Editing, Q&A, and a whole lot of new...

Have you heard that saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure?"

I love old things.
Antiques, Vintage treasures, garage sale bargains...
Things that people have thrown out or no longer think are beautiful.
What I love even more is making someone's trash... and making it better. New, improved, and beautiful.

Maybe that's why I love the editing process so much. I love taking photos... and I love the process of making them works of art... the very best they can be. When I take a picture, I already have the idea in my head of what I want the finished product to look like. Some of the most common questions I get are about my editing process and what I use. As I was editing today, I thought I'd show you a little example. I use Totally Rad Actions which are my favorite! The biggest thing is customizing them and figuring out how to make them work for you and your style. The more I've played with them, the better I've gotten at using them.

Here is a little example from the session I'm working on now.
Straight out of the camera:


I purposely underexposed it because I wanted to keep the glow of the sky. Typically I don't worry about the sky and the background, and I really focus on the subject, but I had a specific idea for this series of photos. There may be better ways of doing this, but this is what worked for me :)
Here is what I did:
Clarify 100%
Pro-retouch on her face
Warm it up Kris 72%

Here is the finished product:


On a somewhat related note, I've jumped on the bandwagon and joined Formspring.me. So you can go HERE and ask me any question you want (anonomously or otherwise). It can be photography related or personal. I will do my best to get through the questions and give some good answers. I will also pull from there occasionally for the FAQ posts.

I've got a lot of fun stuff in the works and I can't wait to show you!
Happy Thursday!