giddy with anticipation

Camera: Canon 20D 1/60 f/5.0 ISO 400 Lens: 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 (yes this is the kit lens)

This is one of my favorites from last year.  I went to High School with the bride so it was so exciting to see someone I have known for so long so excited and in love.  This was captured about 15 min. before the ceremony.  We had just finished the pre-ceremony group photos and everyone headed back to the bridal room.  Laura was fixing the ribbon holding her bouquet of roses when her maid of honor got to the end of a story that had everyone rolling on the floor.  Laura looked up at her friends and just lost it.

I processed this image a year ago - and I do spot color differently now for several reasons.  First, I opened the image in Lightroom and desaturated everything except the red in the photo.  Then I passed off the photo to Photoshop.  I then duplicated the layer totally desaturated the background and then erased (not layer mask - ah the foolishness of my youth) everything but the flowers on the top layer.  I do things a little differently now for a few reasons.  1) This way takes way to long.  2) If you mess up you have to edit undo your way back.  3) There is more than red in the the red roses so they lose some punch due to the loss of secondary color.  So how would I edit this now?  I would take the original image in Lightroom and make a virtual copy.  Convert the original to black and white using the greyscale mixers and my WOW presets.  I would then export both the original and the virtual copy into Photoshop.  Move the greyscale version on top of the color version.  I would then use a layer mask on the top greyscale layer to show the color of the background.  Save and move on.  The end result is a better image and it takes about 1/2 the time.