Photographers are often asked about how they get their images to look the way they do. Each professional photographer has their own special "look", and process to achieve that signature look. My look starts with my lens - I love my 50mm lens. The framing it gives is beautiful and I love the light that pours into it. As I child, I hated the "formal" stiff poses I was put in. Now, as a professional, I strive for natural poses that lend themselves a fun & relaxed session. In addition to signature processing, photographers have their own style in posing and settings for portrait sessions. When selecting a photographer to take your family portraits, it's important to be familiar with a photographer's signature look and feel and make sure it fits with what you want!
The images below are an example of my "post processing". The image on the left is SOOC (straight out of the camera). It is unretouched. On the day these portraits were taken, it was rainy and quite overcast. The images were taken between 9:30AM and 11:30AM. I wanted to give a bit of a sunlit or warmer tone to the images. I always use Adobe Lightroom to process my images.
(Try the FREE download for 30 days!) I find Lightroom easier and more intuitive than Photoshop. Often, I will
start with a preset and then tweak it for my needs. I have created a few presets of my own, especially for landscapes, to create my own signature look and tones. In some instances, I pull a texture over the image to give it a little more depth or edge. Some of my favorite presets came
from Jenn. Her presets are geared toward those who shoot in jpeg. And I will often use my own textures (check out the menu on the right side of my blog), those from Flickr groups or
Beth Armsheimer. I hope this has given you some helpful insights and resources!
