What a cutie this week! Wow, those eyes are just stunning! I absolutely loved the vibrant colors in this photo so I decided to do a clean edit this time. It was super easy and took me less than 3 minutes to do!
1. First I cropped to a portrait orientation. Hey, look! I’m getting better at cropping, lol! Normally I would have probably left the crop alone, but I wanted all the focus to go straight to that handsome little boy. 
2. I added a Levels Adjustment Layer and brought the outside sliders in towards the middle, just until they reached the beginning of the upward slopes. Then I grabbed the middle slider and moved it to the left just a little. What this levels adjustment did was brighten the exposure and give the colors a little bit of a boost.
3. Next I ran my Eye Sparkle Action from Love that Shot and very lightly sharpened his eyes and brightened the catchlights. I really go for the natural look with eyes, so I lowered the opacity of the layers way down to around 5-10%.
You’ll notice that I didn’t do anything to the darkness under his eyes. I always leave these sorts of things because I really feel they are part of them. Funny story, when I had my Senior pictures done the photographer took out the darkness and circles below my eyes. We got the finished photos back and something just didn’t look right about me! It seemed like part of me was missing, and we were right- my eyes weren’t “me” anymore! My daughters have inherited the shadows under their eyes and I always leave them in because it makes them unique. So long story short, that’s why I never touch those kinds of things!
4. Next I added a teeny tiny bit of warmth with my Warming Action.
5. Finally I darkened the edges a little bit to bring the focus straight to the little boy.
And that’s it! So easy and quick to do and it gives beautiful results!
Michelle Johnson is a fine art photographer and the co-founder of Love That Shot, a website for photographers with tutorials, workshops and fun products! Find her at her blog, My Two Seasons, and her website, Love That Shot.
