Ten days into my blogging goal…18 days to go! Phew! Can I make it?! We’ll see in a couple weeks!
I am beginning a series on how I edit my images. I will be posting before and after photos to help explain my editing process. There are so many great sets of photoshop actions available these days, and after trying out a lot of them, I tend to gravitate back to my favorite 5 or so actions. My philosophy in editing is to keep each image as clean and close to life-like as possible. This means that my main adjustments happen in adobe bridge, when I edit the raw file. I adjust the white balance if my camera’s auto WB didn’t record it accurately. I also adjust the exposure when needed, and usually bump up the blacks and brightness a touch.
When I bring the image into photoshop (though I only edit my favorites in photoshop; the others are only edited in bridge), I use a mix of actions from the Totally Rad Actions set and Colorshift Actions.
In the image above, I first adjusted the white balance in Bridge, as it was a little too cool and green for me. In photoshop, I used Pro Retouch from TRA to soften their skin, I also used a version of Colorshift’s Warm 70′s Love action. Anytime I use an action, I scale it down a LOT. Meaning, even down to 10 or 15% of the full-out version. I also sharpened the image, because I wanted Meghan’s eyelashes to pop a bit more, which meant I ran the action to sharpen the image, and then I erased everything in that layer except the parts I wanted the sharpness.
In the image below, I also adjusted the white balance first. I increased the Recovery slider, to pull back a little more detail in Meghan’s dress. I added a little fill light as well. In photoshop, I used the TRA called Big Blue to pull a little more color into the blue sky. I used the Pro Retouch to soften the harsh sun/shadow line on Meghan’s arm and face, and I also lightened their faces a touch. Some of the changes are so slight, only a trained eye can see them…but to me they make an impressive difference!
More before and after’s to come in weeks ahead!
Enjoy this gloriously sunny and 20 degree day! Heat wave!
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