editing process of "keep you sheltered from the storm that's raging on"

Woot, this is my first explanation of how I edited one of my photos. The process of how I edited this photo is basically the same for every square picture I create. I start off with 2 or 3 images, merge them together, edit the colours via curves and voila!

The first step I did was take the main picture of myself, then expanded the frame to the left and right. This resulted in the following three images:

These images were then edited in RAW, which resulted in the following:

In RAW, I bumped up the exposure by 1/3, added some fill light, and increased the brightness. These were all very minor adjustments but make a huge difference.

After editing in RAW, I placed these images together and essentially did the Brenzier method. I blended the images together in a square canvas to create the final product. I then used the patch tool, clone stamp and healing brush to remove some minor distractions such as the tiny specks of lens flares.

As my last step, I edited the colours using curves as I felt the lights were too bright and were taking away from the image. I also wanted to add more intimacy to the final product, so I added more warmth and darkened the background.

Voila! Very simple editing but it makes all of the difference. I hope you enjoyed my thought process. If you have any questions, just leave a message in the comments.

P.S I didn't realize that the before images were such terrible quality. I'll make sure to change that next time!

brittany and james

When I finished my exams and was just frollicking around in Hamilton, one of my best friends - Brittany - asked me to photograph her and her boyfriend, James. Brittany has left for England to au pair this adorable family and she wanted some photos for memories. We did this shoot really last minute and right after Timmies but it was so much fun despite the chilly weather. Thanks Britt and James for being such troopers while freezing your butts off :D