my point behind quickie edits are not to show extensive editing. often there is more that can be done. but i think you get the idea right?

this is a snapshot (gasp! why not share amazing images all the time? because i am keeping it real. i want the focus to be on the edit and what is going on not wowing you with my work)

i took this just after sunset. so the golden light is all gone leaving behind what? almost an overcast like shadowing which can make raw sooc skin tones kinda bleh.

i purposefully chose not to tweak the white balance so you could see what the presets are actually doing. not hiding behind a bunch of little tweaks or white balance fixes -

which frankly good white balance can make a ‘meh’ image ‘wow!’ just like that!

anyway back to our edit here…

Daybreak is a nice preset- it slaps that dull reddish skin away and replaces it with nice coloring…see?

i used the brushes to bring back detail that ethereal preset had washed out a bit. kodachrome adds a nice subtle but rich color depth to the reds and blues especially.

in photoshop i might tweak the skin tones a bit- they are pretty cyan here. you may not. i would also normally tweak the Tone Curve in lightroom but also did not here (so you could just see the presets at work)

but in just a few clicks and a few brush swipes you can see what i have done in less than 2 minutes on an image.

i cannot speak for other photographers. i can only speak for myself. but i absolutely love snapshots.

my personal facebook is full of them. recently mostly ducks- not my kids. probably to the annoyance of all my friends.

but as a photographer that really loves capturing the real stuffs of life…it’s what is happening in my life and i want to document that.

i see myself as more of a documenting kind of photographer than a fancy fashion kind. so 98374392 duck pictures are what is going on in my life right now.

i also edit my snaps. it’s my time to play. try new things. get out of the box a little. i might not change anything permanently in my style…but i love to play and try new things.

so here is a personal fav snap of mine.

i used my multi-purpose non-fancy 70-300 vr lens. i shot in aperture mode and set the iso to 2200 because these are just for me and i am letting my camera set the exposure.

i hate shooting manually on a lens whose aperture changes if I am at 100 or 300mm. it’s too much to keep up with when i want to shoot on the fly with moving targets.

so first up…

how i would normally edit this image. i adore bw. this is my hazy daisy bw preset with exposure cranked down. i like it dark.

i wanted to play. i thought…you know what.?

i want COLOR.  velvia is a type of color film. it’s really rich and often not so hot on people photos as it can make skin really orange or weird.

i made a color preset that was inspired by that very look. it also looks weird on people usually and can make the eye whites look really scary. so use on people with caution.

this image with the red mower and the blue skies screamed- try velvia!  to me. so into squeaky clean i went and i played warm water and then velvia (which only changes saturation/vibrance and hue panel).

i really love what it did to the sky. brought out the vivid blues and it made the red snap.

now that may not be everyone’s flavor. it’s not my usual flavor either. but i had fun and i think it really works here!

and then something that is very popular right now. the matte/hazy look.

i went into my wildflowers essentials for lr4 set and played chocolate lily lite. i tweaked it a LOT. lifted shadows, pushed contrast…a few other little things.

same snap. 3 different plays. my preference for this image even though it’s not my usual?

the velvia version. i’d love to print it and hang it in my kitchen of all places.

i challenge you to take a recent fav snap and play. i’d love for you to post your favorite play on my FB wall.

get those creative juices flowing!

so i thought since it’s been a while since my last tweaker- i should share one.

i wanted to use a plain image to illustrate just a good basic clean.

my image was ok sooc (straight out of the camera) but very cool and blah.

i really just wanted to clean it up a little.

my white balance was great after warming it up in lightroom. so no further tweaks were required in photoshop- but this is not always the case.

in a future tweaker i will be sure to show some tweakers where i have to fiddle with skin tones or color casts.

in lightroom i played the preset {delight} from the squeaky clean set. now i have to note here- that you will likely need to try a couple on a new image to see which best fits the  image.

lighting, colors, white balance- so many things can affect how a preset will look. many of the presets will look great on sooc cool images as they tend to warm them up inside the preset.

there are a few that are a tad bit ‘not clean’ and just a little sweet on color and tone. and they can work on the right image. for example- {rose water} is a perfectly lovely preset but it is really best played on backlit images where some natural sun haze comes into play. it adds just a pinch of sweet pinkness.

but always never forget- you must adjust presets and actions. playing any action or preset and expecting it to magically transform your image from meh to ah-mazing is really a beginning editor’s ‘mistake’.

although i ran the {delight} preset i still needed to adjust the lights (too bright), added some fill light (pulls shadows out for harsh lighting. got unpleasant shadows in the eyes and face- fill light is yo friend!) and a tad bit of recovery because i could see my highlights were still pushing ‘too bright’ status on this particular image.

ah-mazing are the results of almost always tweaking sliders (lightroom/acr) and masking layers and adjust layer opacities in photoshop. tweak tweak tweak!

if you do not know what a mask is or know how to mask (for photoshop/elements users)- that is something you definitely want to educate yourself on. your life in elements and photoshop will absolutely transcend what you thought your images could look like.

although lightroom is my main program- i never ever EVER use photoshop without doing some masking.

masking is like putting on makeup. you don’t put a thick gob of mascara on your lashes and leave it all goopy. NO! we comb through those lashes and get the clumps out. we don’t just put an inch of eyeshadow on our eyes- no way! we use several colors and we use a brush to blend blend blend and remove where some color might have shifted to (like a cheek) and we don’t want it there right?

and dudes…think of it like detailing a car. you have all these tiny little tools to help you go in after a big paint job to make sure that are no air bubbles, creases, cracks, globs, smudges, fingerprints…masking allows you to place effects EXACTLY where you want it. anything you do in photoshop- pretty much- can be masked.

so here we go. we take the lightroom image from above that we played {delight} preset on and then tweaked and now we run it through photoshop.

now you might have noticed i did not cover ALL the layers that you get in in the squeaky clean CLEAN action. there are several. these are the ones i usually hit on a basic clean edit.

there are layers to help strip color casts. it’s called Stain Lifters. it’s a very simple action that helps you lift  ’stains’. open up that layer and use a soft WHITE brush on the black layer mask. i like to start at about 40% opacity on the brush and swipe on the color casted areas. i swipe again if needed. i hit X if i need to erase (X changes my brush back to the opposite color and in this case since we started with a white brush- it will change it black. now i can erase the effects off areas i may not want it to go. i often use the red and/or orange layers for reddened eye rims, pimples, scratches. the green and yellow layers are good for the darn little casts you sometimes get from grass reflecting on your subject. remember that it’s purpose is to minimize not be a magic wand.

there is also a toothbrush in the action- but there are no teeth showing here.  there are also level layers, curve layers and color balance layers for fixing exposure/tone and white balance and skin tones. these layers DO require user input. you can’t play the action and expect it to automatically scrub the image. starting from the bottom layer and working your way to the top most layer is usually the most effective and efficient way to use this action.  you do NOT need to shoot raw to have the squeaky clean action set. it works really great on sooc jpgs. and often you will not have to reduce opacity of the More Color layer. some jpg shooters even select this layer and tap CTRL J and duplicate the layer for extra color- some masking may be required on the yellows/greens as they can get a tad nuclear if pushed too far. the layer itself is generally pretty kind to skin tones however.

ok so let’s recap! another before and after and after.

now see the final image? it’s just…nice. colorful but not too much. it’s just clean.

your images may require more or less. it depends on lighting, your shooting style, equipment used (flash/studio often requires less ‘cleaning’)…so please always look at each image as a new dish.

it might require a different amount of spices than a previous image or a new spice altogether.

so get tweaking!

so i thought since it’s been a while since my last tweaker- i should share one.

i wanted to use a plain image to illustrate just a good basic clean.

my image was ok sooc (straight out of the camera) but very cool and blah.

i really just wanted to clean it up a little.

my white balance was great after warming it up in lightroom. so no further tweaks were required in photoshop- but this is not always the case.

in a future tweaker i will be sure to show some tweakers where i have to fiddle with skin tones or color casts.

in lightroom i played the preset {delight} from the squeaky clean set. now i have to note here- that you will likely need to try a couple on a new image to see which best fits the  image.

lighting, colors, white balance- so many things can affect how a preset will look. many of the presets will look great on sooc cool images as they tend to warm them up inside the preset.

there are a few that are a tad bit ‘not clean’ and just a little sweet on color and tone. and they can work on the right image. for example- {rose water} is a perfectly lovely preset but it is really best played on backlit images where some natural sun haze comes into play. it adds just a pinch of sweet pinkness.

but always never forget- you must adjust presets and actions. playing any action or preset and expecting it to magically transform your image from meh to ah-mazing is really a beginning editor’s ‘mistake’.

although i ran the {delight} preset i still needed to adjust the lights (too bright), added some fill light (pulls shadows out for harsh lighting. got unpleasant shadows in the eyes and face- fill light is yo friend!) and a tad bit of recovery because i could see my highlights were still pushing ‘too bright’ status on this particular image.

ah-mazing are the results of almost always tweaking sliders (lightroom/acr) and masking layers and adjust layer opacities in photoshop. tweak tweak tweak!

if you do not know what a mask is or know how to mask (for photoshop/elements users)- that is something you definitely want to educate yourself on. your life in elements and photoshop will absolutely transcend what you thought your images could look like.

although lightroom is my main program- i never ever EVER use photoshop without doing some masking.

masking is like putting on makeup. you don’t put a thick gob of mascara on your lashes and leave it all goopy. NO! we comb through those lashes and get the clumps out. we don’t just put an inch of eyeshadow on our eyes- no way! we use several colors and we use a brush to blend blend blend and remove where some color might have shifted to (like a cheek) and we don’t want it there right?

and dudes…think of it like detailing a car. you have all these tiny little tools to help you go in after a big paint job to make sure that are no air bubbles, creases, cracks, globs, smudges, fingerprints…masking allows you to place effects EXACTLY where you want it. anything you do in photoshop- pretty much- can be masked.

so here we go. we take the lightroom image from above that we played {delight} preset on and then tweaked and now we run it through photoshop.

now you might have noticed i did not cover ALL the layers that you get in in the squeaky clean CLEAN action. there are several. these are the ones i usually hit on a basic clean edit.

there are layers to help strip color casts. it’s called Stain Lifters. it’s a very simple action that helps you lift  ’stains’. open up that layer and use a soft WHITE brush on the black layer mask. i like to start at about 40% opacity on the brush and swipe on the color casted areas. i swipe again if needed. i hit X if i need to erase (X changes my brush back to the opposite color and in this case since we started with a white brush- it will change it black. now i can erase the effects off areas i may not want it to go. i often use the red and/or orange layers for reddened eye rims, pimples, scratches. the green and yellow layers are good for the darn little casts you sometimes get from grass reflecting on your subject. remember that it’s purpose is to minimize not be a magic wand.

there is also a toothbrush in the action- but there are no teeth showing here.  there are also level layers, curve layers and color balance layers for fixing exposure/tone and white balance and skin tones. these layers DO require user input. you can’t play the action and expect it to automatically scrub the image. starting from the bottom layer and working your way to the top most layer is usually the most effective and efficient way to use this action.  you do NOT need to shoot raw to have the squeaky clean action set. it works really great on sooc jpgs. and often you will not have to reduce opacity of the More Color layer. some jpg shooters even select this layer and tap CTRL J and duplicate the layer for extra color- some masking may be required on the yellows/greens as they can get a tad nuclear if pushed too far. the layer itself is generally pretty kind to skin tones however.

ok so let’s recap! another before and after and after.

now see the final image? it’s just…nice. colorful but not too much. it’s just clean.

your images may require more or less. it depends on lighting, your shooting style, equipment used (flash/studio often requires less ‘cleaning’)…so please always look at each image as a new dish.

it might require a different amount of spices than a previous image or a new spice altogether.

so get tweaking!

| the complete guide to buying OJS | get the 411 on all our stuff

ok here is the skinny on where OJ presets and actions fall. i’ll keep it short and sweet so it’s easy to follow.

*****

the clean photographer:

you like subtle processing. you like scrubbed up images with pleasing skin tones. nothing too much. nothing that screams holy heck i’ve been photoshopped.

usually natural colors. even skin tones. proper exposure. you usually care about good white balance. you like to nail it in camera, and clean it up and get the heck off the computer.

classic clean and urban photogs fall in this spot.

you don’t need much- maybe a hammer and some nails. basic tools and you are one happy photog.

you might like:

squeaky clean for lightroom

jewels for lightroom

shiny happy people vol1

squeaky clean for photoshop cs2-cs5

*****

the retro vintage photographer:

you usually style your sessions. clothes- check. location- check. you generally have more yellowed tones in your edits. higher contrast and shadows.

your colors are deep and rich. you are authentic old school vintage and you like it hardcore.

you might like:

vintage recess for pse and ps

just beachy for pse or just  beachy for ps

just beachy for lightroom (pushing the blacks give you that hard vintage look you crave)

nostalgia for pse and ps

shiny happy people vol2

wildflower collection for lightroom (especially the matte presets and the matte bws)

*****

the pastel vintage photographer:

you like it soft and sweet and usually on the light side. your clean is not quite clean and is usually pretty low on contrast. your favorite time of day might be sunset where the light is soft and dreamy.

you often love to shoot against the sun for lush yummy haze. your colors are usually soft.  you love to style sessions with romantic tones and elements.

you might like:

just beachy for pse or just  beachy for ps

just beachy for lightroom

little wonders for ps

summer haze for ps

shiny happy people vol1 for lightroom

shiny happy people vol2 for lightroom

wildflower collection for lightroom

*****

the playful or experimental photographer :

you like to play. it’s all about having fun. you like colors that would normally be green to be blue. you like color shifts. you like vintage. shoot…you like it all.

you might be trying to find your flavor. you might be a hobbyist just enjoying the ride.  or in a rut and need to change it up.

you might like:

your best bet is to actually contact amy@olive juice and tell me what you think you might want and let me help you find something you don’t already have. a happy customer is a repeat customer!

*****

the black and white photographer:

you see the world through colorless goggles. shades of gray and contrast. you love to remove the distraction of color and get right down to the heart of the image.

emotion often drives you. you know that one preset or action does NOT fit all images. you know that changing the colors in an image actually changes the black and white look.

your heart bleeds black and white.

you might like:

monochrome vol1 for lightroom (especially for tinted bw lovers)

monochrome vol2 for lightroom (for the bw purist)

beyond shades of gray for pse and ps

*the bw presets in the wildflower collection (not sold separately)

*****

the jpg photographer

you don’t shoot raw. you nail it right in camera and just want a little snap and git r done. you have better things to do than fiddle around in all these programs.

you might even simply be a photography enthusiast and use your humble but awesome point and shoot and just want to slap some get up and go on those babies.

you might like:

tea shoppe for lightroom/acr (for cs2-cs5 only)

squeaky clean for ps

*****

at anytime i invite you to send me a couple raw files (for lightroom users) or sooc jpg files and tell me what set you might be intrested in and let me slap some OJ on your images and send them back. try them before you buy them.

if you don’t know what you want- let me help you find it!

a happy customer is a repeat customer <3

warmly,

ab of olive juice shoppe

also check me out on my personal blog

http://amymcmasterphotography.com/blog/

or my photog facebook

https://www.facebook.com/AmyMcMasterPhotography

Just Beachy for Photoshop

Just Beachy for Elements

Just Beachy for Photoshop

Just Beachy for Elements

Vintage Recess Actions for Elements and Photoshop

Vintage Recess Actions for Elements and Photoshop

One of my most popular selling sets of presets are my Squeaky Clean presets for Lightroom. They are for RAW images only. Really a workflow set.

When I am proofing a session for a gallery – I find I usually like to grab this set and close my right panel, bottom and top panels and leave my left hand panel open and work in there by taking my Pen (I use a tablet) and pick an {aio} aka all-in-one. Which is basically like grabbing your foundation and putting it on getting it ready for mascara, lipstick, lip liner and eyeshadow.

It’s my base. It does not change Exposure or White Balance. The photographer is able to fix these FIRST or LATER. It’s really up to their workflow. I usually fix it later. Right or wrong by other pros- it’s how I do it usually.

Then I see if I need to add fill light, contrast, play another tone pop (tone curve) preset, adjust colors and saturation, warmth or even add a tint. I do all this in the left panel until I am ready to fine tune. I close the panel and then click open the right panel. And tweak. I usually have little to do here. Usually just adjust the darks in the tone curve or maybe the blacks and the tint (not split tone tint, but refrerring to the tint in the white balance area up at the top underneath the histogram).

Then I grab my adjustment brush and dodge/burn, eye pop, skin smooth as needed.

Another cool thing to remember. Should you decide you want to change your {aio} preset in Squeaky Clean- you can. At the top just hit RESET. It will NOT affect your Adjustment Brush edits. Just your main slider adjustments. Nor will it reset Exposure. It WILL reset White Balance however.

So here is a before, played out untweaked, then 2 afters – one warm and and one cool.

I selected the preset Daybreak from the Squeaky Clean set. You can see how I took one preset and make 2 different looks just by slight tweaks.

These edits literally only took me a  minute or two. Imagine what you can do with another minute or two of more fine tuning.

Hope you enjoyed today’s Tweaker!

One of my most popular selling sets of presets are my Squeaky Clean presets for Lightroom. They are for RAW images only. Really a workflow set.

When I am proofing a session for a gallery – I find I usually like to grab this set and close my right panel, bottom and top panels and leave my left hand panel open and work in there by taking my Pen (I use a tablet) and pick an {aio} aka all-in-one. Which is basically like grabbing your foundation and putting it on getting it ready for mascara, lipstick, lip liner and eyeshadow.

It’s my base. It does not change Exposure or White Balance. The photographer is able to fix these FIRST or LATER. It’s really up to their workflow. I usually fix it later. Right or wrong by other pros- it’s how I do it usually.

Then I see if I need to add fill light, contrast, play another tone pop (tone curve) preset, adjust colors and saturation, warmth or even add a tint. I do all this in the left panel until I am ready to fine tune. I close the panel and then click open the right panel. And tweak. I usually have little to do here. Usually just adjust the darks in the tone curve or maybe the blacks and the tint (not split tone tint, but refrerring to the tint in the white balance area up at the top underneath the histogram).

Then I grab my adjustment brush and dodge/burn, eye pop, skin smooth as needed.

Another cool thing to remember. Should you decide you want to change your {aio} preset in Squeaky Clean- you can. At the top just hit RESET. It will NOT affect your Adjustment Brush edits. Just your main slider adjustments. Nor will it reset Exposure. It WILL reset White Balance however.

So here is a before, played out untweaked, then 2 afters – one warm and and one cool.

I selected the preset Daybreak from the Squeaky Clean set. You can see how I took one preset and make 2 different looks just by slight tweaks.

These edits literally only took me a  minute or two. Imagine what you can do with another minute or two of more fine tuning.

Hope you enjoyed today’s Tweaker!

I know it’s been a while since I shared a before and after. About time right?

My ‘look’ lately has gotten ‘cleaner’ if you’ve noticed. Less vintage- more clean. So that’s what I am going to share today.

Disclaimer: What is to follow is purely my own reflections, opinions and experiences.

*****

Now I have had people email me from time to time frustrated that their images are not looking like mine. I have several things to share that I hope sheds some light on why.

Why don’t my images look like yours when I use your presets or actions?

1. You aren’t me. We are two totally different people. I see the world one way, you see it another. Our end product should vary or I hope so. I don’t want your work to look like mine. I want your work to look like yours- an awesome version of yours.

2. You are not in the same moment, with the same lighting, using the exact same settings with the exact same equipment. A Canon 5D II with an 85 1.2 IS going to produce a different style image than a Nikon D300 with a 50 1.4. It…just is. The color renditions out of the camera are also going to vary. It just is.

3. Your subjects are not mine. If I am shooting a pretty blonde haired blue eyed toddler, get sharp focus and nice exposure and you shoot a sexy red haired green eyed woman, get sharp focus and expose a little under on purpose- that one preset you play IS going to look totally different. Why? Lighting. Equipment. Skin tones of the subject. YOUR use of the lighting. Exposure. White balance. Goodness so many variables!

4. If you underexpose skin very much- you will struggle with skin tones. You just will. Can you fix them? Sure but that preset is going to need more tweaking for sure- and skin tones definitely unless you nailed white balance. Adjust the exposure slider first then apply a preset.

5. If you overexpose much- you need to fix that before applying any preset unless you know that preset well. My presets often run bright- simply adjust by pulling back on the adjustment slider. Simple fix.

Ok so you don’t want your work to look mine- but how the heck do I get it close?

1. Exposure. Find your happy place with exposure.  Depending on the light situation- I determine how I want to expose. Over, under or spot on? And not too much over or under.

2. Nail focus. No need to explain here right?

3. If you want lighter crisper edits- watch the contrast and blacks in Lightroom/ACR. In PS/PSE watch the curves/levels layers with shadows pushed in, contrast, soft light layer opacities etc. Just because my preset has blacks at 12 and contrast at 50- doesn’t mean you should leave them there. Look at your image- what does the image need? It’s normal and necessary to adjust presets AND actions per your images. (remember what I said above about why don’t my images look like yours when I buy your presets) It’s not an Olive Juice thing- it’s a processing thing. If you need MORE contrast- then do the opposite with the blacks/shadows/contrast—> push them.

4. I use Fill Light a lot. I am sure you noticed if you use my presets. I will go negative on the Exposure (the slider. it protects me from blowing highlights) and push the Fill Light until I get some of the brightness I want. It helps throw global lighting into the eyes and shadows in general. Try it! Be sure to adjust contrast and blacks to put back some contrast.

5. Natural eyes. I usually do not touch the eyes. Maybe a little here and there (maybe a slight eyelash burn or eye white pick me up- but just barely if at all). If you get nice light in the eyes- honestly what more can you do? If you bleach those eye whites anymore – it looks alien and wrong and unnatural and totally noticeable. If you did not get decent light in the eyes do what you can using the Fill Light and other more global edits- a teeny tiny itty bitty eye pop and be done. Overdoing eyes that didn’t receive good light (and that happens especially when you are a lifestyle photog like me and chase your subjects)- is just bad processing. Sorry it just is. All I’m saying- is go easy.

6. In Photoshop I mask. A Lot. I add color fill layers and I mask the effects off the eyes and lips. It adds depth and it gets the effects off of places I don’t want washed or colored. If you are using a yellow-ish vintage action- I highly recommend using a brush on the mask on that yellowing layer and remove some of it from the eyes and teeth. Who wants yellow teeth and eyes? Not flattering. Not all or it looks funny. Leave a teeny bit behind. Masking is my BFF when I do use PS.

7. Find your shooting style – manual or aperture priority are the two most common settings pros use. Pick and stick and nail it to the wall. I’m telling you the more you find the style that works for you- the more confident you become in your exposures.

8. Find your editing style. The pastel vintage look is all the rage right now. Is it you? Or are you doing what others are doing just because it seems the thing to do? (no judgement here, we all do this at times with various things- props, lenses etc) Edit images several ways and step back. Which do you love? DO what you LOVE. I love to play. Vintage is fun for me. But I really love cleaner brighter crisper these days usually. I do what I love. What fits the image. And I try to stay consistent within the session to one or two looks (for me that means some black and whites because it’s my first love and one color style). That says pro. I know what I’m doing. It builds confidence when potential clients check out your work.

9. Rock what you got. Upgrade as you need to and are able to. You can still learn how to do all this on an entry level dslr and kit lens. Yes, once you upgrade bodies and glass you will see the quality improving but you can still nail that technical skill while you wait!

10. Do you need Photoshop CS5 to edit beautifully? No. There are a few tools in CS5 that I personally use that you cannot find in PSE. But I would survive with Elements as long as I had Lightroom. Some might disagree but I am sharing my opinion and I am entitled to it. Lightroom + Elements is a wonderful combo. Lightroom is fantastic. But I honestly do recommend having a secondary program where you can edit to the pixel level using masks, being able to make cards and things, make your own watermark with your logo and I’m sorry Lightroom- but your Clone Brush isn’t all that exciting or useful to me a lot of times.

Ok so ready for a B&A?

I took this image of my daughter. I shot in manual mode using my d700 and 60mm macro lens.

My settings were f/3.5 iso 400 and ss 1/320.

As you can see from the sooc (straight out of the camera) my exposure is dandy.

Ok first of in my sooc. Exposure? Check. Lighting in the eyes? Check. Lighting on the skin? Check.

In Lightroom I took the sooc (above)  then reduced exposure to -.60 (the sooc has not had exposure tweaked fyi).

(processed here a little heavier just so you could see the differences more easily)

Why mess with good exposure? Because I knew I was going to tweak the tone curve a lot and push the fill light. I played Topaz preset from my Jewels RAW Lightroom presets. I liked the way it looked.

I pushed fill light to +22. I like the light in the eyes and overall. The blacks and contrast were too heavy for this image. I reduced the blacks to 7 and the contrast to 40ish.

Then I tweaked the tone curve a little bit. I wanted more shadows so I moved that slider closer to zero rather than +. I pushed brightness to 60. I used my adjustment brush and burned the background at -.39 on the exposure setting. Did a color pop on her irises and lips- exposure on -.08 and saturation on +20.  I exported to PS. I played out no actions. I cloned out the scratches on her nose. I adjusted her skin tones with a color balance layer – she needed a wee bit of green and yellow (you can do the same with Levels for you Elements users). I added a white color fill layer at soft light blend mode and 30% opacity to add some light all over and masked it off her eyes and lips. I also added a hue/sat layer and reduced the light in the red channel and inverted it an painted it on her lips to lighten them some.

Done.

That’s all I did.

One last visual. All I did was play Topaz and adjust Blacks to 7 and Contrast to 31. No other adjustments were made to these images.

Questions? Comments?

Did this info help you? I’d love to hear about it! <3 xxx

~amy beth

I know it’s been a while since I shared a before and after. About time right?

My ‘look’ lately has gotten ‘cleaner’ if you’ve noticed. Less vintage- more clean. So that’s what I am going to share today.

Disclaimer: What is to follow is purely my own reflections, opinions and experiences.

*****

Now I have had people email me from time to time frustrated that their images are not looking like mine. I have several things to share that I hope sheds some light on why.

Why don’t my images look like yours when I use your presets or actions?

1. You aren’t me. We are two totally different people. I see the world one way, you see it another. Our end product should vary or I hope so. I don’t want your work to look like mine. I want your work to look like yours- an awesome version of yours.

2. You are not in the same moment, with the same lighting, using the exact same settings with the exact same equipment. A Canon 5D II with an 85 1.2 IS going to produce a different style image than a Nikon D300 with a 50 1.4. It…just is. The color renditions out of the camera are also going to vary. It just is.

3. Your subjects are not mine. If I am shooting a pretty blonde haired blue eyed toddler, get sharp focus and nice exposure and you shoot a sexy red haired green eyed woman, get sharp focus and expose a little under on purpose- that one preset you play IS going to look totally different. Why? Lighting. Equipment. Skin tones of the subject. YOUR use of the lighting. Exposure. White balance. Goodness so many variables!

4. If you underexpose skin very much- you will struggle with skin tones. You just will. Can you fix them? Sure but that preset is going to need more tweaking for sure- and skin tones definitely unless you nailed white balance. Adjust the exposure slider first then apply a preset.

5. If you overexpose much- you need to fix that before applying any preset unless you know that preset well. My presets often run bright- simply adjust by pulling back on the adjustment slider. Simple fix.

Ok so you don’t want your work to look mine- but how the heck do I get it close?

1. Exposure. Find your happy place with exposure.  Depending on the light situation- I determine how I want to expose. Over, under or spot on? And not too much over or under.

2. Nail focus. No need to explain here right?

3. If you want lighter crisper edits- watch the contrast and blacks in Lightroom/ACR. In PS/PSE watch the curves/levels layers with shadows pushed in, contrast, soft light layer opacities etc. Just because my preset has blacks at 12 and contrast at 50- doesn’t mean you should leave them there. Look at your image- what does the image need? It’s normal and necessary to adjust presets AND actions per your images. (remember what I said above about why don’t my images look like yours when I buy your presets) It’s not an Olive Juice thing- it’s a processing thing. If you need MORE contrast- then do the opposite with the blacks/shadows/contrast—> push them.

4. I use Fill Light a lot. I am sure you noticed if you use my presets. I will go negative on the Exposure (the slider. it protects me from blowing highlights) and push the Fill Light until I get some of the brightness I want. It helps throw global lighting into the eyes and shadows in general. Try it! Be sure to adjust contrast and blacks to put back some contrast.

5. Natural eyes. I usually do not touch the eyes. Maybe a little here and there (maybe a slight eyelash burn or eye white pick me up- but just barely if at all). If you get nice light in the eyes- honestly what more can you do? If you bleach those eye whites anymore – it looks alien and wrong and unnatural and totally noticeable. If you did not get decent light in the eyes do what you can using the Fill Light and other more global edits- a teeny tiny itty bitty eye pop and be done. Overdoing eyes that didn’t receive good light (and that happens especially when you are a lifestyle photog like me and chase your subjects)- is just bad processing. Sorry it just is. All I’m saying- is go easy.

6. In Photoshop I mask. A Lot. I add color fill layers and I mask the effects off the eyes and lips. It adds depth and it gets the effects off of places I don’t want washed or colored. If you are using a yellow-ish vintage action- I highly recommend using a brush on the mask on that yellowing layer and remove some of it from the eyes and teeth. Who wants yellow teeth and eyes? Not flattering. Not all or it looks funny. Leave a teeny bit behind. Masking is my BFF when I do use PS.

7. Find your shooting style – manual or aperture priority are the two most common settings pros use. Pick and stick and nail it to the wall. I’m telling you the more you find the style that works for you- the more confident you become in your exposures.

8. Find your editing style. The pastel vintage look is all the rage right now. Is it you? Or are you doing what others are doing just because it seems the thing to do? (no judgement here, we all do this at times with various things- props, lenses etc) Edit images several ways and step back. Which do you love? DO what you LOVE. I love to play. Vintage is fun for me. But I really love cleaner brighter crisper these days usually. I do what I love. What fits the image. And I try to stay consistent within the session to one or two looks (for me that means some black and whites because it’s my first love and one color style). That says pro. I know what I’m doing. It builds confidence when potential clients check out your work.

9. Rock what you got. Upgrade as you need to and are able to. You can still learn how to do all this on an entry level dslr and kit lens. Yes, once you upgrade bodies and glass you will see the quality improving but you can still nail that technical skill while you wait!

10. Do you need Photoshop CS5 to edit beautifully? No. There are a few tools in CS5 that I personally use that you cannot find in PSE. But I would survive with Elements as long as I had Lightroom. Some might disagree but I am sharing my opinion and I am entitled to it. Lightroom + Elements is a wonderful combo. Lightroom is fantastic. But I honestly do recommend having a secondary program where you can edit to the pixel level using masks, being able to make cards and things, make your own watermark with your logo and I’m sorry Lightroom- but your Clone Brush isn’t all that exciting or useful to me a lot of times.

Ok so ready for a B&A?

I took this image of my daughter. I shot in manual mode using my d700 and 60mm macro lens.

My settings were f/3.5 iso 400 and ss 1/320.

As you can see from the sooc (straight out of the camera) my exposure is dandy.

Ok first of in my sooc. Exposure? Check. Lighting in the eyes? Check. Lighting on the skin? Check.

In Lightroom I took the sooc (above)  then reduced exposure to -.60 (the sooc has not had exposure tweaked fyi).

(processed here a little heavier just so you could see the differences more easily)

Why mess with good exposure? Because I knew I was going to tweak the tone curve a lot and push the fill light. I played Topaz preset from my Jewels RAW Lightroom presets. I liked the way it looked.

I pushed fill light to +22. I like the light in the eyes and overall. The blacks and contrast were too heavy for this image. I reduced the blacks to 7 and the contrast to 40ish.

Then I tweaked the tone curve a little bit. I wanted more shadows so I moved that slider closer to zero rather than +. I pushed brightness to 60. I used my adjustment brush and burned the background at -.39 on the exposure setting. Did a color pop on her irises and lips- exposure on -.08 and saturation on +20.  I exported to PS. I played out no actions. I cloned out the scratches on her nose. I adjusted her skin tones with a color balance layer – she needed a wee bit of green and yellow (you can do the same with Levels for you Elements users). I added a white color fill layer at soft light blend mode and 30% opacity to add some light all over and masked it off her eyes and lips. I also added a hue/sat layer and reduced the light in the red channel and inverted it an painted it on her lips to lighten them some.

Done.

That’s all I did.

One last visual. All I did was play Topaz and adjust Blacks to 7 and Contrast to 31. No other adjustments were made to these images.

Questions? Comments?

Did this info help you? I’d love to hear about it! <3 xxx

~amy beth

I’d like to start off with letting y’all know I’m a PC. so my directions will reflect that. I will be having some Mac directions made very soon. Thank you!

Ok so you have your awesome Olive Juice Lightroom Presets right?

Do I need I really need to backup my presets?

What the heck do I do after I unzip the file?

Why are they getting all mixed up?

Is there a way I can keep them tidy?

If I upgrade to the newest version of Lightroom- will I need to reinstall my presets?

I’ll answer all these questions.

Do I need to backup my presets?

Yes. yes. And emphatically- yes. Back them up on an entirely different drive- so you have two copies. I also recommend gathering ALL your Presets and Actions and burning a hard copy too. You will only benefit from it- I promise. All that money invested in them… you do NOT want to be stuck frantically locating them all, rebuying, living without or tracking down all the action/preset artists that created them and trying to provide them with proof you bought them etc.

What the heck do I do after I unzip the file?

Well after unzipping the file- open Lightroom. Go to the Develop module. Right-click in your presets and select NEW FOLDER. For simplicity’s sake name it the exact name of the presets plus the artist’s initials at the beginning. This will allow you to locate your Presets by artist and title. Tidy.

For instance. My presets are in my LR panel like this:

OJ Just Beachy

OJ Beyond Shades of Gray

OJ Squeaky Clean

Now if I had Pretty Presets or Totally Rad:

PP Sweet Summer Collection

or

TR Lightroom Presets

So you get the idea I’m sure.

Next:

Right-click again over the folder you just created. Select IMPORT.

Now locate the folder where you placed your presets. Click IMPORT once you’ve located them.

Voila!

All done.

As to the next 2 questions:

Why are they getting all mixed up?

Is there a way I can keep them tidy?

If you have not been importing them a similar way as stated above- then they can get (or already are) mixed up with other sets and appear very untidy. One of the things that makes LR what it is- is how streamlined and efficient it is.

You could go a step further once you gather a handful or more presets you use ALL. THE. TIME.

Create a NEW FOLDER and name it My Workflow. And move your all time favorite presets into this folder.

Yes it moves those presets out of their respective sets. It’s a personal choice. Depends on your workflow.

And finally….

If I upgrade to the newest version of Lightroom- will I need to reinstall my presets?

The answer is No. If you have any version of LR installed on your computer and are simply upgrading it will not replace the old version but rather it will install the new version ALSO. It will also import the presets in the old version to the new version. If you open your old version after adding new presets into the new version it will also update your presets in the old version. That has been my experience.

If you have anymore questions that have not been answered here, please send me an email at amy@amymcmasterphotography.com.

I may add it here.

Also please remember I am merely a Lightroom enthusiast. Not a pro. I understand the basics of Lightroom and I love making presets in it. But if you need Library help- I am sooo not your gal. I spend nearly all my time in the Develop module.

I’d like to start off with letting y’all know I’m a PC. so my directions will reflect that. I will be having some Mac directions made very soon. Thank you!

Ok so you have your awesome Olive Juice Lightroom Presets right?

Do I need I really need to backup my presets?

What the heck do I do after I unzip the file?

Why are they getting all mixed up?

Is there a way I can keep them tidy?

If I upgrade to the newest version of Lightroom- will I need to reinstall my presets?

I’ll answer all these questions.

Do I need to backup my presets?

Yes. yes. And emphatically- yes. Back them up on an entirely different drive- so you have two copies. I also recommend gathering ALL your Presets and Actions and burning a hard copy too. You will only benefit from it- I promise. All that money invested in them… you do NOT want to be stuck frantically locating them all, rebuying, living without or tracking down all the action/preset artists that created them and trying to provide them with proof you bought them etc.

What the heck do I do after I unzip the file?

Well after unzipping the file- open Lightroom. Go to the Develop module. Right-click in your presets and select NEW FOLDER. For simplicity’s sake name it the exact name of the presets plus the artist’s initials at the beginning. This will allow you to locate your Presets by artist and title. Tidy.

For instance. My presets are in my LR panel like this:

OJ Just Beachy

OJ Beyond Shades of Gray

OJ Squeaky Clean

Now if I had Pretty Presets or Totally Rad:

PP Sweet Summer Collection

or

TR Lightroom Presets

So you get the idea I’m sure.

Next:

Right-click again over the folder you just created. Select IMPORT.

Now locate the folder where you placed your presets. Click IMPORT once you’ve located them.

Voila!

All done.

As to the next 2 questions:

Why are they getting all mixed up?

Is there a way I can keep them tidy?

If you have not been importing them a similar way as stated above- then they can get (or already are) mixed up with other sets and appear very untidy. One of the things that makes LR what it is- is how streamlined and efficient it is.

You could go a step further once you gather a handful or more presets you use ALL. THE. TIME.

Create a NEW FOLDER and name it My Workflow. And move your all time favorite presets into this folder.

Yes it moves those presets out of their respective sets. It’s a personal choice. Depends on your workflow.

And finally….

If I upgrade to the newest version of Lightroom- will I need to reinstall my presets?

The answer is No. If you have any version of LR installed on your computer and are simply upgrading it will not replace the old version but rather it will install the new version ALSO. It will also import the presets in the old version to the new version. If you open your old version after adding new presets into the new version it will also update your presets in the old version. That has been my experience.

If you have anymore questions that have not been answered here, please send me an email at amy@amymcmasterphotography.com.

I may add it here.

Also please remember I am merely a Lightroom enthusiast. Not a pro. I understand the basics of Lightroom and I love making presets in it. But if you need Library help- I am sooo not your gal. I spend nearly all my time in the Develop module.