So, I was thinking to myself about how I need to blog more often, and I thought it would be fun to show you some before and after pictures to demonstrate the difference between SOOC (Straight out of camera) and retouched images.  Who doesn’t love before and afters???  All of my images get some kind of retouching; usually it’s white balance/color correction, adjustments to contrast and such.  But some images benefit from a little more TLC.  So here we go with the first issue of TLC Tuesdays.  As always, thoughtful comments are welcome!

This first image is from Eva and Sam’s engagement session, which I just posted yesterday.  It’s pretty good straight out of camera.  But I wanted to add a few special touches to make it even better.

First, I added a little more contrast, bumped up the color saturation up a bit, and brightened things up a tad with curves.  I removed a few blemishes and lightened up the circles under their eyes.  (Even children have dark circles under their eyes, believe it or not!)

I enhanced the catchlights in their eyes and brightened up their irises a little, then added a touch of skin softening to Eva’s face with Totally Rad Pro Retouch.  Finally I burned the edges of the photo a bit.  And voila!  The enhancements I did were relatively subtle, but that’s what you want.  The goal is to add that certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ without smacking you in the face.  Or as Austin Powers would say, it adds what the French call a certain ‘I don’t know what’. :)

This next photo was taken during my first year as a wedding photographer.  Such a sweet moment between this newly married couple.

 

First, I tweaked the white balance to add some warmth and get rid of the slightly green cast.  I dodged (lightened) up their faces, then used the patch tool to remove blemishes and even out the skin on her forehead.  Finally, a little Pro Retouch to soften her skin.

And one more.

First, I darkened the spots that were blown out by the bright sunlight.  The bottom part of the groom’s jacket could not be recovered, so I used the clone tool to fill in the blown out area by sampling from another part of his jacket.  I brightened up their faces, and removed their undereye circles.  Finally I brightened and sharpened their eyes, and softened the bride’s skin.  I am always careful not to over-soften skin – we want glamorous, not plastic!

So, was this post remotely interesting?  Should I include more or less details?  I was thinking of making this a regular thing, maybe twice a month.  Yay or nay?  Comments welcome!