touch-up Tuesday

Last week, I was taking pictures of Livia in a little forest by my parents' cabin in Branson. At first glance on my LCD screen, I thought they looked pretty good. Then after I started editing in Photoshop, I realized how "off" the color was. I white-balanced for daylight, (which it was), but the green leaves in the forest were creating a major color cast on Livia's skin. This is a situation where you would want to do a custom white balance. Notice that I said you. You would want to do a custom white balance. I would not. I should, but that's an extra step. And when you're photographing a tiny tornado (read: my daughter), you don't need extra steps. :-)

Here's the unedited version:


See how there's a greenish-grey haze covering her skin?

Here's the touch-up:


Brighter and cleaner, right? If you think it's too light or bright, it might be a matter of personal preference, or it could be because you saw the darker, hazier picture first. It's amazing how my eyes play tricks on me when I study a picture too long. I think if you had only seen the edited picture, it wouldn't look so bright in contrast to the SOOC.

This picture looks similar to one I posted last week, but it is actually a different shot. I don't remember what steps I used the first time around, so it is edited a bit differently. As you know, there are a million ways to edit a picture!

What I did:
Aly's Basic Boost
auto color at 40%
soft light blending mode 35 %
curves adjustment
MCP's non-destructive burn tool 60% (slight vignette)
MCP's magical color finder brush (background only)
TRA's select-o-pop 10% (on Livia only)

That sounds like a lot of steps, but I just wanted to see what all I could do with this picture. If you did only the first 3 steps, you would still have a nice result.

I want to say a special thank you to everyone who participated in touch-up Tuesday last week! We had a record number of "players" - yay! :-) Your edits were fantastic and I enjoying viewing them all.

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