Why Don’t Professional Photographers Give You All the Photos?
If you’re looking at booking a professional photography session, you may have noticed that photographers can structure their collections very differently.
Some offer a very large number of digital files or even advertise that you’ll receive every photograph taken, while others, myself included offer collections containing a set number of professionally edited images.
So why don’t I simply give you every photograph I take?
It comes down to something that has always been incredibly important to me:
I believe in quality over quantity.
Taking the photograph is only the beginning
During your maternity, newborn, milestone or family session, I will take far more photographs than the number you eventually receive.
But that doesn’t mean every press of the shutter creates a completely different finished photograph.
I may take several frames of the same pose to capture the perfect expression. Someone might blink. A baby may move their hand at the last second. A toddler might look away. A dress may need adjusting. I may change my angle slightly or photograph a few variations to make sure we have the strongest possible image.
Those photographs are part of the process of creating your final gallery — they aren’t all intended to become finished images.
You get to choose the photographs you love
After your session, I carefully go through the photographs and remove test shots, duplicates, missed expressions and anything that doesn’t meet the standard I want to show you.
You’ll then receive a proofing gallery containing the best images from your session.
From there, you choose your favourites based on the number of images included in your collection.
I actually love working this way because your favourites may not always be the same as mine.
You might adore a particular expression on your baby, the way your child is looking at you, or a tiny moment between family members that means something especially important to you.
I want you to have a say in which photographs become part of your finished collection.
What does “professionally edited” actually mean?
Once you have chosen your images, my work isn’t finished.
Every selected photograph receives my full professional editing process and is individually finished to the standard you see throughout my website and portfolio.
Depending on the image, this can involve colour and tonal adjustments, detailed skin retouching, removing temporary blemishes, tidying backgrounds, correcting distracting elements, fixing flyaway hairs or clothing and other detailed finishing work.
Some photographs require very little intervention. Others require considerably more.
The important thing is that each final photograph receives the attention it needs.
This is one of the reasons I don’t deliver hundreds of lightly edited photographs.
For me, professional photography isn’t simply about the number of digital files you receive. It’s about the quality of the photographs you ultimately keep.
Drag the slider to see the difference 🤍
From the image captured in-camera to the final professionally hand-edited photograph. My editing process includes skin and colour work, cropping, background refinement and removing distractions to create the finished image delivered to my client.
What if I love more images than my collection includes?
This happens all the time — and it’s a lovely problem to have!
If your collection includes a certain number of images and you fall in love with more when you see your proofing gallery, additional photographs are always available to purchase.
There is no pressure to decide before your session.
Choose the collection that suits you, enjoy your photography experience, and then decide once you’ve actually seen your photographs.
Why don’t you provide RAW or unedited photographs?
RAW files are essentially the digital negatives from my camera. They are not the finished product and aren’t representative of the work you see when you choose to book Racheal Trail Photography.
Editing is part of my creative process, just as lighting, posing, composition and styling are.
When you choose me because you love the photographs in my portfolio, you’re choosing the entire process that creates them — from what happens behind the camera to the final editing afterwards.
For that reason, I don’t provide RAW or unedited photographs from my sessions.
Quality over quantity — always
There are many different approaches to professional photography, and finding a photographer whose style and service suit what you’re looking for is important.
My approach has been shaped by more than eight years of photographing Auckland families.
I don’t aim to give you the largest possible number of files.
Instead, I want to create a carefully curated collection of beautiful, professionally hand-edited photographs that look and feel like the work you fell in love with when you chose me.
Whether I’m photographing your pregnancy, your brand-new baby, an important milestone or your whole family, I want the photographs you receive to be ones you’re genuinely excited to keep.
Because years from now, I don’t think the number of files sitting on your computer will be what matters.
It will be the photographs you still love. 🤍
Racheal xx
Racheal Trail Photography
Multi-award-winning Auckland newborn, maternity & family photographer
