We're so happy to have one of our favorite
Midwest Bloggers, Alissa of The Adored Life sharing her Tuesday Tips with
us today! If you're familiar with Alissa's blog, you know that she always has gorgeous
photos - the lighting, colors - everything is spot on. Today, Alissa's
sharing her secrets to magazing worthy photos {and lucky for us, they're not
impossible to achieve!}
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I seriously love editing. I've gotten a
great groove down and I can now fully edit and upload to Flickr for back up
within 10 minutes and that includes about 10 images per post.
When you shoot in RAW format (this option is only
on DSLR cameras) you will have to use Photoshop or some other program to
view them. I personally use bridge to go through my RAW files and make all
color corrections in Bridge. In Bridge I can select the images I want to edit,
make changes and then open in Photoshop to finish editing.
This photo is a before and after of what I did in
Bridge. If this was a JPG there is absolutely no way I could have made these
adjustment without ruining the image.
Warmth: +5 degrees
Tint: -2 green
Blacks: 5
Fill:3
Clarity: 10
Contrast: +25
Brightness: +25
Warmth: +10 degrees
Tint: -3 green
Blacks: 3
Fill: 1
Clarity: 10
Contrast: +25
Brightness: +25
After you fix the color temperature, tint, etc.,
I will open up the images in Photoshop. First thing I do is sharpen them. I use these
actions you can download for free The key learning how to
properly sharpen is to make sure that skin looks natural. Over
sharpening will look grainy and tends to make skin look blotchy. I Use the actions at 45%.
Flatten.
This is a great example of a quick edit.
Changes in Bridge
+ 15 saturation
+10 clarity
+3 blacks
+3 fill light
Open in Photoshop and increase
brightness in curves. Adjust to your liking and then apply sharpening
actions.
Once I am done with the sharpening I go in and
adjust the curves and brightness according to each photo's needs. When I am
done I do one vital thing, I change the color profile to SRGB. This is the
color profile that is best shown on the internet.
How do I change the color profile? Easy!
Edit> Color Preferences> Color Profile>
SRGB
This will flatten the image and allow you to save
it as a JPG. SRGB is the best color format for the web. If you don't use
this format, after uploading the image you will see a sharp decline in color
and brightness. Use SRBG for the optimal brightness and presentation.For those of you who don't have photoshop I
recommend using Gimp or Picasa photo from Google. You won't be able
to control as many elements as I am but it will help you will brightening
photos.
Alissa rocks and her photos are always so great!
ReplyDeleteThis is very helpful! Like the before and after.
ReplyDeleteI use Photoshop on the daily for work and there's seriously always something new you can learn. Thanks for the tips!
ReplyDeleteAwesome tips! Thank you for sharing :) I need to sign up for a class ASAP!
ReplyDeleteMaghan
FashionMAGable