When you hire a photographer, you are investing in their knowledge of how to use their camera and how to edit images. Some photographers do beautiful composite work, where they put together images using multiple shots to create a magical portrait. Some do minimal editing and others do no editing at all. Personally, I edit my images so that they are enhanced, but I do my best to keep the portraits close to the way that they looked when I took them. (I should note here that when I'm doing a session, I purposely underexpose images because when you overexpose, you lose parts of your image.) The only exception to this is with newborn portraits, but I'll get to those in a minute.

Here are some examples of family portraits.

Before: 

After: (A simple, higher-contrast image)

Before:

After:

When photographing newborns, safety is the number one priority, so the final product is not always what it looked like right out of the camera. (Note: When photographers do not do this images as a composite, it is not safe. Always ask what they do for safety prior to booking your newborn photographer!) That being said, here are some behind the scenes shots and final products:

Before and After:

Before: (When I saw this image after our session, I immediately saw the heart and knew that I was going to re-shape the purple basket stuffer into that shape.)

After: (I'm so happy that it turned out the way that it did!)

I hope that you enjoyed my before and afters! Feel free to ask me questions about my editing :)