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That Pro Look. Everyone wants it, but getting it usually takes years of experience and lots of expensive software to achieve. It also starts with a great image and proper exposure. In today’s digital day and age, though, it is almost impossible for a family memory maker to dedicate the time, energy and resources to becoming a master photographer, especially someone working a full time job and raising children and keeping a home and family together. Between schoolwork and soccer games; dance practice and baseball; band and football or cheerleading and lacrosse or any other of the myriad of activities our families become active in, time is short and money is tight. Now there is a way for anyone to achieve a professional result and create heirloom quality memories at an affordable cost without the time commitment to learn it yourself! With Custom Professional Processing, your images can take on that magical look you want to display in your home.
Before
After Tuning
Meet Tyler. Tyler’s Grandmom shot this image of him visiting the gardens for the first time. If you knew Tyler’s grandmom, she is a great photographer and incredibly active. She visited us with this image and wanted an enlargement made, but when our Digital Artists saw the picture, we found so much more that could be done with it. She wanted a 20×30 poster for the family room and the Digital Artists showed her some special treatments that could make the image sing. Our first step was to restore some life and color to the image, our standard service. This made the image OK, but it lacked the impact of an heirloom.
Vignette Effect In Corners
The first option we tried was to add a simple vignette. Even this little bit of addition can make an image stand out from the rest. A vignette simulates a film lens look by softening the corners and darkening the edges. It can be subtle or extreme, but that little darkening or lightening can be the start of a timeless look. Very popular in wedding photography, the vignette also draws the attention of the image to the main subject, making little Tyler here pop out from the background and into everyone’s heart.
Retro Color Effect
Another option we had with Tyler was to simply age the photo by pulling the color saturation down and pushing the lightness up. Another timeless look, this simulates aging or “retro” color, which is quite popular with childrens’ photography today. The retro color effect can be seen in many tv and print ads and in many wedding albums as well.
Black and white imaging has always been revered for it’s timeless quality. Ansel Adams pioneered it and developed it into an artform unto itself. While it sounds simple to shoot in black and white, to give an image a timeless quality in pure black and white can take hours of finesse and editing. One way to add impact to a black and white image is to leave it one part in color. Here, Tyler’s blue eyes and jeans pop out and bring the focus to him and make the image more of a presentation piece than just another picture. Professional photographers sometimes develop their entire style based on this effect which our Digital Artist achieved while grandmom waited.
Combine Retro and Vignette Effects For Timeless Portrait Memories
Of course, these effects can be stacked as well. You could combine the retro color balance with the spot color to create a soft portrait, or put a vignette on the super saturated color. The possibilities are endless for the Digital Artists at Ritz. And the resulting images can be combined and used in our new StoryBoards products. Of course, all of this is an extension of our Photo Patrol Service, so we can even shoot the images for you!
The All In One, Professional Memories Solution!
(For the record, Tyler’s Grandmom went with the retro image)
Where are the best spots to take pictures in…(fill in the blank)
