What style of editing do you prefer?
Choosing a photographer who can capture the composition you want is only half of it. Pay close attention to their editing style as well - is it dark and moody? Light and bright? Saturated color? There's no wrong style, but it's important to find a photographer that edits in the style you're after.
What’s an editing style?
Simply put, it’s the look and feel of your final images. Most photographers develop a style of editing you can consistently see across all their client galleries. It becomes part of their brand and what helps set them apart from other photographers in their region and niche. Having a consistent editing style can help them book future business and new clients seeking a specific ‘look’ for their photos.
Not all photographers have just one style, but most do stick to one. From a behind the scenes perspective, it helps streamline their workflow and gives them creative control over the final output and standard of their product. If a photographer’s portfolio has many different styles, does that mean they aren’t good or consistent? Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Like any person (a creative professional or not) our styles can change over time and they may have kept portfolio images from a previous style that they’re still really proud of. However, if you see a range of editing styles in a portfolio, it might be helpful to ask them which photos from their portfolio are most recent, to give you a better idea of their current style and the look your gallery most likely would reflect.
Do I get to choose the editing style?
Yes and no. Yes in the sense that you could have chosen a photographer whose portfolio is full of dark and moody images or chosen a different photographer who’s partial to light and bright images. You get to choose the editing style by selecting the photographer whose portfolio most represents the style of photos you want.
No in the sense that once you’ve contracted with a photographer who primarily edits in light and bright - you don’t get to dictate to them to edit your gallery in dark and moody. You’re trusting them based on their previous work to deliver the best quality images they feel they’ve captured in the best way they see fit. That’s why it’s so important to select a photographer whose portfolio most reflects the similar style you want.
What types of editing styles are there?
Well, thousands. But before you get overwhelmed, there are a few editing styles that are more popular and that you’ll see in family and portrait photography.
light and bright
dark and moody
HDR (high dynamic range)
true to life
Of course there are thousands more. Before selecting your photographer, look at their portfolio across a range of galleries to get a good sense of their editing style - you can expect your images to be edited in a similar style.
Scroll through the images below to get an idea of how the same image can be edited in different ways.
