Editing Your Pictures To Get Professional Results

The best photo editing is when it's not obvious there's been any editing at all. Over editing an image is an easy thing to do. Trust me, I know firsthand about over doing it. K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) should be your motto when you sit down at the computer and begin editing your images. I'm not calling anyone stupid here okay...just saying. By following one simple rule every time you pick up a camera, it will not only will make you a better photographer but it will save you loads of time fixing your images in the editing software of your choice. Getting it, "right in camera" from the start will set your free. Less time editing equals more time shooting.

Working in a studio with artificial lights you'll have more control over the lighting than you will when working outside where the light is ever changing. Editing your images in a natural light picture where the can be from very bright to dark shadows all in the same frame can be a bit tricky.

The first image here is the unedited version and as you can see there's not much cloud detail and Donna our main subject is a bit dark. I metered for the sky and on Donna herself...took the average reading between the two and shot. Always being careful of what's in my background so as not to have trees or in this case a boat mast rising from my subjects head. So the mast lines need to go. Using the healing brush in PS I sapped them right out. A handy tool the healing brush and is very easy to master.

Next I needed to bring out the clouds to give more depth to my image so I grabbed the lasso tool and traced the horizon to the top of my shot. Once I have the entire area of clouds surrounded I can now use "levels" or "shadows/highlights" options in PS to bring out the detail.

A few more adjustments to lighten up the models hair and cloning out of the label on the paint bucket plus some color correction and my image is ready.

Before


After


Thanks for reading and happy shooting.

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