This is the original image. I chose it as I felt the composition was good, as well as the lighting. With the sun being quite high and strong it meant the subject was lit well, however strong shadows can be seen in the eye area. This is something I could have avoided by using a reflected or strong fill in flash. In the editing process I want to clean up the shadows and also improve the composition by cropping out the distractions to the top.
I began by changing the camera raw filters, this way I was able to enhance the shadows and improve the clarity if the image. As I didn’t want to go for an over edited outcome, I kept the changes subtle.
I cropped the image and rotated it for a more even result. I wanted to get rid of the houses present at the top of the frame and feel the outcome is much better.
I used the dodge tool to lighten the eye area. Due to the strong lighting her eye area is very shadowed. The dodge tool brightened up the eye area, however they are still quite dark.
I am really pleased with this shot. It is relevant to my magazine and I like the result. I could improve it by using a reflector to bounce light up to the subjects face, something I will look at doing in other shoots.
Jodie Tovey PJD blog 