The Making Of A High Key Fashion Shot

Today we'll look at some tips for photographing and post processing a high key fashion/glamour type of shot. With some comparative images below, I'll show you the timeline of processing, and the resulting finished product.

We'll start with the original. To take this shot, we used a Canon 40D with a fixed lens 50mm at f1.8. We fired with a shutter speed of 1/125 and an ISO of 400. We used fixed ambient light in front of the model, and a Canon 430 EX II flash was remotely triggered just behind and to the left, directly towards the camera. The placement of the flash is what gives the photo the overexposed, washed out look that we were going for. We used a manual white balance of 5500K.

The first thing we do is pull the photo into Aperture as part of a batch import. Normally we'd inspect the histogram and adjust levels (white and black point) as well as any exposure. For this particular picture, we left the picture exactly as it came out of the camera, but cropped the bottom a bit to give more focus to the face and eyes. We always shoot in RAW format which makes for easier editing adjustments on the photo later, if we need to. In Aperture, we used the spot heal brush to smooth up a few spots, and then pulled the photo into Photoshop CS3. We used a filter (image - adjustments - photo filter) and applied a violet filter. After tweaking the density settings and luminosity, we were satisfied and saved it back into Aperture.

Now back in Aperture, we opened up the the photo with a Nik Software plugin called Viveza. We used this to place control points on facial areas (eyes, eyebrows, lips) and subtly accentuate them with a little more contrast. We also pulled a bit of the magenta out of the face with control points so it wasn't as red.

The picture looks pretty good at this point, but we want to get rid of some of the purplish lens flare that is showing around the hair, so we used a graduated fog filter from Color Efex (also Nik Software) to blend the bottom out a bit more. After this, the final step is to apply one of our custom fashion action presets to give the whole photo a nice blended look and smooth out the edges.

The finished product:

This all sounds like a lot of work, right? Actually, the whole process took less than 5 minutes. While this is more time than we would spend on individual photos for batch processing (our workflow for that is quite fast), it's not bad for giving one photo that little extra pop that could land it on a magazine cover.

Comment below and let us know if this tutorial was helpful!

Brent Deitrich, Live View Studios

The most beautiful view...

... is the one I share with you. ~Author Unknown

We hope that you all had a fabulous day of love! Any engagements take place yesterday? Remember, we love to photograph weddings! *hint hint*

Brent had planned a surprise, romantic getaway for our Valentine's Day, but when he suddenly got sick in the morning (with what might have been the stomach flu), those plans had to be cancelled. Instead we spent a quiet day at home and thankfully, by evening, Brent was feeling much better. We enjoyed a delicious, candle-lit dinner together, dipped some strawberries in chocolate, and snuggled while watching a movie. Not the way we both had pictured spending the day, but you know what, we still enjoyed ourselves. In sickness and in health - that's what love is all about, isn't it?

Here's a recent pic of us taken during the first heavy snowfall in our area.

And in further celebration of love, here are a few of our favorite kissy pictures!

Tell us about your Valentine's Day in comments below!

Anna Deitrich, Live View Studios

And The Winners Of Our 2010 Valentines Giveaway Are ...

We randomly selected our Valentines Day Giveaway winners using an automated selector, and the winners are .. 

*queue the drum roll, please*

3rd Prize Winner - Katherine Liggitt

Movie Tickets for Two ($25 value)

2nd Prize Winner - Elizabeth Bradburn

1 Hour Couple photo session + 8x10 mounted print ($150 value) 

and the Grand Prize!

1st Prize Winner - Treniece Burton

Two Hour Themed Romantic Couple Portrait Session + $100 Print Credit ($450 value) - including the chilled bottle of wine or sparkling juice & chocolates. 

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who entered and told your friends about the giveaway! We'll be in contact with the winners for details on redeeming your prize. 

Brent Deitrich, Live View Studios

Two Things That Should Last Forever

Today we came across this on another blog -

The only things that should last forever is your marriage and your photography – everything else is just details.

We couldn't agree more, which is one of the reasons why we really put a lot of emphasis on making sure that our couples leave enough time on their wedding day for awesome photos! What you're getting with your wedding photography is a lifetime investment in memories ... and it's worth every extra minute and dollar you put into it.

Since no post is complete without a photo, here's one of our in-love couples from 2009 - Jamie & Cobey.

Brent Deitrich, Live View Studios