How To Add Impact To Wedding Shots Using Intensify Pro

There are a number of technical challenges when shooting weddings, but top of the list is that white dresses are a nightmare when shot outside in sunlight. Even shooting RAW there can be occasions when the highlights are lost. One workaround solution to this is to make sure you get a few shots where the sun is behind the bride – also stops her squinting – and use a flashgun to try to balance the exposure. If it doesn’t quite come off though, you need to brighten things up, which then leads to another problem. Getting all the detail in the dress is great, exposing all the pores and imperfections in the bride’s skin is not.

You need a two-pronged approach to soften skin, yet increase detail in the dress. That’s where Macphun’s Intensify Pro comes in. The benefit of the Pro version is to use it as a plug-in for Photoshop or Lightroom/Aperture so you can remove all the blemishes first. Then launch the Intensify plug-in and address the other problems.

Intensify Pro Step-By-Step Tutorial:

Load The Plug-In & Select Soft Preset

Start the plug-in then click on Presets and scroll down to Soft. Select Soften Skin to smooth out the skin tones. This also affects the rest of the photo but as a narrow aperture was required in order to use the flash to balance the exposure, there’s too much depth in the background anyway. What we need to keep sharp is the dress so select the Eraser tool and then click on Show for the mask.

Select The Eraser Tool

Use the Eraser to remove the mask from the dress, the eyes, mouth, hair and necklace. Drop the brush size down and zoom right in, then use a lower Opacity for areas like floating hair or around the necklace. Remember, in MacPhun apps, the mask determines where the effect works so no mask, no effect. If you make any mistakes simply switch to the Paintbrush to paint the mask back on.

Fine Tune

Go to the Layers palette and create a new one by clicking on the Plus sign. Under Image Tune, click on Fine Tune which will boost the detail in the dress. Of course, it also boost everything else so select the Eraser again and click on Show. As before, remove the mask, but this time from everywhere but the dress. Then click on Adjust and under Basic Tune, increase Exposure to +5.

Brighten Skin Tones 

It’s the ability to take these complex presets and simply tweak individual elements that makes them so useful. Now create a new layer. The skin tones were underexposed so we need to brighten them up without affecting the background. Underneath Basic Tune, increase Exposure by +20 and Shadows by +25.

Use The Erase Mask Tool 

Now click on the Erase mask tool, select Show mask and erase the mask from everywhere except the visible skin. For the hair, reduce the Opacity of the brush to 50% and use the brush over it once where the hair is in the sun and light. Then create a new layer and call it Vibrance. Increase the Vibrance setting to +50 and pay attention to the skin tones. On this image they won’t change but on someone more ruddy they might.

Final Checks

Then it’s time to look at the overall effect and tweak any of the layers that need it. The dress has a faint blue colour cast and looks more white (it was a light cream) so select the Dress layer and increase the Temperature and Tint to +10. Apply when done.

Before

Finished 

Try For Free

If you want to have a go at the above tutorial, you can download a trial version of Intensify Pro from the Macphun website for free.