Before & After Editing Light and Airy - Blog Post.jpg

Hey photographers!

So you want to shoot and edit light & airy?

Well... welcome! You are in a good place. Bonus points if you also want to learn how to shoot a backlit image like a boss. Because that is one of my specialties and favorite things to create.

If you are a visual learner that likes to see images with settings posted, then you are going to love this! These images were all edited with the Mastin Labs Fuji preset, but I have to tweak it quite a bit to get these looks. Below you will find some before and after images with several helpful things such as:

1. my gear and camera settings 2. location and time of the session 3. my editing preset and technique.

Example One:

Shot with a Canon 6D & 50mm L Series at F 1.6

Weather - Cloudy, Rainy Day in Grand Rapids Michigan at about 2:00 in the afternoon.

Edited with Mastin Labs, Fuji 400H Neutral with several tweaks - such as bumping up the orange luminance, pushing up the shadows, adjustments to the tone curve (J-Trick), and changes to the vibrance/saturation.

light and airy before and after wedding portrait

Example Two:

Shot with a Canon 6D & 35mm L Series at F 2.2 (You can see all my camera settings in the image in the left upper corner!)

Weather - Clear & Cold Morning in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at about 8:30 am.

Example Three:

Shot with a Canon 6D & 35mm L Series at F 2.2 (You can see all my camera settings in the image in the left upper corner!)

Weather - Clear & Cold Morning in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at about 8:30 am.

Edited with Mastin Labs, Fuji 400H Neutral All Soft - with several additional tweaks - such as bumping up the orange luminance to at least +7, pushing the shadows way up, adjustments to the tone curve (J-Trick), and bumping up the saturation and vibrance as I prefer more color than the Mastin preset gives.

Example Four:

Shot with a Canon 6D & 35mm L Series at F 1.6

Weather - Sunny & Warm Summer Evening at Pictured Rocks in Munising, Michigan. About 2.5 hours before sunset.

I purposefully shot this much darker than usual (under-exposed) so that I could save the gorgeous sky behind them instead of completely blowing it out like I would usually.

Example Five:

Shot with a Canon 6D & 35mm L Series at F 1.6

Weather - Sunny & Warm Summer Evening in Munising, Michigan. About 3 hours before sunset.

Edited with Mastin Labs, Fuji 400H Neutral with several tweaks - such as bumping up the orange luminance to +8, bumping up the green luminance a bit, pushing up the shadows, adjustments to the tone curve (J-Trick), and changes to the saturation.