My Photography Journey & adapting to modern tech and AI
When I discovered the world of AI, I knew our preset would work well with the program, because I had so much consistent work to feed the platform. I began using Imagen & Aftershoot and added weddings from all over the world featuring every lighting situation (indoor, outdoor, beach, mountains, bright sun, overcast, golden hour, dark spaces with flash, high ISO low light situations, artificially lit shoots, and the list goes on!!).
We added over 90,000 images to get started and test both platforms.
I have been fine-tuning both profiles since then. The best part about Imagen & Aftershoot is that the results are true to the preset and editing style I hold so dear and I feel like we are getting authentic, consistent results every, single time! My editing style is described as editorial, luxury + refined. And that is the result you get with my profiles based on 16 years in business, consistency in my work and a consistent, tried & true editing style.
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1. When and how did you know that you wanted to be a photographer?
My career began in the darkroom and in the art studio painting whatever inspired me that day. From there, I began interning at the National Geographic photography department and moved on to work for various photo production companies in the Bay Area. I was young, hungry, and deeply motivated to sustain a career in the arts.
After working in various positions where I learned the arduous reality of running a successful photography business, I stopped freelancing and went all in on my dream of building something that affected people's lives beyond the photographs themselves. That’s where Kreate Photography was born.
THE #1 THING THAT HAS BURNT ME OUT AS A PHOTOGRAPHER IS POST PRODUCTION.
I am here to help you avoid that:
2. How did you get into Wedding photography?
I shot my first wedding in Guatemala in 2007 and never looked back! I shot alongside my Aunt Sue who had a lifelong career as a wedding photographer. From there, I graduated college and worked my way through Southern California, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, and Oakland building my business. I associate and second shot to build my portfolio while booking lower-end weddings of my own to build my brand and business. I finally cracked the code to make a name for myself in the industry when I realized I didn't have to do it all alone.
My transformation was born when I invested in my education and created a blueprint of editing SOPs (with this preset!), systems, strategies, and workflows that could be repeated and improved over time. I invested in my growth, consultants, and editors so I could focus on the top 5% of the business that only could be done by me.
Today, my business thrives off of a set of systems and workflows that have allowed me to scale, grow a wedding photography team, start a family, and move into the commercial photography sector all while maintaining a robust multi-six-figure wedding + lifestyle photography business.I have shot over 575 weddings and served over 800 couples and families. Needless to say, my photography career was born at a young age and has been sustained by passion and perseverance through all of its many phases!
AFTERSHOOT
IMAGEN
3. How would you describe your own unique photography style?
My work is described as natural, editorial, descriptive, fine-art photography. My entire approach is rooted in building trust, allowing my clients to feel comfortable and at ease throughout the entire process. Having connected with them prior, I weave in a combination of editorial, photojournalistic, and candid styles to my work. I’m a storyteller at heart and I aim to create visual narratives with my work.
My AI editing styles are trained on over 90,000 edited images so you will be receiving a VERY curated and consistent style…
AFTERSHOOT
IMAGEN
4. What would you suggest to photographers looking to create their own unique style?
I am a huge advocate for creating containers for ideas and artistic evolution. What I recommend to my students in my group coaching program, Momentum Method, is to start with a visual mood board. Start a Pinterest, canva or google doc where you have a blank canvas. Pin photos you love for posing inspiration, start pinning images that feature editing styles that you love. Create a gallery of inspirational content you can aspire towards but truly make your own.
This will guide you in what you are attracted to and with time, practice, and persistence you will begin to fine-tune what is yours and only yours! From there begin to test out various editing styles, presets, and creator profiles and refine, refine, refine! When fine-tuning your unique style as a photographer, I recommend using the 8-part checklist below to keep you on track. If you want to learn a bit more, you can download my Portfolio Checklist Guide HERE!
PORTFOLIO CHECKLIST GUIDE (for photogs in any niche):
KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
PRESENTATION
CONSISTENCY IN STYLE
VARIETY WITH COHESION!
EMOTION & IMPACT
THOUGHTFUL CURATION
EDITING CONSISTENCY + TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE
SEO, TECH + CTA’s WITHIN YOUR PORTFOLIO SECTION
If you want to learn a bit more, you can download my Portfolio Checklist Guide HERE!
5. How do you prepare yourself before your photography session?
I am a creature of habit and SYSTEMS! I have a Photoshoot Preparation Checklist that my team and I review before every single shoot. I share this prep-list with my photographer community and you are welcome to download it here!
6. How has AI (like Imagen & Aftershoot) changed your post-processing workflow?
As someone who started out in 2008 when technology was about as basic as a flip phone, I've struggled to wrap my head around just how much AI has become part of our culture today.
I firmly believe that AI should be used as a tool, not a human replacement. We've got to maintain the integrity of the photography industry, right?
Since the beginning of AI, I've been on a mission to find ways to integrate AI into my business without sacrificing what makes us unique. Aftershoot has been a game-changer for me and my team.
Aftershoot has revolutionized our pre-outsourcing workflow (aka from getting home from a shoot to outsourcing to our editing team for post-production). It's like having a personal assistant who deals with the first phase of base culling, color coding, and adding our base preset (but so much better than that!). Talk about a productivity boost!
Imagen has given me the ability to use skin softening for our portrait sessions saving us hours and thousands on post production. Additionally, in my branding photography business, we use the masking tools for product photography and it's been life changing.
And the best part? Despite this AI magic, I've managed to keep my entire editing team employed and trained to use Aftershoot & Imagen which has been incredible. We have 50X’d our pro-production workflow allowing us to take on more work without the dragging feeling of adding editing to our plate. We are out doing what we love: shooting and being with incredible clients all over the world!
7. What inspires you?
My family, and getting out of tech and into nature inspire me. My hilarious and devoted husband is my second backbone, my 3-year-old daughter Raya is curious, funny, and affectionate, and my 6-month-old son Levi is my chill, tiny boyfriend :)
They are my world and being a mother has brought soul-driven purpose to my life outside of my career. Cooking from our garden and hosting dinner parties is one of my favorite pastimes and inspires me to make memories with our community. I am a painter and am obsessed with all things art + interior design. Health, wellness, and adventure are top priorities for me and I experience those things through nature, yoga, travel, and quality time with my family.
AFTERSHOOT
IMAGEN
8. Tell us one good thing and one not-so-good thing about Wedding photography
Wedding Photography, when in the flow and aligned with your life vision, is rewarding, emotional, and collaborative. Weddings require far more than skill, but an emotional attunement and finesse that can be exhausting and lead to burnout if you are not careful.
I see you’re also a Brand & Lifestyle photographer. Tell us a bit about that.
9. How do you manage between different types of photography?
Yes! Katie Monroe Photography is our commercial + branding branch. I have worked tirelessly on making sure our brands are separate, our ideal client is dialed and our messaging does not overlap so we can best serve our clients! My team and I have created in-depth workflows in Dubsado that guide our clients through an incredible, high-touch experience without requiring me to be on all of the time.
I have a passion for marketing and branding. I love it and find all things branding to be incredibly exciting. I love this line of work as it allows me to use a less emotional part of my brain, and apply more strategy to our sessions. I also love the second revenue stream and not working on weekends ;)
AFTERSHOOT
IMAGEN
10. What would you tell someone who is just starting off as a professional photographer?
Many photographers believe that the key to a successful and lucrative business model is just putting in more hours. This "hustle culture" mentality paints a picture that in order to succeed, you need to be shooting more (even if they’re not ideal clients), editing around the clock, and constantly engaging in client communication without rest. It can become a grueling cycle if you do not have the right systems in place.
Many photographers, especially when starting, are under the impression that to maximize profit, they must minimize external costs—leading to the belief that they should handle everything from accounting to social media marketing, to client relations on their own. The logic seems straightforward: why pay someone else when you can do it yourself?
However, there's a hidden cost to this mindset: time, mental energy, and the risk of making mistakes in areas outside your expertise. Not to mention, the more tasks you take on, the more you perpetuate the burnout cycle and the less time you have to focus on what you truly love—which is photography!
In reality, leveraging tools, systems, and outsourcing in the right areas can totally streamline your business, enhance efficiency, and in the long run, lead to increased profitability and a better quality of life The number one reason that photography businesses fail or plateau is from lack of business strategy because it is often overlooked.
DOING EVERYTHING ALONE IS NOT THE WAY TO GO!
Start outsourcing from the get-go, and integrate it into your business model. Invest in your education and coaching early on. Have a CRM set up by year 2 at the latest!
11. Tell us more about your AI Editing Styles in Aftershoot & Imagen.
How should people use it? All niches will thrive with this profile - you can apply it to everything and bump up the warmth or decrease it depending on the look you desire.
What should they expect? Ideal for photographers looking to attain a refined, editorial, and luxury style, this preset gives off a timeless yet modern feel. The naturelle preset gives a clean, bright, and modern color film look. The Naturelle Preset will transform any image to have balanced hues, warm undertones, and glowing skin.
What type of photos can go well with your AI editing style in Aftershoot & imagen? Our preset was created for both natural and artificial light, and can easily be converted to black and white in Lightroom making it versatile and timeless. The Kreate Naturelle Preset is ideal for wedding, family, and portrait photographers including those in the branding and commercial sector.
Here are the pros & cons for me:
Aftershoot Pro: Aftershoots culling tool is impeccable - I rely on it heavily in my business whereas Imagen is still in Beta.
Aftershoot Pro: Very affordable! You pay one flat fee of $499 and have UNLIMITED edits and culling. It’s wildly affordable if you are a working photographer.
Aftershoot Pro: SD Card to cull to edit. I love that we can insert our cards and start fresh in aftershoot! From there, we create the lightroom catalog from Aftershoot and the culled, color coded edited images import seamlessly. Imagen is limited to pre-created Lightroom catalogs.
Imagen Pro: Imagen offers skin softening in BULK which is extremely advanced. Gone are the days that we reduce wrinkles by hand.
Imagen Pro: If you do commercial photography, Imagen offers product masking which is incredible, as well as real estate services etc. Another massive time saver!
Imagen Pro: Manual tweaking! Rather than feed the program MORE final shoots, you can make global tweaks manually. This has been really helpful over the years!
Not on Aftershoot Yet? Start your free trial today, and get my profile for free!
New to Imagen? Whooop here are 1500 free edits so it is free and easy to try! And you can also use code KPH-IM50 to get 50% off my consistent, stunning Imagen editing profile :)
Start your free trial today, and get my profile for free! OR 20% OFF!
Aftershoot Select, Essential, and Pro Users: Thinking about leveling up? Upgrade your plan, and my Creator Style is yours - no extra cost!
You’re AMAZING and what you do.
Katie
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I hope that each nugget in this post inspired you and got your mind thinking differently and your editing workflow dialed!
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👇👇👇 See you inside👇👇👇
