June 21, 2011
Categories: Touch-Up Tuesday
Anatomy of a Portrait
Last week, I shared more photos of Casey from our impromptu portrait session at Duke Gardens. She assures me that she’s got beautiful pictures of me to share soon…so just stay tuned. As it turns out, I found a few shots of me taken by Casey on MY camera…so I thought I’d share the anatomy of a portrait edit.
Steps 1-3
On the far left (above), you see the Straight Out of the Camera (SOOC) shot. Casey is unfamiliar with my camera’s settings, so…I set up the shot and got into place. Also, since I shoot RAW, all of my photos appear a little dull SOOC…thus the reason to process them.

The middle shot has gone through my basic Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) adjustments followed by Perfect Portrait 3 (and applying the dodge/burn effect we discussed on Thursday). I consider this clean processing.

The image on the far right applies a combination of my new favorite actions by Pure Photoshop Actions from their Summer Days collection. About a week or so ago, these were given as a freebie on their Facebook fan page, but I can’t seem to find the link anymore. However, they just released a new action set called “Just a Pinch” – I’m pretty excited about it.
IMG_5512 Closer Crop-blog
Once I went through the steps above, I decided that there was too much space above my head in the original image. So, I decided to crop the image in a little closer. What I like about this crop is the position of my hands and that you still get a sense of context. However, I don’t like that you can kinda see up my dress.
IMG_5512 Focus on the Face-blog
Which leads me to my final edit…and a much closer crop with a focus on my face. I think this one might be my favorite, but what do you think? 

By the way, don’t miss out on this week’s giveaway sponsored by Katie Lloyd Photography! In addition to this awesome giveaway, Katie has offered my readers an additional 25% off anything in her shop. The code is RAMBLINGS25 and will be valid through the end of the month, June 30th. So be sure to check out her shop on Etsy and if you want to enter the giveaway, be sure to do it today. Comments close tonight at 10 PM and a winner will be announced tomorrow along with a final giveaway to celebrate my birthday. Also, if you’re interested in receiving a SIGNED 8×10 print of my photograph: 1000 Cranes, be sure to visit Emily at Just the Two of Us…plus a cat. Happy Tuesday!
Photography love...Giveaway at Ramblings and Photos http://emilyandbradsblog.blogspot.com/
PS: If you’re interested in the frames I used for this post, go to The Album Cafe. 
46 COMMENTS