Highlight clipping glow - Lara Jade

[onesh0t]

Hi,
A question of technique. I was looking at Lara Jade's photography and she frequently utilises this technique where the blown out highlights in the sky seem to have a very pretty glow to them which wrap around the subjects. It doesn't appear to me like this is a trick of photography alone. When I tried it, it just looked blown out

http://www.larajade.co.uk/ check book 1, those photographs start 6 pictures in, scroll to the right.


Any comment on this?


Thanks

[allround_laymen]

I´m quite new to Photo Retouching, but looks like a bit lightpainting with the brush to merge foreground and background a bit

[dampstudio]

That's simply shot with backlight. The light is bleeding around the subjects. One of a photographer's oldest tricks.

[mshi]

shooting against the light source definitely can give you that look. but, you can also enhance it by adding a radial gradient layer that is set to screen mode on the top.

[santoro80]

I think you also need a very good lens when shooting against sun.

[ItsOscar]

A pop of flash or good reflector to the subject is a must when the background is over exposed like that too.

[Chain]

Naturally it will look great if you can do this in camera, but it might not get you as far as you'd like, and some times you simply were not able to plan far enough ahead.

To fake the glow in Photoshop you could simply apply a strong blur to the highlights on a new layer, and use screen blend mode (or similar) to blend it back in.

Combine with masks, Blend If, etc. depending preference and wanted result
Linear Dodge is also a blend mode worth having a look at.

Edit:
For some colourful effects, on a new (screen blended) layer with a large soft brush, gently add some colours.

[Johann29]

wow seen her photos. its really nice!

[santoro80]

BTW, Lara Jade made a DVD with Jeey L. She mentioned there that she is working mostly with natural light when shooting outside. Here is the trailer for the DVD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haFUKafqWxc