Why does it take a photographer days, weeks, sometimes months to get photos out to you? Are they just lazy and don't want to send them? Likely not. I can't speak for all photographers, but I can speak for myself.
After taking photos, our work is only partway complete. Our next step is to go through those hundreds of photos, and pick out what we believe will be our client's favorites. Once we have painstakingly selected the photos, we go to work editing.
How do photographers edit? There are a number of ways to edit photos, but my personal program of choice is Photoshop. Photoshop allows you to fully edit and enhance each individual photo. Lightroom is a program that can allow you to batch process your photos, editing a number of them at once. Photoshop does one photo at a time, but I believe if allows you to be more precise, allowing you to take time on each photo to make it perfect. Photoshop does allow for batch processing, but I haven't used it yet, as I haven't found a need for it.
What sorts of things do I do to your photo? Most every photo I play with light/contrast, enhance colors, and sharpen. I may add deeper colors or darker light on spots I think need them. For babies, I almost always smooth out faces and take out blemishes. Adults may require a few spot corrections. If I think it will look good in black and white or sepia, I may do that as well. Every photo editing process is unique to each photo!
What sorts of things do I do to your photo? Most every photo I play with light/contrast, enhance colors, and sharpen. I may add deeper colors or darker light on spots I think need them. For babies, I almost always smooth out faces and take out blemishes. Adults may require a few spot corrections. If I think it will look good in black and white or sepia, I may do that as well. Every photo editing process is unique to each photo!
Edited Photo
Straight Out of Camera (SOOC)
How long does this process take me? It all depends on the look I'm trying to accomplish. I've heard that an average photographer spends 4 hours editing for every 1 hour of shooting. This all completely varies from photographer to photographer, and from session to session, but I can tell you I've spent both more and less time editing photos.
Why do I share this with you? I appreciate when customers are patient in getting photos from me. I can say I usually have a few day turn around for most of my clients regular sessions. For weddings where I'm edited 10x as many photos as a regular session, they may need to wait a few weeks for me to get everything done.
Being on the other side of the lens, I know its tough to wait! I always do my best to post a few "teaser" photos right after a session so you are able to see something from our work together!