A Lesson in post processing

Today's lesson will be about post-processing. Post processing (or PP), is the things you do to the image after you download it from your camera to enhance or add to it to make it more dramatic (or subtle, soft, vibrant, etc. Insert your own adjective here).

We're going to start with a recent photo from Kirstin and Jake's shoot.

This photo was pretty darn good straight out of the camera (SOOC). There's about 14 trillion options, but I'm just going to share with you 6.

First we start with the basic black and white. It's a simple process and I do this for select images that have a beautiful contrast in them that will look good in black and white tones. On the right, is a sepia tone (pronounced: See-pee-uh - sorry, that's a pet peeve of mine lol). Now, for the majority of customers, I drag my feet hard on sepia processing for an average photo. In fact, usually "never" comes to mind. BUT - once in a while, a photo is appropriate for the sepia finish. Like, a great cowboy pic. Pics I don't think are good for sepia are kids, babies, family, maternity, most wedding photos, etc. Basically almost everything. LOL.

Next we have a texture. This one is a rough leather texture. The photo on the left, the texture is much more opaque. You can really see the lines of the hide. The photo on the right the texture is very dark, almost completely losing the details around their feet. I actually like this effect and think that this texture takes this from just a photo of Jake and Kirsten on a haybale, to a piece of artwork that anyone could hang in their home.

Lastly, we have couple of nice brights. Kristin and Jake become silhouettes against an orange sky, which is borderline sepia and could have been pushed even brighter. The photo on the right would be awesome in even pink (Jake takes no guff over wearing pink btw). I think these would be lovely on the cover of a wedding invitation or your thank you cards.

If you have an upcoming wedding, senior photos, family shoot, etc please contact me and we'll set up a time to create some beautiful pieces of art to display in your home!