A week or so ago, Kathy sent me a picture of her son taking a bath in the kitchen sink. I’ve edited a couple of photos of Andrew before…he is such a cute kid! Although she edited a few photos from the set (see them here), she wanted to see what I could do with this particular shot. I’ll be honest…I think I like her edits better. Nonetheless, here’s what I did.
I started by pulling the raw file into Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). If you want better control of your photos, I strongly encourage you to 1. Shoot MANUAL and 2. Shoot in RAW. Typically, any exposure data that needs to be recovered can be more easily recovered if you shoot in RAW because the file has not been compressed yet (this also means a much larger file – once you edit a photo, it’s not necessary to keep the RAW file…just save as JPG).
Anyways, I made the following adjustments (this will make more sense if you actually use ACR):
Anyways, I made the following adjustments (this will make more sense if you actually use ACR):
- Recovery +31
- Fill Light +10
- Blacks +39
- Brightness +42
- Contrast +54
- Clarity +12
- Vibrance -14
I thought for this photo that I would use Perfect Workflow (because I am really trying to use freebie products). I noticed that my background was a little noisy, so after going through my workflow, I merged my layers and created a new layer. On that layer, I went to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and applied a Gaussian Blur to the background (I used a layer mask to only apply the effect to the background). If you don’t have noiseware, this is often a quick and simple way to reduce noise in simple backgrounds (you also have a median option under noise that works pretty well too).
I also thought I’d try to even out his skintone a little bit, so I worked through Coffeeshop Photography’s Baby Powder Room for a more even look.
I also thought I’d try to even out his skintone a little bit, so I worked through Coffeeshop Photography’s Baby Powder Room for a more even look.
I then finalized the photo by applying Amy McMaster’s Berries N’ Cream action for a softer look. What do you think? Like I said…I think I may like Kathy’s edits more – I’d love to see her workflow!
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