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.

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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

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Edit Two

as for edit 1, just with a crop.

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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

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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

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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

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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!