Editing a creative portrait session in a high-contrast forest location

I recently had the opportunity to do a creative photoshoot with my friend, Madison. This was my first time doing a session like this and also her first time having portraits taken. We are both very artistic people and were excited to have the chance to experiment with some stylised photos, going for a gothic, moody theme.

I wanted to take some time to write about my editing process as I went along. I experimented with some different editing styles, and felt this was a chance to slow down and pay attention to my process and document it here.

1 - Cropping & Exposure Correction

• Framing / ratios

Once I have my photos to edit selected, I begin the process by cropping each shot. When I am taking the photos, I attempt to leave extra space at the edges of my frame where possible, to allow for adjustments without cutting off any of the subject. During the shoot is the time to focus on angles, and the foreground and background. Those are not things you can adjust later, so they take priority over getting the perfect frame in camera - which can be difficult when working with a live subject that moves around.

Personally, I think the surroundings are of big importance as they show your subject's connection to their environment. So, I avoid cropping much of the background out of the frame. But it is still important to ensure the subject is obvious. I often come back to a piece of advice I read - crop out anything that isn't the photo. If I'm not using the rule of thirds when positioning the subject in the frame, I usually just stick to the centre.

  

For the above photo (still unedited, hence dark), there was opportunity to embrace the rule of thirds here. She is quite centred in the frame in most of the photos, but in this one her arm is up to the side which is part of the interest in this photo. I tried to keep her face and her arm generally in line with the vertical thirds, without cutting off too much of her dress. I always try to keep the eye in line with the higher horizontal line. 

 

• Correct exposure if required   

The exposure slider is first on the editing panel for a reason. All of the edits from now are relying on this slider being corrected first - it is the foundation for the next adjustments. I pay attention to the histogram without solely relying on it, simply using it as guidance. Most images I avoid changing by more than -/+0.50 either way.

This RAW image is a bit underexposed. The dark areas are taking over the image and I can't make out any detail there. The histogram confirms this, with most of the data in the image being squashed in the far left of the graph.

I raised the exposure by +0.84 to give myself a more balanced image to start with. The lighter areas and now getting a bit bright, but this is better balanced out in the next stage.

This RAW image is overexposed, but is luckily still salvageable as the highlights are not completely white (beyond the right side of the rectangle). I dropped the exposure by -0.80 until the bright areas look natural, without the details in the dark areas being lost. Now, I can move onto making localised adjustments.

• Highlights and shadows using sliders and tone curve

I use a combination of the sliders and the tone curve to get a fine adjustment of the tonal range. 

For this shoot, I'm wanting to lean into a contrasty, moody look. There are a lot of darker elements in this image, the background is mostly shaded lush forest, and my subject is wearing dark clothing. The brighter areas in the image are her skin, hair, and areas of sunlight peeking through in some. There is already a lot of contrast, before I even do any adjustments. 

My goal is to enrich the tones, enhancing the look I already have. The session was 2 hours long, so we moved through multiple locations and experienced changes in lighting. This will require slightly different settings for each "batch" of photos - batch meaning groups of photos taken at the same time, in the same setting.

The tone curve allows for more surreal manipulations of the light in the image. It has a domino affect very easily, adding a control point and moving it will impact the entire adjustment line, behaving sort of like a Bezier curve for any computer graphics lovers out there. The sliders allow for more general balancing and adjustments. 

I did the following in the above image:

Raise overall exposure of the image.

Increase contrast by a small amount.

Lower brightness of highlights slightly.

Increase brightness of shadows.

Tone curve:

Added a point in midtones and raised it, brightening the whole image but especially the skin.

Added a point in the shadows and lowered it back to the starting line, to keep them at original darkness to retain contrast 

Added a point in the highlights and slightly lowered it for a more subtle highlight roll-off into the midtones.

• Correct white balance and tint 

 During portrait sessions, I leave my white balance at auto in camera. There are so many  settings to consider and white balance is something that usually can be adjusted pretty easily during editing, so I leave it on auto I can prioritise other settings in camera. To my eyes, I think my camera tends to err on the side of lower temperatures/cooler tones. I almost always end up increasing the temperature to warm up the photos, but in this particular session I don't want to make them overly warm. So, I raised the temperature to eliminate any bluish tones in the skin, and to recognise the fact it was golden hour and the sun was quite yellow. I will adjust the exact hue of the yellows in the images later.

2 - Colour Grading

This session was intended as an experimental, creative session for me. I wanted to try manipulating colour in some photos to give them a more surreal look and mood. I edited all the photos in my usual colour style, and selected certain ones to do stylised colouring, as well as black and white. I also gave some of these a unique crop. 

• Natural colour

So far I have loved mostly true to colour edits, gently pushing hues in a way that brings out complementary colours in the image.

I deepened the greens, shifting them towards bluer hues to get this rich, foresty shade of green. I shifted the yellows more towards orange, which I again feel gives them a richer colour. I'm essentially taking as much yellow out of the image as I can while still keeping it natural. I also desaturate the green so it doesn't overpower the image, making it slightly duller. 

The colour calibration panel is something I have been experimenting with lately. I'm finding that shifting the red hue a little further left enhances the orange and blue shift I'm going for. The green hue moving right also deepens the green a bit more, and upping the blue saturation I notice makes all of the colours a little more vibrant overall.

• Stylised

I experimented with a few different looks in the stylised edits.

Desaturating all colours except for blues and oranges gives this a very moody, dark look. Orange and blue are a combination very commonly used in cinematography - they are contrasting, complementary colours as they sit opposite each other on the colour wheel. 

In the tone curve, I lifted the black point to give it the flat, muddy look, while still being very dark. 

I talked about how I find the tone curve gives a more surreal manipulation of light, I feel this is also the case for the RGB curves. In the blue channel, I added a point at each end and moved the shadows into blue and the highlights into yellow. 

This one is a softer, misty kind of style, again with lifted shadows and flattened highlights so there was reduced contrast. I feel it has a very ethereal vibe which completely changes the look of the image.

In the red curve channel, I did a mild "S curve", shifting the shadows slightly redder, and the highlights into aqua. I did a similar shape in the blue channel, which didn't have a huge impact but enough that made the introduced red slightly more purple. 

This is a very contrasty, punchy style. Using the colour grading wheels, I added in a little bit of purple to the shadows and yellow to the highlights, again complementary colours which added a unique sort of contrast.

I have been using the RGB curves when introducing colour, but the colour wheel often makes it easier to find a specific colour like in this case.

• B&W

There is not much to say here. Black and white is such a simple edit but has huge impact. I usually increase the contrast a little more than I would in any colour edits. 

3 - Masking & Effects

I use the clarity slider to soften skin tones and give them a slight glow. Usually I keep it at around -10, but I felt the shadows on her face were a little harsher than I wanted so I lowered it further to -17. To me, it makes the photos look a bit less digital and softens any harsh light areas in the photo. 

I also add a slight vignette to portraits, again usually at around -10, but this photo looked better with a little stronger at -25. It gently brings more focus to the centre of the photo.

I also use masks for this task. I try to rely on masks more to do this effect. If you brighten your subject, then no matter how the photo is cropped by the client, the light will stay on the subject. If you only use vignette and the photo gets cropped later, then you may have uneven darkness at the edges if they move one side in more than the other. Masks are also best if the subject isn't already centred in the frame, as vignette works based on the corners and can't be moved to evenly surround the subject. 

The following image I raised the exposure by +0.28 in the masked area.

And now, after I go back and make further small tweaks a couple of times, the editing process is over!

Check out highlights from the gallery on my website - Madi Creative Portraits - amityeden.com