This can be a bit of a vulnerable thing for photographers to do. Taking photos is obviously the biggest part of what we do… but another part is finishing them through editing. I am someone who doesn’t love to do too much extreme editing. I don’t like to make my subjects look plastic or have eye colors that are unrealistic. I aim for my photos to look natural, yet have a bold and a vibrant look! :)

Anyone who has ever taken a photo knows that it never comes out exactly how it looks in real life. And that’s why I edit my photos. I edit my photos because I want them to look as beautiful and captivating as it looked in the moment that I took it. Cameras are able to capture so much and with the right settings we can produce near perfect photos in camera without it be absolutely necessary to do editing afterwards. But I’m a color person. I LOVE color!!! I love BRIGHT!!! And no matter what I have my settings on, it never seems to look quite as colorful and enchanting as it did when I was taking the photo. So I bring my photos to life even more after I’ve already taken the image. I edit them to make them look how I believe I saw it in the actual moment. :) I use a software called Lightroom and adjust settings like vibrance (of colors), contrast, exposure and sharpening. I often add warmth to my photos as well because they tend to be a little cooler (blue-ish) straight from the camera! If you ever wonder why I don’t get your photos to you the day after I took them, this is why! And if you ever wonder why photography seems to costs so much, it’s because we spend HOURS putting the final touches on our art even after we’ve left the photo shoot! :)

I still have a lot to learn about getting all the right settings in camera. I don’t always expose correctly in the moment, but I’m working on it and I’m thankful that the process of editing can help me brighten a photo that wasn’t properly exposed. I’m looking forward to getting better at taking close to finished photos in camera, but I will still always enjoy adding more life and magic to the photos through the process of editing! So, I wanted to show all of you what my photos look like straight out of the camera and compare them to what they look like after the editing process. I’ve never done this before, as silly as it sounds, it IS a vulnerable thing for me to do. But I LOVE vulnerability and and I love sharing parts of my life and what I do with others! And editing… is a part of what I do! It’s the icing on the cake! ;)

Here are some Before and After’s for you! :)