Fix-It Friday #35

Another "Fix-It-Friday" from iheartfaces. Haven't done one of these for a while, but since I've been doing some photo editing lately anyway, I figured it would be nice to take a break with a fresh, pretty face. :-)

Original photo, which can be found here, taken by the author of this blog.




My fix:



My editing steps (using PSE7):
* Rotated the photo (obviously ;-)).
* Shadows / highlights -- lightened shadows, darkened highlights a twinge, and brought up midtone contrast just slightly.
* Brightness / contrast -- brought both these up a little.
* Cropped just a little off the top and left side.
* Adjust hue / saturation -- increased saturation of red tones.
* Sharpened a bit.
* Applied unsharp mask.
* Used the blur tool on her skin a little (which didn't do a whole lot).
* Brought up temperature to a slightly warmer (more yellow) tone.
* Ended up bringing the highlights back up in the end, so that probably undid some of my first step. ;-)

And there you have it!

iHeartFaces -- "Blue"

Theme: "Blue"



My daughter looking through a little porthole in a tunnel at the playground. :-)

Critiques, compliments, and all other comments welcome. Check out some of the other entries at iheartfaces.blogspot.com!

iHeartFaces -- "Completely Candid"

Theme: "Completely Candid"



Critiques, compliments, and all other comments welcome. Check out some of the other entries at iheartfaces.blogspot.com!

iHeartFaces -- "Contemplative"

My entry for the "contemplative" theme this week is this picture of one of my daughters discovering and contemplating her shadow, probably for the first time. On this day bright August day, she was happily running like crazy around the backyard after church one Sunday, dragging her special blanket behind her. After a while, she happened to turn around and catch sight of her shadow. She immediately halted and contemplated it for a second. Then she slowly began walking forward, stepping on it, seeming to marvel at the fact that dark little figure always stayed in front of her no matter how many steps she took.



Please let me know what you think of this pic! Critiques are welcome as well as compliments. I love comments!!

Also, please check out some of the other entries at iheartfaces.blogspot.com! Or join in the fun and make an entry yourself!

iHeartFaces: Week 29 -- Silly Faces

This picture was taken a few months ago, when I took my girls out to meet their new little cousin. With the help of one of my sisters-in-law, I got this pic of me and my 2-year-old holding my nephew. My daughter's proud, excited little face at getting to hold her cousin is one reason I chose this pic for the "silly" category, as well as the expression that my nephew is making. It cracks me up how he's looking at me as if to say, "Who the heck is THIS??"



Comments and critiques are always appreciated!

Please visit iheartfaces.blogspot.com for lots more entries!

Fix-It Friday #23

Well, I thought I'd try my hand at another Fix-it Friday picture, and for the first time I used (mostly) PSE7 to do it. I played with certain features of this one more than usual in (probably) quirky ways, but for the most part I left the rest of the picture pretty similar to the original. That probably doesn't make any sense until I explain it, though. :-)

Here is the original photo, taken by the writer of this blog:



Here is my edit:



What I did:
* First of all, I wanted to crop the picture down to get this cute little guy on one side. But to do that, I kept having to crop out most of the pretty flowers. So I figured, what the heck... I'll move the flowers. So I did:
-- Selected the flowers using the Quick Selection tool.
-- Created a new layer via copy.
-- Used the Move tool to move it upward and over to the left a little.
-- Flattened the image.
-- Used the Clone Stamp tool to blend it in a bit.

* Next, I was not crazy about how the colors of his shirt clashed with the flowers. So I changed the colors of his shirt. :-)
-- Selected most of the shirt.
-- Turned down the saturation.
-- Played with the hue until it more or less matched the flowers. (I didn't even have to play with the individual surf boards on his shirt... At whatever hue it was, they all suddenly matched at the same time!)

* Then I turned to the more minor points of lighting and color, and that was the easy part.
-- Lightened the shadows a bit.
-- Brought up the midtone contrast a little.
-- Brought up the overall contrast a tiny bit.
-- Sharpened it some.

* Then I used the clone stamp tool (turned down to about 20% opacity) to lighten the dark spots under his eyes.

* And finally, I added a vignette. For this, I had to leave PSE7 and go back to my old standard Picnik, because I cannot for the life of me figure out how to do a decent vignette in PSE. If anyone has any advice on that matter, please let me know! :-)

I am still very new to Photoshop, so if this looks like a rookie's work... it is, lol. If you have any other comments or critiques on my fix, or advice on using PSE7, I would love to hear them! Thanks for visiting!

iHeartFaces: Week 28 -- Sandy Toes

Well, I haven't entered for a few weeks (mostly due to lack of appropriate pictures for the weekly categories), but I had to come back for Foot Week! This week, instead of making sure there is a face in the picture, the challenge is to make sure there is at least one foot in the picture. So, armed with my newly-acquired Photoshop Elements 7 (which was another reason I haven't been back -- trying to figure the darn thing out!), I present my entry.




These cute little sandy toes belong to my two-year-old daughter on her birthday. I tried to make the picture look "beachy," but actually she was just playing in her new sandbox. (Shh! Don't tell!)

Please let me know what you think! Critiques are welcome as well as compliments. I love comments!!

Also, please check out some of the other entries at iheartfaces.blogspot.com! And make an entry yourself, if you wish. It's fun stuff! :-)

Fix-It Friday #18

This pic was not at all difficult to "fix" -- it was already so precious! But here are the edits that I came up with.

Original photo, by the author of this blog:


My edition version:


Again not being terribly specific, here are the general steps that I took in my editing process (using Picnik):
1) Crop -- cropped it down to a better-focused, more interesting composition (in my opinion at least :-p).
2) Curves -- adjusted the lighting, adding more exposure and contrast.
3) Gritty -- to mute the color slightly and make the lines (local contrast) "pop" a little more. (This is probably my favorite Picnik tool, as you may be able to see from my edited pics so far on this blog. :-p)
4) Focal zoom -- to mute the background and put more focus on this beautiful face.
5) Soften -- only on the skin, to give it a smoother appearance.
6) Zombify -- on the eyes, to bring out the catch light just a tiiiiny bit more.
7) Saturation -- putting a teensy bit more color back in there. :-)
8) Matte -- to soften the edges of the photo.
9) Frames -- self-explanatory. :-)

iHeartFaces: Week 23 -- Cutie Pie

For the challenge "sepia-toned," here is a recent favorite of my younger cutie pie.



Comments and critiques are much appreciated. Thanks for visiting!

Check out other entries at iheartfaces.blogspot.com, and come join in the fun!

Fix-It Friday #16

I've never participated in the iHeartFaces Fix-it Friday challenge before, but this one looked like a fun challenge that was too good to pass up.

Here is the original photo, taken by the author of this blog.






















And here it is with my edits.



Just for fun, here's what I did, using the online editing program Picnik, the premium version. (I'm not going to be incredibly detailed, but here are the basics.)

1) Exposure -- added more highlights and upped the contrast a little. Also some local contrast to add more definition.
2) Curves -- to adjust the color.
3) Clone -- to clean up the under-eye area.
4) Vibrance -- to bring out more color, especially in the eyes.
5) Black and White, then Vibrance again -- to mute the color ever so slightly and then bring it back out in certain key features such as the eyes, lips, and cheeks.
6) Zombify -- to bring out more depth in the eyes.
7) Frames -- self-explanatory. :-)

And there ya go. Sometimes I have even more fun editing pictures than taking them, so this turned out to be a great thing for me! :-)

iHeartFaces: Week 21 -- Happy Birthday!

What perfect timing for this category! My daughter Lucy celebrated her second birthday yesterday. We recently moved several hours away from any extended family, so sadly we weren't able to celebrate with them. But we had a nice little party at home with Daddy, Mommy, and Baby Sister. I got lots of fun pictures of her playing with her new toys, but none of them were an obvious birthday theme. So in the end, I went with this one of her opening one of her presents.



(Economical side note: 2-year-olds don't care what the present is wrapped in, just so long as it is a present, and it's wrapped. Hence the newspaper as wrapping paper. Also a great way to recycle!) ;-)

Anyway, I know this entry isn't going to win or anything, but I loved it because of her face in this picture -- she is in the middle of saying, "Ooooooo!" as she opens her present. Classic Lucy expression. :-D

Check out some of the other entries at iheartfaces.blogspot.com, and join in the fun! And if you have a comment or critique to share with me, that would be much appreciated! Thanks for visiting.

iHeartFaces: Week 19 -- My Gerber Baby

My 6-month-old daughter is a little chunker. I'd say her cheeks are at least Gerber baby worthy, if she doesn't beat him out, lol! (Here's a picture for comparison.) This photo that I got yesterday shows off the comparison pretty well, except instead of that innocent little "ooo" look, she gave me this somewhat saucy little grin, with her jaw slightly askew. So I'd call this one, "Gerber Baby with Attitude." ;-)



Click on the button above or the link below to check out more of the great entries for this week's photo contest at iheartfaces! And if you'd like to leave me a comment or critique below, that would be much appreciated! :-)

I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.

iHeartFaces: Week 18 -- Laughin' and Swingin'

This is my almost-2-year-old, swinging in the "big girl" swing by herself for the first time. She LOVED it! She was cracking up the whole time. :-)



Please check out some of the other entries at iheartfaces.blogspot.com! There are always LOADS of good ones in there!

iHeartFaces: Week 17 -- Sun Hat

My younger daughter enjoying the sunshine, complete with sun hat and drooly chin. :-)



Don't forget to check out all the other entries at iheartfaces.blogspot.com!

iHeartFaces: Week 15 -- We've Got Our Eyes on You

The challenge this week was to take a picture of yourself with your kids. This is not easy when you have two under 2, ages 5 months and nearly 23 months. Nevertheless, I managed to come up with a few that I liked. One of my favorites was this one of our eyes. I'm not too enamored of my own, but I love both my girls' beautiful eyes. (I think they must get them from their daddy.)



Don't forget to check out all the other entries at iheartfaces.blogspot.com!

iHeartFaces: Week 14 -- Discovering Dandelions

For the kids' category:



Unfortunately, I was out of town and couldn't find my camera among my luggage on Easter, so I'm settling for a spring photo. This is one of my favorites from a while back: my older daughter last spring, examining her first dandelion. It obviously required a lot of concentration. ;-)

Please check out the other great entries at iheartfaces.blogspot.com! Oh, and would love to hear any comments / critiques you have for me. :-)

iHeartFaces: Week 13 -- Sisters Make the Best Friends

For the kids' category:



My two little girls, ages 22 months and 4 months. They are not quite the age to have many friends yet, but they sure enjoy each other! It's a miracle that I got them both to stay still, look at me, AND smile a little at the same time! :-)

And as always, be sure to check out all the other great entries and join in the fun at iheartfaces.blogspot.com!

iHeartFaces: Week 11 -- Laundry Day

My entry for this week's theme of "no flash" is this picture of my younger daughter. I once did this with her sister (taking pictures of her in a laundry basket) when she was about the same age, and I loved the results so much that I thought I would try it again. :-)



I love her little expression, and the way she is obviously smiling but hiding it behind the towel she's holding. (She's at the stage where everything in her reach automatically goes into her mouth.)

I took this photo in the light of the window in her room, which is reflected a bit in her eyes. I actually very rarely even use my flash, because my camera is not the nicest and the flash is not very good. I usually think the results of flash pictures look unnatural, so I prefer to use natural light when I can. I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out myself, but I would love to hear your comments / critiques. :-)

Oh, and be sure to check out all the other great entries at iheartfaces.blogspot.com!

iHeartFaces: Week 10 -- Nature Girl

My entry for the KIDS category, in the "Green" theme for this week:



This is my daughter, the nature girl, playing in our backyard last summer, when the grass was very nice and green! :-) There are LOTS of entries this week, so go join in the fun at www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com!

Captured... By My Own Camera

The theme at iHeartFaces this week is "Creative Crop." My entry for the ADULTS category is a self-portrait... which I have never really done much of before, so this was creative for me to begin with! Then I also cropped the photo down further, and played with it a bit. :-)



This is what the original looked like...



Pardon me for repeating myself here (if you saw my kids' entry), but I love this week's theme, because it gives us the chance to see everyone's photos before editing! Plus, it's cool to be challenged to experiment with different angles and cropping ideas. :-) Hope you head over there, too, to check out all the other great entries! iheartfaces.blogspot.com

p.s. Comments and constructive criticism are welcome!

Smilin' Eyes

The theme for this week's iHeartFaces contest is "Creative Crop." Here is my entry for the KIDS category, cropped from a picture of my baby girl.



And this is what the original looked like...


I love this week's theme, because it gives us the chance to see everyone's photos before editing! Plus, it's cool to be challenged to experiment with different angles and cropping ideas. :-) Hope you head over there, too, to check out all the other great entries! iheartfaces.blogspot.com

p.s. Comments and constructive criticism are welcome!

Sink Bath

This photo is my entry for the messy theme in the KIDS category this week on iHeartFaces. This is my very silly little girl, just after a rendezvous with spaghetti, and just before a good washing-off in the sink. She was in the middle of saying "Blehhh" as I took this picture. ;-)



Be sure to check out all the other great entries at iheartfaces.blogspot.com!

First Dance

My entry for the Adults' category on iHeartFaces this week (B&W theme) is a photo from my sister-in-law's wedding reception. I love the expression on her husband's face as they dance their first dance. It's like they're off in their own little world. This is also one of the few photos that I really like much better in black and white. It brings out the shadows and points of light more clearly, not to mention highlighting the contrast of white and black on the bride and groom. Maybe not the most amazing photo ever, but I like it. :-)



Be sure to check out all the other entries at iheartfaces.blogspot.com!

Oh, and I love comments!! Constructive criticism is welcome as well.

Summer Dress

As my entry for the iHeartFaces Kids' category this week (B&W theme), I chose this photo of my daughter. I love the expression on her face as she pauses for a peaceful second in the middle of her exploratory rampage about the backyard.

I added a twinge of graininess to the picture, as I thought the B&W theme could call for an old-fashioned feel. Not sure if I pulled it off or not... oh well. :-)



At the time of this posting, there are only about 60 entries so far (out of the usual 200+), and I'd say there are already a Top Ten to be had among those. So, I have no delusions of grandeur with this photo... but I figure, why not?! It's fun! And I love to hear from those of you who visit, so please leave me a comment! (Constructive criticism is welcome. I have a comparatively amateurish camera, so I can only do so much with it, but I appreciate any tips you might have.)

And be sure to check out all the other great entries and join the fun at iheartfaces.blogspot.com!