A little magic. | Wilmington, NC family photographer

Posted on May 10, 2010

Today I feel like revealing a little secret…

Photography used to be on film. (Don’t laugh. This is not the secret!) Back in my college days, I developed my own images in the darkroom. Color film and Black & White film were two different animals and they required different chemicals to expose them. There were certainly tricks involved in the printing process. I would dodge and burn to make sections of the image darker or lighter. It was quite a bit of work to get just ONE great image. My professor used to say…”out of a role of film with 24 exposures, you’ll do good to get 2 to 3 great images.” He was correct. Today, most photographers have joined the digital revolution. So everyone with a Canon Rebel now considers themselves to be a nearly professional photographer. But a digital camera does not a professional make. I assure you that there is still magic involved. Here is your proof.

Why go to a professional instead of making a 20 minute appointment at your local discount superstore? Or worse, pay someone to do a professional job, and get amateur results. I could list about three dozen reasons why not, but I will stick with this really important one. They can’t do the following.

Take this lovely family for example. Mom was perfect in the center image. Dad was at his best in the image on the left and little man was only smiling in the image on the right. As hard as we may try, children do not always do as they’re told. So all the fun and games finally paid off in the form of one little smile, in ONE image. Notice that in the final image in the center the colors are better, their skin is better, the cropping is more visually pleasing, and dare I admit that sometimes a little magic is needed to get that perfect shot. I combined three images to get the perfect final one. Where in the not-so-distant past, I would’ve shot a roll of film and spent a hour or two in the dark room to get a pretty similar image, NOW I shoot lots of images and post process everything using my computer. In the digital age, your editing skills are EQUALLY as important as your photography skills. This is one of the reasons some are “professionals” and others are “amateurs.”

photoshop_fayetteville_wilmington_nc