In today’s digital world, there is a great debate over to post process (touch up) a photo or not to post process. Personally, I have always taken great care and time to post process my images and even count this as part of my job as a photographer.

I have read many books and practiced a lot through the years and am still learning new tips and tricks to make my photos have that extra pop. I take pride in the time and money I have invested in the programs which help me go that extra mile for my clients to make them feel the more beautiful and alive than ever in a photo. I spend as much time on a photo as needed to reach the state I feel it should be, and the state I imagined it in when I first pressed the shutter.

To me, post processing is about perfecting the already perfect, and tidying up the already clean. I believe having and perfecting the craft to post process your images means you go the extra mile and are not afraid to learn new tricks to better yourself as a photographer. Even after you learn all you can in camera about shooting a photo, the elements of life can still throw it off just a bit. Maybe the wind picked up and a stray hair blew across a face, or the sun popped out at the last second and made your photo a little too bright. Maybe a little fly landed on your dog’s tail or your child moved their head just a tad and caused a slight shadow. All of these things are normal and a part of life, but an image should last a lifetime and show the beauty in things - so why not make them as beautiful as they can possibly be and enjoy being flawless for just a moment?

I am always more than happy to share what I have learned, but honestly, it’s all about practice, practice, practice. There are always new trends in the photography world and while I could teach you one way of doing something, someone else may have a much quicker and easier way. I believe post processing should in no way change how the overall photo looks and should always remain as minimal as possible. What that said, below are a few before and after shots with a small explination of what I did to each one and why.

In this image, I wanted the main focus to be the model but still have the feel of the grungy environment around her. I did a slight blur to make her skin a bit more even, lightened the photo to take out the red tones and darkened the shadows. These small steps were quick and easy and put your main focus on the model.

I felt this photo was a little too blue and flat. I wanted it to pop in a more glamorous way so I once again smoothed the skin a tad, darkened the blacks, sharpened her eyes and ran a quick action to pop the colors and put a vignette around the photo.

This photo was beautiful in color, but I wanted it to be a bit more dramatic, so I changed it to black and white. Black and white is all about getting the tones perfect and takes a while to perfect. I also removed a bit of debris off the bottom of her dress.

This was an in-the-moment photo, so I couldn’t exactly control my surroundings. I loved her expression, but she just happened to be laying on a plastic bag. I decided to crop the photo, putting more emphasis on the cat, and cropping above the blue bag. I closed in a little closer to her face which put her in the center of the photo, as well as brightened it to make her pop.

This is a technique in post processing that’s a bit popular now, which uses textures. It adds a bit more interest to a photo and there are many different techniques and textures out there, making a photo look old and worn, adding a background and so on. I thought we could give this photo a vintage type feel, so I added a texture, changed the opacity and viola!