I ♥ Faces - Week 47 - “We ♥ Tooshies” Photo Challenge

“We ♥ Tooshies” Photo Challenge

This was taken at my daughter's ballet open day back in July. I hope you love it as much as I do :D

(And yes, for anyone who was here earlier I HAVE changed out the picture!!)

To join in the fun from behind this week, check out all the other entries

over at I ♥ Faces - C U there!!

Best Shot - Birthdays

There are many things I am thankful for, and although we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving as such here in the UK, that does not need to stop me thinking about the things I am thankful for…

I am Thankful for my family – near and far. I am Thankful for my seven beautiful small (and not so small) blessings – all fit and healthy, and for the blessing of a healthy body in which I have carried each one, birthed each one and with which I can raise them. I am Thankful for the blessing of a beautiful home, surrounded by countryside and wildlife. I am Thankful for the Love of a wonderful husband and a yet more Wonderful God!! :D 

Today was Lilo’s 6th Birthday. The morning was bright and sunny and lent itself beautifully to me getting some nice shots of her on her special day  - and a few of my other blessings too ! (SOOC ) :D

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

 



 

Now take a look at everyone else’s Best Shot over on Lolli’s Better in Bulk :D

I ♥ Faces - Week 46 - Sun Flare

We have ONE DAY with any sunshine at all in TWO WEEKS. I grabbed the chance while it was there! I have taken lots of lovely autumn shots with flare, but not one with a face in too - what a challenge!

Here's what I got :D

"Look Mummy, a book! What does it say?

"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."

Time to take a look at how everyone else found their flare this week ;D over at I ♥ Faces

You Capture - Food

We were at a friends party and the children made these little hedgehogs. (Half a chocolate fairy cake, chocolate butter icing, pieces of 'Flake' bar and silver balls for eyes - messy fun!! ).

WARNING! Not the worlds best photos!

_______________________________

And then Monday there was this happening in my kitchen!! It just got funner- and funner!! :D

What do you think - a cottage industry in the making?..!

Now make your mouths water and go take a look at all the other lovely, yummy food shots this week over at Beth's You Capture.

BEST SHOT - SUN FLARE & SEASONS

I'm going to cheat today, to save posting twice, and send you over to my

365 in Pictures

(where I am seriously not managing to keep to my maximum 'allowed' of 5 a day!).

I hope you like what you see when you get there (please leave a comment or two!!)

And then don't forget to check out everyone elses Best Shot this week over on Lolli's Better in Bulk blog :D

You Capture - Sunset

Having cheated in my Mr Linky this week (by sending you back to old posts!) I then had an opportunity to get some shots yesterday :D For the first time in a week the weather was warm enough to venture out with my kids and my camera. I got some fantastic pictures (check out my 365 in Pictures blog) and by the time we got home the sun was going down - like I didn't plan that!! ;D

So here they are...

______________________________

___________________

And here's the 'cheating' links to all the other Sunrise / Sunset shots I've taken since I got my S3 back in March.

I bet there are some fantastic skies to be seen over on Beth's You Capture this week - I'm off to see them!

Having read Julie's comments (WOW - Julie Riviera liked my photo!! ;-D) I decided to play with the tree silhouette and add my exif data to the moon shots.

You might be wondering why I kept my ISO at 100 - that is simply because above that the moon would get lost in the noise that my S3 creates. Fortunately the S3 does have image stabilisation so the 1/50 was fine. I can actually hand hold at about 1/20 and get reasonable shots!! The WB was set to daylight- because it was daylight! I didn't want to loose that fact, represented by the still-blue sky. This time of year it is not uncommon for us to have sun and moon together in the sky - although the was going down of course!

Here's the 'increased contrast' edit - what do you think?

and for comparison sake...

FIX-IT-FRIDAY - NO.37 - "Little Leaf Lady!"

As you all might have gathered by now - I LOVE fix it friday - I have such fun!! This weeks shot was again gorgeous. It needed very little doing. What did I notice? I noticed that the little lady was in the shadows and the whole picture was lacking a little contrast and 'umph'! I also noticed that little lady was a little less than tac sharp. So here's what I did..!

Original.

______________________________

Edit One

• I selected around the entire shadowy area, containing leaves and girl, and made a layer mask with it. I then adjusted the curve of this mask layer until it matched the brighter areas of the rest of the picture. - deselect & flatten
• I selected the girl - made layer mask - unsharp mask (gently!) - deselect -merge down
• I selected JUST the eyes - repeat unsharp mask - deselect - flatten
• duplicate layer
• used 'local contrast adjustment' script (at about level 12) on the whole image to give more contrast (erased from the face a little with a low opacity soft eraser)
• added my watermark :D

_________________________________

Edit Two

as for edit 1, just with a crop.

__________________________________

Edit Three

• Duplicated background layer twice.
• Created a layer mask of her face again with top visible layer.
• applied coffee coloured duo tone script to the layer mask (effectively her face) and merged down (to second background layer duplicate).
• Applied a cross light script to the lowest visible layer.
• Moved the top layer below the cross light layer.
• lowered the opacity of the cross light and erased from her face (with soft, medium opacity eraser).
• Made the now top layer a screen layer for 'haze' effect.
• Flatten - save :D

_____________________________________

Edit Four

From edit 2 -

• Duplicated
• masked her face and hair (again)
• applied a 'Lasm's LAB colour Punch' script to background layer -
• lower the opacity slightly
• lowered the opacity of layer mask a touch to blend in better
• flattened

__________________________

Edit Five

INTO PICNIK!

• 
  
• Rotated
• applied boost, faded - and erased from face with low opacity brush
• applied vivid - faded - and erased from face as above
• Framed
• reapplied watermark using 'text'
• Saved

__________________________________

Edit Six

still in Picnik

• I used Edit Five but took it back to just after the rotation!
• Applied Tri-X 400 Curve and adjusted slightly to deepen the blacks
• reapplied the watermark
• added border frame with increased corner radius
• added curved corners (to match the border)
• Save.

I hope you like some or all of my edits. Sorry I'm late publishing - Paul was busy preparing a sermon on the computer all day.

I have now bought PSE7 - but I actually don't like it as much as Gimp!! It doesn't have as many features believe it or not! You just need to know where you are going with Gimp and it's lovely to use. I guess it's the same with PSE and I will play with it (have managed some nice edits already), but it just isn't as easy to find your way around. There are pro and cons to both though :D

Anyway - off to check out all the other lovely fixes of this Little Leaf Lady over at I ♥ Faces :D Please join me!