Original Photo
This is the photo that comes out of the camera. It’s the product of lighting, exposure, focal depth, ISO, the subject, the makeup, the background, the mood, the music, what you had for breakfast and every other variable that comes together in this moment.
You’ll never see this picture!
The Proof
During your photo session, we’ll likely take hundreds of photos. After our session, I’ll upload all those photos and start reviewing for the few dozen best, and run those through a first level of post-processing.
From the original, much of the desired detail is hidden behind the limitations of jpeg image quality, and some basic RAW processing corrects for white balance and color, lifts detail out of the shadows and corrects for what I actually saw.
Depending on your package, this will likely be the first image you see.
The Portrait
Retouching The Portrait includes blemish removal from the skin, stray hairs, spots on clothing, makeup flaws, and adds more color enhancement, highlighting details in your eyes, hair and other areas of focus. The goal here is to bring out the real you. We might add special color configurations such as black and white or sepia here depending on the photo.
For The Portrait, I may also remove other distractions from the image that don’t add value or take away from the subject—you! But I don’t modify any permanent attributes like scars, freckles, underlying complexion, or age-related skin characteristics. For those enhancements, you’ll have to upgrade retouching to The Glamour…
The Glamour
This level of retouching is artistic. Depending on the photos, I’ll use some of these techniques in nearly all levels of retouching, but the effort and time required is definitely more significant. The result is less a portrait, and more a work of art. These images are often commissioned one at a time, and are usually for large prints to canvas.
But I do love doing these, so please don’t hesitate to ask!