Monday, March 8, 2010

Behind The Image - Hannah


This is Hannah.  Isn't she beautiful?  I am in the middle of editing her session from Saturday night and I thought I would do a little "behind the image" post to show off what goes in to editing an image to perfection :)  Or close to it, at least.  So, above you see the final product.  

Here is the image straight off the camera:



Not bad, but really flat, with blah blue undertones.  No spark to it.  Definitely needs work.  So, after selecting the best of the best from a session, I do a quick color-correct, fix exposure, and contrast boost on them.  Here is that step completed:




MUCH better, right?  Still not done.  After color correction, I run the Pro Retouch Action from the Totally Rad Actions that I can't live without.  I do skin correction as needed (as you can see, Hannah needed almost nothing).  Next, I run the two TRAs that I run on all my images, Lux (60%) and Oh Snap (60%).  I get this:


Ahhh, much better.  A majority of the time, I am done after this step.  I love that look and it is quick, easy, and gorgeous.  For this shot, I still wanted to spruce it up a little, so I did a few more things to it.  Next, I ran the action Green With Envy and brushed that as needed to brighten the greens in the grass and the golden tones in the lighted parts of her hair.  I also added a little lens flare above her head at 38% opacity.  I also decided to run Warm It Up, Kris!, which I don't normally do, but I wanted to play with the warm tones in the light.  And then, finally, I ran Slice Like a Ninja at 70%, which just sharpens the image overall, bringing out the details a little more clearly.  So, then, we have the final product!  Here it is once again: 



4 comments:

Brantonians said...

This is so interesting, Erin! I love seeing how you create your art!

Cherry Blossoms said...

Such beautiful work! You are so lucky to have this amazing God given talent.

baby havin babies said...

so much info, and yet still something i couldn't so in a million years. very cool post erin. so so so great!

Julie Hartman said...

Thanks for sharing. I don't have photoshop yet and I'm anxious to get it! Now, seeing your image straight from the camera, I don't feel so bad about my photos. That sounds terrible, but it's encouraging to me. Really. Editing makes all the difference. Your work is lovely!