Ladies in Charge!!

Day of Princesses

Backlit Photos: How to brighten up the person using Layer Masks

I am not a huge fan of flash photography, therefore I barely ever pull out my flash. This will sometimes leave faces in my pictures a little dark and dreary when I am taking pictures with backlighting. It’s almost unavoidable. However it is some of my favorite pictures after the editing process is all finished.

To start, lets talk about tips during the shoot. If you are wanting to attempt to get backlit photos, you will want to have it so that the light, or in the case the sun, is being covered somewhat by something. Whether it be trees, the subjects, or in this picture the post and also the trees a little bit….it doesn’t really matter what its behind as long as it isnt direct light right into your lens.

The first picture above is SOOC (straight out of the camera), no editing what-so-ever. Even without editing it is a pretty picture. But when you see what a little editing can do in the second picture, you will definitely want to do the editing. The little bit of editing that this takes will make all of the difference.

If you arent familiar with layer masks, this will be such an eye opener for you. The minute I realized the benefits of layer masks, life using photoshop has never been the same. It is an amazing feature that you will want to become familiar with.

ok so lets get to it. Start off by opening your picture in photoshop.

Just as I went over in the last post, we are going to use the adjustment layer “Levels”.

Click the adjustment layer button which is the half white-half black circle shown above. A list of choices will pop open. Choose Levels.

This levels box will pop up. You will want to drag the white arrow in to brighten the picture. This is something that will change for each picture, so you will have to use your judgement as to what settings it will end up at. Keep your eye on the face of the subject. don’t worry about what the rest of the picture looks like because we are going to mask it out.

Your layers palette will end up looking like this. Do you see the white box that the red arrow is pointing at in the above picture?? Well that is your layer mask. Sometimes things will automatically have a layer mask already on it.  Levels is one of them that does. The white color of the layer mask means that we can see everything that we just did when we adjusted the levels. And obviously we don’t want that. We only want the adjustment of the light to show on her face.
So what you need to do is “hide” the levels adjustment by filling that white layer mask box with black. Black will hide it. Click on the layer mask. Then click on Edit at the top of the screen. And choose Fill. Choose black and click OK.

This is what it should look like after you fill the layer mask with black. Your picture should look like the original photo again.

Next step is to “paint” the layer mask with white where we want the light adjustment to show through. Make sure your layer mask is selected. Choose your paint brush tool. Using a soft brush and the color white, paint any area of the picture that you want the light to show on. I painted her face, neck, shirt, and hand.

SOOC                                               Adjusted Levels                          Adjusted Levels, Masked with black, Subject Painted with White

Now you could probably stop there if you wanted to, however I still thought she needed a bit more.  The colors in her face still looked a bit dull.

So what I did was click on the adjustment layer button in the layers palette (that black and white circle), and chose Hue/Saturation. I upped the Hue/Saturation by 12%.

Then because it should have a very warm tone due to the sun shining through, I added one more thing, a photo filter. Click the adjustment layer button, choose photo filter. I chose the color deep yellow at 20%.

My layers palette after all of that looks like this. And below is the finished product, before and after.

Exposure: Quick Fix using Photoshop or Elements

I use Photoshop for almost all of my editing.  Photoshop and Elements are almost the same thing only that Photoshop offers a lot more than Elements does. That is why I just stick with Photoshop even though I have both.

For this “lesson”, if you are an Elements user you can follow the instructions and it will be the same thing. I am going to show you a quick way to fix exposure in a picture that is under exposed or over exposed. Please keep in mind that there are many ways to achieve the same or similar outcomes while editing. I am going to show you the ways that I do things and the ways I have found things to be easiest.

Here is the picture I am going to use as our example. This is one I took of my son riding his bike outside of our house. (please ignore his dirtiness,,he is a 2 year old boy with 3 older brothers)

Its not a bad picture,,but it is a little dark. So if you are wanting a quick fix here is what you would do.

Open the picture in photoshop. In your layers palette (which is on the bottom right corner) click on the adjustment layer button which looks like a circle that is half black and half white.

When you click on it a box will pop up,,scroll up and choose “Levels”.  When you do that the box below will open.

-Levels SOOC (straight out of the camera)       -What I adjusted the levels to during editing

Basically what this box is showing you is the amount of black, white and gray in each picture. The little arrows under the big black mountain thing (I know such technical terms!! haha)  coordinate their colors with what they adjust. The left is black and it adjusts the black,,the middle is gray so it adjusts the gray, and the right is white and it adjusts the white.

What you want to do is drag in each arrow,,the white and the black,,to either touch or almost touch where the peak of the mountain begins. Each picture will be different so you wont be able to just copy these settings for your picture. You will need to adjust it to what you think looks good. You can also adjust the middle gray arrow to taste.  If this were an over exposed picture you would do the same thing and adjust it accordingly. I always always check my exposure during the editing process. Sometimes it doesn’t need any adjusting like I said it depends on the picture. But I usually like to start there when I edit pictures.

This is my before and after! You can see how it made the whites whiter, the blacks blacker, and brightened the dull gray in the driveway and his shirt.

I would love love to see some of your before and afters if you try this out!!  Go ahead and post them to my facebook wall!! Cant wait! And if you have any questions you want me to answer please post those as well!

Fun with baby S!

Little 5 month old baby S

Easter Session 2012

Who's ready for some fun Easter pictures? I know I am. This year I will be getting live baby ducklings to make the pictures "oh so cute"!! 

(picture is an example of what the babies will look like)

Details:

When: Saturday March 17

Time: TBD

Where: Pointe West Field

Price: $50

What it includes: 30 minutes of shooting time with the baby ducklings, a disc of edited pictures with full rights to print, and online sharing

Please email me if you are interested in reserving your spot jen@jenniferleephotography.net