Recipe Mondays No. 2 { Totally Rad Actions }

November 2, 2009

Welcome to our second installment of Recipe Mondays! Let’s get to it!

You may notice this image is a little soft around the eyes and normally I wouldn’t offer this one to my client since since I like my images to be sharp. Don’t worry, I had other cute closeups to offer the client, where the eyes were sharp. I wanted to show you how you can save an image that’s a little soft to begin with:)I used Photoshop CS4 and Totally Rad Actions, for this set of edits. If you don’t own a set of these actions, you NEED to go and get some. Make sure you come back later on today to check out the rest of the images from this session.

So here is the original SOOC (straight out of camera).
0-original-sooc

Step 1. I adjusted the curves to bring out this adorable child’s milky smooth skin. Here’s what the curve looked like.
1-curves-adjustment-a

And now the image with the curve adjustment.
1-curves-adjustment-b

Step 2. Yin Yang the eyes using TRA to lighten up her baby blues.
2-yin-yang-eyes

Step 3. Use Green With Envy on the eyes to pop out the blues and on the green background as well.
3-green-with-envy-on-eyes-background

Step 4. Select-O-Pop on the eyes and bring down the opacity to 50%.
4-select-o-pop-at-50

Step 5. Select-O-Sharp on the eyes to sharpen ‘em up a bit.
5-select-o-sharp-on-eyes

Step 6. Warm it Up, Kris at 100% and erase from the eyes. (I don’t like the yellow around the eyes)
6-warm-it-up-kris-erase-from-eyes

Step 7. To give it a timeless look and a subtle antique finish, I did Antique Tone and brought down the opacity to 50%. I also erased from the eyes, again, to avoid any yellowing around the eyes. So here is the finished image!
7-antique-tone-50-erase-from-eyes

Now here are the before & after:
8-before-after

Posted Under: Before and After 9 Comments
9

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  1. Michele - Bravo!! Thanks for sharing, I love these posts!
  2. Rhonda Gassman - You are so awesome for sharing your editing info. Actions are my best friend in the world :D You did a GREAT job with this image!
  3. Alex - Beautiful!
  4. audra bender - Beautiful Caroline, thank you for sharing the editing info. Great to learn. Precious little girl.
  5. Gretchen Cambra - She's adorable! Your finished images are amazing Caroline...I can't wait to see the "magic" you apply to our engagement photos!
  6. Anna - YOU ROCK CAROLINE! Thanks for sharing with us!
  7. critsina - Love the pic! I too love actions and was debating whether or not to buy the TRA. Do you recommend his first, second or the last cd he came out with?
  8. critsina - Love the pic! I too love actions and was debating whether or not to buy the TRA. Do you recommend his first, second or the last cd he came out with?
  9. canon-5d-shooter - Not sure about those eyes, they seem a bit overdone to me. The colors and curve adjustments are nice though.

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