You guys have me blushing and giggling like a little schoolgirl! I have no shame
. Thanks so much for the encouragement... I could just group squeeeze hug all of you =). I'm pretty mopey these days b/c it seems my business is stuck on the ground floor-- so I really appreciate the pick-me-up =).
QUOTE(Jumanjijuice @ July 19 2007, 08:02 AM)
Amazing, tell us your process, other than adorable children, amazing storm, perfect field and exquisite outdoor furniture.
Absolutely amazing!
Lol, Jennifer-- I totally lucked out with the lighting and the stormy clouds. I took multiple exposures, one for the kids and another for the sky/light rays behind them... and merged them together in ps. Here's the sooc for exposure one (white balance fix in LR, sharpened for web):
Aside from all the typical curves, contrast and a reduced opacity soft light layer... I sponged, burned shadows, and dodged highlights in the clouds and light rays... added a selective color adj. layer to bring out the deep green in the field... added a color balance adj. layer to add some yellow (for a more golden look)...
And then I added a texture layer (a scratchy paper bag image) set to multiply. I used a layer mask to feather it away from the kids-- and that's pretty much it. Oh, and I added a subtle vignette (sp?). voila! Does any of that make sense?
QUOTE(Michelle J @ July 19 2007, 08:54 AM)
...Please, may I ask how you balanced the light so well? Did you use a reflector or off camera strobe?
(and for those of you that asked) I didn't use a flash or a reflector… just my tamron 28-75 and 20d. The lighting was just beautiful in of itself, but I think the last step of adding the golden "paper bag" texture, setting mode to multiply and layer masking away the subjects helped "unflatten" the foreground light. I don't know, you'll have to peek at the original and see how much was natural lighting and how much was ps'd. Keep in mind that I used an additional image to expose for the sky…
QUOTE(Rich Smith @ July 19 2007, 11:31 AM)
...I'm with Swan wanting to know your process on the first one. I'm curious though. Was the first and second picture taken in two different locations? The field looks the same but there are mountains in the background and no clouds in the second one. I need to find fields like that around here!
…
Rich, the first one was taken from a different direction… the mountains are to the west of that first one
. Yep, I'm so blessed to live by all this farmland (roses, wheat, dirt)… it's photographers dream. Except for when we can't go outside b/c it's 118 degrees
.
Anywho, thanks again for all the kind words
!
)
