Portugal. It's been quite a journey. I've been doing destination weddings for the last 10 years and over 250 weddings in about 30 different countries.
Your work is incredible. Why do your clients book you over other wedding photographers? What is it they say about your work that's unique?
Our couples use the term cinematic or cinematographic style, which we love. But it's all about them spending time with friends and family. We spend a lot of time taking the maximum [number of] images we can. We are really generous in delivering a lot of images. We implement a lot of details, spending the maximum time with the couple. This is how we build trust with them.
Our couples are very different. We can have a wedding in the city center of London or at the top of a volcano in Hawaii. But we really build our customer service with time. It's important for us to be connected to our couples. That's why our communication from beginning to the end is really straightforward. We're going to deliver our version of their wedding day, what we felt, and what we actually saw during the wedding day because they cannot see that. They cannot be everywhere. They just are there to enjoy it. And this is our job to give the maximum images possible so they can create their own version of their wedding day.
With the website, I can build a story with 120-140 images, which is different from having a portfolio of my best work. I don't have such things. I always prefer to be judged on a series of proper storytelling.
You've got a very unique eye. I'm excited to be talking to you today. We're going to be talking a little bit about workflow. What does your workflow look like from the moment you return to your computer and plug your memory card into exporting those images for delivery?
I take a lot of images, usually about 10 to 12,000 images per wedding. It sounds a bit stupid, but that's the way I just enjoy taking pictures. I always use the burst mode, not because I'm worried about missing the right shot between a series of 150 images but because, for me, everything has to be animated. I'm always saying I'm a frustrated videographer in a certain way because everything has to be like a movie. And if the light is calling me in a specific corner of the room, I will answer the call. I will always follow whatever I see, whatever I'm attracted to.
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My camera has probably over a million shots. It's all about the details, the small gestures, the epic shots, and everything.
I will come home with about 400 gigs of images. I put everything into three different hard drives and then one on an SSD. Then I open Narrative Select and go through all the images, and because I enjoy taking these photos and because they mean something at that specific moment, I will relive that specific moment when I cull. I select all the pictures that I feel create the story. I'm not worried about the number [of images] I'm going to give at the end.
Usually, on 10,000 images, I will export from Narrative Select 4,000 to 5,000. I select all the pictures that mean something to me, about 50% of the shots I take. I need about two to three hours to select all the images.
Then I select my profile [in Narrative Edit], where I have created my own preset, which was about 2,500 images initially to create your own Personal Style. Within 10 minutes, all the pictures are open in Lightroom and already retouched.
Usually 48 to 72 hours after the wedding, I deliver about 50 images just to make sure the couple is fine with the editing and I want to see my pictures shared on social media. On a really optimistic timeline, I would retouch a full wedding of 10,000 images within three days.
It's helping you win back a lot of time. 10,000 images in two hours is incredible, and then 10 minutes to do the edit. All of the image processing is happening locally on your computer, which is why it's so fast. It's not uploading them to anybody's servers.
I don't need to do a lot. It's very accurate.
I shoot weddings all over the place– Morocco, Latin America, Mexico, the US, the Faroe Islands, France, Italy. So I need a very versatile preset to understand these specific light needs. If I see the light and capture the light this way, and if my preset is strong enough and gives this consistency, I don't need much editing.
Sometimes I put a little bit more highlight because I want the eyes to be focused on the details. I use the vertical to straighten everything. Sometimes I use the brush to kind of paint the lights on a specific subject. These basically are the only tools I'm using in Lightroom. I don't use any other tools. My preset is simple because I want everything to look very natural but a bit moody because this is my style. It's a bit moody. It's a bit romantic.
I use all kinds of cameras during the day. My main camera is a Sony A9. So you may think Narrative is going to be matching this specific camera and no others. But sometimes I use a Panasonic or an Olympus camera. My wife sometimes uses the Olympus camera and we work together. [The Personal Style I created in Narrative Edit] matches all kinds of camera profiles. I don't know how it does that, but it's just amazing.
Unedited image in Lightroom.
Image after applying Eric’s Personal Style in Narrative Edit.
The adjustments you make in Lightroom get fed back into Narrative as corrections. Those small adjustments will help improve the AI for the next shoot. Every 250 corrections you make retrains your Style, so the more you use it, the more accurate it gets.
I can really see the difference from even a couple of months ago and now.
It's very exciting to hear that you can edit 4,000 images in 10 minutes and do some final retouching. It's amazing to hear that the product is continuing to improve and get more accurate the more that you use it.
It does. At the beginning, it saved me time, but now, through the process that's really increasing. That's helping me to retouch more images faster. I can even retouch almost a full wedding when I'm at the airport, which happens quite a lot.
I can finally say, I can dig into being present in the moment, not thinking about all the work I have. It might sound stupid, sometimes when you know all the work you have to do and be at home and everything, you are obsessed by it and it's become too much. Now I can have this freedom of mind saying, OK, I'm there. I'm present. I can rely on something which is useful. And I don't have any assistants. I do everything myself.
It's really helping me. I can finally get a social life. So I just want to congratulate you for inventing this kind of software. It's really, really helpful.
I love to hear that you're doing your editing at the airport. When we built Narrative, we wanted everything to work offline. You can edit 4,000 images on a really average internet connection or none at all. And you can make the most of every spare moment. Thanks again, Eric.
Originally from France and now based in Portugal and Mexico, Eric-René Penoy is a full-time dreamer, documenter, film lover, traveler, and definitely not a traditional wedding photographer. He covers intimate and cinematic weddings and elopements in the most natural way possible. His passion is to tell a story, nourishing the day with a lot of photographs and small details in his distinct and poetic style. Check out his incredible body of work at ericrenepenoy.com and on Instagram (@ericrene.penoy).
This interview has been edited and condensed. Check out “The Photographer’s Problem: A Narrative Podcast,” streaming now on YouTube or Spotify, for the full interview and more inspiring stories from the evolving world of photography.
