Nikon D700
70-200mm f/2.8 lens @ 130mm
Shutter Speed: 1/250
ISO 800
f/2.8

Shooting mode: aperture priority with +1/3 exposure compensation
Metering mode: evaluative
Focus points: single
Focus mode: one-shot

This photo was taken on August 31st at 7:02pm. The sun had just set and I was quickly losing light. It seems like it takes forever for the sun to fall to the perfect position in the sky and then seconds later… BAM! It’s gone! The light looses a bit of dimension at that point, but I like to shoot wide open with my 70-200mm lens and it performs miracles.

I selected f/2.8 because they weren’t looking at the camera (I wasn’t worried about eyes being sharp) and, using a single focus point, I focused on the line between her hair and her face just next to her eye. As always, I prefer to focus recompose, rather than move my focus point.

Below is the original and edited versions. Most adjustments were accomplished in Lightroom, with slight skin softening in Photoshop.

I teach an online Photoshop workshop for portrait retouching, which includes my skin softening action: click here for more info.

The key to this edit was using the Targeted Adjustment Tool (TAT) in Lightroom to remove the blue cast. Blue tuxes and blue hair are my nemesis!

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