Ray of Light

Today, I would like to talk about editing. There are many styles in editing. There are photo manipulation, super impose and many others. But I am interested in realistic editing which means I wanted the photos to look much more realistic and the editing that I am referring to is known as Ray Of Light (ROL). This editing is suitable for wedding and portrait photography because it enhance the quality of photo without inserting fake object or graphic elements. To do this kind of editing there are 2 elements involved.

The first one is the photographic element

and

the second one is the editing element

For the first part, the photographer must find situation where the lights are intense with a very dark shadows on the ground or the surrounding. This will ensure that the picture are genuinely having ray of light. Most of the time, fake ROL can easily be notified at once as the situation and direction of the light are inconsistent.

Tips : to find ROL, it is much better when the sunlight (for natural ROL) between 1200-1500. During this period, the sun is most likely positioned on top of the head. And the intensity are high. another thing is to find the ROL in between tall huge trees, in between buildings.. this are my guideline, it should give you some idea on capturing ROL photos.

For the second part the editing. I will not explain every detail of the process as it was not my attention to do. Showing this photos might give you a new idea on improving your editing. So, you'll find somebody to teach you in details, honestly because the workflow are almost 10-20 layers not including the simple basic editing (cut, dodge, etc)

Tips : To do this editing, one have to be at advance level of Photoshop editing. A beginner level will not have sufficient knowledge on this kind of editing. This kind of editing involve with feather, threshold, level layers and white balance most of the time..

So, this is the final products. Quite impressive isn't it. Now the ROL and all the details are very much clearer. And our eyes have a much better focus when looking into photos like this.

If anyone wishing to improve their editing. You have to really spend a lot of time for this kind of editing. Even for me, it took me more than a month to really master this ROL editing before I dare publish this photos. The best advice that I can give is to do hundreds of practice both in photography and editing. Like we always hear, Practice make perfect. So, start practicing now!