Clean Color

One thing I am trying to work on before the baby arrives is improving my photography skills. I want to have great family photo albums with beautiful pictures of our kids and daily lives. I am becoming way too aware of how quickly time is slipping away and I want to preserve our memories before it becomes too late.

I am a member of clickinmoms.com. And when I say "member" what I really mean is I like to stalk to the boards, but have never posted:) Anyway there has recently been a bunch of hype about another photographer, Erin Cobb, and a new video tutorial she has made to teach her workflow and how she achieves her beautiful photographs. Photoshop (I use Elements) and post processing in general has been something I have been struggling with ever since I got my camera (over 2 years ago). So I couldn't resist the urge and decided to splurge.....and boy am I glad I did. Here are two examples that I snapped of Brady this afternoon when we got home from church:

Before (SOOC - straight out of the camera):

After:

Before (SOOC):

After:

Can you tell the difference? I sure can. It is subtle, but the finished images look so much more vibrant and polished. Some of the things I've been learning about are levels, saturation, brightness/contrast, curves, vignettes, skin softening, making the eyes pop, and sharpening. I am super excited. I think I'm going to be much happier with the candids I snap everyday!

If you're interested here's Erin's info:

personal blog (and link to Clean Color tutorial on sidebar)
professional blog
professional site