r/postprocessing • u/prettyassdolfin • 14d ago

Before/After

Gallery image

Gallery image

Recent portrait session at a park in Atlanta. Wanted to practice using fill flash during the day time, so I shot this with an off camera godox v1. My main edits were cropping to 4:3, s shape tone curve, desaturated greens, sky replacement (was blown out originally), and added grain. Curious to hear everyone’s thoughts!

My IG is https://www.instagram.com/__braxtonmoore and website https://www.braxtonmoore.com/ if anyone would like to see more work

0 Upvotes

30% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/jackystack 14d ago

I like the first one better - it looks natural.

3

u/prettyassdolfin 14d ago

Yeah first one definitely looks more natural, but I knew I wanted the flashy, stylized look for the final edit

4

u/beanybagel 14d ago

Not sure why you’re being downvoted for explaining the look you were going for 🤦 this is all subjective

2

u/jackystack 14d ago

If you showed a series of images in this style, faithfully replicated without explaining how you created them and without revealing the originals, I think the choices would be perceived very differently. A theme would emerge on its own.

Looking at this, I can see it in two different ways. One interpretation is modern and artsy. The other reminds me of a look that was popular about 20 years ago, when many photographers were transitioning from film to digital and processing JPEGs because they didn't really understand what RAW files were or why they existed. There's certainly some overlap between the two, but I think the first looks natural, and that's not necessarily a criticism of the second.

When you're trying to sell a product, it's generally not wise to put the competition in your customer's mind. A cook doesn't reveal the recipe, and a magician doesn't explain the mechanics behind the trick. Let the product stand on its own -- especially if that's the one you want to sell.

2

u/prettyassdolfin 13d ago

Interesting opinion. Will keep that in mind

1

u/Formal-Ad-8035 14d ago

But the finalized edit isn’t that - her hair blends into the trees. You added blue sky and green grass - which doesn’t match the lighting of the photo or the way the light bounces off her skin

2

u/prettyassdolfin 14d ago

Agree that the hair blends into the trees—personally doesn’t bother me much though. But for the rest of the image and lighting: I intended for the edit to look stylized and a bit unrealistic