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Post Processing with Actions

Lesson 22 from: Photographing Kids

Shannon Sewell

Post Processing with Actions

Lesson 22 from: Photographing Kids

Shannon Sewell

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Lesson Info

22. Post Processing with Actions

Lesson Info

Post Processing with Actions

Let's just say the user that Mitch, is that I have chosen to edit for their session. Um, you double click it, pulls it into photo shop purple. I'm sorry it pulled it into camera, and that was that's where I would do my initial just adjustments. And I just do tiny little tweaks, depending on you know, what was what What was going on? It was, um, lovely Seattle weather. When we did this photo shoots, it was really dark outside. So these images were a little bit dark, darker than what I normally shoot. So gonna bump the exposure a little bit? The only thing I really ever touched Enbridge would be exposure on. Sometimes I play with you. Can you can save some of your highlights or just, you know, bump the highlights a little or just shadows, which is really nice. But those are about the only things I usually play with in here. And then, um, temperature. So it was a little bit different than when I'm normal issued and then just open the image in photo shop. I typically start off by cropping,...

and I do it, uh, four by six ratio. I normally crop, though I'm sure there's gonna be plenty of information on the chat results. Come. Not like I said before. I'm not technical at all. What comes out of my camera? The size is closest to a 12 18 at 300 what my lab needs is 300 DP I So I've always just crops to inches by 18 inches at um, 300. I've heard all different theories that it doesn't matter if you pick your how many you know, pick your GP I. So I don't I'm not think it's the correct way. It's just the way that works for me and the way that made logical sense when I decided to start cropping manages, I knew my lab needed about 300 so that's figured out the closest wayto were to do that. Uh, this one was actually cropped pretty true in camera toe. How I would normally do it. It's a little bit off kilter on the on the brick. Sorry, it's not catching that edge to Dio There you So I would. I like straight horizons. I know some people ah, tilt their horizons on purpose and like that. Look, I'm very like things squared up and squared up and straight. And then I have used for gosh, how many years now I don't even know when her actions came out. I have used Nicole Van, which is flourish actions, her indoor color pop, since she's gotta be like seven or eight years, and I use that action on every single image you've ever seen. Adami, that's like, just might go to Xi. This is the old original set. I know she has a new set because here we have a color pop outdoor in a color pop indoor. I always use the indoor for everything. Outdoor has a little bit of a magenta hue to it, so I have never used that one. But I know her new action set, so not to confuse anybody. I think she's has one color pop now, if I remember correctly, the new The New Action said that she has. So I just, uh, run the action. It stops along the way in gives you insight to what you could be doing it each step. But because her action leaves everything in layers, I always just go through. It's a lot quicker just to keep hitting in in in it and then done in two seconds. And then you see here it left everything and, um, in letters for me so that I'll go in and I'll tweak the layers just depending on the image. I'm not a big vignette person, so I normally turn that one off. She has a color saturation. I'm not a really color poppy person. I do love color, but I like my colors a little bit more muted, so I usually turn off that color saturation Layer two. And then just beyond that, it's really just to taste. I kind of play with turning. Act the layers on and off to see what it does to the image and see if I want to make any adjustments. I think it looks pretty much the same on here is it does up there. So I might tone down that pop just a tiny bit because it's kind of poppy on her face a little bit so you can just go up to the capacity of that one and take it down a notch. Um, but that right there is my color at it. That's all I dio. And when I'm doing it without talking through it. It's pretty darn fast. I don't batch at it. I know it's I've been told by so many friends and so many people. What are you doing? Are you gonna sound me the same thing? You know, you don't dio People were asking about, like, room. And whether you like room I've had so many people say you should use I was gonna make your life so much easier. I would like an easy life e I just want to get into every single photograph. Well, and that's mine, too, is I feel like I'm so picky. I would go and look at it anyway, so I might as well go in and tweak. And I have been doing this so long the same exact editing, that it's really on a picture that doesn't need actual photo shopping like fixing you know, blemishes or trying to tone down wrinkles or whatever you're trying to dio. It's under a minute per photo. I don't feel like it's a huge time suck in order to give the quality photo and make me secure in each photo that's coming out. So that's just how that's just how I do it, um, and I just flatten and I save the J. Peg. I also will. Sorry I'm so bad at, like, multitasking. I can't talk and walk at the same time. So when I see the color copy, I just throw a little sea on the end and say that and I say that maximum. I went through that really fast. It was defaulting to eight medium. I always say that maximum. And if I'm gonna do any fun plays on top of the photo, I do it all on this color. Copy. I don't If I'm gonna do a black and white, I still usually run this color because it gives me that contrast. Like I'm just used to the contrast and the sharpening and all of that that this color action gives me. So I've just learned to work on top of that, I wanted to show you, um, the action that Christa, I'm just gonna make a duplicate of the same image so that we have one original one. I can keep going back to the action that Chris has given everybody that buys the class. So I'm sorry they loaded all my actions over here some night trying to figure out the order. And it Is this the right one? I think it is. So, uh, the one she is giving you guys is dream? You can see there's a ton of actions in there. I'm not sure I haven't counted them, but there must be like 25. They dio all different She has, and I'll show you a couple of them. But this is the one that she's given everybody. It's called Dream, and it's a great Grady int. So the cool thing about this I do this a lot in photos that I like to play with that are a little more editorial putting this Grady in color, splashy, sought on her images when we had him pulled up. The good thing about this is when you click on this that box, you can go into the actual grading and you can tone them. Take that down a bit, So see how it's not covering as much of the image. You can also, um, play with this if you want it coming in from a different part of the photo or if you want it. So this photo has a lot of white at the, you know, the top in the side. So I would probably want to come in more from aside and not cover as much of her. But I I like to play with, uh, these kind of radiance, and she has a couple of different ones that is in there. But this is the one that she's given everybody for free. I'm gonna go ahead and the other thing is to you can just lower. Like if you feel like it's too overwhelming on your image, just take it down An option. It might just give you a nice little soft, soft feel, but she has. I wish I had a memories better. She, um I just started playing with them last week. Let me see if I can show you when swept. Maybe. Oh, maybe you don't have this one running right, But, like, see how it's even broken down into layers. Once you drop down so you can you can play with each of these things and adjust. The color is a little bit, um, she has Sorry. And going crazy on my little mouse thing. Just adjusting the opacity. You saw them used. See and that's what I was talking about with style of photography. There's some of these that work well with mine. I feel like when you saw her, it's like she would use that same action and it just like her silent how it works. And then I have, like, all of these look beautiful on hers. And then I had, like, five. That was like, I would totally use those ones just because they worked with my style. So Well, I wish I I'm sorry that I don't know the names a little bit better. There was a crystal cove. I like to think so. Yeah, like she was saying. A lot of them are just tones. Where do you see it? Just kind of gave a little bit of a cooler hue to it. She has ones that have, like, a pink, more peachy peeing warm feel. So they're really fun just to just to play with. And I like Teoh. I always keep a color copy. So the original color copy that I saved. I never do these plays on that. There is always a color copy saved when I back up. I learned that the hard way of when I first got into photography and I worked with all these actions and thought it was so cool to do this in that, you know, tweak this color and make this bright green. And then, like three years later, you go back because you get a new website and you go to poll for your your new portfolio. And you're like, Oh my gosh, what did Ideo like? Why did I think that was cool? So I think I always save since I learned that the hard way the first time. I always say that color coffee. So let me go ahead and move on to the black and white Show you. So this black and white action is one that I don't do a ton of black and white photography. Most of my photography is color. I normally just do black and white for the mood, like if it's a really moody photo, which is ironic because when I first started photography, my business card called me a black and white Children Sitar come a little way, so this one is just something that is one that I run. I like it because you can have a really under exposed or really over exposed image, and it seems to work on all of them. As you can see when I hit play, if I could get that lined up playing there we go. When it first comes up, it looks totally blown. But the great thing is, you can go over to the these layers and start playing with them. So if you had a photo that was slightly under exposed like this would bring it up to a point that it works for you. The other thing is, is you can go in with a brush, and this also is in Nicole's actions or any action that has layers. This brush over here said it to a lower opacity. And if you like part of the image, where's my brush? Oh ah, is that not working? How do you? It's not making my brush. Oh, there we go. It was just so teeny. You can go in and see how it's just barely darkening that so I don't have to actually, like, make a darker on her. I could just make a darker on the background and bring some of that brick back in. But I do the same thing in this action as I do in the color action where I just kind of go through really quick and see what adjusting the layers will do. So maybe I gives you a quick idea. Like I said, when you go through, I might spend one minute doing the color action. Another one minute doing this. If I'm doing the black and white, I probably only do about five black and white images per session and say so That would be the black and white image. And like I said, I actually went ahead and put this on my website last night, just like a $5 because every time I go to our workshop and I show actions like these people are going to get it, where do you get it? So if you're interested, it's I'm not in action maker, and I don't attend of action making experience behind me, but it's there if you want it. So basically that is color black and white. I can run through one more image. If you guys would like just to watch it a little more seamlessly and fluidly, get rid of these loans. There's a slight delay when I click My little guy. Maybe we could work on one of both of them. Or do you want to see a close up head shop? What you guys want to see? Is there any question so far on any of the photo shops? What do you do with the card? You save the card with the pictures on. How do you back that up? Yeah, I'm gonna go into backing up. Okay. Just one second. That's a good question. Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned something earlier about using curves and levels to find your white point and black point. Can you show us that? Yes, I will. This would be a good one to do that. So there is some fixing that I'll dio in bra that in a little bit. This is kind of a dark one. We'll bring that up. So if you go into levels, which is either command l or where is levels up here? Adjustments levels right here. So, command L if you hold on your old key. Oh, I didn't even realize it's been showing that. That's kind of cool. I didn't know that. It showed the key. I was pressing down, um, and go to your white points. You see how it goes black. If you keep bringing over, see where it starts to blow. I just take it right back to where it barely doesn't blow. And that's gonna make sure your whites or whites your white or white. And that's what I was, because I do that every every image I was thinking that's probably helping the white balance that we were talking about earlier, that I never really had an answer to why I don't have huge issues. But I do this on almost every photo. That seems a little off, whether it exposure wise, whatever color balance wise and that is bringing your whites white. So I think it starts to fix those things. Um, and then you could do it on the other end with your shadows, too, you can see the shells. I usually look for the pupil because they were the blackest point and then just back off from that people, and that will give you a really nice contrast, kind of see the different without really adjusting much. And then you can adjust the midterms to taste the taste they don't affect the photo quite is quite as much. But, um, you can see what a big difference that is just by doing that one little levels trick. And then I would go ahead and run Nicole's action right on top of that and again, just go in, get rid of that vignette, the white I lost in detail in that so you can go in and the race, and I'm also quicker when I'm using a mouse. I don't normally at it on a lot. I never added on a laptop in less time on location or teaching, I always add it at home, so I'm a little clumsy when it comes to like working this this system, the laptops, mostly for kids to watch movies on. So but you can come and bring some of the detail back in the white. Or if there's something to dark, you can bring up her face a little bit on there. It looks a little brighter on that screen. Then it's looking on mine, but give you a pretty close idea. And Shannon, that screen is calibrated for the cameras. Oh, okay. But so, yeah, color, that's the color. And then if I was going to run the black and white over the top and again, Like I said, I just kind of play with this one was already pretty bright. In contrast is, though, don't need as much adjustment on this one is I normally normally would, dio and again, you can go in and adjust that bring back more in that white if you're working on a white canvas. But yeah, that's about about it on the how I Work in and Photoshopped. Like I said, I keep things pretty simple, pretty clean. I did want to show I have a lot of people ask me about, like the layouts ideo. So I have to do a lot of the layout, especially for Dreamer, when I used to do like albums or even collages for people. And I don't, uh, by a lot of those kind of templates and things because I've never been a big seller. I've never pushed those products, so I've always just made him myself in the best way that I've known to do that. If you were trying Teoh actually, no, I'm gonna pull in. Sorry. I'm gonna pull in vertical images. I think they'll show better. Sorry, I don't mean to be so clumsy and slow on this. There we go. So say, I have this image and I'm just going to duplicate it just for the east ease of showing us. And I wanted to put them on the same canvas all I do. And this is another thing to I used to When I had my blawg, I used to put color strips on the single portrait layout images. This is the same way you would do that. You can see you have your little color color boxes right over here. So just go up to image canvas size you. Um So if I'm going to do another image the same exact size, I would just double that with number. So where we would be looking at about then this area right here, you just push it to whatever side you want the image on. So if I want the image to be on the left side in the canvas to go all to the right, that's what I would push you go like that. You have that. And then I just drag this image. Although I don't know how to do this the way this minor set up in tabs when I open it. Do you know I steal it off the tab? Oh, just copy the good idea. No, that Yeah, that totally works. Normally, I just drag and drop it. If that makes sense, I just used the move button and just pull it over and do that. And then you flatten the image and you have the kalash. If you just wanted the color strip, you would just pick your color that you want it over here. We'll go back to the history. Can we have a question from pure love? Do you check your skin tones in any particular way? I don't know. The skin tone thing in the white balance, I think kind of all play into the same area. And I have I've really found that in in raw, you know, when I was playing with the temperature up at the top and raw that affects it, it's more about the whole of the picture being too cool, too cool to warms. All play with that temperature. And then when I do the levels thing again, I feel like it bring skin tone to more true color. Just like it with the rest of the image. I feel like skin tone follows the rest of the image. Or however you want to do it. Vice versa. Chickening. Yeah. So if you were just going to dio, um, you see, I flip this So the purples in the back canvas size just give it a couple a couple more inches. Put it aside. Oops. And it gives you that color strip. So there's yeah, lots of different ways to do that kind of fun stuff. Um, so we can jump in if you have questions on that, and then or that we can jump into the backing up and doing all that kind of fun stuff. Was there any other questions on the phone shopping home? Okay, perfect. So you quickly mentioned Dreamer Journal and you showed us some of your layout. You know, where you over laid like the ferns on top when you are doing the layout for dreamer dinner. All you doing that I hope you're not doing in photo shop. But are you doing that? And decide, or just out of curiosity, why would you hope that? Well, because it's multi page and no, I do I do it on that. That's only that's only program I don't like I said, I'm not so not like graphic designer. I'm not a magazine editor. Like, all of that was just done, like, Hey, let's do this project I do do on our show. Um, Well, yeah. E photos you do in photo shopped the photos, the photos ago. I mean, when I do the layout, I pull it into a different program to get it toe, OK? Is that what you mean? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, I do all the individual things in photo shop. So when I did like those overlays, that was just I just took pictures of the flowers and stuff on white and then just got rid of the white background and related on the image in that was all done in photo shop.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Shannon Sewell - Family Questionaire.pdf
Shannon Sewell - KidsQuestionaire.pdf
Shannon Dream.atn
Shannon Sewell - Dreamer Journal Summer 2014.pdf

bonus material with enrollment

Shannon Sewell - Gear Guide.pdf
Shannon Sewell Virtual Swag Bag.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

I loved this course. If you already know what you are doing as a photographer and are looking for fun and inspiration, this is a great class. Shannon didn't focus on the technical aspects, but rather HER way of working. She offered many, many fun and inspiring ideas to build a photo business that feeds your soul, rather than a business that just earns money from clients. She has taken an art form and made it her own. Her work is the result of her focus on her own personal style, which is fun, stylish, trendy and happy. I found this video to be inspiring and leading me towards making images that are my personal style. I can see how this course may have been challenging for people who are more about the technical aspects of photography, but hey, anyone can learn technique. The ART comes in when you can make it your own, when you can use photography as a way to express and reflect what you go going on on the inside. In Shannon's case, it's joy. Thanks CL for a fun, inspiring class and thanks, Shannon, for sharing your heart and your art. I had fun.

a Creativelive Student
 

I really enjoyed this class. I love Shannon's style both of photography and connecting with the children and families she photographs. She doesn't tell you what to do step-by-step, but rather offers you a bag of tricks which to draw from. Rather than telling you what to do, she shows you what works for her. I found the course very inspiring and the posing techniques helpful. She successfully demonstrates that you can create beautiful photographs with no more than a wall or a chair but she also shows you how to go all out with a detailed styled shoot. She shows that there is not one formula for success.

Marilou Jaen
 

I love it! Fantastic info. I love her easy way with the kids, and I found it really informative.

Student Work

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