Fix It Friday - #82

It’s been a while since I have participated in anything over at iheartfaces…and I can’t promise I will keep up with it regularly this year…but I will try from time to time to be active.This week’s photo fix is brought to us by Rachel Durik captured during the recent Dream Big Photography Workshop in Dallas.

Here is the before:

My first fix:  Just basic things….I like things a little lighter so I adjusted the levels and adjusted color for white balance.  Then, a few little “pop” details using the Perfect Portrait Action from CoffeeShop.

Fix 2: Simple crop of Fix #1

Fix 3: Using a CoffeeShop action [Vivid], I took Fix #1 and applied 75% Urban and 25% soft.

I could go on and on playing with this photo…to see more fixes, visit iheartfaces!  

Fix It Friday

Yep…Friday again…and time to work on editing skills. This week’s photo comes from Michelle Johnson’s beautiful little girl dressed in purple.

It’s a gorgeous shot already, but I did find a few things to “fix.”

Here’s the original:

My basic fix [using PSE 5.0] was to lighten the photo up just a bit. I also wanted to make the eyes pop. So here’s Fix 1:

And a few more “creative” fixes [not all that creative actually]…

I cropped in a bit tighter and applied CoffeeShop Action Little Perk! I like the tighter crop!

And for this final one, I took the basic fix, applied 2 actions from CoffeeShop [Hot Cocoa and Creamy Toffee]. Gives it a warm, soft appearance.

Make sure to head over to iheartfaces to see more edits of this photo!

Fix-It Friday

It’s Fix-It Friday over at iheartfaces.  This week’s photo comes to use from none other than Angie, one of the iheartfaces owners: It is of Angie’s daughter and her little friend that was taken while Angie was doing a commercial photo session for Sucre Lulu.  These two little girls love hanging out together and we enjoyed the interaction that you can see between them in this photo.  A little in a rush this week as I prepare for the princess’s birthday party tomorrow, but I wanted to play…so here are my fixes.

Original: Already gorgeous!

First fix: Basic fix, WB adjustment and enhancement of color.  I also cropped it a little.

Nothing super creative this week…just a few quick changes.  Here are the rest of my fixes to this one photo. 

Make sure you check out some of the other fixes over at iheartfaces…there are some fabulously talented photo editors who do amazing things with already great photos!

Fix It Friday

This week’s photo comes from Susan Keller's and happens to be her own teenage son….fitting since this week’s them for the challenge was teens!

Here is the original:And here are my fixes.  The first fix was just a general fix, but it let me practice my cloning skills.  I wanted to remove the box and the pole from the photo.  This was certainly a challenge due to the rainbow effect from the sun.  I could have just cropped it, but I didn’t want to lose the awesome flare and it me a chance to practice cloning a difficult area.

I also added a CoffeeShop Sun Kissed Action and warmed it up a bit!  The cloning is a little off, but it was the best I got.

Fixes 2 and 3 are just additions…the first one is “Urban” from the CoffeeShop Action Vivid No Wait Action and the second one is the Creamy Chocolate Action [I wanted to try a black and white edit, but didn’t like it as a straight B&W…but the chocolate was nicer].

Make sure you check out some of the other edits over at iheartfaces.

Fix-It Friday

This week’s photo comes from Julie Rivera [one of my favorite photogs – I happen to love her work]!  The original photo is a pretty darn near perfect snapshot-like photo.  There really wasn’t much to fix.  All of my fixes were done using PSE 5.0.

Original:

See what I mean…super cute and just about spot on!  I did some minor adjustments.  I lightened the photo, bit and adjusted the white balance, and cropped for a more portrait feel.  Then I tweaked the eyes using a CoffeeShop Action.  And in literally under a minute I had this:

Then I added a texture…very subtle:

And finally, going back to the first fix, I used the CoffeeShop Sweet Bakery Action and added a glaze [blueberry 35% and Vanilla 20% – I just happen to like that combo and use it a lot!].

So there you have it…3 edits to an already amazing shot in less than the time it took me to write this blog post.  Make sure you check some of the other '”fixes” over at iheartfaces!   

Fix-It Friday

It’s Friday…and this week’s photo comes from IHF Contributor, Susan Keller from Short on Words.  It’s an adorable self-portrait of mother and son.

Here’s the original:

And here is my fix this week.  I used PSE 5.0…I increased the sun flair, added some color pop with a soft light layer.  I also played around with the blur in the background.  Finally, I added a warming filter overlay.

Very subtle…but I like it!  Make sure you  check out some of the other fixes over at iheartfaces!

Fix-It Friday

The concept has changed slightly due to someone “stealing” a photo that didn’t belong to them…now all the photos will be coming from the owners of iheartfaces and the contributors.  While even the professional take some “bad” photos from time to time, fixing community photos was a little more thrilling [because we take some doosies and I learn a lot from trying to fix them].  So shame on you…to whoever you are…for taking something that didn’t belong to you…because essentially your dishonestly has cost us all!  Venting over…here are my fixes for an already adorable shot taken by Andrea Riley [a contributor over at iheartfaces].

Original:

Pretty darn good!  But I had to find something to fix or it wouldn’t be called Fix-It Friday.  So, for my own personal baby taste, I lightened the photo a little, did a tiny crop, and rotated the picture.  And because wrinkly baby feet are the best, I sharpened them a little!  Here’s my basic fix using PSE 5.0.

Fix 1: Basic

The next few fixes, not many changes, some some creative fixes.  For the first one I did a B&W conversion [half tone] while leaving full color on the feet.

Last two fixes used CoffeeShop Actions Hot Cocoa and Creamy Toffee [in that order].

My favorites are the last two…can’t decide which one I like better.  Make sure you check out some of the other fixes over at iheartfaces.  Until next week….

Fix-It Friday

It’s that time again….and since I am actually in town, I am participating again!  I love these.  I love fixing pictures.  This week's photo was submitted by Shelle from Mommy Can't Sing.

She wrote: "This is a photo of my 16 months old baby girl. I am currently doing a 365 challenge where I take at least one photo per day. This was one of the photos. Unfortunately, before Daylight Savings a lot of time I was scrambling to take a photo before the light was gone. Well, in this photo it was beyond gone! But my baby was sitting there so sweetly that I couldn't resist taking her photo. The color is bad and the background is messy, but just love her face!"

I totally agree about the color…the white balance is way off.  But, the background didn’t bother me so much.  The shallow depth of field already helped make the background less distracting!

Here is the original:

Yep…she is way too yellow!  Must fix that!

Here is my fix:

Pretty drastic difference.  And since she was concerned about the background, I applied a smart blur filter to blur it even more.  Then I used a CoffeeShop Action [Perfect Portrait] to fix minor skin issues and make the eyes a bit more defined.  Finally, I sharpened and reduced the noise.

Here are a couple more creative fixes that worked off of the above fix:

Flipped photo and cropped

Applied Bakery Glaze Action [Blueberry and Vanilla} and adjusted opacity.

Splendor B&W Action with a soft blur.

Hot Cocoa Action, then lightened the face!

Make sure you check out all the other fixes at iheartfaces…there sure are some snazzy one!