SOOC SATURDAY - THAT'S MY LIFE...

I wasn't sure what to post this week, but here's a few shots that say something about my life as Mum of seven and a 'wanna-be' photographer living in a beautiful place! I'm trying..!

I was lacking some inspiration in my shots this week, but next we are taking a holiday so I'll have something, somewhere & somebody different to capture - and that will be good :D

Best go see what other more fantastic SOOC shot folks have taken this week over at Slurping Life :D

Fix-It-Friday No.26 - Beauty

This weeks original (beautiful) image!!

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For photos that are this good right from the start I just play in Picnik as there is no major adjusting that needs doing - it's just having fun :D

So...

Edit one.

Exposure +15, Contrast +15, Local Contrast 20, Shadows +11,

Colours - neutral to colour mortar in bricks, Temp +11, Sat -12

Rotate -2.30

Crop 5x7 and off-centre.

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Edit Two

from edit one then added Vignette, but chose purple shade, faded it and made it weak.

Added frame to match hair and dress.

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Edit Three

back to edit one (remove vignette & frame)

Added sepia (light brown shade) and faded to 60%

UnSharp - radius 2.7, strength 86%

(I liked it sharpened ;D)

Boost 11% and remove from bricks

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Edit Four.

removed the boost

worked with 'shine be gone' on her face.

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Edit Five.

Wanted to try something different!

Worked with edit four and took into curves. I made a deep U curve and removed from the bricks. I liked how it picked her off the wall, but she looked a little orange, so...

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Edit Six

... increased exposure +15

& added 'faded daguerreotype' (in curves) faded to 50%

framed to match.

Added a quote.

This is my favourite I think :D

I'm posting this a day late! But I'm still going to

check out everyone elses artistry with this amazing photo over at I ♥ Faces.

YOU CAPTURE - FOOD

Nature provides the BEST food!..

(Bill may steal my pears...

...but he's not getting my blackberries!)

...and the most DELICIOUS mutilations!!

These are all more-or-less SOOC except for a bit of cropping, a touch of warming and some increasing of contrast. The first one (plums) is totally SOOC.

I've really enjoyed shooting food this week - as you may tell! It's not my usual subject, but it's been fun :D

Now don't forget to go and slurp up some more of this week's delicious entries.

I ♥ Faces - Week 33 - "Nostalgia"

This week it's been a tough one and I think I'll only just get this in in time, but it's nowhere near good enough to win, but hey - its the entering that counts right?! :D

This was taken on my very first Digital P&S -an Olympus Optical C22OZ - 2MP!! It was a pretty good camera at the time and it would still work had I not dropped it and broken the battery compartment door. Glad I did though, because it was the gateway to better things..!

Anyway...I digress! The photo:

I remember when my oldest four were my only four and they all fitted in a not-so-big bath together! Now they wouldn't dream of sharing a bath (well the two girls might, but they couldn't all the same!). Where did my babies go? :( The years roll by so quickly. In these days my eldest could barely read and write, now he has two blogs and shoots some pretty neat photographs himself - on a much better camera than I ever had my hands on at his age!

I've given the photo the kind of appearance I remember mine having when I was about his age now (12) taking pictures on a little 110 and paying for the developing from my pocket money. I was devoted to photos even way back then!! I remember them having rounded corners and a sort of yellowy look about them. They often disappointed me as I didn't have zoom and they weren't often the picture I had in my mind when I shot it. I still have those photos now and when I occasionally sift through my 'old photos box' (usually when we're moving house), I am only too glad of them now, to remind of times I would otherwise have long since forgotten.

When you are done looking here, don't forget to go and be 'nostalgic'

with so many other people over at I ♥ Faces this week.

Best Shot - Tired Old Dog!

Some of my favourite shots this week (so far) were taken at my friend's birthday party and I've already posted them, but not this one. I am not an animal lover, but Scrappy is my friend's lovely old dog. I tried to take some good photos of him for my friend, as he is increasingly unfit and may not be with them by this time next summer :( That said, he thinks he is still a puppy and tries so hard to play with the children! That is, until he is sore and exhausted and just can't keep going any more. Here he is all played out...

...and after a little editing :D

Now click the button and have fun looking at everyone else's BEST SHOT this week, over of Lolli's blog :D

POST-SCRIPT -
Just entering this for this weeks I ♥ Faces too (14.9.09) as it's Pets week and non-competitive (thought I'd get away with the three shots because there's no winner!) ;D

Don't forget to go and see everyone's  wonderful entries!

SOOC Saturday - Party Time!

My friend had her birthday 'rounders' party today.

It was a really fun occasion, but as I don't play anything that involves a bat (can't hit), ball (can't catch and have bad shoulder so can't throw), or running (ermmm - seven kids!!) I volunteered to be the photographer instead!! It's difficult to get really close up to a bat-n-ball game without being in the way, so I shot the action from a distance and took lots of shots of people 'being' on the field. Here's just two of the very many. The next one is of L - she is simply stunning and knew exactly how to avoid the gaze of the lense and yet not avoid the shot - I took LOTS of her and I'm going to have fun editing them :D

Later we retired to the garden. Here is Sam and Luch' sitting in her lovely garden on a sunny summer evening!

SOOC Saturday/Sunday is great fun - hosted byMelody over at 'slurping life' - come & join in!! Go-on, You know you want to..!

Fix-It-Friday No.25 - No Limits

Right out of the bag this week's shot was lovely, so it was really fun to play with!! I went to town a bit :D

Here is the Original.

I've edited this on my laptop tonight and sometimes it doesn't look so good on my PC when I do that, so I hope it's OK for you folks.

Initial Edit.


Here's what I did (I think);

• Adjust exposure; Exp+30, contrast 24, Highlights 9, Shadow 12, Brightness+11, Local Contrat 32%
• Unsharp maks; R1.2, S29%
• Flip & rotate + 10.23
• Eyebrigh - Light-23, fade 58%
• Clone out the red in the eyes (a red reflection)
• Adjust lip colour VERY slightly as they were very pale.
• Sepia - to a yellow-brown tone & faded 53%
• Vibrance 25% - erase from eyes
• Clone his right earlobes and fade out (to remove the yellow glow!)
• Soften & fade 80% (remove from eyes, brows, lips and nostrils).
• Boost 5%
• Matte 28/20/49
• Frame.

From this foundation all the rest came, but I'm not sure how!!

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Edit two

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Edit three

I think this was the most difficult to get the balanences of light and shadow, but I like the end result. How about you?

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Edit four (blue to yellow - faded)

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Edit six (polachrome yellowed -faded)

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Edit Seven (faded dageurreotype)

By now his glowing yellow right ear was beginning to annoy me (it had all along, but to repeatedly clone it out was a pain), so I chopped it out with a little cropping and more rotating - I like it!

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Edit eight (as above with HDLR aded & adjusted)

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Edit Nine!! (green fade with Hdlr added & adjusted)

Now head on over to I ♥ Faces to see all the other wonderful edits that people have come up with this week :D

POST-SCRIPT:

I have just come onto my PC (now my hubby has gone to bed) and the colours of my edits look SO completely different here. They look lighter to the point of over bright mostly, and way more yellow-ey :( So if you think "that's to over-exposed now" or "that needs less yellow" - well it may well have been edited how you are thinking it should have been, but that's not what you are seeing ! It's very annoying tbh, but I'm too tired to go back and re-adjust them all now. It does make me wonder though how our screens affect our opinions of the pictures we view and how an image can look so completely different on two different screens. Hey-ho!