Post Processing

The 90/10 rule is getting stronger for those that have both Adobe product of Lightroom and Photoshop. That being 90% of image post processing is accomplished in Lightroom and 10% in Photoshop only when serious pixel manipulation (mutilation if you like) is necessary. With that I like to spend some time in PS to keep my pixel pounding fingers in shape. 

Below is an image of a nice young lady that for the most part is totally acceptable for a senior portrait.

With a little work in Photoshop (Elements in this case) we can take this image and spice it up. Some may say this is wrong but others call it artistic creativity. The ultimate decision is when the client orders the prints. This certainly does not stop the creative mind from wondering down the pixelated brick road once in a while. Such is the case here.

Below is a screen shot of the layers used to generate the image below the layers. I must say there are three layers missing in this screen shot. Those are the color change of the sweater, a sharpening layer using the High Pass filter technique, and a shadows, highlight layer using a 50% Overlay gray layer.

As you can see form the image (or by reading the layers above) lip shape and color, eye work including clarity, shadow (upper & lower), and overall size have all been enhanced. Finally some cheek blush was added. The shadows layer was used to darken the background to give some separation and some facial shadowing to give better definition. 

Ok, so the purple eye shadow may be a little different but I had a final destination for this image. Looking at the screen grab below you can get an idea of how I ended up with some grunge look.

When ever you are going to grunge an image using a different image as a texture, you want to have two textures or at least the same texture in a different orientation as I have here. Two different colors works well too. Color change is really easy with the Color Replacement Tool. Here is an example of how much is enough (I may have gone a little too far, nit it is what it is).

When my dad taught me how to fly, I would ask him how much pitch? He would say "Just enough!" it took me a little time to really grab that thinking (I was fifteen at the time) but it is true. Too much pitch and you are too high, too little pitch and you don't get to your altitude. This applies to many things in life. So here is the end result of my tinkering.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed the post and picked up a thing or two.

Cya... Doug