Photo Edit | Behind the Scenes | Oakdale Newborn Photographer

I thought it’d be fun to do another “behind the scenes” posts to show how I captured and edited one of the photos from our last newborn photo shoot.  For this image I wanted to have the dad holding the baby in his hands to show just how tiny she was and to provide a unique portrait of baby & daddy.  Since I wanted the focus to be just on the baby and the dad’s hands, I had the dad sit down on a chair and I draped a black blanket over him with his arms sticking out.  He was wearing a black sweater too so that helped.  From here I adjusted the lighting and took the following photo:

Before (straight out of the camera):

Not too bad, but there are a few distractions that I wanted to remove.  I first cropped it a little in Lightroom then opened it up in Photoshop to make the additional edits. I added a new layer and blacked out the dad’s sweater and a few light spots around the image, and I also blackened out the baby’s legs.  Normally I wouldn’t just “chop off” limbs so noticeably, but for this photo I thought the legs distracted from the rest of the image, and even with the legs missing, the eye just assumes they’re hidden as well (just like the rest of the dad’s body).  After that I smoothed the skin a little, converted it to black and white, then increased the contrast a tad with a Levels adjustment layer.  Done!  Here’s the final image:

After:

What do you think?

Aaron Varga Photography is a top Pittsburgh wedding photography studio serving downtown Pittsburgh and all surrounding areas. We specialize in creating modern, glamorous, and timeless photographs and providing an unmatched photography experience. Contact us for information and availability for your wedding or engagement session!