Before and After: Editing a Photo Session

Have you ever wondered what a professional photograph looks like before the photographer puts his or her final touches on it? Here is a little peek behind the scenes.

A lot happens after your session is over. Generally, a photographer will back up the images from your shoot and then go through them one by one to select the best ones from the session. Unflattering poses, blinks, duplicates and etc. will be tossed and the remaining images will be edited.

No image is ever the same and each photo will usually require a different set of adjustments. Some will require more edits than others.

For me, once I narrow down the images I want to show my clients, I edit each of them for a finished look.

The goal, of course, it to always get it right in camera. I always want to make sure that the parts of the photo I want in focus are in focus, that the image is properly exposed and composed. Ask any photographer and they will tell you that there is no better photo than the one that requires little to no post-processing.

But even solid “straight out of camera” images usually require a little bit of tweaking to make them stand out and reflect a photographer's creative vision.

Take a look at the image accompanying this post. The photo on the left is shown as shot, straight out of camera.

A few things about the image on the left stand out to me. First, it looks just a little bit “cool” as it was shot using auto white balance. In addition, the photo is somewhat underexposed, something I did in-camera to retain baby’s fair skin tone without risking making it too bright.

To correct this, I brightened the image up just a little bit in post-processing. I then added some warmth to correct the white balance issue. Finally, I removed some of the distracting leaves/rocks on the road behind the baby. The image on the right is now ready for my client to see.