I love to grab a photo from deep in the archives to play with. Shea and Linzie were the lucky winners for this “Three for Thursday” (original + two different enhancements).
For the first enhancement, I cleaned up a few blemishes, sharpened a little here, softened a little there, and did some minimal dodging and burning. A tiny curves adjustment made such a huge difference in clarity, too.
The second enhancement is one of my favorite looks. I like to call it “almost black and white”. When an image is desaturated, it loses a lot of definition and ends up looking flat. It’s not as simple as moving that slider to the left. I feel like a digital painter!
{Click image to enlarge – it’s REALLY big!}
I know there are Photoshop Actions that you can find for free or buy for, in my opinion, outrageous prices. I think that’s kind of copying those who created the actions, though. Even if you use a combination of actions to create a different look. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being silly and over thinking it (I’m notorious for that). I think I’d rather create looks that I love myself and then record all the steps to create my own actions because I agree they are fabulous time savers!
Sheila Karner Photography 