Lessons Learned | Golden Hour & The Art of Not Over Processing
- sarahjoycebird
- Jul 12, 2016
- 2 min read
My niece turned 5 months old at the end of June, so naturally we did a little photoshoot. The lighting was perfect, and I had read up on shooting at the "Golden Hour" so I wanted to give it a try. I used this website to find right time for Golden Hour near me and we headed out to take some photos!
Straight out of my camera I was in love with the photos and so happy with the golden hue the summer light was giving me.
I've been working on my people (editing) skills. Trying to find a way to make faces and features seems brighter if there are any harsh shadows.I do my best to seek out the proper lighting, but sometimes I have to do a little editing magic. I've also been working on white balance as I I was told it can completely change a photo - and I think thats true! When I took these photos the light was truly golden, and so whites were golden too. My camera, over adjusted and straight out of the camera the whites were much cooler than I remembered. I played around in lightroom and got a tone I was super happy with:
You can see that with the white balance adjustment things are looking a lot more bright and happy.
Here is the side by side:
I originally tried to make the images a little more saturated. I thought that maybe they would look good if the colors were a little more pronounced against her soft skin. I don't quite know exactly what I did here but the colors in the blanket turned into weird, cartoonish colors. See below.
I am not sure I could hate this ANYMORE than I do. I had to go back to the drawing board and instead of trying to make a bunch of adjustments, I stuck to the basics and I am happy with the final outcome (although her skin tone looks pretty cool, I decided to leave it).
Finally, I learned how to use the brush tool in Lightroom! I referenced this super easy video. I quickly learned the tools I needed to help brighten faces and smooth out skin. I am going to try this tool on a few other photos I have but I am so happy with the way it helps to brighten her face so you can see all of the features.
Key takeaways:
Golden Hour truly is worth it.
Over processing ruins good images.
Go with the basics and less is more.
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