Warrior 2 James Abbott
One of the most exciting aspects of processing a portrait shot is that there’s a multitude of ways to process the image without making it look unreal – unlike landscape photography, for instance, where some effects simply look wrong. There are many ways to inject creativity into landscape processing, of course, but portraits really do allow you to unleash your creative vision.
For this image, my approach will be to create a subdued look, which uses controlled desaturation of the colour channels for a more refined effect than simply reducing saturation.
1 Crop for a stronger composition
The first thing I would like to do is to crop the image down, to create a tighter and more balanced composition. I click on the Crop Tool icon and hold down the mouse button to open the dropdown menu, ensuring that Normal was selected. I then drag the guide over the entire image so all is selected, before holding down the Shift key to constrain proportions. I place the model’s left eye on the top third with more space to her right.
2 Basic image adjustments
Next it’s time to apply some basic editing adjustments. The first thing that needs attention is White Balance, where Temperature is set to 5500 and Tint to +10 to warm the image slightly. Exposure is then set to +0.15 and Contrast to +50 before Highlights and Shadows are set to -50 and +50 respectively. Finally, Whites are set to +12 and Blacks to -12, to counter the washed-out look that occurs when you apply Shadows and Highlights.
3 Lighten the face
The image as a whole is the right level of brightness, but the model’s face looks a little too dark and slightly hazy. So I apply a Radial Filter, which is dragged out to roughly the size of the face and rotated to match the angle. Once the guide is in place, I increase Exposure to +0.25 to lighten the face. Whites and Blacks are then set to +10 and -10, essentially to increase contrast. To finish off, I set Clarity to +15.
4 Controlled desaturation
The final technique is to apply desaturation: I use individual colour channels to take more control than simply moving the Saturation slider. I click on the HSL Adjustments tab, and then the Saturation tab within. I set Reds to -15, then copy and paste this figure into all of the other boxes so that all channels are set to the same amount. Two channels are then further desaturated, with Yellows set to -35 and Blues to -25.