Retouching is a skill that I have refined over the years. There is no easy answer to perfecting your retouching skills in Photoshop. It takes time, practice, dedication, willingness to learn, and did I mention practice?

I generally have a vision of what an image might become from the moment I click the shutter. That vision can not always be realized straight out of the camera. The trick is to recognize the potential where it is needed as well as understand when to leave an image alone. Restraint is a dominating word while I edit.

Trends will come and go in the industry, textures are hot right now, but they just don’t work for the majority of my images. 10 years from now I want my images to remain classic, allowing the subject to speak for itself.

That being said, I believe every image requires a minimal amount of retouching. So I thought today I would show you a bunch of before + after’s, noting what I did to get the image to where I feel it needs to be. I also wanted to post these because it shows that although we may have the same camera, we aren’t going to necessarily end up with the same shot.

Left: RAW File | Right: RAW File + Adjusted Exposure, Blacks, and Contrast

I am happy with the final image from its adjusted RAW format. On the final image, I just applied sharpening.

Left: RAW File | Right: RAW File + Adjusted Exposure, Blacks, and Contrast

For the final image, I took out the lamp post on the right and applied sharpening.

Left: RAW File | Right: RAW File + Adjusted Exposure, Blacks, and Contrast

Final Image, I decided to take out the ball at the bottom because there wasn’t enough of it in the image to make it worth keeping. Sharpened as well.

RAW File

RAW Adjusted File

For the final image, I really wanted a dreamy look. So I decided to take it one step further and applied an action from the Totally Rad Action Mix called Technicolor Dreamworld.

Here is a great example of a shot that I totally underexposed. I just didn’t have any light coming in behind me because my house was there. But the potential was there so I decided to work with it to see what I could do. The floppy lips were just too much to delete!

RAW Adjusted File | Since I am working in CS3, I was able to easily use the Fill slider to add some detail into her nose.

Final Image still really needed some work. I used the Quick Mask Took (my fave) to select her nose, created a duplicate layer, and then brought out the shadows. I added a bit more contrast by using curves. Then I added a slight cross processed tone, because I just like it that way. Sharpened. Ending up with the most smooshable lips ever!

Left: RAW File | Right: RAW File + Adjusted Exposure, Blacks, and Contrast

Final Image I just added a slight amount of contrast and sharpened

Maybe in Black & White? A black & white image is a lot more complicated. Maybe I’ll do a post on that some other day.

How about one of my little nephew?

RAW

RAW Adjusted

Final Image I added a slight pop of contrast and applied a slight skin smoother

Happy Editing!

This is an awesome post that was just sent to me via my favorite e-toy: The Google Alert. Don’t know about it? Go google it now. It’s a beautiful thing.

I like this article because Mike lists 10 fundamental questions that you really should know the answers to if you consider yourself a photographer.

I’ll list a few here, but go read the article. Visit Mike Helm’s Article Here

. . . .

4. The battery in your camera’s light meter has died and you want to take a photograph outside on a clear sunny day. You’re shooting on Ilford PanF 50 film. What shutter speed do you select? (The shutter speeds and aperture on your camera are mechanically controlled, and not affected by the light meter’s dead battery … this isn’t a trick question)

8. Explain what “push” and “pull” is in developing film.

9. Explain the significance of an 18% grey card.

. . . .

I found this article really relevent because just a few days ago I was chatting with a client about how the principles I learned in my film class really translated quite well from the traditional darkroom to the digital darkroom.

A class can never hurt. At the very least you learn a few things and meet some really interesting people. I sure did. But those stories are better told in person. Over a glass of wine. They are classic.

Enjoy the artcle!