As a mum myself I know just how excited you’ll be to receive your photos back after your shoot.
There is however a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to making those camera clicks taken on the day into something even more magical, bringing your shoot back to life again.
Every image is individually retouched and is truly made with love <3
As your photographer, these are the steps that I take with your images after your photo shoot:
Uploading
The first thing I always do is upload the gallery straight away
Backing up
I then make sure I have all of the raw files backed up, just incase... because its always better to be safe than sorry!
Culling
I go through each image individually and hand select my favourites from each set up, angel etc. I always base this on my professional eye and my experience, but I also always keep in mind the images that my clients might prefer too, based on conversations we have had during the shoot
Putting them in order
Once I’ve selected the final images to bring forward to the retouching stage, I then make sure I am happy with the order of the images in the gallery. Doing this can make the world of difference to my clients when they are viewing the gallery - To tell a story and allow the images to roll through in a natural way is important for the viewing experience
Retouching
This is where the magic happens! Although I shoot very natural looking images and I still want to keep this style going with my editing, there are still some important tweaks that need to be made.
Lighting - to brighten the image
Composition - the angle of the image may need to be tweaked slightly
Crop - To make it more eye catching
Skin smoothing - Smoothing out any flaky skin on baby, or often Mum's under eyes (but only if requested!)
Highlights, shadows & colour contrasts - Sometimes these need to be tweaked slightly and it can make an image really pop!
Backdrop - Removing any tape or unwanted background items such as plug sockets etc
Watermarking duplicates
I always make a duplicate copy of each final image and watermark them, so these can be used if my clients want to share on social media
Creating your slideshow
When my clients choose the package where they will come back to view and select their images, I always present their gallery to them on a video slideshow with music. It’s a lovely way to view the images, and as a bonus I throw in the slideshow for them if they decide to purchase the full gallery.
Making this slideshow takes some preparation, timing each slide with the music
Packaging
I could talk a lot about this topic, as I’m a sucker for pretty packaging.. but that isn’t what this blog is about.
So just to touch on it quickly, all of our packaging is fully recyclable and is kept in line with our photography style, a natural look.
Everything is packaged up and prepared for you
Author: Annie Allen
Professional Photographer specialising in maternity, newborn, baby, birthday and family photography
Aldershot Hampshire based (covering Guildford, Farnham, Camberley, Woking, Reading, Basingstoke and Bracknell areas)