Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time experimenting with and perfecting my post-processing techniques. I find that I am leaning more towards that luminous, saturated look that is achieved when you brighten and boost. (lighten + contrast) I have also been learning how to sharpen my photos more judiciously in hopes that they will look more naturally crisp without looking like I just ran an unsharp mask. I know that not everyone agrees with the philosophy of post-processing but we here at Grace Leigh Photography are incredibly huge fans of the extra artistic touch that it adds to our images. We feel that photography is an art that includes not only the light-capturing & shutter-clicking but the creative development after the fact. Here’s an example of a SOOC (straight out of camera) shot compared with it’s processed version. Is it a drastic comparison? Yes. Is it over-processed? I believe that is relative. I would say “no” since I intentionally wanted a heavily saturated, high-contrast look. You may feel differently. Check it out:

Here are a few additional images I’ve been working on that represent this luminous look I’ve been trying to achieve. I feel they have been tastefully processed and the end result is simply a clean, clear, pretty image.

One more B&A and I’ll stop until next week.

Carissa was sure that none of the photos from last night’s photo shoot would turn out. (It was her first time using the MKII and I myself am not used to (and forget to make use of) just how amazing it performs when you jack the iso up.) Well, here’s a before picture. I’m not gonna lie, it IS pretty abysmal. But we’re not going to worry about that. Nope. Instead, we’re going to focus on just how much this B&A is a testament for why we like post-processing work. If your photo didn’t turn out how you wanted, well that’s a bummer BUT, all is not lost. Soooo here’s the before…..

….and the after. Now does that after photo look like it was taken at 7:30pm on a dreary, rainy evening? Not to me it doesn’t. Thanks to Lightroom and a few actions in Ps, I was able get to it looking like this. The actions I used were Straight Edge, Warm it up, Kris at 100%, Flare-Up Golden at 20%, another Warm it up at 20% and Grainstorm at 75%. Then I sharpened it for the web. Thazzz it. I think the after is a tad too grainy but I like it. What do you think?

I think it would be fun to start posting a weekly ‘Before & After’ photo. I will have to come back later and edit this post with the specific recipe, but I used Pioneer Woman and TRA actions. The SOOC image is pretty dullsville (except for the beautiful face of Carissa), but I love how it looks after running a few actions on it. I know the shot itself is just so-so but I just really like the overall color and feel of it. Also, take note that I am testing out a watermark idea.