Photography Post Production

Professional Photography Post Production

There are several steps that take place after the photo shoot. The time professional photography post production consumes can range from fifteen minutes to several hours. Depending on what needs to be accomplished. For my clients, this time is generally accounted for in the cost of the photo shoot. That is there is no additional charge unless the customer requests something unusual. This provides an outstanding value to my customers. Something that many other photographers will charge separately for. The time post processing can sometimes be as much as the actual time shooting.

Editing is the first step.

Move mouse over photo to see retouching example.

First all photo shoots go through a rough edit where generally 30% of the shoot can be trashed. Eyes are closed, the lighting was not perfect, focus issues, etc. What is left are a lot of good photos. In that mix are some really good photos. These have to be “post processed”. Post processing is the silent partner of the photo shoot. Generally images don’t go from camera to a CD in your mail box. No image is perfect coming out of the camera. All images need a little work like cropping, perfecting the color balance, etc. This used to be done separately by a retouch expert. Now it is done on the photographer’s computer.

Fine tuning the photographs

Depending on the type of work there may still be more to be done.  I refer to myself as a professional. Most of the time it is true. I try to get it right while shooting. Regardless some photos require some aspect of the picture to be changed. For example in a recent photo shoot for Long Beach Transit there was a nasty glare off one of the bus windows. This was taken care of in Photoshop. That changed a good picture into an excellent picture.

Still not done. All edited images are burned onto a hard drive or DVD to be archived at Andy Templeton Photography for up to 5 years, longer on request.

See more information on my website about photographing executive portraits and corporate branding.