Since I have shown you my process for getting to the clean edit a few times I figured I would just start there this week.
I ran the Clean Base action & the image on the left shows what it looks like before I started adjusting the layers. It’s clean & bright & brings out the highlights in his hair. The image on the right shows what I ended with after adjusting the layers to my liking (basically reducing nearly all of them) I left the black & white layer off at this point.
For the purposes of this post I turned on the black & white layer so you can see what that will do after I adjusted the other layers. I didn’t want to go the black & white route this time so I then turned it off & merged my layers. I then ran the Ocean Air action & reduced all the layers considerably to get to this image on the right. Nice, fresh- but it wasn’t popping for me yet.
I then merged those layers & then ran the Summer Peach action – again reducing all the layers to my liking. Still not quite popping for me.
So I ran the Color Depth action & reduced the layers slightly. Now we are getting somewhere.
(Keep in mind that there are many different ways I could have gone about getting to this point. The whole purpose of this was to play with this action set & see what I could do with it & most importantly- get familiar enough with it that I know what each one does & the result I will get from it.)
So since I was in a playing mood I decided to add a sun flare layer on soft light to see what that would do. Brought out the highlights in his hair a bit more- good. Then I was itching to play with the awesome textures that Kristy from Life n’ Reflection sent me from the driftwood collection – so I added a touch of that.
Sharpened & called it a day. You can see the difference between the clean edit & the final here.
Here it is- the final edit alone. I love his sweet nature. Always willing to give a hand- no matter what it is.
I’m a lucky mom.
Tamar Strauss-Benjamin says
So cool to see all the different layers that are part of the editing process! He is so striking!
secret mom thoughts says
It is cool to see how the layers change the shot. He is a very handsome boy.
Kim Reardon Cunningham says
Love these! He is such a cutie! I’m hearing a lot of good buzz over these actions. I have other luxe sets but not Color Play. May have to remedy that one day! Thinking of you!
Laurie @ Pride in Photos says
Gina…I am not seeing your images? just thin lines??
tinajo says
Looks great and fun to see the edits! 🙂
No Greater Love says
I love how you process photos…. You captured your son so beautifully. He does look like the sweetest guy!