I’ve always wanted to start a Before and After series, so here is my first one!

I take a lot of pride in producing quality, professional photos for my clients. Sometimes this means consciously shooting in camera a little different than perfect. Sometimes it means being creative with my editing and post production. And other times it means, I nailed the photo in camera and have to do very little editing afterwards.

Which one do I prefer?

Honestly, it depends. When I’m photographing clients in under cloudy sky or in a shaded area, I prefer to nail my photo in camera. However when presented with beautiful back light or a difficult lighting challenge, I tend to use a different technique in camera and pull the show stoppers out in editing.

Below is an example of non-perfect in camera shooting I used on purpose.
I love (love!) sun flare! If I’m shooting into back light at golden hour, you will see sun flare in your photos. It is my favorite type of light to photograph. I purposefully chose to underexpose this photo in order to keep the flare in the background.

Here is another great example of a difficult lighting situation I had to overcome. I was photographing a the First Communion sessions in South Austin. I was inside a dark church with no inside lighting on. I only had my on camera flash because I wasn’t allowed to bring in my studio off camera lighting equipment. And because of the angle of this particular shot, I was photographing a lot farther back than I would have liked. The magic of this photo came in post production when I could really pull out the details.

What do you think? Would you be interested in more Before and After photos?