Picture Perfect Marriage

While weddings are not my usual subjects, I do love photographing them!  With happy brides and grooms, the love surrounding the affair can be infectious and so great to capture on "film".  While it's impossible to retouch every single photo in four processes, it's fun to see how dramatically different a photo looks in black and white vs. sepia vs. it's natural beauty with a few enhancements.  

Below is the same shot done four ways:

This top shot had some slight retouching to create the look I was going for.  I wanted warmth, so I added some vibrance.  I needed to take down the intense brightness in the top right hand corner of the shot, so I added a layer and put a gradient filter over the sun spot.  Finally, I wanted to reduce the dark shadows on the bride and groom's faces, so I used the dodging tool around their faces and torsos.

The top shot of these three I used a filter to shift the light to a sepia tone.  The middle shot I put a sepia overlay on top of a black and white shot.  And the bottom shot is the bitchin b&w action by  Totally Rad Actions.  They are a great company to use to make quick adjustments to photos.  Check out their site: Totally Rad