How much of what they capture are real life and how much is captured in post-processing?

The images were pretty rudimentary. when photography was first invented. The crude quality makes complete sense when you consider the equipment early photographers used.

At one point photographers quickly began to experiment with new techniques. They’d moved on from printing whatever they could achieve to editing their images to perfection before printing in only a few decades later.

You may be surprised to know that the earliest known example of an edited photo is one taken of Abraham Lincoln way back in 1860. To be precise, it was the head of Abraham Lincoln, anyway the photo editor created a composite of Lincoln’s head and also John C. Calhoun’s body.

Editing has become a widely accepted part of the photo creation process since then. In today’s world photographers won’t even show you an in-process image on the back of the camera and they’re much more likely to want to show off a complete, edited image.

In this article we will discuss:
Why do need edited photos ?
How much of photography is related to editing?

Why do need edited photos ?
The widely accepted best practice is to do as much as you can “in-camera” when it comes to producing photos. That means getting the shot as close as possible to what you envision before you ever open the image file in Photoshop.

It saves a significant amount of time that you’d otherwise spend in front of the computer. And it makes for a rather cleaner, higher-quality final image.

Also there’s a lot you can’t achieve in camera, and extenuating circumstances (like bad lighting situations) that pushes a photographer to make decisions they know they’ll have to fix later in the editing process.

Artistic and creative edits might only be accomplished after processing. Of course you will need the photography basics like depth of field, composition, framing, focus, etc. However, something like unnatural saturation or blending two objects together require more advanced edits after the shot has been taken.

There are a couple more reasons why a photographer would choose to edit their photos. other than creative edits.

Photos need to be optimized for the respective places they are to appear on.
If you have ever shopped on Amazon or visited, you’ve seen a lot of edited photos. Amazon and other eCommerce marketplaces like it have rules about approved product photos , so the photographers who create those shots must follow these suits. This is why many photographers rely on services like those from Clipping Path Experienced to make the images as bright, attractive, and compliant as they are needed to be.

Let’s say that the photographer ran into bad conditions at the shoot.
You control the situation as best you can when you’re striving to make the best image possible. However, sometimes there are things outside of your control, so you have to make do. Or let’s say you weren’t able to take your time to perfect the set, or even you didn’t have the best camera, in these instances you might need the help of Photoshop or other programs to bat clean up for you.

How much of product photography is editing?
They’ve likely had a lot of editing and retouching if you’re looking at a fine art photo or a beauty portrait.

On the other hand if you’re looking at a basic product photo, those images are most likely to have been edited with a light touch. No one wants a product that looks nothing like the picture on the online market.

Here’s an example of an unedited product image next to one that’s been edited by the team at Clipping Path Experienced.