![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/models\/lea\/NV3_9783-edit.jpg\")
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Another photograph from the recent NYC photo shootout<\/a>.\u00a0 We were a group of photographers working with Lea during this part of the afternoon.\u00a0 There are several parts in what makes an image\u00a0successful – the subject, the setting, lighting and then the post-processing.<\/p>\n There are limitations in working as a group with a model.\u00a0 So where I would’ve preferred shooting with a longer lens to compress the perspective more, you sometimes have to accept the situation.\u00a0 In this case, the setting wasn’t ideal, and there was a fair amount of background clutter.\u00a0 Therefore this might be a good time to\u00a0to show some of what I might do with post-processing of an image.\u00a0 Especially since with\u00a0this image there was, for me at least, a fair amount of post-processing involved.<\/p>\n Before we get there, just a note about the lighting.\u00a0 It was the same light as I used in this previously posted photograph of the NYC photo shoot-out<\/a>.\u00a0 The lighting set-up was similar to the one mentioned here, where I explained some of the metering involved in using manual flash with a softbox<\/a>.<\/p>\n In this instance I wanted to expose for the sky, and then use flash to lift the model to the same exposure level.\u00a0 Starting point was 200 ISO and max\u00a0flash sync speed<\/a>. (1\/250th for the Nikon D3).\u00a0\u00a0 Metering for the sky with my camera’s meter, and taking a few test shots, checking the preview image on my camera’s LCD, I was happy with f6.3<\/p>\n I then had to move the softbox close enough, and set my flash power high enough, to give me f6.3 at that distance for that ISO.\u00a0 For this, I used a handheld flashmeter.<\/p>\n This then is the photograph as I took it, and this is also then my starting point in editing the image afterward …<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The\u00a0original image, with no adjustments other than my default settings for ACR \/ Bridge in CS4.\u00a0 There’s a lot of clutter that should be eliminated.\u00a0 My camera’s sensor wasn’t as clean as it should be and you can see at least one large dust bunny there.\u00a0 The image also lacks punch.\u00a0 So we can systematically improve on the image ..<\/p>\n First of all, I adjusted the color balance to give me a slightly warmer tone overall.\u00a0 My preference is definitely for warm skin tones.\u00a0 I also punched in a bit more Contrast and Vibrance.\u00a0\u00a0 Then, still editing the RAW image in ACR (CS4), I made the sky darker and more brooding by pulling the exposure down and increasing the contrast, using the local corrections feature.\u00a0 I used the Auto-Mask setting. (Thank you for that hint, David!)\u00a0\u00a0 I then convert this edited RAW file into a JPG.\u00a0 This then gives me a very good JPG to edit further in Photoshop.<\/p>\n .<\/span> .<\/span> .<\/span> .<\/span> .<\/span> … and the idea\u00a0is\u00a0that I use a technique \/ action(s) \/ plug-in(s)\u00a0for Photoshop to over-smoothen detail … but\u00a0on another layer I use different action(s) or plug-in(s) to really<\/em> boost the local contrast<\/strong> and saturation and detail.\u00a0 By blending the layers between those two extreme ways of editing the image, you then end up with an interesting look, where there is a lot of detail, but the image looks like it might have been air-brushed.\u00a0\u00a0 And that’s as much as I am going to give away here.\u00a0 Play around with that idea and see where you end up.\u00a0 There’s a whole variety of ways that can be implemented.<\/p>\n And there’s the final image .. a combination of having a great model, an interesting setting, solid lighting, and some finessing in Photoshop.<\/p>\n I have to underline that word there .. finessing.\u00a0 You can’t save a pitiful image, but you can make a good image even better\u00a0with some\u00a0Photoshop fairy dust.\u00a0 But your original photograph needs to have everything in place already, or else the time you spent in editing the image will be needless polishing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Another photograph from the recent NYC photo shootout.\u00a0 We were a group of photographers working with Lea during this part of the afternoon.\u00a0 There are several parts in what makes an image\u00a0successful – the subject, the setting, lighting and then the post-processing. There are limitations in working as a group with a model.\u00a0 So where Read more inside…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15,590,22,24,1],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-digital-imaging","8":"category-flash-photography","9":"category-lea-liu","10":"category-lighting","11":"category-models","12":"category-uncategorized","13":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1178"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43643,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178\/revisions\/43643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1178"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/workflow\/NV3_9783-0.jpg\")
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\nWorking with the JPG now in Photoshop, the first thing I did was to get\u00a0rid of the dust bunnies.\u00a0 The people in the background also had to go.\u00a0 And the lamp light and all kinds of extraneous things in the background.\u00a0 The simpler, the better.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/workflow\/NV3_9783-2.jpg\")
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\nI like this image, but I would’ve preferred if Lea had looked up for this specific image.\u00a0 So I copied her eyes from another image in the sequence, and pasted it over this image.\u00a0 This gives a more dramatic look to the image, and also gives me catch-lights in her eyes.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/workflow\/NV3_9783-3.jpg\")
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\nOkay, now we’re getting somewhere!\u00a0 But that van and building in the background still bothered me.\u00a0 They had to go.\u00a0 I cloned them out, using various parts of the building and sidewalks around that area.\u00a0 This part of the edit is a little sloppy, and if you were able to look at the full-res image, you’d see it.\u00a0 But this is where I had to decide on the trade-off between keeping the clutter (at no additional time invested), or get rid of them with a little bit of time invested (but slightly sloppy work there), or spend a lot more time in finessing that.\u00a0 I decided I could live with that little bit of sloppiness there for showing on the web.\u00a0 Very few people would’ve picked it up from the image posted at the top. I could live with it.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/workflow\/NV3_9783-4.jpg\")
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\nThe next step for me was to give more detail in the paved road.\u00a0 It’s looking a little too somber in the image above.\u00a0\u00a0 I used the Shadow \/ Highlights<\/strong>feature in Photoshop to bring back a lot more Shadow detail.\u00a0 The rest of the image was masked with a layer mask so that only the paving was affected.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/workflow\/NV3_9783-5.jpg\")
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\nNow for the next two steps are interesting, although I am going to gloss over the specifics.\u00a0 In essence, the idea<\/strong> behind what I do for the next few steps are similar to what I wrought for the other photo of this session that I posted … but the specific way I implemented the edits and the specific\u00a0actions and plug-ins that I used, are different for this image than I had used there.\u00a0 But the approach is the same …<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/workflow\/NV3_9783-6.jpg\")
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