Sometimes a lot of touch up is needed—fly-away hairs, smudged makeup, unwanted objects in frame, the list goes on. This is not always true for skin. Some photographers prefer to leave the skin as it was captured, while many, like myself, strive to enhance the natural assets that are already present.

The conditions this day were full of wind and cloud coverage; however, the sun would peek from behind the clouds ever so often with just enough time for me to make some quick adjustments. This was not a planned photoshoot, but rather an impromptu shoot with a beautiful business owner of Kavi Cosmetix. My venture to an entrepreneur meetup led me to meet this vibrant and beautiful woman—the great inspiration to my editing process.

Our location was at Revival Coffee in East Austin downtown area, so there wasn’t much opportunity to incorporate organic matter into our quick session, but all we needed was the sun’s beam to reflect this woman’s bright personality. Her products are meant to brighten skin in with a healthy routine, so I wanted to ensure she had a natural glow at the end of my editing process.

“Technically,” there are rules. Rules that are supposed to help with composition and to lead the eyes exactly where you want them to go. But all we needed was literally one chair and the sun. No depth, nothing to frame her, no varied angles, just her. Most edits are the same, where I removed the plant boxes and scratches on the wall, enhanced the saturation and vibrance, and increased those shadows.. a lot!

I did some light skin retouching, but like I said, this chingona is naturally radiant!

The solar light’s beam provide harsh shadows, but these deserved some softness added to them—allowing a glow-like effect to reinforce how well her skin care line brings out that natural glow. I absolutely love these results. It’ll be tough to top them!