Yesterday I talked a little about how much work some photographers do on their images before they share them with their clients. Some people find it hard to believe how much work actually goes into it! I, myself, spend at least 15 to 20 minutes on each and every photo (more if there is baby acne to take care of, or a few wrinkles to soften, etc.) before I upload them to a client gallery. I like to shoot in manual, and save in RAW. I don’t like to let the camera make any decisions for me. I like to decide how much depth of field my photo should have, what shutter speed will work best for the vision I have in mind; I want to decide how saturated to have the colours, how sharp to have the images, where the white balance will be…everything. And, once the shot is made, I like to use various photo editing programs to transform the image from “great photo” to “piece of art”. Something I hope my clients will love having up on their wall. This all takes a lot of time, of course, but it is well worth the effort.
To demonstrate…how about a little Fix-it-Friday?
This gorgeous “before” shot was set-up by Rachel Durik and taken with a really nice, and expensive, Canon 5D camera. Here is the SOOC version (straight out of camera):

And here is the after version once I’ve worked on it using Photoshop Elements 8.0, Nik Software, and Florabella actions {Spring Pastels}.

This is such a great photo! A great pose and an adorable couple. I just thought their faces were a bit too dark compared to the background. I wanted to put the emphasis more on them. So I selectively lightened them, and darkened the background. I then blurred out the background just a touch more and added a slight glow to it…and bumped up the warmth of the whole photo. I also added on a Florabella action to make the whole picture look more like a piece of art. Some slight skin softening, and overall picture sharpening, and I think we have it. A portrait I think they would love.
Every photographer has a different vision for how a photo should look. That is why you should always chose a photographer whose style you connect with. For more great takes on this portrait…head on over to I Heart Faces by clicking right HERE!
Thanks and have a great weekend everyone!



For more details about Pea Tree Photography’s new digital collections, or to book your custom photography session, you can fill out the contact form on the website, email me at TheChickPea@peatreephotography.com or give me a call at 905-870-3286.




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