Before and After | A look at my retouching work--on my own portrait!

This summer while my son and I were on vacation visiting family, my sister agreed to take some portraits of me and my little guy (gosh, not so little anymore). So, I set everything up, positioned us in the right light, made sure the the camera settings were right, and we got some fun shots. That's what's cool about being a photographer -- you can direct your own photo shoot!

Here is the finished portrait of the two of us that I am going to hang in our home. Don't you love it!? Thank you Charity!

See below for what the portrait looked like straight out of the camera (SOOC). As you can see, I've made some changes, but nothing major -- I believe that getting it right in camera is super important. But, I want to look good in my pictures! So here's what I did: 

• Hair smoothing -- oh my goodness, the frizz!
• Skin retouching
• Adding shadow and light for better dimension
• Arm shrinking (yeah, I'm a little embarrassed of my bigger arms)
• Chin shrinking (the shot caught my son's chin from below -- never a flattering look.)
• Background brightening
• Eye and Makeup Retouching
• A touch of vignetting

Here are the pictures side-by-side so you can see the difference: 

I love making a great photograph into a beautiful, polished portrait. What do you think?

Tweaking Reality: Special Edits

Before the spot color treatment (below)

The Special Edit is one of the best parts of our packages. It's a chance to take an image from photography to "photo artistry." Many clients choose spot color, also called selective color photography, for their special edit. I really loved how the above spot color turned out. It also lent an edgy look to the "unposed" fashion look we were aiming towards.



Another kind of special edit involves tweaking reality. On this one pictured a, the client's request was to mute the colors so the water didn't look as muddy and perhaps crop it to emphasize the family more. She also mentioned that the first boy's pant leg was a little bothersome, "but you can't get everything, right? :)"

Before the Special Edit (below)

Well, I definitely used Jacob's expertise on this one. He helped me with the background and I digitally fixed the pant leg. The trick with the waterfall was to change the color without affecting the family in the foreground. I also added a subtle vignette to the image so that it would emphasize the family without having to crop the image. I made two versions of the edit for the client: one as a muted, vintage look. The client was thrilled and chose both versions as part of her package.

The vintage version (below)

Special Edits take time, but they are so worth it. If I've learned one thing about professional photography, it's that an extra effort in post processing can make a great photo into a stunning one.