Kiss n' Tell: Hannah "Golden Hour"

The same evening I took the previous image of the squirrel, I had a few friends coming by to get a quicky family shot for his website (will post soon).  I wanted to test the light in this one spot so I grabbed my son first (but honestly, a teen boy in a field of flowers isn't exactly what I was going for), took a few shots, then my big girl drove up from work and I hauled her over there.  The light was to DIE for and I made her sit for about 5 minutes so I could get some settings on her.  Unfortunately my sweet friends didn't make it in time for that golden glow in that particular spot, but I'm sooooo glad I snagged a few of Hannah.  That is my dream spot now!!!

(I don't know why, but this looks grayish compared to the after below, they are the SAME image!!!
The one below is the true tone of the image. WEIRD!  Anyone else see it?  Anyone else have this same problem?)

I was only going to post the finished image and then I had an idea...  I haven't done a "kiss n' tell" for a while so I thought I'd share a teeny overview of the process.  I figure that most people out there don't realize just how fantastic our eyes and minds were created and how hard it is to get the camera to replicate what we see.  Here's the B and A
.

I've broken this down into three sections.

First is the image, as taken... "Straight Out Of Camera" or SOOC as we like to say.  This was taken in RAW so I was able to clean it up a bit before my final edit.  The second image is the "clean edit".  As you can tell, the image was a bit under exposed and the white balance was off.  I leave the WB on auto but it's only a camera... it's known to make mistakes.

Now comes the fun part :)  The clean edit is a wonderful shot of my girl but it's amazing what a difference a special touch can make.  I used "Paint the Moon's" action, Fairy Floss Pop.  I did some adjusting on a few layers and "VOILA!".

So, in short, I LOVE to create the images I see in my head.  The camera helps but I like to take it a bit farther and really make each image special.  This is one reason why custom photography costs more than a chain store.  Hope this blesses someone out there as you get a little peek into my world :)

Kiss n' Tell: Little Tricks, Up My Sleeve....

I've decided to show another before and after showcasing a Paint the Moon action called "Baby Soft Skin".  If you notice the picture on the left, while STUNNING she is SOOC, using a few actions, the "content aware" feature of PSE9, and "baby soft skin", she looks like someone off the Mary Kay ad :)

I LOVE this stuff!!!

Now, after I did this one, I realized you need to be careful around areas like the crevices of the nose, etc.  It does tend to lighten so you don't want it to look like the nose, eyebrows, etc are barely there, lol!  DON'T use it on the eyes, eyebrows, or lips.  Gotta have shine and definition there as well :)  You also don't want to use it much on guys.  It is great for taking some stubble out and helpful with blemishes but remember, we want our guys rugged, not soft and supple, haha!