Photography is a two part process. First and foremost, the aim of any good photographer is to get the shot as perfect in camera as is possible at the time of pressing the shutter. However editing and retouching are a huge part of modern photography. In the old days I used to spend many hours in a darkroom, developing and printing the images taken on the previous shoot. Nowadays I spend many hours in front of a computer editing and retouching images. In fact, the amount of time spent editing is about three times that of the shoot itself (one full days wedding shoot = three full days editing).
Once I’ve picked out the shots that I’m going to work on, I open each individual RAW file in Adobe Camera Raw, where I balance colour and contrast, crop, straighten and ‘dodge’ & ‘burn’ where required. The file is then opened in Adobe Photoshop where further adjustments are made, along with any retouching required. Retouching is a very skilled and delicate job and having previously worked as a professional freelance retoucher in the advertising industry, my ability in this area holds me in very good stead. My aim when retouching images for portrait shoots and weddings is always to keep any improvements subtle. The mark of a well retouched image is that the subject looks absolutely amazing, but you won’t even know that it’s been retouched.