Fix-It-Friday No.34 - Pretty in Pink!

Original.

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This weeks original was pretty lovely without any pp, so it didn't take much to make it stunning. The first thing I noticed were her little bruises on her legs & yellow paint on her arm which, while fitting for any little girl of this age, maybe not so for a flower fairy :D She also had a dark circle around her right eye.

So I fixed those things with a bit of healing, cloning and dodging.

I unsharped masked her eyes to lift them and then...

...I applied 'make wonderful' (a script fu in gimp).

Edit One

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after that I tried to see whether it worked in B&W (again another gimp script).

Then I cropped it and sharpened it in Picnik.

Edit Two

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For the next edit (from edit one) I applied a 'simple duotone' script with a brown base tone.

I sharpened, cropped and rotated in Picnik (I can't find any other program so simple for rotation effects).

Edit Three.

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Continuing to work from edit One I added a little lomo effect (very slight)

Edit Four

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I took edit Four and desaturated it a little;

Edit Five.

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I took edit one into Picnic and played there for a bit...

Cropped.
Applied 'Faded Daguerreotype' (my favourite curve), faded it out and lowered the colour override a touch. Also erased it from her eyes at 70% strength.
I then applied a slightly faded smidge of an s curve to bring out the depth more.
Framed it. (Yummy!!)

Edit Six.

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Back to crop of edit one, I applied the 'Ambrotype' curve (liked it), faded out enough to allow the colours of her outfit to come through a little. Again erased from her eyes at 70% strength.

Edit Seven.

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Lastly I looked at the closest crop I'd made and decided it might look nice with a texture added, so I took it into Paint.net (for a change) and had a go :D

Here is the result;

I added 'brown canvas' (a texture I found on Flickr by Ishkamina, but I can't see it there now!), applied at opacity 120, in colour dodge mode.

I didn't erase it from anywhere as I liked the effect of it :D

Edit Eight.

I hope you had as much fun as I did with this beautiful picture :D

Don't forger to see how everyone else fixed it up over at I ♥ Faces today.

YOU CAPTURE - AUTUMN

I have taken many, many autumn shots this year (just look through the post titles during on October on my 365 blog). Somehow I never seemed to see autumn in the same way I have this year - the challenge of capturing it has opened my eyes enormously.

These are some photos I took just yesterday when Paul and the boys & I went for a walk along the canal in the early evening. The autumn light was amazing. I tried to do it justice. These are mostly SOOC except for a little contrast and brightness adjustment. The colours are as they were :D

Now over to see everyone else's awesome autumn photos at Beth's You Capture challenge :D

I ♥ Faces - Week 42 - “Halloween Dress-Up”

"All dressed up with nowhere to go!"

We don't celebrate Halloween in our family at all -we discuss it, and then let it pass. So instead I have entered a photo I took back in July of my daughter (on the right of the photo with wand in the air) at her ballet open day (the rules say; "If you do not celebrate Halloween, feel free to enter a photo of anyone who is in dress-up for another occasion...").

I was annoyed I chopped of their feet, but I loved the 'bored urban fairies' feel of the photo - leaned against the brick wall with painted goal post and flaky paintwork :D

The only editing this has had is noise reduction, and fiddling with the colour level and contrast in Windows Gallery fix - no Photoshop or Picnik!

I won't be visiting to many blogs this week as I don't support the whole 'Halloween is fun' ethos, but if you're OK with that, then everyone else's entries can be found over at I ♥ Faces :D

Fix-It-Friday No.33 - In The Dark II

original

Edit one (just picnik) - YUK!

Gimp then... Edit Two (much better)

Edit Three (still gimp)

Edit Four - gimp + picnik

Edit Five (gimp+picnik)

Edit Six - just a gimp addon 'action' - old photo

I think what irritiates me most about the Picniked shots is the lack of definition in his hair. I do, however like the rotation in the later edits, and the fact that I managed to get rid of the dark shadows under his eyes. Overall I think I like Edit Three & Five the best - how about you?

No step-by-step this week sorry - I totally lost track of myself, but to begin with I know there were some screen masks to lighten the whole thing, and faded cloning of his face to lessen the over-exposure. And then I know that in gimp I despeckled and I used another add-on that masks and sharpens just the edges. Liked that one!

And now to check out other folks fixes of this tough task over at Fix-it-Friday on I ♥ Faces.

POST-SCRIPT

I was so unhappy with my edits today I decided to come back and have another try this evening - and I am a little happier with the result :D It's a combination of Gimp & Picnik again (that's all I have really), but I think I did something right this time :D It's still not brilliant, but marginally better - maybe?! It's still a bit noisy, but I didn't like it after noiseware, so I left it.

Edit Seven!

YOU CAPTURE - TECHNOLOGY

First I shot inside...

Boy's Toys

Mum's Toys (if I only I could shoot the camera itself!!)

and then I shot outside...

What must life have been like before technology moved in?!

Now check out everyone else's technological captures over at Beth's Blog :D

C U there!

Best Shot - Rainbows, Radiance & Reflections

I cannot claim that these are SOOC this week, but they have only been lightly edited with windows gallery editor - seriously, just a little tweaking of saturation & contrast :D

I have never tried to capture a rainbow before, but this one was not to be missed! In the second, and a teensy bit in the third, you can actually see it was a double :D

Now to check out everyone else's best shots this week over at Loli's Better In Bulk blog...

Fix-It-Friday No.32 - Ballet baby!

Original.

This weeks baby was seriously over-shadowed and a tough call fro editing! I hope you see something good in what I've come up with. I couldn't decide what I wanted from this shot though, I just though it needed to be subtle.

I started off in Gimp to bring up the shadows with layers and then I took the edit into Picnik for effects :D

Edit One (Gimp)

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Edit Two - same as above with canvas effect added (gimp)

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Edit Three (gimp + vintage effect)

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Edit Four (Picnik)

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Edit Five (duo tone blue yellow)

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Edit Six ( Softened + faded daguerreotype + sepia)

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Edit Seven (Same as above less the sepia tones)

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Edit Eight (faded b&w + curves)

It's funny what you don't see though... my son just walked in the room and said - "that's weird, she has one eye darker than the other!" Now, I have been staring at this photo for hours and didn't notice that eye had got darker and darker. Looking back I can see I brought it up in my original edit and it has gradually sunk back down. Hey-ho - what's done is done! I could go back and lasso it and bring it up again, but I need to move on..!

Maybe this might have been a great shot to try out that fairly fantasy tutorial with gimp, but I only just thought of that!!

Now go and take a look at what other wonderful things people have done with this shot over at I ♥ Faces