Summer is coming to an end, yet the photos haven't all been posted... in fact, retouching isn't even finished... As I worked through them, I realized that because the shooting times differed by an hour or two, the sun's shifting position altered the lighting, leading to completely divergent color palettes between takes... Color grading is so tough.
This shoot featured the Peach ice Swimsuit cosplay of Chisa from Wuthering Waves. That afternoon's session was split into two parts: the first was around 1:00 PM under direct, harsh sunlight with intense water reflections and deep facial shadows. The second took place around 3:00 PM, when the sun dipped westward, softening the light, warming the color temperature, and casting a deeper blue across the water. Bringing these two lighting setups together in post left the white balance in complete contradiction, which is why color grading gave me such a headache.
To resolve this, I had to calibrate temperature, exposure, and baseline contrast in Camera Raw to establish a relatively uniform starting point across both batches. However, the pink-and-white checkered fabric and yellow swim ring reflected completely different hues under the changing light. While they looked adorable on camera during the shoot, retouching revealed that these high-saturation elements alongside blue mosaic tiles severely stress-tested camera dynamic range. A slight tweak in color temperature would blow out the yellow of the float, muddy the pink of the swimwear, or turn the blue-and-white pool pattern murky.
For grading, I utilized Color Balance to unify tones across shadows and highlights, steering the overall image toward breezy summer freshness. I used dedicated masks to isolate the subject for skin tone correction, preventing the skin from shifting cyan or grey due to global grade adjustments. For this Peach ice look in particular, the pink tones needed to remain clean and luminous while preserving swimwear fabric texture, avoiding excessive smoothing that wipes out details. Regarding light transitions, since shifting solar angles altered specular highlight placement across my body, I employed tone curves and dodge-and-burn curves to resculpt facial and bodily dimensionality, ensuring images from different times looked seamless side by side.
Regarding composition, I really loved the crossed-leg pose seated on the swim ring; the high heels and leg lines created sharp geometric elegance, while holding a lollipop in my mouth added a touch of playfulness. During the shoot, we also framed the pool stones and receding water surface in the background to deepen the depth of field. Even so, keeping the subject centered in the frame was crucial to prevent edge distortion. Because ripples on the water and mosaic tiles create inherently busy textures, I slightly softened background clarity and sharpness in post to let the subject stand out.
Retouching demands immense patience, especially under volatile lighting conditions. Although the editing process was grueling, watching the palette gradually find harmony and seeing Chisa's swimsuit look just as I envisioned made burning the midnight oil entirely worthwhile. Without further ado, back to retouching the remaining photos—hoping to wrap up and curate the full set for my Anime Life Archive soon.