Happy Monday Edit work flow tutorial.

Evening guys, well It's been a while, what with one thing an another, I Haven't had the chance to blog much. But now is a good a time as any to get back into the swing of things,

So, you remember those 2 beautiful girlies of mine, well they are now 5 and 2 (yes it really has been that long) and yes, I am still taking photos of them.

Last year I made the move to do more outdoor photography and I Love it (still do studio stuff too but when weather permits I love getting out and about) As weather is so abysmal at present I decided to edit some photos I took on one of my outings last year, just for the fun of it, and astonishingly my editing style has changed somewhat over the last few months.

As such one of my images has been posted around on the net, mainly through different Facebook groups and I have been asked by a few photographers in those groups to write a work flow tutorial on how I achieved my final edit. Having never done anything like this before, I found it quite daunting yet challenging to do, none the less I have done it, may not be perfect (please remember it is my first time doing anything like this), But I do hope you find it helpful at least.

My original image posted this morning entitled Happy Monday!!

So my Tutorial will show you how I went from this 

To this 

In a matter of a few short stages.

Ok to start I open my raw file in Lightroom and make just a few minor adjustments.

The image is slightly under exposed so keeping an eye on the histogram at the top right hand corner I increase exposure by +0.96, I also drop the shadows by -40 too.

that’s all that needs to be done from here so next I bring into Photoshop

The first thing I do once loaded into PS is duplicate the background layer, working on my copied layer I make a start, it has been suggested that my original edit didn't really follow the rule of thirds, so in this tutorial I will be shifting my subjects (Yes that really is my 2 year old daughter Winter) position more towards the right, I do this my selecting the rectangular marquee tool and drawing a rectangle around the area I wish to move, like so 

once I have my selection I will move it by hitting V to change to the move tool and drag to where I want her to sit, in this case further right, making sure that the edges of the path still match up.

Once I have her in the position I want her, I can hit ctrl D (on pc) to deselect, I then set about using the clone tool to blend in the areas around where she has been moved, working with both layers to ensure the final image still looks realistic,

Once I have finished cloning the right-hand side I will flatten the image. (you will see I do this a lot, some would say it's bad practice too, I find it helps me keep organized after each stage of the edit)

Next I will use a couple actions that I use quite regularly, I will provide links to all actions used at the end of the tutorial.

Using Paint the moon, Reverie collection for this image, to start with I use the 'Outdoor All in One Mega Base' action, (love these btw ) Instantly I turn off the Sunlight layer as I don’t feel this image needs it, then I select the Warm Earth Tone layer, and mask off the path, making sure to not get any on my subject. Following this I will select the Lush Green layer and mask off everything that is green, this gives the foliage a really nice pop.

When this is completed I will flatten the image again, Next I will use under the same action set, Delish Matte Base, (another one of my favs) gives a nice matte creamy feel to the 

image,

  

But I don't really like the look of it on my subject so ..... I mask it off her,

And then yes you guessed it I flatten again.

Now I have the basic tones and colors set in my image I set to work on my subject, first of all I smooth her skin, (some will say there's no need however in this particular image I feel it has a more refined look) to do this I use the Greater than Gatsby, Clean work flow action ' natural skin smoother',

 Once I have run the action I then use the brush tool to smooth the skin on her face, neck and arm. set opacity of the layer to 80% then flatten image (told you I do that a lot)

Now I use the sharpen tool to sharpen her eyes, mouth and the curls of her hair. not too much but just a tad to make them stand out a little more.

Once this is done, you can see we are getting somewhere close to where the final edit is. now I need to select my subject, by using the Quick selection tool, draw around her so she has the marching ants outlining her, then hit the refine edges button,

Click the smart radius button and set the radius to 4.5, then set about refining the edges especially around her hair, (wouldn't want to miss any of those curls now would I), Once I have refined all the edges around my subject I hit ok.

Now's the fun part, under the selection menu hit inverse to outline everything but my subject. now under filters, go to blur and Tilt-Shift (my new favorite toy to play with <3 <3)

I dragged the DoF slider (not sure if that’s the correct name for it, if not someone please correct me, but for now it fits ) down to the desired area, in this case just below my daughters hand, bringing the other sliders up and down towards the DoF circle (I shall call it for now) with blur set to 77, distortion at 2% and Selection bleed at 30% I hit ok.

Looking pretty good, ok two more things to do, firstly double check areas that were cloned, are they obvious if so try to neaten them up now, if not move I on to last stage,

Ok back to our actions now, further down the Reverie set is an action call Cat's Pajama's (Finish Boost) I use this at the very end just to give the image a nice Vignette and color pop.

Once action has been run I do one last flatten image and there we have it, The final Edit.

 I really hope you have enjoyed reading how I edited this Image of my beautiful daughter <3 please feel free to let me know how I have done with my first tutorial, and please any show images you have created using this steps, I would love to see them.

And lastly as promised links to the actions I have used in making this image.

Paint the Moon, Reverie Collection

Greater than Gatsby Clean Work Flow

If you have reached this far, Great!!! I haven't bored you <3 thank you for taking the time to read my tutorial, I hope that in some small way it may help some of you out there,

If you like my work please feel free to visit me on either my Facebook, Instagram or 500px

All Photos are Courtesy of

Freebird Photography

As always Thank you got taking the time to read my post,

please feel free to comment, your feedback is always welcome.

Please also note that all copyrights remain with Freebird Photography, the downloading

of my images are prohibited and should in no way be edited or cropped.

Regards

Jaimie

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