Post Production - Pictures Before and After Retouching and Color Correcting

Some may wonder why it takes me 2-3 weeks to get 15-30 photos edited.  Aside from the fact that I have a 15 month old that does NOT approve of my computer time, editing photos is a very time consuming process.  Sure it takes a lot of skill to actually photograph a subject.  You have to know about lighting, posing, exposure, how to set your aperature and shutter speed to create an artistic image.  But the real work begins when I insert my memory card in my computer.  Here's a look at a couple before and after images (you can click on them to see a larger view):

The above picture is the SOOC (straight out of the camera) shot.  Do you see how there is a slight gray cast over the picture?  I call that the "digital haze".  Digital images tend to have a little bit of a haze to them and that is why Photoshop is essential to making a portrait look professional.  I bet you wouldn't even notice it if you didn't see the after photo, but seeing the two side-by-side proves there is a HUGE difference.  At the very least I fix the "haze" on every single one of my pictures before giving them to a client.

Next I have to look at color correction.  I prefer to set my white balance in my camera a little warmer to get nice skin tones.  Unfortunately this also warms up other elements of the photo, such as the blanket and headband.  See how there is a little bit of a yellow tone in the white?  Therefore I need to do a bit of color correcting to draw out the yellow in those areas.  I also lightened the picture a bit.

Then it was time for the retouching.  There were some flakes from the newborn dry skin on her arms that I removed as well as some lint.  Then I smoothed the skin just slightly for even skintone.  I removed any red splotches and sharpened the picture. 

This is from a maternity shoot a did a few months ago.  As you can see there is still a little bit of a "digital haze."  This picture is also a bit cool because it was shot in the shade.  I again removed the haze, warmed the pic up a bit, and also pumped up the vibrancy slightly to make all the colors pop a little (but not so much they look unnatural).

I retouched her skin and smoothed out her dress.  Finally I darkened the edges a bit to give the photograph a richer look and also to draw to viewer into the subject.  Then I sharpened the entire photo for better printing.

Another newborn.  The lighting on this one was a bit tricky because of the angle of the subject.  This resulted in her face being a bit darker than I would have liked.  Her skin is also a bit too yellow and needs to be softened.  

To fix this photo I removed the haze, then lightened just her face.  I then used a seperate layer to lighten her body since her face was much darker than her body and I wanted to somewhat match.  Then I desaturated the colors a bit.  There was a little bit of black stain on her bum I assume is from the meconium.  I remove that along with 3 little bugg bites she had on her back.  Then I smoothed out her skin for even skintone.  

This newborn was pretty little and the headband had a little bit of slack to it.  Therefore I had to photoshop the slack out.  Then I darkened the edges a bit and sharpened for printing.

This didn't need too much correcting, however since it was back lit there was a bit of a flare which washed the picture out.  I combat this by darkening just a tad, then bumping up the vibrancy to make the colors pop a little.  

Also since this was in a busy residential area the background was a bit busy.  I took out the lightpost and street sign as well as the cars that were parked behind her. 

Lastly I softened her skin to make it even toned and sharpened her eyes to make them stand out a little.