Anatomy of…Girl In The White Dress

This photo…

got quite a lot of attention on my blog a few months ago.

Well…not exactly that one…it was really the Before & After shot that got the attention.
I had so many requests to “Pleeeease show me how you edited the Girl in the White Dress.”

Here’s the deal…I’d absolutely love to share with you my incredible editing powers and *wow* you with my skills…but…I have no idea how I edited that shot!!  I didn’t write it down!

When I took that photo I had about 1,300 wedding photos to try and make look fabulous and I was experimenting with a ton of different actions and free trial programs.  Most of which I was too cheap to buy and now no longer have!

BUT, I won’t leave ya hangin’…I’ve re-edited this shot in Photoshop Elements 6 using just my free stuff from Erin & Rita.
No fancy programs, no expensive actions, no high-class studio…it doesn’t get any better!

So here ya go…and I promise…when you see how easy it is to recreate this studio look, you’ll be kicking yourself for not doing it sooner!

1.  Open my original file and checked the Levels using just the ‘white’ eyedropper on her dress.

Here’s the orignal again:

2.  I made a new file of 13 x 11 size since this was going into a wedding album of that size as a full page.
Minimize the new file until needed.

3.  On my original picture I chose my Quick Selection tool and outlined all of the girl and her dress.
Refine Edge was set to :  Smooth 29    Feather 10
(after I was done I realized that Feather amount was Way Too Much and wished I had scaled back to about 6.  I’ll point out my mistake at the end…hopefully you can learn from it!)
Here’s how she looked when selected:

4.  Next I moved only my selection and drug her to my new 13 x 11 I had created.
Here’s what my side-by-side files looked like:

5.  I wanted to focus on her intense expression so I free transformed the selection to put her face right up against the edge and draw attention
to that emotion.  She had been posing so fabulous all day for me but at this particular moment she was done!  Out of all my *smiley
face* flowergirl shots this was the first one I couldn’t wait to edit!
Here’s what my Layers Palette looked like after enlarging her on the new file:

6.  Now that I have 2 layers I simply filled my Background Layer with black and now I’ve got a perfect black background.   No studio backdrops necessary!
Here’s my Layers Palette now showing the girl and the Background:

I then flattened my layers to make 1 Background Layer.

7.  She had a little scratch on her face so I Duplicated my layer and used the Healing Brush on the Duplicated layer to remove the scratch
right by her nose.  (This keeps me from totally messing up my original layer now)  Then I flattened the layers.

8.  Next I wanted to smooth out her skin and give her a real ‘china-doll’ look.  I used Coffeeshops’ Baby Powder Room action.  This is a fairly
new action that is so wonderful for repairing blotchy, red skin.  Plus it has all the great options to soften the skin and brighten the
eyes.  I use this and Powder Room 2 on almost every portrait I edit.
I used the Red Skin Repair with my brush at 16% and Bright Eyes at 25% to whiten the whites of her eyes a little.
I also used Smooth Skin varying from 20%-25% on her face and arm.
Here’s what my Layers looked like with the Baby PowderRoom action open:

9.  I flattened my layers when done with editing her face.  Next I want to convert the picture to Black & White to hopefully add a more
classic feel to it.   I ran Coffeeshop Black & White and Bittersweet Vintage action for this.  I love the High Key in this action…very dramatic!
The B&W selects automatically then I selected the High Key option.  I reduced the opacity to 83% of that layer then erased just a bit
on her face with a black brush at 16%.  This brought back a little more definition to the features on her face.  I flattened my layers when I
was done.
Here’s my Layers Palette with the action open:

10.  This is looking more like what I envisioned by now but there’s just a few minor things I want to tweak.  Her eyes are a little too dark, I’d like
them to show up a little more so I decided to lighten them the tiniest bit.  Here’s what I did:
Duplicate my layer.
Select my Lasso Tool and lasso the little cherubs eyeballs.  Nothing too technical, just as good as I could.
With eyeballs lassoed select Enhance – Adjust Color – Color Variations
Then I clicked Lighten with Midtones selected.
Here’s my screenshot:

11.  When her eyes were lightened I flattened my layers and deselected my lassoed selection.
I wanted to add a little more drama to the face so I used Coffeeshop Vignette action at 34% which added just enough shading on the right edge to satisfy me.  Flattened again after I applied the action.

12.  I always try a little sharpening at the end so I used a quick Unsharp Mask set to:  125 – 1.5 – 3
Here’s my screenshot:

13.  Almost done now but I’m addicted to Erin’s Defog Action and just had to try it before I closed this one out.
I ran Erin’s Defog and selected the Pretty Foggy option then reduced the opacity to 72%.

So here’s a quick reminder of what we started with and where we ended up…

And here’s the final by itself…

My final portrait is pretty close to what I first envisioned but remember when I whined about my Feather selection?  The outline of her arm is way more feathered than what I intended but of course I didn’t notice this HUGE detail until AFTER I had taken all my screenshots!  So I’ve decided to use it as a learning tool rather than obsessing…so learn from me…check your selections carefully before committing them and showing the entire internet your messed up portrait!

Huge Mistake aside, I hope you’ve been able to see how very simple techniques and the generous creations from talented ladies can create stunning results.

Really…Seriously…Anyone can do this stuff!