Iheartfaces - week 15 - SP - Adult

I seriously don't like ANY of the pictures I have taken of myself, but this was probably the best of the bunch, so much as I don't expect to win any fame for this one, it's here and I've not missed an entry - and you get to see my face. In the sunshine you don't see me without shades and a hat (hence the shady forehead). We have an expression in our house - "if you don't like what you see, just look at the flowers." It's a long story, but I recommend you do just that for this one ;) !!

So there you go - I hate it , but I did it!

Be sure to go check out all the much more beautiful Self-Portraits this week at 

www.iheartfaces.com

IHeartFaces - Week 15 - Self-Portrait - Kids

This was taken when my 3yo and I were messing on the sofa one afternoon,when I was practicing working with no flash indoors (for no-flash week). It's not as crisp and sharp as I would like, but I still love it!  I usually HATE pictures of myself, but this one just seems to encapsulate me when I am happiest - messin' with my kiddos :D We were both laughing together  so much over something very silly! :D

I've converted it to B&W (with a subtle hint of colour) and I like it better still this way - I hope you do too. I think it is actually my first B&W entry :D

I've come to the conclusion that my not-so-little bridge camera simply does not have what it takes to shoot lovely sharp shots indoors without either using the flash, taking the f/ stop right down and/or taking down the shutter speed to something impossible to work with free-hand (like 1/5), seriously bumping up the ISO, which then looks grainy and yuk - and besides it only goes up to 800 (which for my dark UK lounge is not really enough), or a weird combination of all of the above. The flash though adds something orangey, so I like to TRY and work without atm - it's good practice anyway :D If anyone has any tips on using a Canon S3 INDOORS in a not so light room I will be eternally grateful :D I'll add 

ISO probably 800 

Exif:

I'm not sure if I can convince myself to enter the adult catagory this week though, just can't seem to get a shot I like well enough to make it public! :( I'll try again today - the sun is shining so I can shoot outside - but we'll see...

Be sure to go check out all the beautiful self-portraits this week over at

www.iheartfaces.com!

Fix-It-Friday Wk 10 - Peek-A -Boo-Baby

Original.

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Edit One.

This was basically just lassoo around child and sharpen, cropping out excess rock face + cloning out the black in the background (using Paint.net). The cloning is not as good as Amy's cloning though! I decided I wanted to keep a fair amount of the rock to maintain the archway and the sense of walking through something, so I just cropped of a bit all round and pushed the boy over to the right in so doing.

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Edit Two.

Not really sure what I did, but I took the picture into Picnik and played! I know I used some focal zoom with lightening effect. I thought it gave the look of walking through a ray of sunshine :D I then rotated it slightly for effect. Then I recoloured his trousers (as I felt they were distractingly bright) using the 'tone' tool on darken. I added a matt edging and slight frame to match trousers. There may have been some other tweeks, but I can't remember them!

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Edit three.

I'd done lighter, so I thought I'd try darker! Problem is I 've no idea what I did!! It did involve faded LOMO, vibrance and some desaturation - I know that much. I vignetted the edge and then added a clip-mask frame from HERE. I quite like it but not as much as the first edit.

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Edit four.

For fun I thought - "well it's a bit blurry - let's play with that," so back in paint.net I added the zoom blur with just his face in focus. I liked it! It made him look like he was walking through a warp-tunnel!!

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Edit Five.

And lastly I thought I'd like to try it in B&W but couldn't get it looking anything special, until I fiddled with the zoomed edit - and this was the result! I think it brings your focus almost entirely onto his face and although it's not fantasic I do like it - in a wacky kind of way!! Added another clip frame too, but not sure whether it might have been better left without - I just like frames I s'pose :)

Now, don't forget to take a look at what other folks have

done with this lovely photo this week.

Week 14 - Spring-Easter

I was all out  of 'flowers' in her hair spring shots (just didn't have any good enough). And then I remembered the sparkly bunny ears we got given a couple of years ago, so decided to pose a few shots in the garden - in front of this gorgeous blossoming bush  - it turned out well :)

This was a posed shot turned candid when I tried to get P to say "supercalorfragilisticexpialodocious"! 

I really was unsure of which catagory to go for this week. I think I qualify in 'amature' so I've gone for that - I knew i didn't stand a chance against all the pro's who are obviously going to use the other 'kids' slot this week. I'm just not sure I am good enough yet to sit in the 'amature' catagory either - but I am learning daily, saving for a course, reading lots on the net, improving slowly and definately aware of how much more there is for me to learn!

Please leave your comments (it's working now!!) and let me know what you think of my shot. I'm open to suggestions on how YOU would work with it too :D

I thought I'd add the Exif (shot in manual mode):

Don't forget to take a look and see all the other lovely 

Spring and Easter faces over at www.iheartfaces.com!"

Constructive Criticism Friday

OK - Here is my original shot (right at the top) and all my edits of it following. This is the daughter of some close friends of ours - isn't she beautiful! I spent hours on this and am actually quite pleased with the results, BUT there are always things that can be made better, so I'd like to hear what you think and what you would do to make these even better. Is there something I am missing? 

Most of my editing is done in Picnik, with a little in Paint.net (eyes mainly) & Gimp.

Camera - Canon Powershot S3 IS - EXIF....

I have NO idea why I was shooting on 400 ISO - I was in a really light conservatory area! I think I just forgot to turning it down again. I was to-ing and fro-ing between this conservatory and a much darker indoor space. It was hard to stay in manual mode, but I did and for the most part succeeded in getting some great shots :D Despite the high ISO I do actually quite like the brightness of the face and photo as a whole. Obviously the glass behind E is a problem, and even more so the 'mess' behind her, hence the replacement of the background with something more fitting - which took me an age to get right - so fiddly! Is it any less fiddly with PS (which I do not have and won't have any time soon!)?

There will be lots to learn this Friday over at I ♥ Faces I am sure, 

so make sure you go have a look what's happening on other people's 

'Constructive Criticism Friday' posts :D

Week 13 - My Friend & I - Love hugs.

Looking through the entries this week I see that many have chosen to enter sibling friendships. With 7 children I have a mountain of those shots (gladly), but I wanted to challenge myself to find one that was NOT of two of my children, but of one of them with a best friend (they do each have one). As it turns out I don't have too many - note to self - must take more!! I have a fair few photos of their friends but not with them in too! 

So in the end it came down to this (or go back on my self-promise).

This photo is of my daughter and her best friend (S). It was taken a couple of years ago, but their friendship remains constant, despite some distance between them. I just love the softness of their embrace, just before S was to leave for home. They are ebony and ivory these girls - S is dark skinned with flowing almost-black curls and my Ellie is as fair as they come with the straightest, whitest hair you can imagine! Sadly the photo was a 'grab the camera' shot and has needed editing severely to bring it to this standard (including loosing the colour), but all the same it's one of my favourite shots of this relationship. I realise it's likely not to be prize-winning material, but it IS beautiful all the same & I hope you love it as much as I do :D

Remember to go take a look at all the other faces of friendship this week at...

www.iheartfaces.com!

Week 13 - My friend(s) and I - 20yr Reunion.

Ok - I know the description for this week is my FRIEND (x1) and I, but this truely was the best photo I have of myself with any of my friends (I'm the one in the middle), so I'm hoping you will forgive me having two friends in the picture! I'm usually the one taking the photo and hiding behind the viewfinder!!

The photo was taken at our school reunion, marking 20yrs since we all left school! Meeting up with these two, after so many years, was very special to me and made school seem but a whisker of time since. I hope it won't be another 20 years before I see them again, but time does fly by so very quickly...

Taken in a dark nightclub (by my husband), with auto flash on my little P&S, the quality is not top-notch, but all the same it does capture the moment well - and somehow I figure it is more important to capture the moment than to miss for the sake of quality (even better if both is possible I know!!).

I have pp'd this to improve it some - I hope you like the result :) . I thought I would go with B&W to give it a more timeless quality. I nearly went with a 1970's colour set (as we are all 1970's girls!), but this simply looked better in the end :) .

Make sure you go & check out all the beautiful faces of friendship this week at...

www.iheartfaces.com!

Fix-it-Friday - Week 9 - Senior Spirit.

Original;



Fix 1


Fix 2


Fix3


Fix 4


We began with beautiful girl in a blurry picture this week, but I hope you like my fixes (not sure I do though!!) :D

Here are my steps - all with freebie programs!

Open file in Paint.net
Sharpen whole shot 7 points
Reduce noise 0.10 and 0.10

Lasso the eyes and sharpen just them another 7 points.

Save and open up in Picnik

Exposure tab; check local contrast and reduce strenth (to about a third), notch up the shadows a touch and the highlights about half way (forgot to note numbers), +20 exposure and +17 contrast.  (this gives an over all contrasty look, which I feel was necessary to loose the blur).

Rotate - to the left enough to loose weeds and drain on the right.

No for the fun bit!!

Fix 1 - simple B&W with fade to about 18% on a turquiose colour selection. Enough to bring up the green of the dress and the gold of the pompom  little, but leave everything else untouched.

Fix 2 - very similar, but this time used Hogla, faded out a touch and made a little more grainy.

Fix 3 - HDR-ish set to 20/200/77  + Boost 17

Fix 4 - same as  fix 3 above , but with added vignette at 40/40/0 & the words overlayed & faded slightly. These are from the Shabby Princess (thanks for the link Angie!).

I haven't framed any of them this time, I thought I just wouldn't this week.

All four fixes took me less than an hour to do - perhaps that shows a little to much!

Then I played some more and did these last two - only don't ask me what I did - I JUST PLAYED!! I know I used zoominess and fix 5 has cinemascope effect applied, other than that..?!

Fix 5.

Fix 6.

At the end of the day though, I'm not sure I like any of my fixes that much this week - and maybe get the 'could do better' sticker!! I just couldn't seem to get a handle on this shot, or get the clarity up to how I'd like to see it - and how others seem to have managed to. There are definately much, much better fixes than mine about this week!!

Any and all comments welcome as ever and... 

Don't forget to take a look at what other folks have

done with this lovely photo this week.

I heart Face - Week 12 - Pouting

I took this the other evening, whilst trying to get some 'no flash' shots. It wasn't the best focus, but with a little editing..! Not sure why C. was pouting, probably just was! I didn't actually seem to have many pouty shots of my kids. I've been trying for weeks to get a few, but they simply hide their pouty faces when they see my coming - hehe! I Need one of those spy lenses from photojojo :)

And just for those of you who may have been looking at my photos for a few weeks now, Yes, my children's eyes ARE that dark. They are so dark brown that they nearly always shoot black. I haven't touched C's eyes in this picture at all - not sharpened, or brightened, or anything additional to that which I did to the picture as a whole. I love how glassey they look :)

Comments and criticisms welcome as always :D

Cx

"Be sure to go check out all the beautiful faces at www.iheartfaces.com!"

Fix--it-Friday Beautiful Blues

Original

Edit One (well with a lot of saves along the way!)




Now for the HOW! 

My first response this week was... Ewww - tough one!! First things first was to lighten and brighten it all up so I could see what I was working with! Once that was done I felf her mouth was quite red and that was distracting from the eyes. I also did not like the colour of the background as it was too similar to her hair. I did try cutting her out at one point, and putting her on a more interesting background, but I simply do not have good enough software to make a good job of that - my edges are too sharp and obvious. So I abandoned that and went with taking the colour out of the backfournd/recolouring it instead. I hope you like my tweeks :D

Comments & suggestions are always more than welcome - good AND bad!!

Using PICNIK

1. Exposure adjust - local contrast checked, Bright 47, Shadow 21, Highlight 18, exp 7, contrast 15
   
2. Take into Paint.net lasso eyes and brighten then back to Picnik
3. Sharpen a little
4. Crop and Rotate so that eyes are in 2/3 intersection
5. Clone teeth to whiten up
6. Eye fix - select blue and fade to 56%
7. shine be gone to nose and cheeks
8. soften slightly and erase around eyes
9. Ortenish - bloom 30, b&f both 50%
10. B&W - fade 85%
11. colours - pick eyes as neutral colour
12. sepia - warm ++ (forgot to note the No.) and then erase from child.
13. Exposure (again) - 18, contrast -10
14. B&W (again) 69% fade with mid-blue filter
15. Vignette - 26-25-46
16. Frame - pick her left eye for outer frame colour (size 25) , inner size 11

Here is a collage of the main stops of the journey!!

No true B&W or sepia this week as I was trying to stay with the 'beautiful blues' idea, and bring out her lovely blue eyes. I nearly went with lots of blue in the background etc, but decided in the end that this would only detract from her eyes, rather than enhance them.

I think possibly I like stage 13 a little better than the end point of this fix - I can't decide!!

Don't forget to take a look at what other folks have

done with this lovely photo this week.

No Flash - IHeartFaces - Week 11

Well, for those of you who have seen my kids entry this week, like son - like father :D

Here is my shot of my husband this Saturday. I particularly liked the reflections in his glasses. I haven't done too much to this photo either in terms of pp. Autofix, crop, cinemascope and add text - c'est tout!

He's getting a bit fed up of me putting photos of him on here though, so I'm going to have to find another subject soon! I can't help it that he has such a nice photogenic face ;) I nearly used two of a couple of my friend's this week, but this one won over in the end - again!

"Be sure to go check out all the beautiful 'no-flash' faces at www.iheartfaces.com!"

IheartFaces - Week 11 - No Flash

Watching and Yearning...

This week has not been an easy pick. I was tied to outdoor photos as I only have a p&s atm which does NOT take pictures indoors without a flash. So outdoors meant very recent (old camera was not as good as even this one), or snow!! I entered a snow pic last week, so didn't want to do that again. I also wanted one with nice shiny eyes :)

This lovely photo was taken of my baby just this Saturday as he watched his siblings playing in a waterfall in the Lake District. I could see he was longing to join them - and he will soon enough of course.

I haven't done very much to this  photo - is was pretty good sooc, but I wanted to add 'effect' to it, so i simply auto-fixed, cropped a very little, sharpened his eyes a touch and applied a faded hoglaish (picnik), just to bring back the blues a bit. Vingnette, and frame with black and blue - and that was it.

What do you think?

"Be sure to go check out all the beautiful faces at www.iheartfaces.com!"

Fix-it-Friday - Dimpled Darling.

How or why do you edit the perfect photo? Just for fun I guess..! This photo was absolultely gorgeous in the original, but it's always fun to see what can be done even with the best of photos :D

Edit one...

• magnetic lasso to sharpen eyes in paint.net
  
• into picnik
  
• slight rotate and slight crop to bring in closer. I didn't want to lose the light on his hair though, just the tufts and the excess background above them!
  
• sharpen whole picture just slightly.
  
• exposure - advanced - check local contrast, but lower the strength. Up the shadows slightly and the highlights a fair bit. Up the overall exposure a touch and leave contrast alone. 
  
• into create tab;
  
• b&w - pick out red on shirt (missed the lion - oops!) and colour of background in original - apply
  
• soften very slightly, but unsoften the eyes.
  
• boost colour - just a touch
  
• apply 1970's with round corners.
  
• vignette very slightly (black)
  
• frame with rounded frame, boarder, rounded frame - deep brown colour.
  
• apply and save.
  

edit two...

The background was blurred enough, but it was distractingly yellow and I was having difficulty bringing the colour down without loosing to much colour elsewhere, so I decided to do something different altogether  - hope you like it :D

• Fix eyes rotation and crop just as above (i was happy with that part!).
  
• Then I sharpened and lightened it slightly.
  
• Took into Paint.net to cut out Mr Dimples (magic wand) and saved as png.
  
• Back into Picnik.
  
• uploaded a background I had and dragged Mr Dimples onto it - and flipped him. 
  
• Fiddled a bit with colours and contrasts (recoloured the background to hide the edging to the cut out better)
  
• Added border
  
• Added text.
  
• Combine 
• Sharpen the whole thing a stack
• save :)
  

BTW - I always do my first edit or two before I look at anyone else's just to see what I can come up with!

Don't forget to take a look at what other folks have

done with this lovely photo this week.

Going Green - I ♥ Faces week 10

This weeks theme has presented me with a real challenge. In the end I was down to two pictures for possible entry. This is the one that won the day. I hope you like it :D

If you're curious to see the loser see HERE.

It was not an easy choice, but this one was more 'green' and I especially like the way it contrasts with the white snow and the glow of the fur on her hood. The picture quality of the original was sadly not as good as I like to work with, but with a little enhancement (thankyou Picnik!) I don't think it makes a bad photo. Comments welcome - PLEASE - as ever :D

I'm not entering an adult pic this week - kids was hard enough and my only green adult photo I've already used on the messy week - and it wasn't a very good photo anyway!

"Don't forget to go and take a look at all the beautiful faces this week at www.iheartfaces.com!"