Alrighty, all you patient bloggers, here's the answers to your questions! (in the order they were asked):
Q: I would like to see a tip on giving your photos a color punch in Photoshop. I have PS Elements 2.
A: I use my actions to give my pics a punch of color, but they don't work yet in PSE. In PSE, I would play with brightness/contrast, hue/sat and Soft Light.....i need to freshen up on PSE, it's been awhile.
Q: I would like to know how you make the photo mosaics you post?
A: Go to www.bighugelabs.com & click on "Mosaic Maker".
Q: how do you make a face look flawless?
A: I make a duplicate layer & use the healing tool. When i'm done re-touching with the healing brush, I turn the opacity down on the top layer anywhere between 70-90% to restore the original texture a little.
Q: Just how you get this perfectly clear image? Is it all you and the camera, or does photoshop tweak any of it??
A: From my experience, i'd say it's MOSTLY finding really good light - that will solve most of anyone's issues, be-it focus, clarity, color, sharpness, exposure. Next, good exposure is key. Then, Photoshop definitely improves pics most of the time. Also, your camera and lense are very important - not saying you have to have the best stuff, because i lot of my fave pics are taken with the cheapest DSLR and the cheapest lense. But i LOVE my 5D and nice lenses, and they DO make a difference (despite what some say =) & where you really see the difference is in print quality.
Q: Color..color..color..give me the scoop on the rich color you get!
A: I use my actions, which a lot of you have, so i don't have any ps secrets, although, there is definitely some skill to that. It must be the light - I pay VERY, VERY close attention to the light - "it's all about the light!"
Q: I would like to know what your typical post-process workflow is. For example, the girls below - do you defog? Pop the curves?
A: I shoot in raw because i've only learned to shoot in manual a few months ago. but i'm hoping to not do raw, because it adds a lengthy conversion step, and i usually don't adjust anything anyway. Once i have jpgs, i don't do defog [maybe i should?!??]. I then run one of my actions. If I need to, i might adjust levels, brightness, curves. I always finish with a little burning. I think that's it.
I hope that helps! And I love seeing people's sooc image and then their edit, but you rarely get to see it from people. So here's one of mine, sooc (and underexposed, i might add [i never claimed to be an expert, lol, just answering your questions based on my experience!]) I did the following steps:
1. ran Indie Subtle Color action, which i use as a basis for my ps'ing (that or Color Foundation).
2. re-touched skin very slightly [using above-mentioned technique]
3. added red and yellow in "Color Balance"
4. did a slight s-curve
5. re-size and sharpen for web (crop 552 px on long side & USM 500, .2, 0]BEFORE:
AFTER:
