Shoot and Burn?

The reason for this topic today is due to so many people wanting photographers to cut their prices. We are asked if we can do a shoot and burn for much less. Yes, it can be done, but things are sacrificed , like quality. The shoot and burn photographer will shoot your wedding and hand you the images right from the camera.

These images are not finished. They may look just fine but they are most likely not what you saw on their website that convinced you to use them. The finished artwork is why we have become photographers in the first place. Yervant, a fantastic photographer, says, "Straight from camera’ is not professional!!" Ever since professional photography has existed, FINISHING has also existed.

I have a vision of what I want the photograph to look like finished. When I am shooting I might be thinking that this photo should be Black and White, a vivid blue sky, or a cross processed image with sun flair in it. Photographers have changed their images from the original with film and now digital processing(or FINISHING) to make them perfect.
Today we have photoshop, lightroom, etc to make our images FINISHED.The individual decides whether they use the standard finishing like in the old FILM darkroom or to go much more with many of todays Artsy photoshop skills.

"I strongly believe that an image is not professional unless it is FINISHED! I am not talking about fixing a bad picture here, I am talking about FINISHING. A simple few steps to make a great image a perfect and professional image."says Yervant.

FINISHING is what makes us the professional photographer and helps clients understand our prices.
In todays world we are usually pretty picky when we buy things and want them to be perfect. So why would you want an unfinished photograph of the most important event in your life.
I have a few examples of before and after images to show exactly what I am talking about.

This first picture is right out of the camera.




This image is a finished image.






The same goes for this original image. It looks good but take a look at the one below it.








Chris and Natalia have made beautiful pictures with me. But once again the original image below is very nice but the final image (the second one down)is just that,FINISHED.