Photoshop Friday | Rhode Island Newborn Photography

I have done this before but it’s been a while!  There are SO many actions out there for people to use when playing with pictures nowadays, I feel like it is almost going overboard with what is available.  I will admit I TOTALLY played with actions when I first started!!  And there is nothing wrong with playing with them especially when you are learning editing or just having fun.  But good, clean post-processing is really what you should be going for.  Get a really good grip on that and then play.  Don’t slap an action (or five) on a photo that is “eh” and think that is editing and call it a day 😉  I am going to share a before and after with you on one of my recent newborn shots to take you through how I post-process a photo.

First we have the straight out of camera shoot (SOOC).  This was shot with my d700 with the 50mm 1.4g lens.  Settings were ISO 200, f/1.8, 1/640.  For lighting there was a window camera right and one camera left.  She was placed at a 45 degree angle to the light that was coming in.  I intentionally slightly underexpose the baby when I am shooting on the cream blanket because I know it is easier to bring up the exposure on the skin then to try and fix a blown white in the blanket.  At the same time my goal is to try to expose both as equally as I possibly can.  I don’t want to have to drastically edit!  As you can see though, this is really not bad for SOOC.  I would have no problem showing this to a client right as it is, before any edits were done.  That should be your goal.  Always.

(Side note here, she was a bit red because we had the house warm and I had the space heater on as well and I had her laying on her side for previous shots.  If she was normally just a pink / red baby I wouldn’t worry about the red too much.)

The first thing I do is open the image in Adobe Camera RAW.  (I don’t use Lightroom.  I don’t understand Lightroom.  When I did try to use and understand it I discovered I really don’t like Lightroom.  So don’t ask me what to do with lightroom.  😉  Bridge and Photoshop are my true loves and I am faithful to them.)  Anywho.  Back to this.  The only changes I will make in ACR: increase exposure by .25, slide recovery slider to +10 to recover any details in that blanket that may have been slightly blown when I increased the exposure and bring blacks down to +3.  Outside of that main window the only other change, because she was rather red as stated previously, is on the luminance tab I increased the luminance of reds to +20.  Here is what it looks like now:

Then I open in Photoshop.  I discovered after a few years of playing that there were certain steps I ALWAYS took to edit a photo.  I really like clean edits.  I don’t like a lot of actions.  I don’t like when people/scenes look fake or plasticky or wonky colored.  Yes, sometimes I will go for a different processed look *if I think the image calls for it* but regularly, no.  I have very clean edits.  I want the end product 97% of the time to be as if you are looking through a window at someone. But back to what I was saying.  I discovered there were things I always did.  So I made my OWN action that used all of these steps.  (By the way people always ask me for specifically what exactly my workflow action is – it makes no sense to tell you because what works for me will not work for you.  Discover your true editing style and go from there!)
For newborns, after running portraiture on a duplicate layer, lowering the opacity to 30% and erasing back all details, I run that action.  For ME, that involves:

  • a levels layer to bring depth to tones
  • a slight add of contrast and a tiny pinch of saturation
  • a slight vignette on the outer edge of the photo (NOT black or white but a simple darkening of the colors that are there to draw the eye inwards towards the lighter parts)
  • An unsharp mask

Once I have run my workflow action, it is left unflattened and I go back in and erase back anything that has been adversely affected by the edits.  Blown whites or other colors, etc.  Once I did that for this image I still needed to pull out some red using a selective color layer and then did a color balance layer to add some yellow because it was a bit cool.  I also spot edited out a few small flakes of skin and the slight stork’s bite on her eyelid.  And this is my finished product:

This entire edit from beginning to end takes about two minutes.  That’s it.  The really important thing to realize though is that I started off with a really decent (in my humble opinion LOL!) straight out of the camera shot.  You should never have to *fix* photos in photoshop or whatever program you use (except obvious things like cloning out wrinkles or a random spot).  You should only be enhancing what is already there.

Dream Nursery | Rhode Island Newborn Photography

I am so exited to announce that Lucy’s Dream Nursery was chosen to be featured on the new Onto Baby Blog!!!  It got so many wonderful reactions when I first posted the images from her session, I knew I had to get it published somewhere.  It was just *too* beautiful not to, and her mom and dad worked way too hard (especially mom) to design it.  🙂  So in bigger form, I give you the most beautiful nursery I have ever had the pleasure of photographing in – the Dream Nursery.

You can see the On to Baby blog post here:  http://www.ontobaby.com/2011/03/dreamy-sophisticated-nursery/

Ten on Tuesday | Rhode Island Photography

1.  Spring is almost here.  Can you feel it????  I can!  (So can my little girl – she loves her sunglasses!)  And I can see grass.  For the first time since about December I can see grass in our yard and all of the snow has finally melted away!  We were up to about three feet at one point so that is really quite the change.  AND did you know that the time change happens this weekend?  Yes, we lose one hour of sleep but that means we get more daylight.  No more coming home in the dark at 5:30.  Gone are those days and spring and summer are right around the corner.  It’s a great time all around!

2.  Along with Spring comes time for photos.  The trees are getting leaves back, flowers are starting to grow.  Yes, it is muddy.  No doubt about that.  But it is time to get back outside.  And I cannot wait.  I have a maternity session on the 26th of March and I am just hoping and praying she wants to go outside.  After a winter of newborns (which I do love very much) I cannot wait to be shooting out in the sun again.

3.  Speaking of newborns, I now have four or five newborns in May that are all due within about 12 days of each other.  That is going to be some crazy baby time in there.

4.  If you are free this Sunday, I am giving a beginners workshop on how to take better photos of your kids.  This workshop does NOT deal with shooting in manual or editing.  But I will be teaching about composition, lighting, etc.  Very basic overview things that will help you get some better pictures of your kids.  Again, as we start to go back outside.  (Yippee for outside one more time!)  The class will be held at Bellani Maternity on Route 2 in Warwick on Sunday from 1-3.  The cost is $45 and you can register by calling the store at 401-234-1279.  I am not sure when they are closing registration but it will be soon.

5.  I don’t think I put it out anywhere but I am proud to announce that I was recently accepted into the National Association of Professional Child Photographers  🙂  I believe at this time there is only one other photographer in Rhode Island that is a member.

6.  I am headed to Delaware in May!  At least I am 90% sure I am.  When the client officially fills out her paperwork and send the session fee then I will be 100% sure.  This is the second time someone has had me come from out of state for newborn photos so I am feeling super duper loved!!  (Again, about 90% super duper loved 😉 )  I am 90% sure I will be in the area the weekend of May 14/15, probably arriving on the 13th.  I might perhaps possibly have time for some other photos while I am there so if you are in that area and wanted to think about it, keep me in mind!

It’s question time!!  🙂

7.  You had an amazing image you posted a few weeks back of an amazing nursery with light flowing into a window, and it was magical! It is definitely one of my favorites of yours. Do you have a favorite image, or shoot?

Right now, that image is one of my absolute favorites ever!!  It was just the perfect combination of setting, light and baby.  As for shoots, that newborn shoot was one of my favorites.  I have a few favorite images and shoots though, all for different reasons.  The newborn shot of the daugher cradled in dad’s arm with the tattoos ranks right up there as does my family shot that I used in my Bigger is Better Version 2.0 post.  For shoots, I absolutely loved the shoot with my friend Dani and her family that I showed some images from HERE. Something about it  🙂

8.  When you have an image including the sun, how do you get it to look like a starburst instead of a huge blob of light? Is it a filter?

Usually just stopping down to a lower (higher?) aperture will produce more defined rays, ie going from f/2.8 to f/5.6 or f/11 or even higher.  That and if you can get the sun coming over the edge of something – a building, a tree, etc, it will help to separate the light into distinct rays or more of a starburst effect instead of the blob.  I will admit freely though, that I rarely get it on the first try!  I often have to change settings to get the exact look that I want!

9.  Hi Amy… just curious how you like (or not like) being a doctor’s wife?

Wow.  This is a tough one!!  Hmmm.  At different points I have liked it in different ways.  Medical school was pretty intense but fun.  Residency was really really tough with the hours and responsibilities, not made easier by having our first baby three months in!  Fellowship, even though it was a short stay, was easier.  Attending has it’s moments.  I knew what I was getting into when we started dating though.  Thankfully I realized that it would be a lot of nights where I wouldn’t see him, a lot of bedtimes that I do by myself, weeks where my kids don’t see him for three straight days.  Weekends where he spends more time at the hospital than he does at home.  But for us it is all worth it.  The job stability (knock on wood!) is there.  He loves what he does.  And it’s really nice if there are health concerns to have an “in”.  Plus you get treated really well when you are in labor if your husband is an OB!  LOL!!

10.  Hi Amy, what do you lay babies on underneath the blanket you use as a backdrop? A bean bag? Pillow? Please help, I’ve been trying to figure that one out for a while now.

I have a large vinyl puck-style beanbag that goes under my blankets and then that is clamped to chairs behind the setup.  I purchased the beanbag from hayneedle (http://www.hayneedle.com).  For certain positions I will also use a rolled up blanket or boppy on top of the beanbag underneath the blankets.  Click HERE to see a pull back (with notes) that I did with an old beanbag last year.  My setup is the same now but much wider and flatter.

Sweet Baby C. | Rhode Island Newborn Photography

While I was in Connecticut doing Samantha’s newborn session, I received an email from C.’s mom asking if I had availability for a newborn session for her new baby boy who was 14 days old.  Being the crazy photographer that I am I told her that I could do the session the next day.  🙂  So on snowy gray (but bright!) Sunday morning I packed up all of my stuff and headed up to Federal Hill for their newborn session. C’s family lives in a beautiful condo with an entire wall of windows.  What we dream of when we go to people’s houses.  And though C. fought hard to stay awake, thanks to some truly awesome rocking by grandma he finally settled down after an hour or so and let me shoot.  How handsome is he???  And check out that gorgeous skin – I don’t think I have ever met a two week old with such perfectly clear skin.  That is not editing people, that is all him!!  So so gorgeous!  Congratulations, N. family, grandma is right – he is just perfect!!

Welcoming Samantha | Rhode Island Newborn Photography

When you get married, you tend to inherit the friends your spouse had before they married you.  In a way, really, you date them along with your spouse, and then you end up in the extended family that comes with the marriage.  Two such friends that I was lucky enough to inherit just had their second baby a few weeks ago.  So this past weekend we packed up the car with all of my newborn stuff, the kids and both of us (a very tight fit in a Tucson) and headed to CT for the day for Samantha’s newborn session.  Samantha is equally as gorgeous as her big brother is handsome, and you can tell that our friends are just SO happy.  Their little family is complete.  And they are perfect.  🙂



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