Arden Prucha Photography

Just a quick post.  I was scanning through last night’s wedding images and found this beautiful image.

98% of last night’s images were outdoor!  YAY!  I was photographing Heather and decided to place myself behind a tree,

found a spot where I could see her through the leaves and branches then snapped away.

Here is the original:

Fairly bland, colorless, but pretty.

Then I enhance it with saturation, exposure, contrast and clarity boost.

Soft light layer, a little Pool Party, Smoothing, Sharpening, Warming.

Add a nice texture on ‘multiply’ and increase the levels.  BadaBINGbadaBOOM!

So much more beautiful!

Today I am showing you how to edit a very simple photo taken in NYC.  I did screen shots this time, in case anyone has photoshop and has NO idea where to begin 🙂

I am using Lightroom a lot more, but also love Bridge/Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) for basic photo adjustments.

Here is the original:

Opening in ACR I adjust: (mostly bumping them up slightly)

-Vibrance

-Contrast

-Exposure

-Recovery (slightly just to bring down the highlights)

-Fill light (to lighten the shadows)

-Clarity

-Shadows/Darks

Then I open in Photoshop CS4.  Start with cropping the image.  Notice how I shot it on more of an angel, I want to straighten it up.

(This is something I do on a regular basis: shooting crooked 🙁 )Next I adjust the levels (command+L)… my favorite way to create more light/contrast.

Some people only use the curves adjustment (command+m).  I love levels, to me it’s less harsh lighting.Then I bumped up the saturation (command+u)Then I duplicate the layer (command+J) and set it on a soft light layer at a lower opacity.  Then I add a Layer Mask (looks like a square with a circle in it at the bottom of your layers palette)

I do this because I think the soft light looks too harsh on the dark areas and will paint it (with a soft black brush) off of the layer.See where the arrow is pointing?  That is where I essentially erased the layer I had added.  By doing so I balanced the photo for my eye’s liking 🙂

Then FLATTEN (I created it as a shortcut: command+x)Then using the burn tool I burn the edges, slightly, to equal out all of the shadows.  Keep the burn tool on a LOW (20% or lower) opacity.  You can always add more, but don’t overdo it. 🙂

(if you think it’s a little strong, but want to fade it a bit you can go into: Edit>Fade Burn Tool (only just after burning))

I then play TRA’s “Poor Party” Action and adjusted it to my liking (brought down opacity to about 33%)

(by the way The Pioneer Woman has this action for FREE: Seventies)

Then I have a finishing action which combines my boost (extra levels, saturation, smart sharpening) along with TRA’s Smooth-O-Matic.

I use this on almost all my images (along with a websizing action that is very similar)

See my “history” to duplicate:

Here is the before and after, nothing drastic, but a nice pop.

By the way where is this place where NO Ps are allowed???

My life would be dull without my Ps!What do you think?

Animated for ya? Before… After… Before… After!