How to Edit Photos Like Brandon Woelfel. Or Why You Should Experiment.

There’s no doubt that Brandon’s got a great look going, but is it really that hard to achieve?

The After (left) and Before (right) edits.

The answer is it depends. It depends on how proficient you are with Photoshop and/or Lightroom and how well you know your photography.

For those who don’t know who Brandon Woelfel is, he’s a very talented photographer who has an incredibly appealing style to his photos focused around shallow depth of field and use of neon & fairy lights.

This little project started when a friend of mine asked me how to edit like Brandon; and after scrolling through his Instagram feed I tried to replicate the look with a photo I had. Here’s the full process in video form:

Via my YouTube Channel.

Did I manage to replicate his look? Maybe? Somewhat?

Did I learn something along the way? Absolutely.

The most exciting thing about this project was just the whole experimentation process. I know my way around Photoshop, Lightroom, and a camera. Hence, I was able to figure out bits and pieces of Brandon’s process. At the end of it, my (extremely rough) interpretation is as follows:

1. Have your subject near neon lights or fairy lights. Hold fairy lights and arrange them in some random, fancy, visually appealing way.
2. Use a wide open aperture (something like f/1.8 or wider) and shoot. My photo didn’t really have much DOF, so I faked it using Photoshop’s lens blur and a mask (it’s in the video).
3. In Lightroom, use Curves to crush blacks and bring White Balance closer to blues a little. Then use HSL sliders to dial in on the dominant colours of the picture. In my case, it was blue & magenta. Split Tone to enhance if you want, I didn’t.
4. In Photoshop, bring in some bokeh images from Google, desaturate them, then colourise them according to the two dominant colours and set blending mode to Color Dodge. Then start masking out the edges with a large, soft brush. Adjust Opacity and position/resize accordingly.
5. Export and farm Instagram Likes.

So yeah it’s extremely quick and dirty and I made a video for a reason. If you’re confused, the video will clear it up I promise.

The Key Takeaway

I had a lot of fun with this. The process of trying to figure out how Brandon achieved his look, and then trying it out myself was extremely enjoyable and I definitely picked up a new trick or two with Lightroom and Photoshop.

At the end of the day I probably didn’t really ‘replicate’ Brandon’s look, but I did end up with something I was happy with AND I had the opportunity to stretch my creative muscles.

Experimentation is Important

Most people tend to focus on the outcome of a tutorial, but the real learning comes when you focus on the techniques and craft that a tutorial covers.

By focusing on the process rather then the final outcome, you end up adding to your arsenal. You’ll look for ways to connect what you already know to the things you just learnt. You’ll end up creating something new.

Don’t obsess with replicating the outcome exactly — where’s the fun in that? Just experiment, eyeball, and make something that looks good to you 😁

I can’t even begin to talk about how many motion graphics artists have a portfolio full of VideoCopilot tutorials, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Thanks for reading! Give it a clap if you thought it was cool 👏

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