Hillside Outdoor Portrait Grade

Retouching

A seated denim portrait on a grassy hillside under flat overcast light, graded warmer with cloud detail brought back into the blown-out sky.

Outdoor
Sky recovery
Colour grade

Service: Standard Retouching

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Retouched portrait with cloud detail recovered in the sky, the grass graded for depth and a warmer overall tone — Drag anywhere on the image, or focus the handle and use the arrow keys, to compare before and after.

Unedited outdoor portrait of a model in double denim sitting on a grassy hill under flat overcast light, the sky blown out — Drag anywhere on the image, or focus the handle and use the arrow keys, to compare before and after.

Project overview

Overcast light gives even exposure and no shape. The sky is blown, the grass is one flat green, and the denim is the only thing in the frame with any structure.

Transformation details

The sky was recovered and its cloud detail brought back before anything else, because the whole top third of the frame was doing nothing.
The grass was split into near and far and graded separately, which gives the hill the depth it lacked.
A warm directional grade was applied in line with the light already in the frame: the shadows fall one way and the grade follows them.
Skin was corrected out of the overcast blue-green and evened lightly.