Many people think that what occurs after your photo session is as simple as pulling the pictures off the camera and loading them onto a computer or the web.
However, there is a great deal of work put in by your photographer after your session.
Sometimes people question paying for this extra work, but oftentimes the work that goes in after the session is what makes your photos not only unique but enhances the best parts of you! Here's a very small peek into what takes place after your session.
Once all the pictures have been loaded up to a computer, your photographer will go through all the pictures separating the great photos from the lesser quality ones.
Depending on how many pictures were taken during your session this can be a slow but crucial process.
Once the best pictures have been selected, retouching can begin.
One of the first things to be retouched is your skin.
During the editing process, a photographer can not only eliminate any acne you may have, but he or she can also even out your skin tone and give your skin a healthy glow.
I don't know anyone who wants to remember themselves having acne, and your photographer can make sure you don't have to.
Another important step of enhancing involves making your eyes really pop! So much of a person's personality and being can be seen in his or her eyes, which is why many photographers like to highlight them.
Your photographer can make your eyes be more defined, make the whites of your eyes appear whiter, and your iris color stand out brighter.
All manner of little details can be corrected or enhanced as well.
Fly-aways erased, teeth whitened, colors brightened.
Stylizations can be added to your pictures to create unique pieces of art that further capture and enhance your true personality.
Even if no actual enhancing is done, photographers can fix any mistakes they may have made when taking your pictures.
Your photographer can correct any colors that might be off in the actual picture to make the colors look more true to life.
Your photographer can also eliminate distractions from the background of the picture so that more of the focus is on you - the subject.
Contrast and brightness can also be corrected or your photographer may just convert your picture to black and white.
Once all the final edits are in place, the process of backing-up begins.
Your photographer may back-up to an online server or an external hard-drive or CD, or maybe he or she does all three.
Your photographer takes the time to do this so that your pictures are available to you any time you may want them without fear of losing images.
As you can see, your photographer still has a lot of work to do after your session has ended.
A photographer's job is to capture your personality and beauty (both inside and out), and retouching helps your photographer to do this for you.
This service is something that takes a significant amount of extra time on the part of your photographer and is certainly worth the extra expense.
So when you are wondering why a photographer prices his or her session or prints so high, it is to help cover the costs of spending time making you look your absolute best.