Edit Me Challenge: Baby Portrait

It has been a while since I joined in the Edit Me challenge.  If you are unfamiliar with it, My Reflection of Something shares a photo that one of her guest judges has taken.  You download it and edit it any way you want.  So you can use whatever program you want to.  Just have fun.  You can edit it to reflect your style or you can edit it the way you think would compliment the photo the most.

Here is the photo taken by Kala at The Wishful Lamb.

Instead of just telling you what I did and you get lost in words, I am going to show you the steps so you can see the difference along the way.  First I adjusted the color.  It was a little too cool (blue) for me.  So I warmed up the hues.  So it looked like this…

Then I used a very, very cool action from my favorite, Paint the Moon, called Make My Skin Perfect.  It is available in the Miracle Makeover Set.  I adjusted the opacity to 40% because I want the skin to look smooth, but not fakey.  So now there is smoother skin like this…

Then I ran Paint the Moon’s Shy (from the Moxie set) at 95% opacity overall.  Inside the action there are many individual layers.  I did a layer mask on the Brighten & Tone layer over the blanket.  Here is the result…

It just didn’t seemed finished.  I decided to add a texture.  I don’t know if I am particularly happy with this final version, but I am happier than the other 20 something I also tried.  I just don’t think I used the best texture for it.  I used Kim Klassen’s Just Stitched texture below.  I did the same texture in two different layers.  One with Soft Light blend mode at 100% (layer mask over the baby), and the other layer with Multiply blend mode at 21% (with a layer mask over the baby).

So my absolute final version of this photo that Kala at The Wishful Lamb took is this…

Here is the original again.

Go to My Reflection of Something and get the photo and take a crack at it yourself.  I think you will find it a lot of fun.  Go on, try it.  You know you want to. 

Backlighting Entry

I know you guys have seen this photo before, but I wanted to enter it into a contest going on over at Rock the Shot Forum.  The contest is to enter a shot that has backlighting. 



I always get a little nervous about judged contests, but I just love this shot.  I remember sitting in the backyard watching them play with the hose and thinking that the light coming through the water mist was just perfect for a shot.  I handed the baby off to the hubby and ran for my camera.  Much to my delight the little turkeys had not stopped what they were doing (usually they do that by the time I get my camera). 

I am sure Rock the Shot wants something that professionals have taken of their clients, but getting photos of your own kids is much harder.  Plus, I am not a professional, just a crazy mom that stalks things with her camera, um enthusiast.

There is still time to enter.  The contest ends on September 30th.  You can find more information over at www.rocktheshotforum.com. 

New Face to Photograph

I wasn’t planning on blogging today and didn’t have anything in the works, but the awesome Deb Duty is starting her new link up today.  How could I not join in?

No theme, no type (macro, portrait, landscape, etc.), just a shot you want to share.  That makes it easy to participate.  Way to think of us slackers, Deb. 

So I thought I would share a shot of Cole’s best friend.  They went through two years of preschool together, had playdates over the summer, and now sit next to each other in kindergarten.  She is so sweet, too.  She and her little sister came over to play a couple of days ago.  I whipped out the camera trying to get shots of them covering the driveway with chalk and she stopped and posed for me.  I loved it!




Obviously this kid has not been around too much, because this is what I get from my own kids.
 


 And any self respecting mom would have made sure her child did not have dirt on his face when she was taking pictures, but oh well.  And someone please remind me to schedule a haircut for him!

Learn about Foster Parenting

Darcy with Life with My 3 Boybarians did a series last year called 31 days to a Better Photo.  It was awesome.  She wasn’t the only one doing a series, either.  She had a group of other bloggers each doing a series about what they wrote about.  This year they have extended an invitation for other bloggers to join in. 

The idea is to find something you are passionate about and want to share then write a post every day for the entire month of October about it.  It might not sound like much if you already blog every day, but I haven’t done that in a long time.  I also have never blogged about the same subject that long.  But I really feel led to do this series. 

I have gotten a lot (and I mean a lot) of emails asking me questions about foster care.  I love getting them and hope to get more, so if you are thinking about contacting me, please do so.  Real life friends, blogging friends, facebook friends from high school I haven’t seen in 17 years (shut up, yes it has been that long), and total strangers have asked me questions. 

Whether you are trying to decide if fostering is right for you or you are just curious about how things really are, I hope you will join me as I share.

This series is NOT intended to sell you on the idea of fostering.  Not everyone is meant to foster.  This series is not intended to make you feel guilty or to make myself look righteous. 

My hope is that this series will raise awareness for the need of foster families, to help educate everyone about the realities of foster care, and how everyone can help in some way to improve this system and a child’s life. 

While I hope to also post some photography stuff and random things throughout this time, the month of October will be dedicated to this series.  I hope you join me and read along, but I will understand if it isn’t something you really want to read.  Please share this series with any friends you may think are interested in foster care or adoption through the foster care system.

If you would like to join in the “31 Days to…” series it should be a lot of fun.  Darcy explains it a lot better than I do.  So click on over and read about it and hopefully join in.

Textured Pencils

Here I am again.  Posting two days in a row.  Woo hoo!  I am on a roll. 

I am joining up with Texture Tuesday again over at Kim Klassen’s site.  I never really liked adding textures, because it never looked good when I did it.  It always took away from instead of enhancing the photo.  Turns out that I wasn’t doing it right, duh.  I did a search on Google and watched a YouTube video.  Both showed the same way, just add the texture via layer and adjust the opacity.  If you need to do a layer mask, then do it.  Since they both said the same thing, I thought that was how to do it.

WRONG!  If that is how someone told you how to do it, I am sorry to tell you that you are not getting the fullest potential out of your textured images.  After taking Kim Klassen’s free Skinny Mini e-course.  I learned quite a few things.  The course is a work at your own pace, come and go as you have time kind of class.  It is really simple and does basics, but you never know if you are going to learn something new.  So since it is free, I recommend every single one of you take it.  Registration is open for next free course.  Do it.

Now on to my photo for this week’s Texture Tuesday.

I used Kim Klassen’s Water Stained Frame for this.  I did one layer in soft light blend mode at 30%.  Then I added the same texture again, but in multiply blend mode at 27%. 

I like how it turned out.  It is something I wouldn’t normally think to do to this image, but I like going out of my comfort zone.  I need to explore new areas more. 

 

By the way, I don’t get anything for referring you to Kim’s site or course.  I just think it is an awesome class that goes over basic stuff.  It really helped me and might help you, too. 

Whew, What a Week!

I blogged once last week.  Technically I blogged/wrote more than that, but it just wasn’t on my site.  I contribute twice a month over at No Time For Flash Cards and I write once a month over at Everything Mom.  If you don’t read those sites, you should.  No Time for Flash Cards has hundreds (really almost 1,000) crafts and activities to do with your young child. Everything Mom has, well everything for mom, or just for women.  Recipes, style advice, all sorts of stuff.  But as you can guess I write crafts for them.

We have had a little bit of baby mama drama this past week.  I can’t share anything with you now, but if/when I can, I will.  While Little Lady was at her visit with her birth mom Charley and I had some alone time.  Since the birth mom has not visited much at all lately, we were kind of unsure what to do with our time together.  Charley said she wanted to go to the park.  So we did. Of course I grabbed my camera.

I got a few shots before I put up the camera and just enjoyed time with my big girl.

I got her being silly, she is good at that.

And I got her being sweet, she is also good at that but orneriness usually kicks in before you can capture it.

I cut her bangs this weekend.  In case you wanted to know. 

If you are wondering what I did to edit these shots I just ran a clean edit to tweak my exposure levels. I always tend to shoot a tad underexposed SOOC, but I think I really prefer doing it.  It doesn’t make sense, I know.  Then I ran Paint the Moon’s “Flirt” action from the Blessings package.  I adjusted the light level down to 40% and the overall opacity down to 60% for both to make them look cohesive and keep colors balanced. 

On the bottom one I did Paint the Moon’s Rockstar vignette to put a little more emphasis on Charley, and not necessarily the edges of the photo.  The top image I added a texture (no vignette) and did a layer mask on her face and hair.  I honestly cannot tell you where I got the texture from.  It was was of those free ones I ran across when another blogger linked to it.  The name of it doesn’t give me any clue to its’ origin, either. 

In case you cannot tell I LOVE Paint the Moon!!  Go over there and see what she has.  She offers fantastic actions and great prices.  And no, this is not a sponsored post or affiliated (I wonder if she offers that? I would totally do it.)  I am just sharing great info with my friends.

Leaf Skeleton

Yes, I am still blogging.  I just had a lot of stuff going on and something had to give.  Family time is not an option to cut out.  My “me” time was spent editing photos from a shoot I did for my husband’s cousin and her family.  I might share some of those a little later. 

But today I am sharing a macro shot.  Your shocked, I know.  Hey, it isn’t of an insect!  This leaf skeleton was still attached to the branch.  It was just too cool looking.  I had to capture it.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

 

If you are wondering how the orangish-brown pops so much, I will let you know how I edited it.  Because frankly I want to know this stuff when I am reading other people’s blogs.  I just see their final shot and think wow.  So while this isn’t a wow shot, I think the transformation is enough to warrant some sharing. 

Here is the before.  Kind of drab.  The exposure is how I wanted it.  I think it has enough fill light and enough shadows, but it still is just ho hum.  The colors didn’t jump out at me.

I ran Pioneer Woman’s free action Boost (available on her site for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements) at 70% opacity.

I added Kim Klassen’s texture Autumn Art.  It was free and if you don’t get her free textures every week, you need to go to her site and sign up for them.  I just added the texture layer and changed the blend mode to soft light.  I adjusted the opacity to 58%.  This is the texture below.

You would have never thought to add that would you?  After taking Kim Klassen’s free e-course, I totally thought of it to make my browns pop.  I have used this trick quite a few times.  It works great!  So I am sharing.

Now here they are side by side.  See the difference?  Don’t you just love how you can dramatically change a photo with some processing?  I never would have known without extremely talented people sharing their knowledge. 

Now I know this photo isn’t going to win any prizes or get enlarged and framed on anyone’s wall, but it is a great example of how much stuff there is out there.  That camera settings can really only get you so far (yes, I definitely could have taken a better straight out of the camera shot). 

So go out and DO some photography, DO some learning about it.  You can blog about it later.  I will be there to read it when you do.  Let’s just inspire each other to DO this week!

My Attempt at HDR

I love HDR photography.  Let me rephrase that.  I love to look at HDR photography.  Have you ever browsed through Trey Ratcliff’s work?  Um, A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  I am on Google+ and there are tons of photographers on there and they share their work.  A lot are HDR photographers.  Their work is gorgeous.  The locations they shoot at (like Iceland) are breathtaking and they capture them so well. 

So I decided I was going to research HDR photography.  I have been learning everything my tiny brain can squeeze in the past couple of months.  I finally got a tripod, which is pretty much a requirement for HDR, and decided to try my hand at this new genre in photography.

Um, I suck at it.

I don’t know if I just don’t have the right eye for it, if I didn’t choose the right images to convert, or a slew of other possibilities.  I keep telling myself not to give up on it.  It looks cool and it is kind of fun.  Maybe I am used to only seeing the best of the best’s work (Trey has his work in the Smithsonian!) and then comparing myself to that.  I have to understand that I am just starting, and I am not at their level.

No matter what it is, I hate sucking at things!  I haven’t decided if I am going to drop the idea of trying more HDR or not, but I wanted to share my experience.

If you are not familiar with HDR (high dynamic range), let me tell you about it.  It pretty much is when you take multiple images and varying exposure levels and merge them.  There are software programs that do this for you, and of course you tweak the levels to your liking.  The software picks the best pixels of each of the images and converts them to one image. 

So you have the best pixels of the highlights, midtones, and lowlights all in one image.  I have a Canon and without help from an outside device I can only take 3 shots in an exposure bracket.  There are other ways of getting around it, but I have discovered it creates camera shake and excessive ghosting so I am not recommending them.  Nikon users have many options.  You can do 5-9 shots depending on your camera model.

So here is a shot at 0 exposure. All of these are obviously SOOC (straight out of the camera).

 

Here is the shot at -2 exposure.

 

And here is the shot at +2 exposure.

 

Now here is the merged HDR image.

See what I mean?  Neat concept, I just haven’t gotten the execution down.  I don’t know if it is my choice of what to shoot, my composition, or what.

I just may can the whole HDR idea.  It may not be my “thing”.  But now you know more about it and it might be your thing.  After a couple of months, this is the best shot I have taken (and it isn’t really good), so I think I may leave it to others.  The jury is still out, though.  I don’t like to give up.

 

And I am linking up with some of my favorite gals for their memes, not because I find this shot worth competing but just to join and have fun.  I am unfortunately not inline with any of the prompts, but I want to participate and show them some love.    So I am sorry, gals. 

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