How to Edit a Portrait

click to enlarge!!

I'm going to go through my process for editing images using Lightroom and Photoshop Elements.

 

 I started with this RAW file. A RAW file basically is a super JPG. It collects more data than it is showing which allows you to alter the image without being destructive. As soon as you change it to JPG or TIFF any alterations will start being destructive and negatively impact the quality of the image

 

 I always start in Lightroom. I use a free preset I found online that fixes basic lens distortion and alters the lighting a bit. It is specific to Canons, but I know there's one out there just like this for Nikon. No link though, sorry :(.

 These are all going to look fairly similar, but I swear I'm doing things to them. This first one I put into Elements I adjusted some starter issues.
1) spot healing brush tool for small imperfections
         I like to make sure there aren't stray hairs around the eyebrow, no blemishes, no stray hairs.
2) desaturate/saturate
         I like to desaturate places like the eyebrows where makeup might be on accident causing
         discoloration (nitpicky, I know), and I saturate the eyes, lips, and hair.
 

 Next I looooove to contour girls' faces. If you're a guy or simply unaware of contouring, the screen shot basically shows the areas you need to know. Contouring is burning/dodging  places where the face should naturally have shadows or highlights to exaggerate beauty. Trick the eyes :)

As well as contouring I burned/dodged her eyes/eyelashes to exaggerate the tones again. 


For the image below:
1) I sharpened
         I have an action I downloaded from Pioneer Woman's elements action presets for Elements.
         Google it, it should be the first result. There are also a bunch of other amazing actions they
         have there. Otherwise, there are plenty of other ways to sharpen an image.
2) The focus in my image is on the closer eye to the camera which is important. The other eye is a
         little out of focus, and that is perfectly okay. Also, it looks like the closer eye is about on the 1/3
         line from the right and from the top. That is straight from the book of composing an image. If
         you don't know the rule of 1/3s then you're falling behind :)

 3) I also added a little bit of blush to her cheeks, and then I cooled down the picture (again with a
          Pioneer Woman action). Most people warm images, but Sue Bryce taught me that cooling it
          will make it look more editorial. She's brilliant so her word is good.
4) I took the stamp tool and smoothed out the forehead and some of the under eye circles a bit. I
         Also burned and dodged the hair (burned shadows, dodged highlights) to give it some depth,
         and I filled in some of the hair with the spot healing brush.

That's all I generally do. Sometimes I'll toss it back into Lightroom if the lighting isn't as great as it was here.