a peek at what digital pros do AFTER they click the shutter

Many photographers wouldn’t consider showing a client negatives or unprocessed, unedited images. But I’m going to be bold and present you with the before and after gallery just to illustrate the art and subjectivity that goes into being a photographer. It is MUCH more than pushing a button on the camera and uploading the files, then clicking “print.” I’m sure there will be different opinions of the quality of my “after” images, but remember these things are very subjective and if you have suggestions, please comment and pass on your wisdom:)

View the Before-After Gallery

In the “old” days, a lot of art went into developing, adjusting, and printing images in the darkroom. It might be surprising that such painstaking care is still required for pro-level digital images. I’ve broken it down to a three-step process: digital negative (RAW) conversion, basic adjustments, and touchup and advanced adjustments.

When a digital photographer shoots in RAW format, the result is a negative–a digital negative–that still requires what is called post-processing using a conversion program where the photographer initially adjusts exposure and any number of other variables.

Once the image is converted, it is then edited for color, contrast, and almost always sharpened. And, especially with portraits of children, there always seems to be touch-up, such as removing food, runny noses, or scrapes.

Finally, advanced adjustments are best done by hand. For example, hand black-and-white conversion done image-by-image produces far better results than clicking the “black and white” button in a program.