People are a little nutty and judgmental when it comes to photo editing.  I spent several months learning how to properly use Lightroom Classic and Photoshop for my photo editing. And I’ll be completely honest - I like the editing more than I like the photography. That’s the opposite of most photographers but I think that’s the introverted side of me coming out. If I can sit in a quiet room and bring the magic out of photos - I am pretty happy!

I’m going to say this first - and louder for the people in the back - raw photos MUST be edited. Don’t let someone tell you otherwise. The raw image may look decent coming straight out of the camera but there is a 100% chance that it will look better once it’s edited. 

You really can’t think of raw photos as photos at all. The raw image = data. If you want a contrasty and colorful photo straight out of camera - shoot in jpeg. Raw images basically provide the subject, the setting, and the data but the photos have to be processed in order to pull that data out. The photos typically look great on the back of a mirrorless camera screen when viewing them because the screen is showing you the jpeg - and once you download the raw image - it looks flat and dull. It’s always kind of a sad moment until you breathe life back into them while editing. It all comes down to being able to pull the data out and manipulate it in post processing. 

With that being said - the edits that are made are solely the artistic decision of the photographer.  Don’t pick a photographer that edits all dark and moody if you want pastel colors unless that has been discussed and agreed upon. If you want true colors and pure edits - make sure you tell the photographer that. Some photographers can do it all - but most have a preferred style, which will be obvious on their social media accounts or website. I prefer bold colors myself - true colors, dark and moody colors or even really bright colors. I tend to stay away from pastels and "light and airy"...just not my thing.  

Lastly - face and body edits. Whew, this is always an awkward one. I am generally going to remove acne, bruises, cuts, food, stains and anything that isn’t a permanent fixture when I edit. I’m also going to even the skin tone out and probably brighten the skin up a bit. I can’t imagine many people against that but if you want the acne to stay - make sure you discuss that with your photographer. I generally try not to remove moles or freckles or anything that is supposed to be there although lighting and brightening makes a huge difference with the appearance the skin in general. Scars probably need to be discussed…I would personally leave them. If you want magazine ad type edits with no flaws, no under eye circles and no texture at all - tell your photographer that. I can do those types of facial edits but I’m not going to in most cases. I’m also not going to change your body type or make you taller 😉.

Regardless of how you want the final photos to look - the bare minimum editing should be done to lift the shadows, bring the detail out of the highlights and add or remove contrast. Jpeg files can be edited to an extent but not like a raw image - the jpeg is already compressed so the data is just not there in the same way. Don’t ever ask a photographer for the raw photos - it’s not cool for many reasons. 

A couple of other items for the final images and edits - spray tans are not ideal right before a photoshoot - they just don’t photograph or edit well. You can absolutely wear bold colors - I actually think they are the best and show up beautifully in photos. The more texture the better as well but wrinkles kind of suck. For adults - I’d personally stay away from white (if you have a lighter complexion), plaid and busy patterns, stripes and neon colors (neon will cast more onto the skin) and the men need to stop wearing the baseball hats - huge pet peeve of mine and the shadows made by the hats are impossible to edit. Some of the same “rules” apply for little kids but kids can pull off patterns and stripes way better than adults.

I have shared some before and after edits (the first of each set is straight out of camera and the second is an edited version) just to show what can be done with different styles of editing. All 3 photos are just random snapshots that never made the cut to be anything more than that but I wanted to show some specific elements that are often altered in editing (skies, greens, light, etc...). These are all fairly basic edits that took less than 10 minutes (one of them is a one-click preset - more on that very soon) but I can easily spend an hour editing a good photo. The colors, shadows and highlights are manipulated in these photos - some more than others. Obviously, there are edits in photos that you have seen in other places that go above and beyond what is "real" and those that dabble more on the graphic design or "painterly" side but that's not the type of editing that I am discussing here today.

Click on the actual images below to see them full-size and scroll through to see edits.

I’m going to make a part 2 on editing photos, which will be all about purchasing and using presets. Presets are quite controversial in the photography industry but they can make editing so much easier and more fun. I have a few favorites that I’ll share and a few caveats that I have with using presets.