In 2006, I attended my first photography workshop in Austin, TX.  It was called the “Anti Workshop”, and was hosted and taught by Doug & Chennin Boutwell & John Michael & Dalisa Cooper.  I was star struck.  These guys were big time (if you know what I mean).  I soaked up everything they said like a sponge!  I’d say my first taste for exploring creative lighting came from these guys.

I remember Doug telling us about something he was working on.  He told us about his upcoming project to offer actions to photographers & swore us to secrecy (as if that’s possible in a room of 130 photographers).  He even gave us a sample to use until he launched his new product.  All this to say, this, “little project” he was working on changed my life…well, my photography life at least.

Doug soon launched his new venture, “Totally Rad Actions“, and it took the photography industry by storm.  I’ve been using these actions since they first launched, and I only get more excited with each new product he puts out.  His most recent genious baby is “Rad Lab“.  You can read more about it on their site, but I can tell you it takes the amazing actions he’s known for to a whole new level.  You can open your photo into a filter pallet and see what your photo looks like in seconds with a countless array of options.  Then you can stack the different looks and change the opacity of each to get your very own looks.  Sorry if my description isn’t the most technically accurate way to explain

Anyways, I’ve had lots of people ask me lately  how I edit my photos in Photoshop, so I thought I’d share, and I couldn’t share without pimping out Totally Rad.  This is NOT a paid advertisement.  This is me wanting to share with the world the products that I love most.

Some have also asked what format I shoot in.  Prior to bringing my images into Photoshop and editing them using Rad Lab, I shoot in raw, bring them into Adobe ACR & Bridge to color balance and do basic tweeks, then I save them as Jpgs.  Once they are Jpgs, then I bring them into PS to do my final editing.

Below are a few images I took the other day.  You can see the whole shoot here .  I opened up the images in Photoshop using the Rad Lab Filter system, then just took a screen shot so you could see the “recipes” that I used.  You can see the before and after shot on the left, and some of the options that you have on the right. Let me know if you have any questions!

CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW TO SEE THEM LARGER AND TO SEE THE “RECIPE” TO THE RIGHT OF THE SCREEN

 

This last one is from my previous post on my “backyard bliss”.  I wanted to share it because the colors were so pretty!  When I saw it in Rad Lab, it looked like candy!