A Sydney wedding season can put a harbour-side ceremony, a beach elopement at Palm Beach, a function-centre reception in Western Sydney and a vineyard weekend in the Hunter into the same fortnight. Each has its own light and its own edit. If the galleries and films are stacking up between Saturdays, this page explains how BackstagePost works with Sydney studios: what we edit, how we handle the light you shoot in, what it costs in AUD and how the time difference works.
We are a post-production team for wedding photographers and filmmakers. You shoot. We cull, grade, retouch and edit, and deliver galleries and films back to you, under your name, to hand to your couple.
Harbour and beach light
Sydney’s coast gives you water in almost every outdoor frame, and water is a reflector. Midday ceremonies on a headland or a beach bring bright skies, hard shadows under eyes and colour bouncing off the sea and sand.
Our approach to the grade:
- Hold the bright end first. Pull highlights and whites until the sky, the water and the dress keep detail. What clips can’t come back.
- Then open the faces. Lift shadows on the couple with a mask, so skin brightens without the whole frame washing out.
- Keep the water believable. Adjust blues and aquas on their own, gently, rather than pushing global saturation and turning skin orange.
- Match ceremony to portraits. A noon ceremony and a golden-hour harbour portrait need different adjustments, but should read as one day.
Digital Photography School describes harsh light as roughly 10 am to 2 pm. A coastal ceremony in that window needs an edit that works from the raw rather than from the first preview. For the detail, read editing beach weddings in harsh midday sun.
For films, every camera and the drone are matched to one look before the cut, and wind noise is cleaned out of ceremony audio so the vows stay clear.
Western Sydney and South Asian multi-day weddings
If you shoot South Asian weddings in Western Sydney, you know the shape of them: several events over several days, two or more shooters, a big guest list, vivid outfits and very different light at each event.
| Event | What the edit has to protect |
|---|---|
| Haldi | Yellow paste on skin and clothes that still looks natural |
| Mehndi | Henna detail on hands, rich fabrics, colour-heavy decor |
| Sangeet | Faces under coloured stage light, noise in dark crowd shots |
| Ceremony | Gold and red that doesn’t clip, families around the couple |
| Reception | Consistency with the ceremony, entrances, speeches, the dance floor |
We grade skin first and let the decor follow, so marigolds and stage washes stay rich without tinting faces. Every event is checked against an anchor scene so the couple look like the same people from the first day to the last. The cull follows your brief: tell us the key family members and group shots, and which events matter most.
On the film side we can cut one film per event and a highlight across the wedding.
These weddings are charged at the same standard package prices as any other wedding. The Wedding gallery covers up to 3,000 raws across the whole wedding, all days and events together. Our post on editing Indian and South Asian weddings in Sydney and Melbourne goes through each event in detail.
Hunter Valley and Blue Mountains weekends
If you travel for weddings, two trips out of Sydney bring very different light: vineyard weddings in the Hunter Valley, and cooler, misty days in the Blue Mountains.
The Hunter. Golden hour between the vines, dry paddocks behind them and a marquee under festoon lights after dark. The grade sets white balance for skin rather than the sky, keeps vine greens natural rather than neon, and treats the marquee as its own scene, so tungsten doesn’t turn the canvas and the guests yellow. Read editing Hunter Valley and Yarra Valley weddings for more.
The Blue Mountains. Overcast light, fog and cliff-edge views. The challenge is keeping cool, soft landscapes moody without dragging skin grey with them. We grade skin warm against a cooler background, and keep detail in the haze rather than lifting it flat.
What we edit and what it costs, in AUD
Every price is a fixed amount in Australian dollars. It includes the edit, the Lightroom catalogue or project file and the revisions listed.
| Package | What’s included | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement gallery | 100 to 200 culled and graded images, from up to 1,000 raws, 2 revisions | A$75 |
| Wedding gallery | 300 to 500 culled and graded images, from up to 3,000 raws, up to 3 revisions | A$120 |
| Highlight film | 5 to 8 minutes, 1 to 3 cameras, drone included, 2 revisions | A$150 |
| Feature film | 15 to 40 minutes, vows and speeches in full, 1-minute teaser, 3 revisions | A$225 |
| Essential | Wedding gallery plus highlight film, one grade across both | A$225 |
| Signature | Wedding gallery plus feature film | A$300 |
| Complete | Wedding gallery, highlight film and feature film | A$450 |
Add-ons: three 9:16 social reels for A$60, a drone-only edit for A$45, and album design across 20 spreads for A$90. Rush delivery in 72 hours adds 50% to the whole order. If you send five or more projects a month, a monthly plan takes 15% off every package.
On whether GST applies to imported services for your studio, ask your accountant. We quote and charge fixed AUD.
The time difference, honestly
Our editing team is in Pakistan, which is UTC+5 all year with no daylight saving. Sydney is 5 hours ahead of us in winter and 6 hours ahead during daylight saving, from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April.
The gap matters less than it sounds, because the editing team works 24 hours a day, in shifts. In practice:
- The team works in shifts around the clock, so a link is picked up soon after it arrives, whatever the hour in your state.
- Questions about a brief can come back to you at any hour, and your replies are picked up soon after you send them.
- Revision notes are picked up soon after they arrive.
Standard turnaround is still 7 business days from the moment the footage link works and the brief is complete. Weekends and NSW public holidays don’t count, so a Sunday upload starts the clock on the next business day. Our post on working with an editing team behind your time zone has the full state-by-state picture.
How a Sydney project works
- Send the link. Paste a Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer, pCloud or Box link into the brief. Nothing is uploaded to us, and your raws stay in your storage.
- Send your style. Your preset or LUT and three to five finished frames, or a reference film.
- We confirm. The brief, the price in AUD and the delivery date, before you pay.
- We edit. We grade test frames against your references first, then work through the full set.
- You review. Reply with notes for each revision round. Everything is delivered to you, and we never contact your couples.
Our editing team accesses your files in Pakistan. Our data processing terms explain how images are handled and deleted.
Start with a free project
Your first project is free: any Gallery tier or the Highlight film, edited and delivered exactly like a paid project, with no card. Send a typical Sydney wedding, coastal light and all.