MCP Blueprint – How RAW saved this shot and Photoshop Actions made it Better
This week’s photo comes from Fix It Friday at I Heart Faces. I participate as a contributor there periodically. This particular photo needed lots of help as it was severely underexposed but had a sunspot too. I do most of my work in Photoshop as you know, but will use Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom as a quick starting point or for more severe issues like this.
Here are the before, after raw (pre-Photoshop), color version in Photoshop, and a black and white edit (done on top of the color edit). After the photos – I will teach you the blueprint of how I achieved these results. I do love bright skin. If you do not, I would recommend toning down the opacity of some of the layers I created.
Now for the blueprint… Starting with the SOOC, I used ACR (Adobe Camera RAW). Here were the settings I chose. I heavily used the exposure slider and recovery slider (as you can see) and I changed the color temperature to one better suited for daylight. I also added a touch of fill light, light clarity, vibrance and saturation.
From there I opened the photo up in Photoshop CS4. Here were my steps – mostly running actions and masking, but also doing a few steps manually.
- Ran Touch of Light Action (and applied lightly to face with 30% opacity brush) and Touch of Darkness Action (and applied to background and jacket – especially hood)
- Flattened
- Duplicated layer and used patch tool to get rid of sun spot on face (cheek)
- Made a hue/saturation adjustment later to alter the grass. Selected yellow channel and increased the hue and saturation while decreasing the lightness
- Masked back the boy and the clothing and skin from the hue/sat layer
- Ran Touch of Light/Touch of Darkness Photoshop action again – and added depth to the grass and hood of the coat by painting using the mask on the darkness layer
- Ran MCP Color Burst from the Complete Workflow Set at default opacities – and used paint on pop layer just on the grass
- Ran Skin Cast Blast from the Magic Skin Action Set (using Bye Bye Blueberry to get rid of blue/add yellow)
- Ran Eye Doctor – just used sharp as a tack and catch light layer at very low opacity
Those were all the steps needed for the color edit you see. For the black and white I used the completed color photo and just did two more steps:
- Ran Rocky Road Ice Cream from the Quickie Collection – masked skin back from the texture
- Ran Burnt Edges Action and adjusted the opacity
The following actions used on this picture are free in the TRY ME section of my web site: Touch of Light/Touch of Darkness, Burnt Edges
The following actions used on this picture are available for purchase on my site: Color Burst (from the Complete Workflow Actions), Skin Cast Blast (from the Magic Skin Action Set), The Eye Doctor, Rocky Road Ice Cream (from the Quickie Collection)
Next Post: How to Use Your Flash Effectively in Portraits (Part 4 of 5)
Wow, Jodi, that is an amazing recovery. I have a question though – I was taught that whenever the exposure slider is pushed past about -1/+1, the quality of the image is pretty degraded. Is this a problem for you?
Hi Jodi!! Great blueprint today! I have a quick question…why did you decide to run the dodge/burn and hue/sat adjustment at the beginning, before running the Color Burst action? I usually START with the Color Burst action, and finish with the Touch of Light/Touch of Darkness, so I’m just curious. Also, did you tweak any of the Color Burst layers? You rock!! Love you girl!
great post, jodi!
Ok I need to figure out this “patch” tool. I have cs4 too…:)
thanks for sharing your genius secrets with us!!!
Nicole – Yes – when you increase or decrease the exposure it does bad stuff. That is why even though RAW can save you, you are better off nailing exposure. But in a pinch it helps – that said I would not print a HUGE canvas of a shot that was this off. And you can see it lacks details in the face and such – you definitely compromise something.
Kim – I always try and fix exposure 1st, color second, then run actions. 99% of the time – I go straight to the action as the exposure is fine. On this photo given to me for editing – the exposure still needed tweaking. So I fixed that. Then I fixed the color issue – in this case grass. Then I worked on the overall… If I did not darken the spots on the jacket a tad – they may have even gotten close to blowing out. Does that help?
Great job!
I am here because someone has nominated you for an Aawesome Blog 2009 Award!
Stop by and see what category they thought you rocked!
http://awesomestblogs2009.blogspot.com/
God bless-
Amanda
Really beautiful job Jodi! Like always. Thank you for sharing : )
I consider you an amazing teacher! I have learned sooo much from you. You astound me with all your knowledge! I just wish I could like live with u LOL!!!
awesome work, jodi! thanks for posting such a great how-to!
I’m curious – why do you so enjoy bright skin? I can’t help but feel there’s some loss of detail and shape when you overexpose facial features. I’d love to do a comparison of a “correctly” exposed face and a “bright” version.
Ernie – photography is very subjective. As such everyone has different opinions. I like that creamy smooth looking skin that comes when pretty bright. I also know that prints tend to come back slightly darker than what is sent in since screens are backlit. I probably lose some light details but nothing is blown out and by losing details it gives a smoother feel. Again – I know this is not for everyone and often state that. People needs to edit in a way they love. Some love vintage where much color and contrast may be lost, as an example. I can appreciate that work but I do not do that as it does not fit my style.
Does that answer your question?
Jodi