Editing??????

If you have ever been to a custom photographer, you may have wondered why it takes a week (or more) to view your proofs. So what’s the hold up? (Well, besides being a wife and mom in a very active household)??

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at what happens to your images after I leave your session. This process it followed with every single image that I share with you, and images that are not up to my high standards will not be shared :)

First of all, I load the images into my computer. This takes a while because I shoot in RAW format, which basically lets me make the decisions of how the image will be processed (instead of the camera when shooting Jpeg), so the files are very large.

Next, I cull (sort and find the good ones) your images in Adobe Lightroom. I then create a folder of the ‘good’ ones, and open them individually in Adobe Camera Raw. Because I am not limited by Jpeg, I am able to tweak the exposure, white balance and any other little nuances of each particular image. I then export them as TIFF files to a separate folder.

Now we’re cookin!!!! Each TIFF file is opened in Adobe Photoshop, where I remove blemishes, undereye circles, enhance the eyes, whiten teeth, and all the other magic I do. This can be time consuming (usually 5-10 minutes per image) but the results are WORTH IT.

Then it’s back to Adobe Lightroom for some cropping and vignetting (if necessary) and exporting the files as Jpegs to a separate ‘proofing’ folder. Then and only then can your images be uploaded to your Gallery, or shared on Facebook.

My entire editing process takes 4-8 hours per session, depending on the type of session and subject...Time that is well spent if you ask any of my super-happy clients :)

Nicole