23 September 2009

Family wedding photoshop

Just as I did, my niece selected the Saturday of Labor Day weekend for her wedding date. We made the trip to Clifton to chauffeur my parents to Fort Worth for the wedding. I took lots of photos and have played around with Adobe PhotoShop. All sides of our family have lots of blue eyes so all the red-eye needed fixing. All the auto-fix tools are helpful. I've found that cropping often improves a photo. I've also played around some with lighting and managed to recover a couple of shots where there wasn't any flash. I retouched a number of photos to remove a blemish here and there. Sometimes something in the background (a light switch or a sign for the restroom or just an inconvenient person or clutter ) messes up a really lovely shot.

Here are a couple of examples:

Note the messy background in the bride's dressing room. A black skirt is visible in the mirror but I've "erased" it from the background; the hanger is still visible.
Crop it and voila! a bridal portrait.

Everyone loved the way that V. looked at P. in this shot as they bid their wedding guests Aloha! before leaving for their Hawaiian honey moon. Too bad about the crowd of people and the cluttered background.

Crop it! Still we have the frowning man coming between them and the background clutter. Use the tools to erase the man and to reproduce the flowers in the head band and lei to fill in the area. Then add sparkle effects to conceal my amateur workmanship.

And never overlook the potential in changing to black and white.

My, how weddings and brides have changed!
Compare one of my bridal photos with those of niece V.
I'm the old-fashioned bride with my matron of honor, ACE.
And, remember, with PhotoShop every photo may be something less than the truth.