Apples are not Apples... Why You Should be Asking your Photographer for more than just Digital Files

So we're living in a digital age and our cameras capture digital images that we can print time and time again. With just a few clicks we can send our digital images across the interweb and create all kinds of cool things - huge canvas wall pieces, photobooks, wallet prints for grandma, the sky's the limit - and that rocks!

But as professional photographers we struggle with handing over digital files to our clients, and here's why...

We invest a lot of time and money into colour managing our work, buying professional equipment and educating ourselves so that we can be sure that the final products we create look exactly the same as the images we see and edit on our screens. You might think that's a given, but in reality it's not. We use specialist equipment to regularly calibrate our computer screens to make sure they display colour and brightness correctly, we invest in top spec professional photographic printers and set up specific profiles for them on our computers so that they work together perfectly, and we even adjust our settings depending on the paper we print each image on. 

When you order prints and products from local retailers or online, it is not often that they will have a professional photographic workflow, and so the results will often leave you disappointed. 

We decided to try a little experiment and see just how much difference there would be printing the same image at several different places. We printed this image from one of our recent newborn sessions on our colour-managed printer here at the studio, and then also sent it out to 4 local photo print retailers. We knew there was going to be a difference but when we got the prints back even we were shocked at just how different they were! 

This example shows you a completely unedited photo that we took of two of the prints - one printed by us and the other at one of the local retailers (and just in case you're wondering the other retail prints looked pretty much the same as this example).

When you invest time and money into having your special memories captured by a professional photographer and then only take away the digital files to print yourself, you're leaving the final result completely to chance and will often be disappointed in the prints you get back - you only have to look at this example to see it.

That's why we are passionate about printing all our images for our clients and why we invest so much in colour management to ensure our prints always look exactly as we expect them to. We simply want you to have the most beautiful possible memories to keep forever, and we don't want all the hard work we've put in to creating that for you to be wasted on a inferior quality print x

3 Quick Tips for Photographing Children

1. Enter their world

Children don't live in our world, they are busy in theirs, which is about 4 feet high. When photographing their kids most parents just get out the camera and take a photo from where they stand, but you will get much better results if you simply get down to their eye level. All of a sudden they can look straight into the camera for a much more engaging image, and you can become part of their magical world of fun and make believe. So get down lower and let the magic happen!

2. Let them go!

Quit trying to make your kids stop and stand still for their photo, you'll end up with a classic tin soldier shot that just doesn't work. There's nothing more unnatural to children than standing still doing nothing. Instead let them explore their surroundings and capture them authentically. Engage with them in what they are doing and be ready to press the shutter when they look up to share something special with you. You'll be amazed at what you capture!

3. Whatever you do, do NOT say "Cheese"!

While we are talking about authenticity, forget the "cheese" face. When my eldest daughter was young I could capture beautiful shots of her effortlessly. Then we went on holiday to visit her cousins and the kids were dutifully lined up by my relatives several times a day and told to say "Cheese" for a photo. I can't even tell you how long it took me to be able to take a photo of her without that face after that, I sure had to work a lot harder to get a natural photo. It wasn't my daughter's fault, she thought that was what she was supposed to do when a camera got pointed at her, but who can honestly say they have a photo that the absolutely adore of their child saying "cheese"? Try a little harder and do something to make your kids genuinely smile or laugh. If they do spot the camera and start putting on that photo face just do something silly to make them giggle, and be ready to press the shutter when they do!