This Week's Featured Image Week 17

I know I have missed a couple of weeks and I hope that I have not disappointed too many people. The move to New York has been taking a lot of my time, well, at least the preparations for it. So here is last week's image:

This is one of the images I took with my phone after discovering that the digital camera I intended to use would not work. I was rather impressed at how well the images came out, and I think this might be my favorite of the Farm Life Series. I don't recall what all processes I used to attain this look, but it reminds me of some of the very old photos that were taken with some of the first cameras. I hope you enjoyed this image (especially since it was up for like 3 weeks...lol). This image and the other previous Featured Images can be purchased as prints at my Shop.

Note: the image for this week is for a series I have begun that has not yet been posted to my Gallery. Therefore it is not available for purchase at this time.

I ♥ Faces - Fix It Friday #56

Yes it is Friday again, and besides the fact that I get two whole days off in a row now, it is Fix-It-Friday over at I ♥ Faces. I love to participate in these but don't always get to every week. This week's image is of the cutest little twins...well, they may not be the cutest anymore since my niece and nephew were born. ;) Here is the original image:

The submitter of this image loves the interaction of the twins, but thinks it's a bit dull. I agree...while I like the pattern of the background, I didn't care for the dingy gray tones it produces. Here is my fix:

Now for what I did, please keep in mind that I do not use Photoshop, but a program called PhotoImpact. If you wish to follow my steps I am sure that there is something compatable to the actions and such that I used to get these results.

First I went to Smart Curves as I usually do but I could not find a preset that worked well.

Having failed on Smart Curves I went to Brightness and Contrast and increased those to B +20 C +15.

I then went into Color Cast and added just a touch of green to diffuse the red in the image.

I applied a mask to the babies and the white cushion then cut them out.

I opened a picture I took a while back and cut out a little piece of the sky then pasted it to the original image.

I then returned the babies to the original.

I merged all the layers and used clone and blur tool to clean up the edges where I made the cuts.

Lastly I used a font called KRDecoFrames and added the frame to the image.

That's it...hope you enjoyed my fix and to see more click the I ♥ Faces logo below!

I ♥ Faces - Fix It Friday #51

It's that time again! I haven't been posting this week due to feeling rather poorly, but I'm feeling better and I'll have a post up tomorrow about my down and out week. I was going to post it today, but I can't give up the chance to do a Fix-It-Friday from I ♥ Faces! So here we are...the original image:

The request for this image was to bring out the eyes and brighten the colors. Here is my fix:

Now for what I did...keep in mind, I do not use Photoshop, I use a program called PhotoImpact X3. I will give directions for what I did based on what the actions are called in my program, I am sure there are similar actions in every editing program.
First, I used Smart Curves, I am not sure what type of camera was used to take the picture so I ran through all the options available and ended up using the settings for Sony.
Next, I used the clone airbrush at 50% transparency to clone out some of the blurred falling snow that showed up on her right cheek, inbetween her eyes and just a tiny bit of her hat. I also used it to darken her left cheek as it seemed overexposed a bit.
I entered Mask Mode and masked off her entire face, then went into Hue & Saturation and increased the Saturation to +40. That brought out the colors of the scarf and hat nicely without making it look overprocesses in my opionion.
I entered Mask Mode again and blocked everything but her eyes and once again bumped the Saturation to +40. This brightened up her eyes just enough.
Finally, I cropped the image.

That's it! Not too difficult and now there is a brighter photo of a beautiful little girl. To see more fixes, be sure to visit I ♥ Faces and see what others have done, to get there, click the image below.

I ♥ Faces - Fix It Friday #50

It's friday again (thank GOD!) I am so ready for the weekend, here's to hoping I can sleep in late and have a restful weekend. Maybe I'll get motivated to go take some pictures since the kids are both gone for the weekend. Anyway, it is Fix-It-Friday at I ♥ Faces and I've been slacking off lately. I decided I'd have a go at fixing the image for this week. The original image is a great shot, positioning is wonderful, the only problem is that it turned out a bit dark. Here is the original:

I love her eyes, they are gorgeous and the distressed building behind her is a great background. Here is my 'fix':

And now for what I did.... (Disclaimer- as usual I would like to point out that I do NOT use Photoshop, I have a different program called PhotoImpact. I am certain that there are the same or at least similar features and actions to what I used in most photoediting programs, but I will list them as I see them in my program.)

First, I started off using Smart Curves to brighten and lighten the image. Since I wasn't sure what type of camera was used I ran through the list in my program and ended up using the one for Nikon. It produced a nicely brightened image without the graying that will sometimes occur with changing the brightness.

Next, I used an action called Beautify Skin. The posting on I ♥ Faces commented that the taker of the image wanted to learn about smoothing out the skin. The action I used smoothed out her skin just a bit, enough to make a difference, but not so much as to make her look like plastic.

After I smoothed the skin, I used a Clone Airbrush to diminish some of the blemishes that were prominent. I would have liked to have had a larger image to do this with, as it is easier to touch up when the image is larger. My idea was not to make her look fake, so I didn't do a whole lot of touch up here.

Lastly, I used the Enhance Lighting feature to brighten the entire image up just a little bit more. In my program this feature allows adjustment of a Fill Flash and Enhance Shadow. I moved the Enhance Shadow to -40 to make the bright red of the background pop a little more.

Well, there you have it. There are many more fixes to look at on the I ♥ Faces site. Be sure to click the link below to check them out.