Actions Shmactions | Pittsburgh Boudoir Glamour Photographer

What?? Yes, I said it: actions shmactions. Ai yai yai the grumblings and arguments that I hear and read about this one teeny tiny little subject. I've said it before: it's funny how photographers think there is only way to do something and if you don't do it that way you must be an amateur or you're just flat out wrong. Photojournalism vs. creative portraiture. Studio light vs. natural light. Film vs. digital. Actions vs. no actions. Photoshop vs. Lightroom. Traditional boudoir vs. fashion boudoir. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. *sigh* It's enough to just make you shake your head and never read the blogs again. For goodness sakes I was scanning Facebook recently and one photographer was stating that they were actually maintaing integrity by not doing xyz in their photography. Really? I mean...really????? Wow, I guess the rest of us that do it differently have no moral character or ethics in our practice. Sheesh...and all along I thought I was a pretty stand up gal. ;-)

What's a girl to do? Well, here's an idea: whatever she wants. ;-) I've said it before and I'll say it again: there is no right way when it comes to photography. As long as you know your equipment and are actually shooting photographs and not snapshots (tsk tsk for those of you still shooting in Auto!) there is simply no "right" way to do whatever it is you want to do. Myself? I go thru phases. One minute I'm letting as much natural light flood thru on HIGH and then I'm covering it all up for a different mood. Sometimes a shoot has Photoshop written all over it. Other times it's me and my Nik Software Color Efex Pro. Sometimes I have a client in front of me that's all garters and thongs. Other times it's big gowns, floppy hats and jeans. Every client is different so every session is different.

Same with actions. One minute I have no interest in actions and the next I'm using them like crazy. It really depends on the project for me. Some photos look totally whole without a single tweak. Others just beg to be played around with. I just downloaded a few and wanted to play around with a few photos and I really like the way it all turned out.

I can't begin to tell you how much in love I am with this photo above. As soon as I saw it on my computer I was head over heels. But I gotta tell ya, the Black and White Old Grainy Film from Kevin Kubota's Vintage Delish collection just finished it off so very nicely. Now I'm simply gaga for this photo.

And here I wanted to darken. She was right by my window at like 1pm in the afternoon so it was all kinds of light. But look at her face. It's so sultry and moody. So I went darker with this preset.

And here we have sweetness. Her hair and hat make me feel like this photo was taken in 1972. So I wanted a bit of grain and less saturated colors. Bam.

This one above is all fairytale to me. It's complete fantasy so the action I chose went along with that. Faded, old, but still warm.

And here's a bit of traditional boudoir. But I wanted to spice it up a bit. The smoothness and desaturated effect of this action just hit it right on for me.

So, again, there is no right way. Find what you like and do it a lot. Fail at it a lot. Then rediscover it. Fail again and repeat. Always be open to change. Always keep an eye on the past. Instead of ruling out what someone else is doing take a moment and see if you can actually learn from it. And no matter what, never think you're right because the moment you think you're right and others are wrong is the moment you stop growing.

Want to learn more about how I do what I do? Go here.