Portrait Workflow

While editing several sets of images lately I thought it may be interesting to describe my workflow from camera import to Lightroom export.  While the process does vary a little from portrait to portrait, there is a basic order that I use to process images.

First is importing into Lightroom 4.  As soon as I get home from a shoot the images are uploaded onto my desktop and an external drive as backup.  If they are for hire they get organized inside my business folder by type and name. 

After importing the total number of images are narrowed down.  If there are multiples of the same pose/group I look at the 100% image for expression, eyes, and pose.  Any pose that just doesn't look right gets deleted.  The main point is to narrow the session to the best examples and not overwhelm the viewer with choices. 

The next step is basic white balance correction, minor exposure adjustments, and straightening.  Most of the time I shoot on the Auto White Balance setting because the images are shot in RAW format.  RAW gives me the flexibility to adjust white balance in post instead of in camera.  Sometimes the exposure, highlights, or shadows need minor adjustments before I bring the image into Photoshop for more intensive editing.  Finally for this step is straightening the image if the camera wasn't lined up the way I wanted it.

From Lightroom the image then goes into Photoshop for the majority of the edits.  First step here is to duplicate the original layer so if there are major issues I always have that base layer to start again.  The duplicate layer is used to fix any skin blemishes or other minor items.  Then if it would help the image the healed layer is duplicated and taken into one or more Topaz Labs plugins.  Adjust 5 is great for color and detail and Clean 3 is great for skin softening.  After all edits in Photoshop are complete the image is sharpened and imported back into Lightroom.

Final tweaks are done in Lightroom before either export or upload to Smugmug.  Of course my workflow differs from portraits to landscapes but the same basic steps are there.  Later I will do a post on skin softening and what has really worked for me.  For now here is a before and after from Ben and Karissa's wedding.

The original image was a little flat for my taste so I used one of Topaz Adjust 5's presets to add a little color and increase detail.  Minor skin smoothing and hot spot removal. Flattened the back of Ben's vest that was bulging out.  Sharpened for final output.

 Final output.  This is the first time I've posted a before and after so you will have to let me know if this kind of post is helpful or not.