08/27/2026
Edit with meeeeeeee ✨
I always try to nail exposure in camera (ofc that doesn’t always happen but here we were pretty close, only a +.1 bump)!
Then we crop and fix angles, and I personally like to do white balance next!
For WB, I don’t shoot auto WB or natural light auto, I always shoot in Kelvin so I have a consistent white balance base across my gallery to begin my adjustments from - for me this is especialllllly important in studio sessions where I’m in the same few sets and that consistency is key to keeping the gallery cohesive!
Then I use the presets I’ve built in my favorite style for tone curve (hello micro contrast 👋🏼), light (contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks), and I almost always add a small texture bump to help the image really come to life! I like to remove distractions after I add texture because sometimes the texture emphasizes or hides certain things (like scuff marks on a c*c wall).
Next is global color calibration, color grading, and then my HSL. Again I’ve built preset favorites I add in layers and adjust as needed (I feel like I don’t see anyone else build presets in layers but it’s my fav).
Color calibration, color grading, and HSL are huge pieces of what makes every photographers work so individual to them. My blues and my greens are my pride and joy lol (followed by my whites, blacks, and midtones) I’ve put so many hours into perfecting my preferences on these so I ofc do another WB pass after the color changes to make sure it all balances the way it should!
And last we mask the background to adjust whites & texture.
Then we’re done, one image down, a million to go!
I didn’t add crop to this pic list (bc the crop showed the clients full face) but I always start with exposure and crop simultaneously while culling (a sin, I know, but it’s what I do)! This client is no faces on IG (but she was still excited to be shown faceless on website and socials!) so we’re ofc respecting that!
