Another look at Dawn

This post has been delayed for several months, partially because of my schedule, but mostly because I had an unfortunate incident with my hard drive which completely crashed shortly after this shoot. Several recovery tools later I was able to retrieve some of my images, but many were unfortunately either lost forever or partially corrupt. A tough pill to swallow, but a good reminder to keep all your work backed up.

Anyway, now that I’m getting around to it, these images were from Day 2 of the Washington, D.C. Photoshop World on the Expo Floor. Dawn was such a delight to work with and is a true professional, and you can see some of her images from Day 1 here. The lovely and talented Rebecca McGillicuddy was the makeup artist who transformed Dawn into Jackie Kennedy for the FJ Westcott Shootout.

These were my favorites! Stay tuned for more images from Day 3!

And in the true spirit of Photoshop, I had fun with this last one by applying an oilpaint filter to give it a painterly effect :)

Beauty Retouching in Adobe Photoshop CS5

Last night finished up the Working with Models II module at BU CDIA. It was heavily focused on photoshop and high end beauty retouching, honing in on every little detail so images can be usable for advertisements and magazine printing and the likes. Our instructor, Chris Alvanas, walked us through skin softening, eye enhacements, hair and makeup tips, and overall shaping using only Photoshop CS5. Plugins and additional software do make it easier, especially for skin softening, but it’s good to know there are other ways around it. Chris has a series of tutorials posted on youtube that are very helpful for retouching and other photoshop tricks, and are definitely worth checking out. Click here for the link.

Below are the before and after images of the photo I worked on for this class. One of the most signifcant changes I made was the tilt in her head. You can see if the after image that her head is a little more straight on. I really liked the pose and her expression, so I made it work by tilting just the section that I needed. I removed the freckles from the skin and softened up some of the lines, not completely removing them though because I didn’t want it to look unnatural. You can see in the before photo that her eyes are a little cloudy. This is mostly due to the fact that Allison had a fan blowing in her face for a good twenty minutes and her eyes were getting very red and irritated (who can blame her!) Whitening up her eyes and enhacing the color just a smidge was enough to really bring this photo to life. The final touches included adding a little contrast to her hair and very minor reshaping on the nose and shoulders. Allison is naturally pretty as it is, so all that’s needed with a photo like this are a few refinements to make it look its best. Allison is an actress in the DC area and you can see some of her work on her website by clicking here.

I hope you enjoy the before and after images! Stay tuned on more to come by becoming a fan on facebook! Click here!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Allison | Washington D.C. Portrait Photographer

We just finished up the “Working with Models” module at school (Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University). It was a busy two weeks and I have hundreds of images to sort through now! I spent most of my Saturday editing the final shots from our first model, Allison Howard, who was an amazing model with an incredible smile and the patience of a saint! Check out her website here. We started off with head and beauty shots and then moved on to get some full length body shots.  More posts with the other models to follow!

Dawn | Washington D.C. Portrait Photographer

About two weeks ago I attended my very first Photoshop World in Washington, D.C., and it was amazing!  One of the highlights for me was the Westcott Shootout on the Expo floor. They provided beautiful lighting and gorgeous models! This was the first day of three; I’m still going through my photos, so look forward to more in the next few days!

 

 

 

 

Sunbeams in CS5 – Before and After

I’m always looking for easy ways to enhance my images with fun tips and tricks in Photoshop. I’ve wanted to learn how to add sunbeams to images for a while, but never actually sought out a tutorial. I came across this video from The Russell Brown Show, while searching for new ideas and thought I would give it a try. This one is super easy and can really add a lot to an otherwise boring image. This was my first attempt, so I wanted to post the before and after to show the difference.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

It’s very subtle, but just enough to give it a little something extra! I’ll definitely be using this one again!