Original vs Proof vs Final

What the wha? There are so many terms when it comes to photography and I want to take a minute to educate my clients, past, present and future about what these particular terms mean in detail. I will illustrate with pictures below. Depending on what package and what service you’re getting from me, you may or may not be getting a disc of images, in any event a disc of images can always be purchased. But what does that get you? Well, that gets you proofs. They are full-sized images, but they are still proofs, meaning they have not been edited. Instead of getting too wordy, let’s look at some pretty pictures.

Below is an image from Erika & JPs engagement session. This image is STRAIGHT OUT OF THE CAMERA! Nothing has been done to it. Showing an image like this makes me feel a little bit like I’m bending over in a short dress (ie: showing a liiiittle too much) but I got nothing to hide so here it is.

The original image is a little dark. I don’t mind all the hair in her face, I think it’s very real and shows movement.

Below is the proof. So if Erika and JP were to get a disc of proofs from this session the color would be corrected to what you see below and a little bit of contrast is added to the image so that it doesn’t look so flat.

A little better, if Erika wanted to take her disc to Costco and get a 19 cent print to put in the visor of her car, there would be nothing wrong with this file. But if Erika wanted to make this picture large to greet guests as they come into her home or if she wanted this image in her Yearbook-Style Guest Sign in Book, then it needs a little bit more work.

Ah, much better! Their skin is nice and smooth and the color pops. Let’s take a look at all of this in one neat little box so you don’t have to scroll back and forth between each image.

Let’s see another one.

Aundrea and Doug. Original.

Not a bad looking image if you ask me! I still would never hand it over as is, so let’s see the proof.

Looking good.

Side by side comparison:

I think this series shows that it’s all about the subtle differences. Skin is smoothed out a little in the final version. There was a mark on his suit that was difficult to see while we were shooting. And you can see how his suit gets a little bit darker from frame to frame. For me, the biggest difference here is the background. My mom once called this a “watercolor” look and it just looks so much better with the punchier colors.

Let’s do one last image. This image is a good example of a lot of distracting elements. Just a sidenote, the first two images aren’t EXACTLY the same picture as the final, but I did a lot of final editing to the original file.

Like we were finding before, the original is a little dark and a little flat.

The proof has better color and a little bit of contrast. But hopefully you see what I mean by distracting elements. Well the movie theater in the background kind of kills the moment for me! And all the pipes in the planter and the gunk in the gutter. Obviously the main attraction of this photo is the exit sign, but the back of the other sign is not necessary to tell the story here. I want it all GONE!

So much better! Right? It’s pretty rare that a photo needs that much removed from it. Typically it will be an electrical outlet or a leaf on the ground. I never go so far as to remove people, or otherwise make the photo something that wasn’t there to begin with. I can’t imagine printing this photo on a 30×40 canvas or put it in an album without giving it that kind of attention.

Recap:

Original = Straight Out of The Camera (SOOTC) = never to be seen by the client.

Proof = Minimal color correction and contrast. This is the photo that will go on a disc if one was purchased or included in your package.

Final = Fully edited photo. This is the care that goes into a picture that is purchased through my studio for printing or to go in an album.

Hopefully you found this little tutorial helpful. That was kind of fun…I’ll try to do something like this once a quarter. Please ask any questions if you have them!