Memories by Lisa Photography: August 2012

I may upset some photographers with this post, but I am a believer that no matter how good of a photographer you are...almost every picture can benefit with just a little bit of post processing. Now that being said, I am not saying that you should process images TOO much. But I think if someone pays you to take professional images of their event, you are obligated to give them the very best final product you can. At a minimum, I always check all of my images in lightroom to see if I think they need a teeny bit of a boost. I do not include advanced editing on all images though. Typically I will pick 5 to 10 of my favorite images from each session to do advanced editing on. This gives my client a good idea of what can be done on the images they pick, if they decide they want it done.

I recently had a friend who was married in another state and paid a very handsome price to a local photographer to provide engagement, first glance and wedding images for her. She selected this professional photographer because she really liked the artistic nature of the images she saw on the photographer's blog and website. She decided to forgo having a videographer so she could afford to pay more for this particular photographer. Once she received her final images after the wedding, she was extremely disappointed and asked me to take a look at them. I explained to her that the images themselves were not the problem. It was the lack of post processing that was the problem. With her purchase she received a full copyright release for all of the images, so at her request, I edited some of the images to illustrate my point. She was thrilled with the difference. Her package also included a photobook of her wedding. When it came time to pick the images for inclusion in the book, she took the comparison images along with samples of the images that influenced her initial decision to select this photographer with her to her consultation. Her request was that all of the images she selected get at least the minimal edits needed to push them from good to amazing.

I want to point out that not everyone has the same taste in styles. So it is the responsibility of the client to do their due diligence and pick a photographer whose style appeals to them as my friend did. She knew what she wanted and went for that look. It is important that you make sure the photographer is aware of your desires ahead of time. Outline clear expectations and if you don't feel they deliver on those expectations, feel free to discuss it with them in a professional manner. I have gone out of my way to make sure the photographer I am speaking of is not identified, because this post is not meant to bash them or their skills. On the contrary, I think they are very good at what they do. I just think this situation was an anomaly in time. Below I will share a few examples of my point...