I ♥ Faces │ Fix it Friday

Couldn't pass up trying the Fix-it Friday this week.



The photo was pretty underexposed so I did open it in Camera Raw and adjusted exposure. This revealed a bit of noise, so I ran the photo thru my community Noiseware (free for PC users) version just to clean it up a bit.

In CS3
* I cropped the photo, tilting it a bit and bringing it in tighter.


* I added a new layer and cloned the skin under her eyes to brighten the dark circles


* I did 3 different level adjustment layers with masks to correct the exposure on the little girl 1)her overall 2)around her forehead and eyes 3)and her arms


* I did 3 different hue/saturation layers and 1)masked her shirt popping the pinks a bit, 2) masked her lips, just giving them a hint of more color and 3)masked only a portion of the pinball game so we could more easily see what she was studying


* Then I did an overall color balance layer to warm the photo


* Then I masked just her face and did a curves adjustment to warm her up a bit more by dropping the cyans and raising the yellows just a little.


*then I did one final curves adjustment to lighten the overall photo, masking back the background to minimize its distraction.

I find it so amazing that its hard to see the little changes in each step, but the overall effect is such a big difference from the original.

This is always good practice for snapshots I sometimes get to include in my photo card work.

off to check out other fix-its and how some of the contributor's achieved their fixes - you can see more here

I ♥ Faces │ Fix It Friday

Felt the need to do a little edit this morning of someone that didn't belong to me.

I have scrapbook work to do, but nothing like a little distraction for fun.





for my fix-it

I adjusted the white balance just a smidge in Camera Raw to warm the photo

In CS3
* I cropped the photo to a 6x4, ended up with her eyes dead center, which I know is not the best, but I think its ok for this one

*I did a levels adjustment layer and masked just the areas I thought were severely shadowed, then lightened the midtones and brought the blacks in

* then I did a curves adjustment layer for the same masked area to correct the color - she seemed a bit green (maybe a cast from the grass?)

* then I did a hue/saturation layer on a sky with a big soft brush to make the cyans bluer - I just like blue skies

* finally, I bumped the saturation of the whole photo just a smidge

with more time, I would have fiddled with the skin on her elbows a bit

off to check out other fix-its and how some of the contributor's achieved their fixes - you can see more here

I ♥ Faces │ Week 7 Dancing

this is my first entry for I ♥ Faces, and as much as I would have loved to take a new photo of the girls dancing, this one just makes my heart sing.