Patrick and Rachel {engagements}

~Screams of excitement~

So I got an early birthday present today from my wonderful husband! I have been wanting a new lens for a while now, but I have been doing research to see exactly what I wanted. I finally decided I wanted to get a 50mm f/1.8

So I couldn't buy it for myself a couple months ago when I really wanted it without feeling guilty. So I just waited for my birthday to roll around and I am so happy and so glad I did. Now, I shoot canon and I have a Rebel T3 so the lenses have to be very specific to my camera so I looked around for a while and I found one that I loved and one of my old co-workers recommended to me. I got the "YONGNUO YN50mm F1.8 Lens Large Aperture Auto Focus Lens For Canon EF Mount EOS Camera" Long name, I know, but it is fantastic! and it was half the price of the Canon 50mm EF so obviously I went for the cheaper one. Also this lens has 7 blades instead of 5 so the bokeh looks better and doesn't turn into hexagons in some lighting.

So here are some pictures I shot with my new lens just for fun!

Basic Editing

So I thought I would share some of my basic editing techniques. There are many different ways to do a basic portrait edit, but this is my favorite way to do it to keep the photo pretty natural looking. 

I start out with opening my RAW file in photoshop. There I tweek the photo just a bit. I usually play with the blacks, whites, and clarity. Just enough to enhance the photo a little bit. I don't touch much else because I fix other things with layer masks. 

Then I continue to make a duplicate layer. So that I have the background layer and the background copy. 

Then, working on the background copy layer I select the spot healing brush. Now remember the name SPOT healing brush. This is just for removing minor imperfections on the skin. 

So I begin removing small imperfections as you can see below. I usually start on a cheek and work my way around the face from there. 

I found this small scar on his face. Now something like this I can use the healing brush for. You can also use the clone stamp at a low opacity to help blend and cover the scar, but I just used the spot healing brush since it is a pretty simple task. 

Below you can see that the scar is now removed and the skin looks more smooth 

Here is a before and after of the skin after just using the spot healing brush. 

Also here, you can see a small imperfection on the forehead. 

I just used the spot healing brush again to smooth it away. 

Here is a before and after of skin again after using the spot healing brush. 

Then I like to move on to the eyes. I begin by selecting the magnetic lasso tool. 

I begin to trace around the colored part of the eye. It should begin to look like this. Then after you select one eye. You need to select the other eye. To do this you just need to hold down the SHIFT KEY and then you can start selecting the other eye. 

After both eyes are selected you then need to feather your line so that it wont be so harsh. From the select menu select -Modify- and then -Feather-

For eyes, I usually feather the pixels anywhere between 3-5 pixels. 

Then you need to make the eyes on their own layer. You can do this by hitting (CONTROL + C)  - (CONTROL + V) or if you are on a MAC then replace CONTROL with COMMAND. 

If you turn off your other layers your eye layer should look something like this.
Creepy, I know....

Then from the filter menu select -Other- and then -High Pass- 

I usually put the radius pretty high for eyes so that it sharpens them a lot. 

After you put the High Pass filter on the eyes, the eyes will look very dark. So to fix that, make sure you are still on the layer your eyes are on and change the mode from  Normal to Soft Light. Then the sharpness will shine through. 

Here is a before and after for the eyes after -High Pass- and -Soft Light- were added to the layer. 

Then I like to move on to the coloring and levels of the photo. So I click on the -Create new fill or adjustment layer- button. I then select -Levels-. Here I just mess with the RBG color. I add a little black and more white so that the colors contrast just a little bit more. 

Then I use the same button, but this time I select -Hue/Saturation-

I just use this to add a tiny bit of warmth to the photograph. I usually turn up the saturation a tad and then push the hue just a few ticks to the right. Then it gives me a more golden hue rather than red. 

Here is the final product before and after. 

Fix It

During every session there are surprise's and elements you cannot control. For an example: rain, really cloudy days, the temperature (whether it be too hot or too cold), people who are walking around in the background, etc. Now those are just a few things that could put a strain on your session. Every photographer has their own way of coping with it and figuring out what to do. However, something that we can control is the post- processing. Here is my example: 

You see that car? Ya. It bugged me so bad when I saw it all blurry in the background. So what did I do? I got rid of it! Thank goodness for photoshop! It calms my mind knowing that those things I can fix. 

I try to give my clients the best work that I can possibly provide. So thats where my OCD kicks in. Now, the picture wouldn't look horrible if I left it in the photo, but it would bug me so bad. Plus, if I can take take it out, then I will. I want my clients to love their photos so I do everything in my power to make them spectacular! 

In Front of the Camera

So these past couple of days have been amazingly crazy. I have been trying to get all of my files organized and everything in order for some sessions that have been booked. When I was going through and organizing past photo sessions I came across an engagement shoot I did a while back for some close friends of mine. I decided to go through their unedited images just for fun. There were a ton of images.... Like a ton. The session was about 90 minutes and I swear I took at least 10 pictures a minute. That was back when I just clicked a bunch for one pose and hope it comes out okay. I think a little differently now, but going through these pictures reminded me of their session and what a breeze it was.

Anyways on to the topic! The reason why they were so easy to work with is because of how natural they were. They weren't afraid to laugh and smile and just be in the moment. The one thing a lot of clients get caught up with is the posing. As it is important to take direction from your photographer, the best thing to do is: listen to the pose, apply it, and then relax and act natural. Natural looking images are a lot more interesting than those that look posed.

Laughing in pictures and natural movement is a lot more appealing than a stiff pose and a fake smile.

Plus! You don't have to be smiling the whole time! (Trust me your cheeks get tired if you try to maintain that forced looking smile.) Something Gerritt and Alex did, was kind of a staring contest. So they both made a straight face to see who could hold their it the longest. Then when one person broke they both started laughing. Not only was it a natural, but it gave their smiles a break for a minute.

The best session, to me, are the ones when the clients are just being themselves and acting like they usually do and I am just there to capture the moment. And with a little direction from the photographer, amazing photos can happen!

Kailin and Austin {engagements}