Planning Ahead

It's been a while since I showed the difference a little Photoshop TLC can make.

Here's a frame from Julie and Randy's engagement session last month.  The idea was nice, but the execution took some planning ahead. As much as I like getting the image right in camera, I knew as I set up this shot that it was going to take some work on the computer to bring about my vision.

As you look at the proof image (top), you'll notice that Julie and Randy are underexposed and the sky is way blown out.  Normally, I would just expose for the subject and let the background go, but the sky was just so striking that day that I had to include it in this shot.  Without using flash (which I avoided in this shot for a number of technical and aesthetic reasons) there is no way to properly expose for both the subjects and the background, since they are both so different in brightness.

To make sure I captured both the sky and the couple how I wanted to, I decided to bracket the image, which means that I took a series of exposures with different shutter speeds and then combined the best parts of them in Photoshop.

Add a little cropping, toning, a slight vignette, and a couple secret moves in Photoshop, and BAM: Julie and Randy get a unique and striking final image.