i don’t do much editing in photoshop.  partially, this is because i suck at editing, lol!  but another part is that i just don’t like the unrealistic, over saturated, grungy textured, over processed look.  now, some people can pull off super edited photos well.  i am not one of those people.    i think part of this lies in my lack of creative vision.  anyway!  i accidentally saved a picture i edited today as a second copy, so i went back and put them side by side to show my usual editing.  the photo on the left is the SOOC (straight out of camera), right, a 3 minute edit.

the picture on the left isn’t far off from what i am usually “okay” with.  but i wanted to add some sky back in where it was blown.  this was around 11am, and the sun was high and bright, so i had to chose what to blow out.  my kid, or the sky.  sometimes you can avoid this, but this was a snapshot while the kids were playing, and i just snapped it quick, without any repositioning, or moving around in the sand, lol….

i accidentally changed my camera settings to med quality jpegs somehow, so no raws to play with.  first, i opened the jpeg in photoshop.  then i opened curves and did an overall midtones bump.  i then selected kayleigh on a new layer & just brightened her up a bit, using levels.  created a new fill layer, and did a gradient for the sky.  erased the “excess” and lowered the opacity.  did a soft light layer at 10%, and flattened.    that’s it.