Expect More

There is a term in photography known as “Mommy Goggles.” It refers to the way us moms view images of our children with bias eyes. No matter how squinty our kids eyes are from bad positioning to the sun, no matter how green, yellow, or red their skin is due to color casts, even photos where our child appears to have a missing limb because of poor composition, as moms we only see our beautiful child.  Mommy goggles are awesome, it is a sign that we have unconditional love for our children.  But when you are paying someone to take professional portraits for you, don’t forget another gift you have been given as a mom … eyes in the back of your head.  Use them  to see when someone is trying to take advantage of your goggles by relying on your emotions rather than their knowledge to capture images!

“Photography is not about cameras, gadgets, and gizmos.  Photography is about photographers.  A camera didn’t make a great picture any more than a typewriter wrote a great novel.” ~ Peter Adams

I took this image of my daughter before many classes and workshops.   Isn’t it awesome? Perfect smile, super cute pose.  One of my favorite snapshots.  Would I pay someone for this image? Well yes if they were holding it hostage and I couldn’t have it unless I paid them, after all this is my adorable child!  But if this was an image in their portfolio before I hired them, no.  She is not posed correctly to the light. Her beautiful light blue eyes look brown because of shadows.  The lines under her eyes are dark and distracting and the shadow under her nose creates a line across her face darkening her mouth and chin. Again, good enough for grandma and one of my favorite snapshots, but this is not professional.

Here’s another example:

Priceless expression right?! Cute little hands and I love how the foreground is out of focus… another one framed in the hallway. Professional quality worth an investment?  No.  It is underexposed, not enough light overall.  But wait I have awesome software that can fix this,

Yikes!   While it may have added light, it also added too much contrast in the dark parts of the image. It didn’t correct the bad position of light, the discoloration in her skin, and the uneven shadows.  When you take a less than mediocre image and “fix” it with software you are damaging pixels.  Sometimes you can even make it worse.   At best you will have something better to look at on your computer screen but often you will get horrible results when printing.

A snapshot is tied to a place in time, a specific event or day that makes you think of things and people that might not even be in the image.  That’s why we love our overexposed, out of focus, sometimes lack lustre snapshots.  I proudly frame and display mine. But I wont hire someone to take them.  Anyone can take a snapshot for you.  When hiring someone for portraits you should expect something more than what “anyone” can do.

Light, angles, color tones, and the ability to enhance and correct small imperfections (gasp! Yes, imperfections that cameras pick up on our precious children) are all qualifications your professional photographer should have.  This is what you are paying for.  The knowledge and time that goes into each session,  preparing  the perfect environment, capturing planned and thought out images, editing each and every one  individually to present you with portraits you will cherish forever.  All of these tasks together consume about 10-12 hours for each and every session from start to finish.  If someone is not giving you that time you will see it in their work and their price.  Take a look around at different photographer’s work.  Think about why you like certain images and why you don’t like others.  Professional portraits should stand the test of time. In ten years when you walk by them in the hallway you should smile and warmly remember this tender age. Not cringe at the poor quality knowing that you can’t take it down because it is the only image you have of them so small.

Grab some lens cleaner and see past those goggles when choosing a photographer for professional portraits.  You’ll be amazed by the difference!