Before and After – Child Portrait

The time has come that many people have access to some wonderful digital cameras and I’ve seen many people call themselves a ‘professional photographer’.  Well, there is a difference between someone that has spent time learning how to interact with clients to get the perfect expression; have great composition; posing; lighting, etc.  This doesn’t happen overnight.  I was lucky enough to learn all of this early in my career.  I have taken courses from some of the best portrait photographers in the world.  Of course that costs money and time – but this is what professional photographers do.  They need to hone their skills to create a timeless portrait.

Then the digital revolution came into being.  In 2002 I switched from a film studio to a digital studio.  Talk about a learning curve – no —  it was a learning cliff!   A whole new concept to be learned and studied and perfected.  I spent countless hours going to classes to learn how to deal with a digital file.  Digital is somewhat different than film cameras as each as it own ‘flavor’ – and to truly get great, repeatable, results – you should capture in RAW format.  If you capture in JPG – your camera is interpreting the file colours, etc. for you.  A true professional wants the control of their image.  So I had to learn colour management.   A whole new ballgame!    I’ve studied from some of the best in the industry – Eddie Tapp – Ken Frazer.   If you don’t know and can’t control colour management – you won’t get repeatable results!  This is the key.  Many of the new photographers out there pick up their camera, take an evening course somewhere and think they know enough to call themselves professionals.    If they would just keep going to classes – one just can’t teach you everything – they’d get to a point where they can truly call themselves a professional.  Oh yes, they just learned how to use their digital cameras … but have they learned… lighting?  composition?   posing?  Yes – there is still posing involved – even if you end up with a casual relaxed image of a family – you as the photographer needs to direct the clients in their body position, head tilt, hands and even placement of feet!   You can’t rely on things falling into place.

Okay – I’ll get off my soapbox and get to my point of this post.   The other day I photographed a young girl.  She’s been in the studio before – but she is still quite shy at first.  She has some of the most wonderful expressions!   When I saw this image, I immediately knew I had a ‘winner’.  There was something innocent and sweet about it.   But, as it came SOOC (Straight out of the camera) – it didn’t have a lot of impact.   Well, with all of my experience I have gleaned over the years – I came up with the image as I wanted to see it displayed.  Take a look at the before and after of the same image.    I think this is what sets photographers apart.  But that’s just my humble opinion.  Stop by sometime to see the finished portrait in a 30″ Gallery Wrap displayed on my wall!

Timeless – a piece of art!