Photo Filters are Destructive! -Buyer Beware!

Instagram photo filters have become all the rage!

Over the past several years we have seen this 'push button' form of editing digital photos bleed over into the professional wedding photography market in Florida.

BEFORE choosing a Jacksonville wedding photographer that forces their photo filter 'style' on you, consider this:

The good news - bad news: if an inexperienced photographer (who doesn't know how to edit photos in PhotoShop) wants a quick and easy way to 'edit' their images and apply a 'style' to them they can now just push a button to get a certain 'look'.

Many software companies are capitalizing on this trend by creating programs (outside of Instagram) to create and sell this 'style' capability.

So many of these 'styles' make permanent changes to the original digital file that are irreversible and destructive. They destroy detail in both the highlights and the dark areas of the image that can never be recovered.

I have had brides bring me their wedding photographs and paid me to remove or restore their images more towards original by removing the applied photo filter 'style' their photographer applied to all their images (which now has gone out-of-style).

My advice to any bride is to get the BEST 'original' photos as possible (including the most details) as you can always add photo effects later.

We provide the best-quality originals AND can provide an additional subset of 'stylized' photos AND give our brides complete artistic release to allow them to edit and manipulate their images however they want.

I cringe as I read many inexperienced photographers' blog about how they arrive at their 'style'. Too often it's a long and complicated process of uneducated decisions that are trying to make-up for improper camera settings and capturing techniques.

I have always said that fads come and go, so in the long run, it's always better to lean towards the proven classics to insure long-term happiness and no regrets.

The number of photo filters available are endless. I am amused by the variation of non-descript names they are given such as: Clarendon, Gingham, Juno, Lark, Mayfair, Sierra, Valencia, Walden, etc.

I have included in this post a handful of photo effects showing the before and after's. I have named these descriptive terms rather than fancy (but meaningless) names.