Fix-it Friday #37

This photo was the perfect match for this week’s theme.  My goal when fixing this photo was to bring the focus to this adorable little girl.  I love leaf pictures, but kiddos tend to get lost in all of them.  I’m hoping my fix ended up emphasizing the girl while still playing on the leaf theme.

 

Here’s my basic edit:

1.  Opened in RAW and made basic edits.  I used quite a bit of recovery on this one because the leaves had blown highlights.

2.  Did a levels adjustment layer.  These first two steps I do on almost any picture.  The histogram was fairly even on this photo, so not much adjustment was needed.  I pretty much just slid the darks over to add more detail.

3.  I used Noiseware, something I use on almost every photo.  If you haven’t tried Noiseware, do me a favor and go try it!  There is a free version.  It’s more of a pain to use, but it at least lets you see what this program can do.

4.  I ran Amanda’s color pop action.  I can’t link to it, because I haven’t been able to find where I got it.

 

5.  It’s hard to tell in the picture below, but I used a magnetic lasso around this girl’s face and then used unsharp mask to sharpen up the details on just her face.  I found that sharpening the leaves also got to be too much.

 

 

6.  Since this girl is in the shadow of the tree, she tends to be underexposed while the leaves are overexposed.   I wanted to bring more color to the leaves but not to her face so I actually tried something strange.  I made a blank layer overtop of the picture and colored all over the leaves with fall colors. 

 

I then changed this layer to “soft light” and ran a layer’s mask action.  I made sure to use a black brush on her face so none of the reds would affect her.  This basically gave the leaves a little more color.  I’m not sure if a upping a color pop action would have done the same thing, but it was fun to experiment!

 

7.  I then did a brightness/contrast adjustment layer but I used the layers mask to only have the brightness on her face.  This was to correct the underexposure from the tree’s shadow.

 

8.  I normally would do some kind of crop here, but I already had some other plans for the photo.  Being the predictable gal that I am, I headed off to make a scrapbook page.  In the process of making the scrapbook page, I ended up removing some reds from her face using a hue adjustment layer.

This scrapbook page uses the following elements:  free paper and an overlay from the Shabby Fall set from Shabby Princess  (Most of her scrapbook sets are free!), a light texture called “Golden Sun Glow” from the Gallery Textures Collection at  Patti Brown’s Kaleidoscope website, and Amanda’s vignette action (not sure where I got it from!).

Dallas

It’s way too late to be blogging, so instead, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite photos from the Dallas workshop.  More to come!

 Pete Lacker—what an amazing photographer and teacher!

 

Angie and Amy – I get to see Angie all the time, but it was great to meet Amy in person for the first time.

 

Suki – She came all the way from Germany for a weekend photography workshop!  We all loved getting to know her better.  She’s beautiful inside and out.

 

A fun couple we met on the streets of Dallas thanks to the “knows no strangers” Becky!

 

Beautiful, red-headed Temperance, daughter of Brooke from Dinkypops No More!

 

 

Downtown Dallas sites

 

Christal was just one of the many great ladies I got to meet.

 

…and tons of pictures of beautiful people.  Hopefully soon, I’ll have time to share more details!

Autumn Beauty – I ♥ Faces

Oops!  I almost let this week’s contest slip by me.  I did one Fall shoot this year, and that was a spontaneous shoot at that.  I decided to star the photo I took of my hubby.  This sweet guy was attempting to bury me in leaves as I took this picture.  My man allowed me to go to the I ♥ Faces workshop this week by taking on all the responsibilities of kiddos and the house, so I guess he’s forgiven.  :)  Plus, his orneriness provided me a pretty cool perspective.

 

 

Go check out all the fun photos at I ♥ Faces!

Big words

 

Show and Tell…

 

What to bring?  This is always the question that comes up some time during the week before Friday comes along.  This time Mark came up with the idea.

 

“Hey, Nathan, would you like mom to take a picture of your secret room so you can show it to your class for Show & Tell?”

 

My immediate question was whether Nathan was allowed to bring a picture.  I have discovered throughout the year that Mrs. Gerber has some strict restrictions to what can be brought in.

 

Nathan thought on it and then replied in his drawn out speech:

 

“Well.  You see.  If I put a photo in my bookbag, it might get bent and ruined.”

I reassured Nathan that we could keep it safe in his homework folder.

 

“Well…I don’t think I’ll bring a photo.  My intuition tells me that the photo could get ruined so I better not.”

Whaaaaa?  Did I just hear the word intuition exiting my 5 year old’s mouth? 

 

“Nathan, how in the world do you know the word intuition?”

 

“I know it means something in your mind that tells you something.”

 

“I know, but how in the world do you know that word?  Does Mrs. Gerber say it?”

 

(Long silence)

 

“Cmon, Nathan,” I begged, “Spill the beans.  Mommy is super curious to know where you have heard that word.” 

 

(Long Pause)

 

“Okay…

                     It’s from Scooby Doo!  They use their intuition, you know.”

 

 

 

 

Who would have thunk it?  Scooby Doo, of all things!

 

I Heart Faces - Balloon Theme

Are you ready to head to the dark side?

 

I swear, I’m not going over the edge.

 

Nor is my son.  :)

 

I just couldn’t think of anything for the balloon theme…

 

My son came home with a science experiment he had done at school the other day that involved baking soda, vinegar, a bottle and a balloon.  We were going to do that, but my kitchen is too messy for pictures.  (Like that’s out of the ordinary.)

 

After buying all sorts of balloons at Dollar General this evening, I came up with the bright idea to blow up three balloons, put a face on each, and then have the kids try to mimic the faces.  Only problem…my kids don’t follow directions.  I think I need a couple more years to put that idea into action.

 

Finally, I had Nathan pick which face he wanted. He chose the angry face.  I tried to get him to make his own angry face to match.  Since we have such a troubled balloon in the picture, I figured I’d go all lugubrious on y’all with my dark, gloomy editing.  (Yep, I’m throwing those 7th grade vocabulary words in the mix too!)

 

Don’t cry.  The balloon is now taking anger management courses.  (His anger should be “deflated” soon.)

 

Sorry for the depressing moment.  Not to worry, all the other entries on I Heart Faces are chipper and cheery.  Go have a look!