Following on from the article I wrote earlier about my Fashion in the City shoot last weekend, I thought it might be fun to demonstrate just how much post processing I’d done to some of the images.
For the most part I do a very light retouch and generally spend only about 2 to 3 minutes on an image. There are excpetions to this of course, particularly where I’m going for a more dramatic look or where the image requires a lot of cleanup. An example of the latter might be for a beauty shot where the model’s complexion might need some attention or there are extraneous hairs that need to be removed. Essentially, for this type of shot anything that can detract from the beauty of the image needs to be worked on. Unless it is a permanent feature and is supposed to be there of course. Sometimes however I might spend a little longer on an image and the examples shown below vary from one extreme to another.
The “Before” image in each of the cases below is literally straight off the camera. I’ve not done any post processing to the image at all apart from a conversion to an 8-bit colour depth and a slight sharpen for screen during the export from Lightroom. That’s it. Nothing else. As you can see in all cases, the images are cold, “flat”, lacking contrast, vibrancy and depth. There simple isn’t any punch or impact. Nothing to hold the gaze of the viewer for that split second longer.
Image 1
This first image has had very little post processing done to it at all. I gave it a slight boost in Lightroom before exporting it to Photoshop CS3 where I did a little noise reduction, tidied it up a bit, added a contrast adjustment and did a little burning to darken the corners.
Total edit time about 3 minutes.
Image 2
Image 2 has had the least amount of post processing of all the images I’m going to present here. Nothing more than a contrast adjustment, burn and sharpen during export. Total edit time about 2 minutes, maybe even less. As with Image 1 above, the original file is flat and lacking contrast but nevertheless is actually a much better source file to work with.
Image 3
Image 3 was actually in my discard pile. It looked great on the LCD on the back of the camera but when viewing it in lightroom I wasn’t very impressed. Far too many problem areas: the stark white poster, the bin, the shadow on the ground, the colour of the model’s right hand, too flat, no contrast etc. etc.
Of the three shots in this sequence though this was probably the best in terms of framing and composition so I persevered with the edit, tackling each of the problem areas in turn. I also added an extreme local contrast adjustment to the background to make the clouds much more dramatic. This has the added effect of bringing up the path too. The banner was toned down by blending it with a flat colour (chosen from the sky). I used a similar technique for the hand. The bin was cloned our along with the shadow (although on closer inspection it looks like I missed a bit). Then the obligatory sharpening to round it off.
In truth this isn’t one of the best shots from the day. Despite being lit by three speedlights there is still some motion blur owint to the movement of the model. This is because it was actually a very bright day and even at 1/200th there was still enough ambient light to leave a trace of movement on the sensor. The reason the sky is grey is because I underexposed it relative to the model.
This shot is another example of taking control and doing a lot more work in the camera. Had I not done that this image would not have worked. The model would have appeared very dark against the strong backlight of the sky, even with all the clever metering that it can do.
Total edit time: approx. 45 minutes
Image 4
You’ve guessed it – contrast adjustments, dodge and burn. Little sharpening and we’re all done. Well, almost. The main problem with this one was the hot spot on the wall to camera left.
Total edit time: approx. 3 minutes
Summary
As you can see, I’ve changed the look and feel of the images to add a bit more punch. In some cases the edit has been quite severe and resulted in a lot more drama than was present at the time the shot was taken.
