Thursday, May 6, 2010

Blog hopping...


Trying something new today, mostly because of the timing...I'm joining in a "before and after" blog hop over at Pixel Perfect. I shot a senior session on Saturday, and I got, like, a bazillion fabulous shots. But I also learned a little something. As I was going through the shots, I found a couple of overexposed images. I'd taken them in haste before checking my settings for close-ups I wanted to shoot. For some reason, I just couldn't delete them and decided to play around a little. Man, am I glad I did.

Here's the SOOC:


And here's the finished product:



I shoot with a D700 (just got it a few months ago, and we're still bonding) and an 85mm 1.8 portrait lens. I used PSE 8.0 to do a quick clone edit to get rid of the hangar strap sticking out (in my defense, this was about two hours into the shoot...apparently I was off my game a bit) and to adjust the levels a bit. It was still a bit too bright, so I used Pioneer Woman's Soft and Faded action and pulled the levels down a bit more. I cropped it in just a smidge to get rid of the cleavage line, added an edge burn, pulled that back a little, too, and....WOW. I loved it because her eyes are framed by her dark hair and draw me into the photo, and the flowers in the background give it just a little color and texture.

Head on over to Pixel Perfect and vote for your favorite "before and after"...

9 comments:

cooperkelly4 said...

wow! your retouch is stunning with all the contrasting colors!

Screwed Up Texan said...

I really think this would look great in black and white. Love the pose!

Stefanie said...

Great job, Cindy!! I can see why you're so glad you didn't delete it, it's a lovely picture :)

Donna said...

A perfect fix! Saved from the trash bin and pretty enough to hang on your wall now!

Donna
Our Blog: Double Happiness!

Christy said...

Very nice! Glad you were able to save it. I shoot all of my sessions in RAW for this very reason. Whew, it's a lifesaver!

Christy
www.livinglifeasmum.com

Pixel Perfect said...

What a great save! Love the edit! Thanks for joining this week!

Snapshotsofhappiness said...

Absolutely beautiful! I would never have thought to fix it the way you did. Awesome!

Katie said...

So cool! Way to salvage the shot!!

Sarah said...

Beautiful...nice work on the editing!