Behind the Edit | Before & After

There are two things that I have been screaming in my own head the past few days. 1- I LOVE photoshop! ( I know all of my non-photoshop loving photographer colleagues are cringing & I'm cool with that btw.) 2- Florabella completes me! - If you don't have Florabella actions.... please STOP READING & go buy some, I promise your workflow will thank you. Of course, come back to this when you are done;)  So with that finally out of my head, let me break this edit down for you.

What you need to know about the shot: I had another shoot scheduled this day that was to be outside. Of course the rain & mud squashed that, but instead of just giving up & going home, I thought it would be best to do a completely different shoot that I had planned, but didn't expect to shoot until summer. The shoot took place indoors with nice windows, but the bedroom(where this was shot) is in a fairly shady area. This along with a late call time & storms led to a difficult lighting situation. No amount of beautiful model, hair/makeup & vision can get past poor light. This was the first set up we did & because I wanted her on the floor it was even darker as she was lower than most of the window. I wanted to keep as much 'noise' out of the image as possible & didn't want to blow out her skin. So I opted to keep my ISO at a fairly low 640( knowing I had to up it in other areas of the apt) with a 1/100 sec shutter speed & F 1.6. I also couldn't reposition her as the space was so small with only a bit of  bare wall to work with. So in my head I went for it & knew I could fix in PS. I try to not think that way too often, because as much as I love PS I don't want to be working on an image that long. This situation was slightly different though as I already knew what I wanted the final product to look like & I knew there was no way I was going to get it digitally or without processing. So I clicked away & moved along:)

What you need to know about the editing process: I went through at least 12 edits of this image. I knew they weren't what I had in my head, but I couldn't seem to execute it & get the result I saw in my brain. I sent out edits to my 'creative council' a couple of close friends whose opinions I value so much & I know they will be honest at all times (you should get you some of those people btw).  They came back with words that certainly didn't make me feel better, but confirmed that I wasn't getting across what I wanted to. With their help & advice I got steered in the right direction. When it was done... I KNEW it was done.

THE PROCESS

- pulled raw image straight into PHOTOSHOP no adjustments made in ACR.
- used lens correction filter to get rid of vignette from light & camera
- curves- adjusted each red,blue,green curve- usually to the opposite color & just a tish- then lowered overall opacity of adjustment layer to around 50% **I don't usually have to do this, just for this image it needed it**
- ran Classic Film action from Florabella's Classic Workflow set- group opacity 75%
         - turned soft & peachy layer on around 10% opacity
         - turned up lighten layer a little( not too much as I knew I was running other actions after this)
         - masked off sharpening layer from her hair
         - upped brighten shadows layer just a tish
- ran 1968 from Florabella's Classic Workflow Set - low opacity under 30%
- ran Pastel Haze from Florabella's Classic Workflow Set - low opacity under 30%
- ran Rosy Cream from Florabella's Classic Workflow Set- Opacity around 50%
- Flattened layers-
- ran Vintage Summer II from Florabella's Vintage Set- over all opacity between 20%-30%
         - turned off sunlight layer
         - tunred off summer wash layer
         - turned off vignette
         - upped lighten layer between 70%-80%
- ran peaches & cream haze from Florabella's Color & Haze set- opacity around 10%
- cleaned up skin & hair with clone/patch tools
- ran Natural Skin Smoother from Florabella's Retouch & Makeover set- lower opacity around 40%
- ran quick eye sparkle- very low around 15%
- ran noise reduction from Florabella's Classic Workflow set - around 30% opacity
- used the light & dark brushes from Florabella's Retouch & Makeover set to even out skin, light & to burn features & lines.
- used the Yellow Out brush from Florabella's Retouch & Makeover set on her hair to match the look of the image. Around 50% opacity.

All actions used above can be found HERE:)

This is WAY more that I usually do to any photo, but sometimes it just has to happen:) I hope you have enjoyed this Behind the Edit! Please feel free to PIN & SHARE this link. Also, if you want to see more of these in the future please take a moment to follow my FACEBOOK PAGE where I will announce & post my before & afters before they hit the blog:)