Fix-it-Friday - Week 11 - Cooing Baby

Original:

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Edit 1

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Edit 2

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Edit 3

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Edit 4

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Edit 5


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Edit 5 close up


Now what did I do with this gorgeous baby?

In Pain.Net:

duplicate image

lasso, brighten and sharpen eyes - apply

lasso & sharpen lashes (just +7) - apply

soften whole layer (1) (original invisible) -  normal blend

save and continue - edit 1

duplicate layer 

change layer 1 (middle layer) properties - lighten blend, opacity 223.

erase eyes & merge down

Now work in top layer  - opacity 31, - normal blend.

merge down

make original visible.

(save and continue - edit 2)

Make original INvisible again

Apply B&W effect the make very slight long-s luminescence curve.

(save & continue - edit 3)

undo the flattening

make original visible 

Save - edit 4

duplicate layer to make 2nd layer

erase eyes on layer 1 - screen blend - op' very slightly down

flatten & save - edit 5

These were my basic fixes. Then I took all my edits into Picnik and played with rotation & flipping, cropping, vignetting, matte edging, framing and a touch more softening for edits 4 & 5.

I am gradually getting the hang of this layering thing, but paint.net does not have 'create layer mask' buttons!! Gimp has something like it, but it's generally more complicated to use, so I'm starting where I am at. I may have gone around the houses a bit with this, but I got what I wanted in the end!!

(post-script)

I kind-of went crazy, but really all I did was save along the road. At the end of the day the real editing is done in the first fix and there after it's just tweaking and playing and twiddling and fiddling and seeing what I come up with - saving every time I see something that pleases my eye - then going back to play some more!!
I was thinking about 'scrapbooking' the photo, or clip-masking, or texturising - but at the end of the day a baby is just as a baby should be - smooth & fresh and unadulterated beauty (milk spots and all) - that is so fleeting and so absolutely in need of capturing for time immortal. I just didn't want to 'change' this baby in any way, it was just the photo that I wanted to edit - a little ;)

I had fun - I hope you like what you see here and that you had fun too :D

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

done with this lovely photo this week.