Golden hour in Hyderabad: shooting portraits outdoors
When the light is kind, which kinds of places work, and how weather and season change an outdoor session in the city.
How we edit a family portrait
From 400 frames to 15: what happens between your session and your gallery, and what we will and will not change.
A one-hour family session usually produces 300 to 400 frames. You receive 15 edited photographs seven days later. Here is what happens in between.
The first step is choosing. Farhan goes through every frame, usually twice, and marks those where everyone’s eyes are open, expressions are natural and the light is right. The real picks are often the moment after a pose, when the toddler laughed or a grandmother turned to her husband. A shortlist of about 40 goes to Swathi, who chooses the final set with the family’s groupings list in hand, so nobody is left out.
Then comes colour. We correct white balance so skin looks like skin, not orange or grey, and match colour across the set so the photos sit well together in an album. Our screens are calibrated every month, so what we see is close to what prints. Next are small adjustments to exposure and contrast, and gentle cropping to straighten lines and tidy the edges of the frame.
Retouching is light. We remove temporary things, such as a scratch, a pimple, a stray hair or a stain on a shirt, and soften harsh shadows under the eyes. We do not change face shapes, slim bodies or whiten skin, and we will gently say no if asked. A family portrait should look like your family. Each edited photo takes ten to fifteen minutes; a full gallery is about a working day. Extra edited photos from your session are ₹400 each.
