Before&After - TRA in action!

This image has been taken on one of the islands in the Phi Phi Islands group in Thailand last December.
Gorgeous place, great hospitality, fantastic trip with my Cyber Buddy!

As she was just sitting there on the bench, soaking in the sun, I was snapping around - taking this picture too.

Because of the light situation it was impossible to correctly expose both her and the view, so I reached for the awesome TRA actions... And the recipe is as follows:

First I fixed levels with "auto levels" in Photoshop then started playing with the actions:
Oh Snap! (for some color boost and more contrast)- brought down to around 50%, separately both saturation and contrast)
Ying Yang (for lightening and darkening different areas) - I had to lighten Elena's back so it is brought out of the shade which also gave her skin a bit of a glow - used on close to 100% as you can see it was pretty dark before
Pro Retouch - to smoothen her skin and give it that slight kick of extra glow - I used it on about 70%

Finally I reduced noise on the overall image to make it look even more smoother and get rid of any graininess that would have left after the lightening.

If you haven't tried the TRA actions yet then you should head over to www.gettotallyrad.com RIGHT NOW and download the trial pack of actions! YOu'll love'em!!!

Enjoy!!!

Because you are BEAUTIFUL!

Since I've joined to the Twitter World, I came across with heaps of fantastic photographers and saw some amazing work! The greatest thing in this social site is that you can learn soooo much from those fellow photographers who are willing to share their knowledge, their stories, their passion; simply because they love the craft and want you to be a better photographer too! :)
This is how I came across with The Boudoir Divas (@TheBoudoirDivas on Twitter), the ladies who are running their extremely successful studio in San Diego where they make all and every lady to believe no matter what age or shape you are: you are truly BEAUTIFUL! As a girl myself I love making all women love their photos taken by me and see that wide smile on their face when they see my images of them the first time.
I gave myself plenty of time to find which direction I'd like to take my photography, tried several different types of shoots, sometimes just for my own development or for commission, but finally I believe that I arrived to the destination where I am happy and focused and see myself succeed. I do know that it will not happen overnight and that's why I'm planning to take the Divas boudoir photography workshop (more info on www.theboudoirdivas.com) in the U.S. and while I am getting ready for this exciting trip; I'm practicing and learning and making mistakes, then try again... And I love it so much that it makes me truly believe that it is the path I need to take my photography business on.

I'd like to thank the Boudoir Divas for all that they share with other photographers, you ladies are truly amazing!
And a big thank you to my gorgeous friend Jax, who let me photograph her and stick it on my blog :) Thanks for being part of my journey. :)