Chad and Sara got married last weekend at Sam Houston Park, and I couldn’t have been more honored to document their love that day. The excitement of a bride and groom so long in love, the support of sweet friends and beautiful family, and a wedding party that rocked my socks off, absolutely validated why I do what I do, over and over again.

S & C: I struggle for the proper words to express my happiness and admiration for you both. I was so blessed to be a part of your day, and leave with two awesome new friends. I hope you enjoy your little sneak peek! And say something cool in Czech for me while you’re honeymooning in Prague! Love to you!! ;)

During a very relaxed time of primping and prepping, I gave Sara a look at her bridals which we’d shot earlier that week. It was fun to watch her reactions to her complete and utter HOTNESS. See the next few images for the proof. You can also check *HERE* for a few more! :)

LOOK. AT. HER. HAIR.Fast-forward back to the wedding day, and you’ll see Sara’s beautiful handiwork with dried lavender!Meet the groom, Mr. Chad James. Dashing as ever.Sara and Chad were super smart and decided to have a First Look prior to the ceremony. This enabled us to capture their portraits in some really nice natural light. P.S. Sara was SO excited, she ran about a quarter mile before tapping Chad on the shoulder to turn him around. :)Chad was all, “Sara, you’re so beautiful. Sara! You’re SO beautiful. Sara..” I then melted into a big pile of goo. :)This image makes me smile. I feel that it totally encapsulates the friendship within their love. So Cory and Topanga.
Sara, let me be 100% honest with you.. You are beautiful. And Chad? I think he loves you or something.. :)And just look at you all feroche!Favorite.Married at long last!Immediately after the ceremony, Sara and Chad whisked themselves away for a moment alone. But it was nothing my 70-200mm couldn’t stalk a little. ;) Read *HERE* for the Before Meets After featuring this image!
Loved how unique the table decor was! Each bottle was filled with a strand of lights!And after a long night of dancing beneath the moon, the James’s were off! Konec! (That’s Czech for “The End.” At least, Free Translation says so..) ;) Happy Thursday!

This is an image taken at yesterday’s wedding, SOOC (straight out of camera). Promptly after the ceremony, Sara and Chad whisked themselves away for a quiet moment alone. I suppose I could have followed with my 50mm to get all up in yo’ grills, but instead, I stood far enough away to use my 70-200mm at its longest focal length. (P.S. I know I should have said “their grills” but “yo’ grills” just sounds cooler.) Now ordinarily, that big red piece of “art” in the lower-right might have scared me, but I also knew I loved the way Chad and Sara were framed by the trees, creating a very natural vignette. I decided I wasn’t about to try a different angle because THIS was IT. Plus, I also knew Big Red wasn’t anything my clone tool couldn’t handle. So I shot away, and am SO happy with the outcome of this image! Take a look at the “before,” and then the explanation following the “after.”

BEFORE:AFTER:BAM! My immediate reaction to the SOOC image was this: Overly Magenta. Modern art fail. Beautiful moment. Love how nature is framing the subjects. All in all, there was some good and some bad to the initial image. But I knew it was completely salvageable! The “after” image is a result of Photoshop’s clone tool, color-correcting via curves (which was also used to control image contrast and levels), Kubota’s Daily Multi Vitamin at 25%, TRA’s Grandma’s Tap Shoes at 15% to add a slight vintage feel, and finally, Kubota’s Magic Sharp – my all time FAVORITE.

Keep in mind this was a pretty extreme Before Meets After, and I only utilize the clone tool when it’s an absolute MUST. But I thought it might be fun to see something so blah become so polished. At least, I sort of think so. ;)

More of Sara and Chad this coming week! Happy Sunday!!

Please note! From this point forward, alysefrenchphotography.com and alysefrench.com are one in the same. As are alysefrenchphotographyblog.com and alysefrenchblog.com. Go ahead, try it out. ;)

Poll: Is it socially acceptable to wear sunglasses in the winter? Or is that just lame? Here’s what I think.. Snow is really, really bright. Ergo, I should be able to wear any one of my new 15 pairs of sunglasses Dylan bought me, right? I was wearing them all last week, until I told my mom and she said, “Look around you. How many other people are wearing sunglasses in the dead of Syracuse winter? Exactly, Alyse..” Bah humbug, Mom!

I think I’ve become an addict. Dylan and I have finished off four two liters of diet Crush orange soda this past week. The first legit diet soda that isn’t altogether icky. And sometimes while writing Tidbit Tuesday, I think to myself, “Who wants to know that?!” But hey, it is MY Tidbit Tuesday right? So soda and sunglasses it is. :)

Now don’t get me wrong, I love the Olympics, watching people fulfill their wildest dreams of medaling, watching their parents’ reactions, ya know, all that mushy stuff that I happen to love. But seriously, people.. Ice dancing? I LOVE watching figure skating, so don’t hate. But ice dancing just makes me giggle a little every time I watch it. I think maybe curling and ice dancing should hold their own games, and not force us to sit through them to get to all the other awesomeness. Who’s with me?

How is it, that every time I lay me down to sleep, without fail, I have some sort of dream about our wedding day, and how TERRIBLE it ends up being? Let me quickly walk you through my last dream: 1) The wedding was at our house. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not what he had planned OR payed for. 2) My seamstress had added a halter top to my non-halter top dress and I didn’t know until the day of. 3) I looked awful. 4) Half of our guests started leaving before I even walked down the aisle because they thought I was taking too long. 5) Did I mention I looked absolutely awful? Nothing worse than that. Ugh.

I literally blogged my guts out last week. And it was so much fun! :) Does anyone have any technical and/or other type questions I could answer in a FAQ or tutorial post later this week? Leave some comment-love below!!

I will be a Mrs. in 110 days. I don’t even think it’s really hit me yet. One day, I’m going to wake up and it will be my wedding day. My initials will spell ARM rather than ARF, which is quite the upgrade, right? (I thought so!) And life as we know it will drastically change. Bring it on! I’m seriously thinking it’s about time to make one of those countdown paper-chain snakes!!! :)

And I shall leave you with the following tidbit: I know it might be a long while until Dylan and I know where we’ll be living and everything, but I simply can’t help it. I spent much of yesterday researching pretty things for my studio space. How AMAZING are these beautiful things?!

Happy Tuesday!! :)

We’ll start with two pictures you should all be familiar with if you’ve read this post or this post. :) Can’t seem to get enough images of Liz, a true beauty and a new friend I’m so thankful to have met!

There’s just something about this makeshift veil that I absolutely love. So organic and simple and fun.

I cannot get over the Lincklaen House. Will one of my brides please get married there?!

Same door, different model. Meet Lauren. :) Such a natural!

This next image just makes me happy. Could be the accidental backlighting that worked to my advantage, or the combo of Lauren’s cowboy boots and hat. Just adorable!

Our last model is Christina, who has hair and skin I would kill for.

Yeah, I told you.. What a beautiful bride she will make one day!

Major thanks goes out to all those who made this workshop possible!

Organizer extraordinaire: Mabyn Ludke Photography

Venue: The Lincklaen House

Wardrobe: Spy Baby Bridal

Makeup: Donna Cuoco

Happy Sunday!!

It’s no question that Liz already has amazing skin and a gorgeous glow about her. But you can always, always, always do something to enhance an image so your bride feels the most beautiful she’s ever felt! So let’s get to it!

Before getting down and dirty with airbrushing, a little reminder: I shoot raw, convert to .JPG in Photoshop, and use my trusty Totally Rad Actions to get the job done. What results is a much faster workflow, and good, quality images. No complaints here! After you’re done color-correcting your images, always (and I mean always) sharpen them! (It also helps to have a tac-sharp prime lens! Aka, my precious little 50mm 1:4.) As you’ll see, I’ve also enhanced Liz’s eyes just a tad using TRA‘s Select-O-Pop (amazing tool!). The trick is to never use 100% opacity. Always work in layers. And try to stay anywhere between 20 and 50%.

Now for the fun stuff! Airbrushing! Dun, dun, DUN!! This used to be SO daunting to me. (Sometimes still is.) But here is my technique. (Please note that this is only MY technique, and there are a myriad ways of getting the same result!)

First… You’ll usually want to use your spot healing brush to get rid of any blemishes or flaws. (On Liz, I really didn’t have to, but it’s a good habit of using the spot healing brush before going further!) Then create a duplicate layer by dragging your background layer onto the “Create a new layer” portion of the layers palette. (Wow, how many times could I possibly say “layer” in the same sentence?) Once you’ve gotten this far, go to Filter (in your top menu) and then Blur, and then Surface Blur.

After selecting Surface Blur, you’ll want to tweak your radius and threshold settings until you get your desired effect. This puts an overall blur on the entire surface of your image, hence, “Surface Blur.” Click OK!

After this step, it is muy importante to go back up to Filter > Blur and then select Smart Blur, as it smoothes any edges within your photograph without adversely affecting image sharpness or fine detail.

Once there, you’ll again have to tweak your settings. But make sure your preview window is zoomed in on an edge in your photograph!

You may be thinking, “Why is Alyse studying the ‘Theories of Attribution, and Fritz Heider’s Naïve Theory’?” (I was in psych class when this screen shot was taken.. Woops!). Or more likely, you may be thinking, “Why on earth would I want my entire image to be one huge blur?!” Well here’s the coolest thing about Photoshop.. You can create Layer Masks! (More about that in a second.) Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All, as seen below.

By selecting Hide All, you’ve told Photoshop to replace your current blurred layer with an imaginary black layer. Woah, WHAT?!?! Let me try to explain a little more. You will not actually see any black on your image. Here’s how I like to think of layer masks… Black and white are the default colors for layer masks. A black layer mask hides all, while a white layer mask reveals all. You might also think of it this way: Black = darkness = no visibility; and white = light = visibility. Do you follow? If you check out your layer palette, like in the image below, you’ll see your current layer has black layer linked to it. This is your mask. So how do you airbrush? You select your paintbrush tool from the left, use your left and right brackets to increase/decrease the size of your brush, bring brush hardness down to a minimum via the menu underneath File, Edit, and so on, and then simply paint on your airbrush. One word of caution, you must be painting with the color white for any of this to work, because after all, white is what enables you to see your blur layer, and thus, your airbrush. As you can see, I’ve only done one side of Liz’s face so you can tell the difference.

I then tend to take my eraser tool (at around 50% opacity) and use it on most of the edges in my photo (i.e., the nose, the lips, the eyes, dimples, etc.). The final step is to change your current layer from “Normal” (within the layers palette) to “Luminosity.” And then just adjust opacity as needed (especially if you feel like you overdid it just a tad), and you’re ready to watermark and show the world!

And the final image, complete with sharpening, airbrushing, and eye enhancement is..

I know this seems like a long and tedious process. It can be. But if you do it enough, you won’t even have to think about it. If this will help just one person, I’ll be happy. If not, remember, there are tons of different airbrushing techniques, and this is just mine. :)

If you have any questions pertaining to my workflow in or out of Photoshop, or anything else you’d like me to cover, ask in the comment section, and I’ll get to it next week!

Happy Friday!!

As I’ve made incredibly apparent my entire life long, my birthday was January 30th. (My family and friends tend to make fun of me for how enthusiastic I am about birthdays. I just like them!) :) This year, I was born on a Saturday, which hasn’t happened in about 10 years. In middle and high school, my birthday always fell in the middle of midterms week and/or Regents (darn you, New York State!). So as you can imagine, I was excited about my Saturday. Overall, I just relaxed the whole day through. Took an hour and a half shower. (No jokes here, kids!) Did my hair for no reason. And lounged on the couch with Dylan. Perfection. :) (And now a few pictures!)

Here is a snapshot of our fondue dinner! MmMM!!

Dylan grabbed these next two shots. Please ignore my lack of makeup, my (aka Dylan’s) over-sized (but comfy!) boxing t-shirt, and the fact that my parents are in the process of tearing down the wallpaper behind me! :)

Oh! And I requested that the whole family watch Julie & Julia! I had seen it with Dylan immediately after it hit theatres, and I absolutely LOVED it. Amy Adams is cuteness personified. And Meryl Streep? Give me a break. She’s sheer brilliance, and an absolutely hysterical Julia Child. I’m not sure the movie was supposed to be that funny, but I’m pretty confident that I annoyed the heck out of my fellow theatre-goers by guffawing at places in the film where everyone else was chuckling silently. :) Anywho, Julie & Julia. Go. See. It.

I’d like to use this small portion of my blog to honor one of my dearest friends (and bridesmaids!), Hannah Crosby, who was so let down that not a one of the memories we’ve made, made it into my list of 22 memorable memories in this post. Don’t you worry Han, much of the time when writing that list, I enrolled the help of my parents to remind me of my own memories. (Now all you others, pretend you didn’t read that.) :) Well everybody, let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we? You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? You know! That one time when Hannah and I decided the best thing we could possibly do with our free time was to peel a leathery, paper-thin, “sun-kissed” frog from off of my road and put it in a little plastic baggy? Yeah… Why did we do that?! And how old were we.. Feels like just yesterday, actually. ;) Love you, Hannah!! Now aren’t you glad I shared that??

Revelation! This past weekend, I was hired to take some quick head shots for my dad’s mom’s brother’s daughter’s daughter, who is a realtor. :) When she came over, we decided to go with some soft window light rather than brave the chilly depths of winter outside. The only issue was the insanely busy/colorful/flowery wallpaper in the background, which you saw in some of the pictures from my birthday above. (We live in my grandmother’s old house, hence.. Old school wallpaper. Don’t worry, she doesn’t have the internet either, so she’ll never know that I hate it.. Err, don’t like it?!) :) But here is where the revelation part comes in! We used a blue Snuggie as our background! I’ll be darned if it didn’t end up looking just like some expensive studio set-up! Oh Snuggie, how often you save me! Ta-daaah!! (Isn’t she pretty?!)

Announcement! Mabyn Ludke, the sweet friend and fellow wedding photog that she is, (not to mention, OUR wedding photog!!), just started something similar to Tidbit Tuesdays on her blog, and I’m stoked to read it on up! Introducing, Marvelous Mondays, everybody!! If you’re looking for that extra dose of pizazz to start your Monday’s off a little brighter, check Mabyn out!! :)

So, Dylan is immensely (and overly) proud of a little something he got me for my birthday, and so I thought I’d share.. My Bob Dylan/Dylan Morrissey shirt, that I ONLY wear to the gym, or where no one knows who I am. ;) Courtesy of CafePress.com.

Perhaps not a very long tidbit post, but at least there are pictures! This is my solemn vow: I, Alyse René French, will blog a Before Meets After post THIS WEEK, along with the post I promised last week on Mabyn’s workshop! (I apologize for the delay!!) Look for it. I will not fail you. :)

Happy Tuesday!!

Here is an image straight out of camera (SOOC from here on out).

I happen to LOVE the candid emotion of this shot, and the beautiful light pouring onto Ryan and Molly’s faces. BUT, it could still use some work! The lens I was using at the time could only stop down to an aperture of 2.8. I typically like to shoot wide open, because I love the creamy goodness that results from shallow depth of field (DOF). Another great thing about shooting wide open (meaning, shooting at your largest aperture, which is the same thing as shooting at the lowest numbered f/stop on your aperture ring) is the natural vignette it helps achieve. However, here, a 2.8 zoom lens didn’t really cut it, vignette-wise. Here’s where post-processing comes into play!

Before doing anything else, I must always first convert my .nef (RAW) file to a .jpg in Photoshop. (There are many advantages of shooting RAW, but maybe we’ll get into that some other time.) Then, with my trusty little Totally Rad Actions, I am able to achieve my desired effect in a matter of 60 seconds. First, I bump up the color using TRA‘s “Punch Out!!!” at 20%. The key to TRA‘s is NOT using effects at 100% opacity. You have to play with it until it looks natural. Second, I’d like for an even greater vignette to highlight the light on my subjects’ faces. I use the “Burn Out” action at, get this – 70%. I like, NEVER use this action at anywhere near over 30 or 40%. But for this image, I wanted as much of a vignette as I could get without it feeling artificial. Third, I throw “A Better Web Sharpen” into the mix (100%), and then do a little airbrushing (more on my airbrushing technique at some point if anyone is interested). The last step (although, it could have been done at any step in the game, is knocking down the exposure of the entire image by -0.15. Although I love the light in the photo, there’s a bit of harshness that can be controlled by decreasing exposure in post-processing.

And voilà!! Here is the final image!

Recap: Punch Out!!! – 20%; Burn Out – 70%; A Better Web Sharpen – 100%; Exposure (not TRA) – -0.15

I hope this is helpful to those of you looking into different post-processing techniques. To check out Totally Rad Actions, go to: GetTotallyRad.com!!

Happy Wednesday! :)