One of my favorite wedding photographer bloggers, Punam Bean, recently blogged that great photo editing is like great makeup — that it shouldn’t be too obvious. Small touches typically are enough to really transform an image. The following photo is a quick before and after with some small photo edits. First, I went to Image –> Adjustment –> curves and lifted the curve from the center up. Then I went to Layer –> Duplicate Layer so that there is a duplicate layer of the background. In this new layer, I went up to Filter –> Blur –> Gaussian Blur and set a slight blur of .5.

Now the whole image is a bit softer, but there were certain parts of the photo that I want to keep sharp, mainly the hair, the eyes, and the eyebrows. To make sure these parts aren’t blurry, I added a Vector Mask, and from here, used a black paintbrush to paint over the areas that I want to keep sharp. To do this, go to Layer –> Vector Mask –> Reveal All. Select the paintbrush tool, select black paint, and then paint over the parts that you want to be sharp.

Finally, fix any skin imperfections. Click on the 7th icon down in your toolbar on the left and hold down until you see the Patch Tool show. Using the patch tool, encircle the area that you want repaired, select the Source button on the top bar, and then drag the encircled area to clean patch of skin. This tool is amazing.

Here is the below and after. No huge changes, but enough to make her look her best and draw attention straight to her amazing eyelashes.