What’s the Difference? {Denton Portrait Photographer}

Posted on August 18, 2010

This is a question that most photographers, myself included, get all the time. What is the difference between digital negatives and fully retouched images? Well, hopefully this will be helpful.

When I am shooting, I shoot RAW images. What that means is that each image holds on to as much information as possible about that particular picture – so it is a huge file that has lots of potential, but it can’t be opened by most computers without special software, such as Lightroom or Photoshop. I sort through all the images from each shoot in Lightroom, and delete the images that aren’t the best – perhaps where someone is blinking, has hair in their face, etc. I will then do BASIC EDITS on each image – exposure, contrast, and color tweaking. This is a very basic and minimal edit that creates the DIGITAL NEGATIVE.

Then, I will open the absolute best images in Photoshop and give each image a full retouch, which includes skin smoothing, color popping, full contrasting, brightening, and/or artsy, vintage, or black and white treatments. Each image is treated individually to ensure absolutely the most beautiful image possible. Below is a perfect example of the difference between an image that has only received basic edits (the digital negative), and a fully retouched image.

difference in editing

I hope this has helped you to understand the difference in how Goldapple Photography edits images, and how you might receive your images. If you purchase a mini session, you will receive a disk of images that have only received basic edits, but if you purchase a full session and then purchase a custom-designed disk of high-resolution images, you will receive all fully retouched images.

And, its holiday portrait session time! Schedule your holiday portrait session now!

Filed Under {denton boutique photographer}, {denton fashion photographer}, {news & updates} | Leave a Comment | Send this post to a friend