I have gotten a few emails asking me about the latest post with my babes on the bed. How do I get the nice creamy skin….so I thought now would be a good time to show ya what I *mostly* get straight out of camera (sooc) and then how I edit with clean processing. (keeping it simple pretty much)
Example #1 is my adorable chunker Sawyer aka Big Buddah. You can see that the sooc (above shot) is very nicely exposed. There are no hot spots (severely over exposed spots), the shadows are nice and not too dark. There is nice light in his beautiful blue eyes (sorry can’t help it) and it’s nice and sharp. Just how I like it. Are all of my sooc shots like this? HECK NO. But, for the most part I try hard to achieve this right here.
This photo is actually pretty close to being done. For my taste though, I like a bit more contrast and the shadows and highlights to be a bit more defined.
Image and Equipment Settings:
ISO 1000 (note: when my ISO is high like this, I tend to overexpose just a tad so that my image isn’t too grainy…unless I want grain of course)
Shutter Speed 400
Fstop 4.0
Canon 5D
Canon 24-70mm shot at 68mm
Here are my steps for this shot.
1) Since I shoot in RAW, I make a few adjustments in ACR before I open in photoshop. This image had no hot spots, so I didn’t need to recover anything. I did boost a tad in brightness and as always I brought up the blacks just a smidgen.
2) Once I opened in ps, I ran a defog on it. I use Unsharp Mask- Amount 20%, Radius 60 pixels and Threshold 0. (I use this on 99.9% of each of my shots.) It brings out the shadows nicely and makes the image pop just a bit.
3) Then I went into curves and bumped up the midtones just.a.little.
4) Then I went and grabbed my lasso tool and I put it on 250px feathered and lasso around the eyes. I then go back into curves and bumped it up again.just.a.little. So it makes the eyes pop. Make sure you don’t do it too much to where it is obvious where you bumped your curves. You don’t want alien eyes (where the whites are overly white) It just aint natural.
5) Then I did a soft light layer. I reduced the opacity to around 20%. If you don’t reduce the opacity most times it will give your image a really bad color cast and leaves it with way too much contrast. I always reduce it quite a bit.
6) I then go into my selective color layer and in the reds bring up the cyan just a bit. He (as most babies) looks a little too red in the image. So I bring up the cyans just until it looks right. I don’t want him to lose too much color. Then in that same layer I head into the neutrals. I bring up the blacks about 2-4 points. Then I head into the blacks and bring up the black again 2-4 points.
7) With the opacity reduced to about 10-15 -on a separate- soft light layer- I go over the shadows with my burn tool and the highlights with my dodge tool. I like enhancing the two a lot.
I ran noiseware (a grain reducing program) because I shot at ISO 1000 and I love it when babies look smooth. The trick to noiseware is not over doing it. You don’t want your subject looking plasticy (word?) or fake. I reduce the opacity to about 50%.
That’s about it. Easy Peasy. Took about 5-8 minutes and I was done.
That was an example of how ps can enhance an already perfectly exposed image….
Next helpful hints, I will show how you can have fun in photoshop too. add awesome color, and vividness to your shot. It doesn’t always have to be clean processing 
Thanks for looking!
♥ be
