BOSTON CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER, BOSTON FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER, BOSTON NEWBORN PHOTOGRAPHER

Let me preface this by saying that I know Before & Afters are all the rage on photog blogs, so clearly I am not original in posting this.  However, I thought it was timely as I prepare for upcoming workshops.

During my workshops, often the question of Photoshop comes up and people ask me how much I have to do.  Many people assume I spend hours “photoshopping” images so they appear their best.  It’s almost assumed that the “Photoshop” part of it is the biggest component of a great image.  And so during my workshop, most of the images I show are Straight out of Camera (SOOC).

I am a minimalist when it comes to Photoshop.  I always believe less is more, and usually better.  I have heard other photogs say “you would have to pry my SOOC images out of my dead hands before a client saw them…” or “I can’t wait until I get my hands on that in Photoshop.”  And while that is all well and good, my firm belief (and I think this is the norm among most professionals) is that if it’s not awesome SOOC, it’s just putting lipstick on a pig if you use Photoshop to make it better.

That said, I do “process” every image in Photoshop, so what’s the difference?  Here’s the deal… most cameras come with image presets that set saturation, contrast, and sharpness.  They aren’t set at a crazy number, but they definitely add “oomph” to SOOC images.  And if you shoot JPEG, your entire image is compressed and all those presets are applied.  So if you shoot JPEG with great exposure, your image is 90% there.

I shoot totally flat RAW images, meaning every preset is 0.  I don’t sharpen in the camera because I find it adds “artifacts” into the image (little speckles of noise).  So when my images come out, they are properly exposed, but everything is incredibly flat.  I minimally process each image in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) –typically I recover whites to 10-15 and I adjust white balance, which is usually close to accurate.  When I bring the image into Photoshop, I run an action that increases contrast, adds yellow (that is a personal preference), flattens the image and very lightly sharpens.  I also use a mask to tell me if my image has bright spots brought on by my action.  This step is critical because although sometimes bright images are just fine on the web, they won’t print well — and if they won’t print, I won’t show it.   I don’t mess with eyes… and that includes whitening eyeballs.  To the question “What do you do to make the eyes look like that?” — the answer is “I use light.”  If there are obvious temporary blemishes (or food), I will “Photoshop” those off.  And yes, on an occasion, I have “swapped a head” (usually at the mom’s request)… but that is not the norm.  I prefer to ensure I nailed composition and expression in the camera rather than spending time altering in Photoshop.

Now there are some images that require more editing.  Specifically shooting sunflare.  Typically those images require a strong contrast curve to jack down the blacks.  In those instances, it is what it is, but it’s still just basic processing.  And if you just HAVE to move an awkward object out of the background in an otherwise great image, you do it.  And I clean up boogies and newborn acne.  Sometimes, usually about 1X a month, I get a wild and I add crazy processing to an image.  That said, they are usually my personal images and not client images because I like to stay consistent on those.

Landing the plane… this “getting it right in the camera” is the primary reason why I have structured my workshops the way I have.  I believe if you can learn to do this (get it right with composition and lighting), then Photoshopping your images should be a secondary skill that comes much after you have learned about light, composition, and manual exposure (Manual Exposure & Post-Processing are the main components of Snap Camp).

Here’s an example of how much “Photoshop” I typically do to a properly exposed image.  In ACR, I upped the whites to 30 for her tank.  That’s it.  I ran my standard action in PS, then I erased back anything in her tank that was too bright – and by erasing back I mean that I brought it back to the SOOC state.  I flattened and lightly sharpened.  Voila.

If you found tips like this to be helpful, please let me know and I’ll start a category where I can share them!

I blogged just one image of this delicious little boy while I was on vacation and I just had to come back and add some more. He was so little, and so awake! Usually awake newborns are a challenge to work with, but honestly, he was a very content little boy and just sat there looking at the world, and was so happy to by hung over his dad’s arm! I really liked his parents and they live in a town that is so near and dear to my heart, where I spent so much time growing up and so I was just happy to be hanging out there on a beautiful day.

When I look at these, it makes me realize that I need to stop stressing about getting the perfect sleeping baby pose and embrace just how lovely it is to see a baby being held and loved by his parents. The more I go back and look, the happier these images make me. I hope you feel the same!

More to come over the course of next week as I edit all the pictures from yesterday.  Here are the kids… 12 of them under 9.  Most of them are just months apart from each other.  I smell trouble in about 6 years.  Never mind, they are trouble enough now!