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

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 that time again…and I missed last week.  So here is my entry for this week.  The picture was truly adorable…not much to “fix”…honestly, I fixed a few stray pet hairs on her leggings and a small bruise on her wrist…other than that, I actually let photoshop do it for me…a quick auto enhance and removed color cast.  Done….then on to the more creative fixes.

Here’s the original:

Here’s my fix:  OK…so one last thing I did was pop her eyes with CoffeeShop.

And the creative fixes:

    This is also a CoffeeShop Action….Sweet Bakery Glaze

Vintage, vignette, and soft focus using Picnik.

Make sure you check out the other “fixes” over at iheartfaces.

Fix It Friday

POTD – March 12, 2010

Missed a day…but here we are at Friday and it’s time for Fix It Friday over at iheartfaces.  This week’s photo needed some adjustments.  It was under-exposed, but not impossible to fix.

Here is the original:

For my first fix, I just wanted to lighten it up a bit.  I also cropped it and cloned part of the little girl’s arm.  Once lightened it had an obvious color cast that I then corrected.  That gave me a better palette to work with.

Fix 1:

Much better…but there was still work to be done.  I reduced the noise and applied Perfect Portrait [a CoffeeShop Action] to the photo.  Then, the dark circles under the eyes were bothering me so I touched those up.  Personally, I’m not a 100% happy with how they turned out, but they are better.  There were also a few stray hairs that really stood out so I got rid of them.

Fix:2

Then for fun, here are a few more.

Fix 3: Increased blur in the background

Fix 4: Selective coloring on the pinball machine

And finally, I used Picnik to give it a vintage look:

Check out some of the other “takes” on this photo over at iheartfaces…there are some seriously talented photo editors over there.

Fix-It Friday

POTD – February 26, 2010

It’s that time again…and today I am super excited about Fix-It Friday because I am so crazy busy today that I don’t really have time to think about what I am posting today. The decision is made for me…and the photo is super cute too!

This week's photo comes from Caroline at Frogmum. She writes: "My daughter is standing in our front garden - I was laying down. It was a beautiful day, but her face was in full shade & looks a bit blurry. She looks too dull against the blue sky. I'd like to be able to pull the whole thing up and make her pop out without losing the beauty of that blue sky."

Here is the original:

And here are my fixes:

For the first fix, I added some saturation to the sky, lightened the shadows on her faces, and fixed a few minor other things. Then, I used Coffee Shop Perfect Portrait action.

Second…just a basic crop. I also added a vignette.

And finally, the last two fixes used Coffee Shop Moody Pop action…one color and one in B&W.

And just for fun...what if I want a more interesting sky:

All edits were completed in PSE 5.0 and took less than 10 minutes combined! Happy editing! Make sure you stop by iheartfaces and check out all the other interpretations!

Let’s Dance!

POTD – February 16, 2010

It’s Dance Week over at iheartfaces.  I really considered not entering this week.  Dance is truly hard to capture…or maybe it’s just me.  For me, Dance is motion…Dance is better captured in video…a still just doesn’t show that motion. But this image kept popping into my head.  Not the best photograph I’ve ever taken, but I like the editing…I wanted to highlight the dancer while still having the audience as a present part of the photograph.  This photo was taken at a New Year’s Eve party and the littlest celebrant provided the entertainment.

Make sure you head over to iheartfaces to check out the other entries! 

Ferland Family Mini-Session

POTD – February 4, 2010

I did another rounder of mini-sessions with my playgroup.  I finally got to shoot this adorable and loving family!  I’m telling you…I don’t know how this mom does it.  She always seems so calm and in total control…even when life throws her a curve ball!  I thought I was going to have to pull out all the stops to get the oldest daughter to smile for me [she has been a tough one in the past], but she was all smiles and quite a little model!

Love this photo…not only do I love how it turned out, but if you saw the original, you would know that I created everything above Dad’s head.  Apparently, I was so focused on  how cute the kids looked while taking the shot, that I cut off Dad’s head and had very little room to work with.  Thank God for PhotoShop!

Hope you love them!  And thanks for letting spend the afternoon with your beautiful family!

POTD – January 25, 2010

It’s TEXTURE week over at iheartfaces.  I struggled with this one simply because I am not all that great at the whole texture thing…but I really like how this one turned out.  I even had to redo it completely because I noticed an area that I neglected to erase [the texture] after I flattened, saved, and closed the image.  Talk about frustrated…I should know better!

I played with many photos and many textures until I had one that worked…one that I liked! This one gave me some issue because I didn’t want the brick to be huge…so I had to overlay the texture a few times and piece it together to keep them somewhat realistic in size.  Since the original architecture in the shot is oversized, I also needed them to be big enough.  I also used Picnik this week to add a final touch…I used the Focal Soften feature.  I liked what it did to soften the texture while still focusing on the little boys face.  And this is what I ended up with.  Make sure you check out all the other entries this week…some of these people are seriously talented with TEXTURES!

POTD – January 12, 2010