I happened to find some old stuff on photo retouching that I had promised myself someday… to learn. Being that I’m now a graduate with more time on my hands (Yay!) I think “someday” has come. I will be posting my progress and any notes I notice along with helpful advice, especially for me to remember.

I got alot of advice on thought process and workflow. Most important: before doing anything create a plan, retouch with the genre of the image in mind, clean up before enhancements.

First thing that should be done on an image is white balance. I prefer Camera Raw/Lightroom. The first image is the original, notice the bluish hue. The second image is White balanced (WB) and warmed/saturated to match the tone of the image. White has to be chosen at a neutral spot, like the baby’s left sleeve.

Also note histogram in the top right. It displays darks (left) to lights (right). Notice how the histogram shifts to become more even in the mids and highs.