From a Photo to Artwork

Sometimes I like a photo just the way it is....

And other times, I like to dress it up a bit and make it a little more artistic.  For the following image, these are the steps that I took to reach the end result:

1.  Start with the above image.

2.  Run TRA's action 'Troy' and reduced opacity to 56%.

3.  Use Florabella's Sugar & Spice (cool) texture from their Texture 1 Collection and set layer to Soft Light at 68%.

4.  Use Florabella's Cherish (b&w) texture from their Texture 1 Collection and set layer to Overlay at 85%.

5.  In both instances of #3 and #4, I masked the texture off the face, hair and shirt.

6.  Voila!  A totally different image!!

And there you have it.... one image, two different looks.  I know that I was very brief with my explanation so if anyone has any questions, please feel free to email me.  Have a great day everyone!

What a Difference.....

....a click (or two) makes!  I generally edit my images from scratch, or else use actions that I created to speed up my workflow.  I do however, love to experiment with actions created by others and to create artistic images that I would not be able to achieve on my own (unless I had lots and lots of spare time - ha!)

I chose this image of the adorable Miss "L" to use because (1) she's just so darn cute and (2) I love to see her little face over and over again and (3) her mama will be so proud ;-)  So once again, we'll start with the SOOC image.  It was shot intentionally underexposed because I did not want to blow out the whites [f2.0, 1/800, ISO 100]

The following image is the first edit and my usual steps were taken to achieve this look:

1)  Defog image
2)  Adjust Highlight to bring out details hidden in shadows
3)  Curves layer to brighten and add contrast as well as color pop
4)  Adjust hues to get rid of the blue/cool cast in the image
5)  Touch up her face and eyes just a teeny tiny bit.... her face is perfect and I didn't have to do much
6)  Resize and sharpen for web

From there, I ran the Marmalade Silver Luminosity action which gave me a completely different look with just a click of a button.  I like the richness of this image.

I went back to the first edited version and then this time ran TRA's Lux action (click, click) which resulted in a soft, vintage look.

For the final version, I used CoffeeShop's Honey Retro action and I love it, although I would normally want to spend a few more minutes to mask it a little on the face.  Speaking of CoffeeShop, what a fantastic resource it is!  Rita, the woman behind CoffeeShop blogs about photography, editing, life as a SAHM and her site is full of actions, tips, templates, etc. and best of all, it's 100% FREE!  Go check out Rita's site here.  You might want to grab something to drink and plan to stay a while.... I'm not kidding, there's a ton of good stuff.

As you can see, it's easy (and fun) to achieve literally dozens and dozens of different looks with a mere click (or two) of a button.  Leave a comment and let me know which version you like the best.  Until next time.... thanks for stopping by!

From Start to Finish, My Post Processing Tutorial -- Southern California Kid Photography

Is anyone out there interested in how I process an image?  If so, please read on as I show you how I typically process an image from start to finish.  Before I begin though, I just wanted to say that photography is a completely different experience for me compared to when I was using film a long time ago.  At one point, I spent a lot of time in the darkroom "making" photographs and loved every minute of it, however, it was quite frustrating at times because each image required so much time and resources to make.  And I was never quite satisfied with the results.  Developing and printing an image from a negative was time consuming and access to a darkroom didn't come easily.  Now that I shoot digitally, I am a much more focused and happy photographer with instant and full control over my work.  It is not necessarily easier shooting digitally... trust me, there's a ton of work involved in processing raw images and I'm constantly learning new techniques, all of which requires time and dedication.  But I do so love being able to work in my darkroom (aka Photoshop) and develop my negatives any time that I can sit in front of a computer.... usually at night.... after the kids have gone to bed....  when it's nice and quiet in the house.  Ooops, I've digressed ;-)

So back to the topic at hand.  Here is an example of my post processing and how I typically process an image once a session is over.  This image of Chase comes straight out of the camera (SOOC) and was shot in RAW format.  The histogram shows that it's slightly underexposed but that's okay because I like to make my adjustments in Photoshop.  The only adjustment made in ACR was to adjust the white balance slightly so it's not as "warm".  Once I am satisfied with the adjustments made in ACR, I open the image in Photoshop and take the following steps:

1.  Defog the image (I do this with almost every image)
2.  Adjust the highlight/shadow (to pull the details out of the shadows and bring out any interesting textures that's hiding in the dark areas)
3.  Adjust the curves to bump up the color, brightness and contrast 
4.  Adjust the saturation/hue as needed (this image had a yellow cast, especially on the face so I decreased the saturation of yellow slightly)
5.  I did additional work on the face such as brightening the eyes, softening the skin and cloning out the chapped/reddish area around Chase's mouth.  I also gently lightened the area under his eyes.
6.  Finally, resize and sharpen for web using MCP's free sharpening action and voila, here is the final image!

There are lots of different ways to edit an image (which I'll show you another time) but I would have to say that this is how I typically edit an image.  You could call this my 'signature' image, where the subject fills up most of the space, the eyes are right on me and the image has an overall bright/happy look and feel to it.

Let me know what you think, or if you have any questions about my post processing.  Hope you enjoyed my little tutorial!

{Tuesday's Tutorial} kids & family photography los angeles & ventura california

This post is geared towards my readers who are interested in photography.  I thought it would be fun to show you an image taken straight out of the camera and how spending a few minutes in PhotoShop can result in very different images.  As you can see, the SOOC (straight out of camera) image is not bad... Tristan is looking right at the camera which makes the image more engaging (I always do a happy dance when I am able to capture direct eye contact)  I love eyes.... lovely windows to the soul.... Okay, so the image is a little underexposed but that can be easily fixed.  Here is the image before....

and after:

And here is what I did to go from before to after.  In ACR, adjusted the white balance and exposure.  Then opened the image in PhotoShop and took the following steps:

1.  Ran a defog action to get rid of haze (digital cameras tend to make your photos look fuzzy, or foggy, like they have a film over them.)
2.  Created a new layer and adjusted the highlight (7%) and shadow (2%).
3.  Flattened image and ran the PowderRoom action from Coffeeshop; brightened the eyes just a touch, and softened the skin slightly.
4.  Used Selective Color to lower the yellow and magenta cast.
5.  Lightened/brightened the right side of the face.
6.  Cleaned up the dark circles under eyes by using the Patch tool.  I usually create a new layer, do the work on cleaning up the dark circles and then adjust the layer down to 50% for a more natural appearance.
7.  At this point, I thought the image was a bit on the cool side, so I added a warm Photo Filter at 15%.
8.  Resized and sharpened for web.

That's it!  It took around 3-4 minutes to do the above.  By the way, it's taking me much, much longer to write out the steps!  I don't have a "formula" or one size fits all approach to my post processing, but I do generally tend to brighten the eyes and the overall image.  Sometimes I like a nice clean look and other times, I favor the artsy look.... it just really depends on the image.  And now, just for fun, I ran a few of my favorite actions to show you more variations of the same image.  Be sure to leave a comment and let me know if you enjoyed today's post!

This has sort of a vintage look to it feels more modern than old fashioned.

This has an urban, cross processed feel to it.  Cross processing is the procedure of deliberately processing photographic film in a chemical solution intended for a different type of film.  It tends to spice up the photograph and you end up with some very funky effects.

This has a little more color and depth than the original version.