Extended family pictures - in the bosque

I thought I would take a minute and answer some questions that I get asked about my proof processing. So first of all, I take too many pictures. I know this. I'm working on it. :) For sessions with little children or family groups, I feel like I need to get a lot of images because 1) kids move & change expressions fast, and 2) I don't want to end up having to ask for a re-shoot because something technical went wrong & I didn't end up having anything to work with. (This has only happened once & I vowed - NEVER AGAIN!)

So, depending on the group size, I come home with somewhere between probably 50 & 250 images. I go through them all, toss the ones that aren't keepers, and sort though the rest to find the best. Sometimes with groups I will combine pictures to get a good shot of everyone in the picture - sometimes I do that later with help from the customer. My goal is always to get the best possible family picture, no matter how many people are in it, so with your input & the help of Photoshop I make that happen.

With many of the pictures I end up re-cropping (this is also something I'm working on to get right in-camera) and I tend to enhance the colors & contrast. I have some fun photoshop actions that I sometimes use (and always can on request!). When all this is done, I convert them to black & white and build your gallery to post on my website or to view in person. (Another aside - I'm going more & more to viewing proofs in person - it eliminates miscommunications and I think you get exactly what you want that way, because you know what I can & can't do.) My sessions tend to range from 40 to 100 proofs. Then it's the customer's job to pick! That's the best part. So many people have mentioned that there are too many good ones to choose between - that makes me so happy :) that I have a hard time sympathizing.

This session was set up by a great family with whom I've had the privilege of doing portraits before. Their extended family was in town, so this is a big session with lots of different groups & individual portraits. For some reason I'm processing this one backwards (I sometimes read books sort of backwards too, much to my husband's disdain) so the last pictures taken are the ones that are ready to go now. The rest of the gallery will be ready in the next couple of days. Thanks, this one was really fun!