I am so happy to be able to share this AWESOME article about editing photos from my friend and guest blogger Kelly Broyles.  You can visit Kelly’s website here and her facebook page here.  Go check out her work.. it is incredible! 

Editing Photos: One of the Many Aspects of Our Art

One of the biggest days of your life is approaching…  It could be your wedding, engagement, maternity session, senior portraits, child’s first birthday… whatever the event the same holds true that it will only occur once in your lifetime.   The photography industry is flourishing and clients are overwhelmed with options.  Do you use a shoot-and-burn photographer?  A friend who is trying to get “into” photography who will offer you a discount?  A professional who has been in business for years?  It’s overwhelming not only to clients but also to photographers who are trying to succeed in a market that often times feels overly saturated.

The best way as a photographer I can help you decide whether you should hire me, a photographer friend of mine or someone completely different is to educate.

One of the common myths I have found is that a photographer’s job is done once we put our camera down.  I have heard many times questions such as: “Why do you need to edit my images?”   “Can I purchase the unedited images?”  ”Well _____ will shoot my images for $xxx and give me the images to edit on my own, why won’t you?”  To answer all the above questions: A photographers job is not done when we flip the power switch on our camera to off.  We are artists and part of our artistic process includes editing.

Editing takes more time and effort than anyone who has never experienced the joys of the process can comprehend.  We white balance, correct exposure, add some fill light, sharpen, remove a zit or two, add a texture, and do countless other items behind the scenes to provide you with stunningly gorgeous photographs.  Not that you aren’t beautiful, you are, but there’s a huge difference in straight out of camera (SOOC as it’s known in the photography world) images and edited images.  Editing takes a good image and makes it stunning.

Don’t believe me?  Look for yourself!

A few of my photography friends donated some before & after images so we could illustrate to you just how important the editing process is to photography.  They say seeing is believing so scroll down and look at the stunning images.  I have no doubt that after seeing these images you’ll never again want unedited images.

A very special Thank You to a few of my best photographer friends for donating images to this blog post:

• Kristen Brown-Bates, KML Creatives
• Grace Wolf Photography
• Michelle Stowers Photography
• Elizabeth Miller Photography 
• Tim Miller, Shoot – Edit – Love

If you need to hire a Photographer that cares about editing photos to make them special, visit our contact page to reach out to us today and schedule your shoot.  Also visit our blog to learn more about photography and the many sessions we offer.

 For Photographers:

We all know that editing can be hard work.  If you need help alleviating the heavy burden of editing but still want to provide your clients with superior photographs be sure to check out the amazingness of Shoot Edit Love and KML Creatives.  Shoot Edit Love will edit your images in a flash and KML Creatives has some of the most beautiful textures, overlays, etc…   They are also wonderful people who I call friends.

~Kelly Broyles is a wedding & portrait photographer including seniors, engagements & general portraiture located just outside of Charleston, WV. She’s also a “unicorn” who shoots Sony instead of Canon or Nikon. Kelly lives with her husband, Jax the cat and is expecting a baby girl in October 2013.