They’re seventeen years old. Young. Gorgeous. Full of hopes and dreams. In their youthful prime. In Drew Barrymore’s perfect words from the movie Never Been Kissed, “the most beautiful girls you’ve ever seen close up.” Though, more often than not, they don’t see it in themselves.

I recognized this early on in my business, which is one of the things that inspired me most to specialize in teen girls. If they could just see themselves the way I, and the rest of the world, saw them, maybe they would recognize just how truly beautiful they are. Right now, in this moment, in the skin they’re in.

Yet, somewhere along the way, the lines got blurred. Literally. I fell victim to the airbrushing trap and continually masked these beautiful girls- going against everything I stood for. My message? Lost in translation, or edit, if you will. What started out as “just a little Portraiture” turned into “the smoother, the better”.

Not. Okay. At least not for me and Young & Free girls. I want them to see themselves in their images, not a modified, doctored version.

Truth is, I believe Portraiture is an amazing product for photographers. But, I just don’t think it’s a proper fit for me and my clients anymore. After all, I’m not selling glamour. I’m selling authenticity. To seventeen year old girls who simply don’t need airbrushing on their wrinkle-free, youthful faces.

Trust, I am so not knocking any photographer out there who uses Portraiture. This is simply a decision for me and my photography. Young, Free & True is what I am all about and it’s time that my editing methods fall in line with that again.

I am happy to share that all of the images featured in this post were fully edited in Lightroom with no Portraiture used. Going forward, you can expect to see a lot more images like these. Below you will see both my Straight Out of Camera (SOOC) shot from the Vegas Workshop and my Lightroom Edit. I would love to know your thoughts on my new editing direction, lets have a conversation! Post your comment below or head over to our Facebook Page and lets chat there! Much love!!

ADDED NOTE: Since publishing this blog post, I received a great comment from Kim Sweezey Carpenter of Got Grins? Photography over on my Facebook Page. While chatting about this decision with her, I just wanted to share one of my comments to her about my feelings on Portraiture/Airbrushing:
“…I love Portraiture and think it is a great tool for photographers. I just didn’t like how I was using it on my images and how I was viewing my images without it. I was overusing it, for sure… I didn’t start using it until a year ago and honestly have felt unsure of my editing since using it, which tells me I need to get back to my original editing methods for awhile. Rediscover what my style truly is.“