Rachel relaxed

[Jonathan Evans]

Hi all,

This is my first before and after. I was at the local art gallery and there was this nice old sandstone wall just outside. So I asked my wife if she would mind posing for a couple of pictures for me. She reluctantly said yes...

Straight out of camera



Exif:
Camera Canon EOS 50D
Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 163 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias +1 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

A nice enough picture, but a bit blue and crooked...

In Adobe Camera Raw, I took the following steps:

1) Used eye dropper tool to adjust white balance
2) Used straightening tool to straighten the picture
3) Set recovery to +25 to recover slightly blown hightlights on her white top
4) Set Brightness and contrast to +50 and Vibrance to +25

Opened the photo in Photoshop...

1) Duplicate background layer
2) Select the sandstone wall, copy it and make a new layer
3) Apply Gaussian Blur to the background (about radius 10)
4) Duplicate background layer again. Apply high pass filter. Make a mask on this layer and fill the mask with black. Paint in white the eyes and the detail part of her shirt to sharpen them.
5) Create new levels adjustment layer, with very slight adjustment to highlights end
6) Create new curves adjustment layer and make a slight S curve to increase contrast slightly again.
7) Clone out grate next to my wifes right arm.

After doing these small adjustments, I got this...



I'm quite happy with the result. Thanks for looking.

Jonathan

[Snodge]

I like the colour and contrast in the after image compared to the before image - it seems a lot better. As for the crooked image, I think that either the wood is not level, or maybe you were standing at a very slight angle, as the lines seem to be leading to the left very very slightly! Nicely done removing the grate too. As for the textures, I actually prefer the wood to the sandstone, and it may have been good to see a little more of it, but I think that's just my personal preference. All in all nicely done!

[Jonathan Evans]

Thanks for the comments Snodge. The wood that she is standing on is not level and I dare say I was not shooting directly straight on to the wood either. In the first photo, the wood is fairly level, but the building behind is not and so that is what I have tried to straighten up. The wood sloping to the left is a bit distracting, to be sure.

Thanks again for looking.

Jonathan