Everything Editing

Ok maybe not "everything"....there's too much that goes on to cover in one little blog post.  But!  Ever wonder what we do to you during the editing process?  I had a very talented friend take some family pictures of us over the weekend.  To spare any embarrassment on the part of my husband or any of you I've worked with I will offer up my own photos from this session to show you what goes on after we get your files on our computers.  

First and foremost, every photo has to be converted from RAW to Jpeg, so even when we have photos that don't need retouching, we have to take the time to convert each an every one of them.

The extent of editing depends on the session. 

Newborns require a lot of editing because of all the closeups and we spend a lot of time perfecting skin, removing dry flaky patches, scratches, etc.

Baby studio sessions require the least amount - these little creatures have beautiful perfect skin and unless there's a scratch those photos require hardly any retouching.   Since we're in the studio the lighting and backdrops are controlled...these come out perfectly with the right camera settings so less needs to be altered on the back end.

Outdoor baby or family photos require some work every time and that's what we'll demonstrate here.

Below we have varying levels of editing, some dramatic, others less so.

Photo 1:  Ben and I, as shot.
Not a bad photo....in the shade so there are no shadows or contrast-y patches all over our faces.  The light is in the back with the beautiful trees.  But without editing there's no magic.

And the edited version.  WOAH! 

And everything I did....We took these photos around 5:30 pm, so just before true golden sunset hour.  I took that creative liberty upon myself to punch up the golden tones.

Photo 2:  Ben Close-Up

You can see it needs an extra kick of exposure, he's got drool going down his chin and his little cheeks could use some softening...as do my smile creases

Photo 3:  Both of us closer.  Not much needs to happen here....just an evening of skin and adjustment of the exposure. 

Photo 4:  Kiss!  For this one the major change is the crop.  There's no reason we need to leave it as shot....the story this photo tells is the sweet kiss. 

As I said, the extent of editing not only depends on the type of session but also the conditions on that day.  If we took these pictures during a true sunset there would be far less adding in of my own golden light because that sunset would be there.  I would definitely not add or adjust that.  If it was rainy I could warm the photos up a bit but there's no substitute for actual sunlight. 

And finally....which ones do we keep from you?  I always promise to give you all the "good ones"....so what kind of duds are we talking about? Like these below. 

An obvious "no".  I have no clue what I'm looking at. The obvious "no's" where we are blinking, not looking, not ready, all get left behind. 

An almost good one.  Either we moved or the sun moved and Ben has a big contrast-y patch along the side of his face and honestly....he just looks better in other photos.  No one needs this one.

Blah.  Caught some motion blur, it's not sharp, and Ben's got a fading smile.