Kristina Portrait Photoshop / Photo Editing Project

Another one of many images I have edited for this model, the desired outcome with this photo was to make Kristina the primary focus.

While excellent in its composition, the original photo has the issue of a bed and wall also in focus - complete with a hairbrush in the background and a visually distracting wallpaper when Kristina is supposed to be the focal point.

Photos taken in a dimly lit room tend to suffer from color haze issues that affect the entire image, especially under artificial lighting. Sometimes this haze is desired; sometimes, it is not. In the original photo, there is quite clearly a yellow or orange tint to the entire image, which affected the other colors in the picture too much, such as the skin tone and sweater color. I undertook color balance work to provide a more natural skin tone and return the sweater to its original cream color.

The next step was applying a depth of field blur to the image, making Kristina the focus and blurring the wall and bed so as not to distract the viewer. Once completed, I darkened the room lighting and gave the illusion that a spotlight (such as candles or a fireplace) was highlighting Kristina. I then adjusted the contrast between the whites and the blacks to give a more cohesive feel to the image as a whole.

A few final tweaks included:

• A slight brightening of the eyes.
• A reintroduction of blush to the cheeks.
• Re-applying the red lipstick

The color-balancing phase of editing lost these last two colors and needed reintroducing.