Let's edit!

We are going to dive into editing this image of Wyatt from his newborn session. He went into this pose very well and was relaxed the whole time. But if you look at the finished image, you will notice 3 buttons on his pajamas.

These pajamas actually have 4...

Let's get started!

RAW Image

Above you can see our RAW file.

There are so many things you may notice automatically. For me, it is obviously the buttons. Little chonk was over 9 pounds when he came to see me so that top button WOULD NOT BUTTON. We decided not to force it to keep Wyatt safe and comfortable.

Another thing you might notice is more skin texture. It's no secret that newborns will have blemishes, redness, jaundice, or flakes. So personally, I edit the skin on every single newborn session even in this case where Wyatt's skin was blemish free.

Lightroom Adjustments

Here are all of the color grading and small tweaks I did in Adobe Lightroom.

I just applied my base preset and adjusted small tweaks to get it exactly the way I want it. The only other adjustment I made in Lightroom was to fix the orientation because when I initially took the photo, it was crooked.

Now that I am done with that, I will take this image into Adobe Photoshop to give it that luxury and professional look that I aim for.

Photoshop Adjustments

Once I get images like this into Photoshop, I tend to fix the background first and then end with working on the subject. It doesn't usually matter the order I go in- I just do it this way because it helps me see the final image better.

In this case, I need to fix the wrinkles that are in my white wood backdrop as well as expanding the top left corner to make Wyatt centered in the image. You can also see the tip of my shoe in the bottom right of the image so I also removed that.

Now on our handsome subject, Wyatt, I removed the button and also removed the hole that the button was supposed to latch to. To top it off, I just tweak his skin while leaving most of the texture there.

One thing you also may not have noticed is that Wyatt's eyes were just slightly open. You can barely see it but I went ahead and literally moved his eyelids down where it looks like they are completely closed.

Final Thoughts

This is roughly my process for every single newborn photo that I edit. It may seem tedious but it is so worth it when you see the final outcome. For this specific photo, it took me about 3-5ish minutes from start to finish. It may not seem like a lot of time but when you deliver over 100 photos that require this type of editing, it adds up QUICK!

But I truly enjoy the editing process. That is where the magic comes to life and I love seeing the whole gallery once it's all completed!