Introducing Karin Sanders of Karin Sanders Photography who is our guest instructor inside the Summerana Membership the month of November! We are lucky that not only do we get to watch her edit from start to finish showing us all of her editing secrets for her fine art painterly style, but we also get to sit and talk with her about the art of fine art.
Who is Karin Sanders?
I am a photographer at Karin Sanders Photography, a military wife to an amazing husband, mom to two kids and two rescue pups. I was born in Slovakia, lived half of my life in England and recently relocated to the US. I started learning photography about 4 years ago and absolutely love it!
When did you realize that fine art is your style?
I think my style has always been the same from the very beginning. The image of my little niece Ivanka in the red dress was actually taken when I was just starting out. I was just shooting what I liked and I was editing the way I wanted to. I had no idea what my style was until people started mentioning that it’s Fine Art.
Actions or hand edits?
I hand edit every single one of my images. I am a perfectionist and it takes me a while to edit each image until I am happy with it. Luckily editing is my favorite part of photography.
Tell us about your gear (camera, lenses…etc.)
I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark iii. My absolute favorite lens is my Canon 200mm F2 which I got recently. Before that my favorite was my Canon 135mm F2. Almost all images on my website are shot with that lens. I also own the sigma 85mm F1.4 and Sigma 50mm F1.4 which I almost never get out of my bag as I prefer the lenses with a longer focal length for my outdoor shoots.
What is one thing you learned the hard way?
I learned that computers and hard-drives crash! Always make multiple backups of important files and photos. I’ve lost so many baby pictures of my kids when my computer crashed a few years ago and I was never able to recover them.
Dusk or dawn? Why?
Definitely dusk! I am not a morning person at all. I love sleeping in!
What is the first thing you imagine when you hear the word “light” ?
As a natural light photographer I imagine a beautiful sunset…the magical golden hour. That’s my ideal light and that’s when all my sessions take place.
What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out?
The advice I would give to someone who is just starting to learn photography would be the same advice someone gave me the first time I took my camera out for a shoot. Set your camera in MANUAL mode! It is essential that you learn how to use your camera properly. After that just shoot what you love as often as you can and never stop learning.
What is your favorite quote?
“Everything is hard before it is easy” — Goethe I love this quote because how true it is.
Watch me edit:
Want to watch me edit this image in Photoshop from start to finish? It will be available to watch in the Summerana Membership here from November 11th – December 10th, 2019!
In this editing tutorial, Summerana guest instructor Karin Sanders of Karin Sanders Photography shows you her step-by-step process for editing a creamy and colorful painterly portrait in Photoshop.
In this editing workshop Summerana guest teacher Karin Sanders will teach you how to:
- Create a gorgeous painterly effect
- Adjust the exposure, white balance, vibrance, highlights, shadows, luminance, etc. in Adobe Bridge
- Edit together pieces shot from the Brenizer Method using Photomerge
- Add gorgeous golden hour hues
- Remove distractions from your image
- Smooth, brighten, and add warmth to your subjects skin and dress
- Edit eyes including adding catchlights to eyes, eye brightening, darken eyelashes and eyebrows
- Add blur and create more bokeh
- Add dimension through dodging and burning
- Sharpen to enhance details
- Add gorgeous color and light
- Darken bright spots/hot spots
- Add a matte effect
- Add light and Summerana leaf overlays to complement your image
and more… all through hand editing and using Summerana overlays! The gorgeous dress is by Miss Madison Photo Props.
Camera settings:
- Shot with a Canon 5D Mark iii
- 200mm lens
- ISO 800, f2, 1/500s
Edited using:
- Adobe Bridge
- Photoshop
- Summerana leaf overlays
- Portraiture 2
- Hand editing