Photography doesn’t stop when you press the shutter!

What does a photographer do?
He just takes pictures – yes? Wrong!
The clicking of the shutter is a tiny part of a professional photographers job.

First, you need to visualise the image in your head. What will the composition and format be? What are the client’s brief and needs? Where will the image be used, online, brochure, editorial, large format exhibition?

Next, you need to assess the scene or location. What is the light like? Will you be using natural (ambient) light, or will you be using artificial flash, or maybe a mixture of the two?

Once you have planned what and how you will take the photograph, you then need to decide, the technical aspects of the shot. What F Stop or aperture will you use. Do you want to focus on a tiny object in the scene, or have the whole scene in focus? What shutter speed will you use? Do you want to freeze action, or blur motion to illustrate movement?

So you’ve done all this, pressed the shutter, got the shot, all done, right? Wrong.

Now you have to edit and re-touch the image, to deliver to the client, not what the camera has recorded, but your original vision. Nowadays, post-production can be half of the job. No professional image is ever used SOOC (Straight out of camera).

We all know models and celebrities are photoshopped to outrageous degrees, but every mundane product shot or headshot or property listing shot will have been worked on to improve what the camera recorded when the photographer pressed the shutter.

This can as little as adjusting brightness, contrast, saturation and cropping, or as much as compositing complete scenes. I have photographed property where the roof was missing and the lawn was not laid and had to ‘add’ them after in photoshop.

The examples shown on this page illustrate basic post-production techniques, comparing the image SOOC with the final delivered image, to make sure clients receive images that match the original vision.

Arcanum Design Solutions can help

Arcanum Design Solutions has many years of website photography experience. We are able to produce exciting and stimulating photographs for any industry to help showcase your brand, products and services in the most professional and inspiring manner.

For more information about how we can help make your business stand out from the rest, or if you would like us to provide a no-obligation quote, please call 07866 230147 or fill out the form on our contact page.