This summer I have had so much fun playing around with my new Lensbaby Edge 50!
It is lightweight, compact, and keeps me on my toes with the challenge of using a slice of focus.
Today I am sharing an editing tutorial in which I do a color edit by hand to bring one of my recent favorite Lensbaby photos to life in preparation for printing it for my home.
Lightroom CC 2016 is my go-to software for photo editing. Over the years, I have become really comfortable with its features. I just love the ease of processing dynamic color and black and white images without bringing them into Photoshop.
The image I’m editing today is dear to me. It preserves my memory of being together with my kids in one of our favorite places. The representation of children and nature, along with a reflection of my son and the dreamy bokeh from the Lensbaby all work together to bring me right back to that moment.
Through the power of suggestion with a slice of focus and sweet childhood details that gently fade away into the soothing shades of nature, this image reminds me not merely how it looked, but more importantly, how it felt to be there with them on a carefree summer day.
As I describe in the video, I start with a boost to exposure and some strong contrast on the tone curve. Then I work my way through the basic adjustment sliders for correction and structure. I follow this up with the HSL sliders to transform the tones.
The brush tool makes an appearance for a couple quick adjustments. Then there are some global adjustments of noise reduction and sharpening. Finally, I finish with a subtle vignette on the corners to enhance the shadows and emphasize the nostalgia through framing.
Note: I have created presets to speed up my workflow, so I wouldn’t typically spend this long on a single image edit. However, there is value in seeing each individual step of post processing. I know many photographers struggle with natural greens so I prefer to walk through the process from start to finish.
Let me know if you have any questions!
