Here's a recent shoot I've been working on, and I thought it might be fun for someone else to see my usual process once photos are downloaded to my computer.
A couple of months ago, I took some half-decent shots of Shanda. Not perfect, but half-decent. This is the photo straight out of the camera.
My dream is for everyone to be as easy to shoot as this girl! But Shanda was not happy with her bangs hanging in her face, or the fact that she had three stray eyebrows, (which, you can't see here, but somehow she can), or that there was an itty bitty little zit on her cheek (which, again, you can't see, but SHE knows it's there.) I would say, "Hmm, teenagers," except I am exactly the same way!
But do I ever take any picture without zapping it through the magic land of photoshop? Nope, I definitely do not. (Do regular photographers take pictures without working in a darkroom?)
Here is the photo in progress. This is the shot Ryan prefers. (He's forced to give his opinion on ALL of my photo-editing, often to his chagrin.) Voila! Bangs have been removed, curves have been bumped up a bit, eyebrows have been straightened, and that itty bitty zit is no more.
Ah, isn't she lovely? This photo, as is, is probably printable and would look nice up on Mom's wall. But wait! Perhaps Shanda wishes she had worn a RED sweater on that day...
...or that I had used black-and-white film, thus rendering pointless the sweater-color question...
As for me, after a little bit of fiddling, sharpening here, burning there, bumping color balance, changing textures, here is the version I like best. Kindof funky vintage, like it might have been in some cute guy's rear-view mirror for a few years, like he JUST CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT HER! I like the brightness, but still think it has nice contrast, don't you?
And that is a roundabout way of how I get from Photo A to Photo B. Fun stuff.
Here's another one I liked. The before version, and the "Old School" after version:
Ah, look at those nice eyebrows! Much better! (Just think, once you start using photoshop, do you ever really need to wax again?)
The only bad thing is that there is just no end to the fiddling! Will it ever be just what I want? But I guess that's half the fun. Ah, Photoshop, how I love you.
