5 Faves Friday ~ 7

(my first 'assignment' for a friend ~ she needed a picture for a magazine article she had written ~ I think she used this shot, but in colour.)

FIX-IT-FRIDAY - NO.52- "Just For Fun!"

Original ~ Angie's beautiful daughter :D

__________________

Fix 1

LIGHTROOM 3 (beta)

• Opened RAW image in LR3(beta) ~ never worked with RAW before :D!!
• Auto tone
• punch
• portrait sharpen
• Crop to 7x5

___________________________

Fix 2

From fix 1

• Set WB to 'flash'
• use adjustment brush to dodge her face a little (increase exposure and brightness just a touch) ~ looking good!

_________________

Fix 3

FROM FIX 1

• apply my own preset 'snow natural'
• dodge her face again a little

I liked the warmth of this, so I took it into PSE7...

_______________________

Fix 4

• ... where I cropped it further 
• cloned out the distractions in the background
• used CoffeeShop 'Web Color Block It' action

____________________

Fix 6

• undid the block-it and duplicated
• applied Coffeeshop 'Johnna's memories of sunshine' action
• adjusted layers like so; contrast down to 36%, orange colour fill layer to 18%, blue colour fill layer to 50%
• flatten image
• applied Coffeeshop 'little perk' action
• Flatten

I really like this :D!!

_________________

Fix 7

FROM FIX 1

• applied 'aged photo' preset in LR3 (beta)
• dodged her face a little as in fix 2

_____________________

Fix 8

FROM FIX 6

• back in LR with edit 6, converted to B&W
• changed to B&W and applied 'high contrast BW' preset 
• auto tone
• increased contrast a little
• decreased brightness a touch
• increased recovery a touch
• lightened darks a very little

_________________________________________

Fix 9

• used fix 8 and just applied 'aged photo' preset
• auto tone
• a few lighting adjustment.

I think THIS is my favourite of all!! :)

_________________________________________

POST SCRIPT

(the kids are in bed now, so I did this..)

(words from 'Road to Nowhere' by Talking Heads)

This was fun and easy this week :D 

Hope you like my work Angie!

To join in and have a go, or to see the handiwork of others, hop on over to Fix-It-Friday.

You Capture - Spring

Different Blossoms everywhere you look :)

New Life.

Even weeds are beautiful through the viewfinder!

Playing outside barefoot

The Village in Bloom


For more beautiful Spring pictures hop on over to You Capture ~ and wish Beth well, she's not feeling too grand today :(

Tagged!

I was tagged by Marvellous Mommy (alias Amy)

This is quite fun so I joined in :D

Post your 8th picture in your 8th folder and tell about it. Then tag 8 bloggy friends!

OK ~ so WHICH 8th folder ~ I have my photos divided into main folders differentiated by periods of time (and cameras) and then subfolders of subfolders!! I picked to use the one I'm currently adding to and go from there :)

So here is 8th of the 8th (after Nov 09)  ~ taken 17.11.09.

This is my eldest son (13 this Sunday) working on his maths in school time (he uses an on-line course). Behind him you can see a fraction of our home library and on the lower shelves some of the 'school' resources. Crisps help your brain ~ did you know that?!!


Now to play tag ~ I'm choosing my photobloggy friends for this one!


TJ
Yolanda
Julia
Drew
Becky
Suki
Lisa
Lolli

Blog Award

My friend TJ left me a blog award today for this blog, but I know she won't mind if I transfer it over to my other blog to answer it ~ See you there!

Communal Global ~ "Relax!"

Well, I am a contributor over THERE now (YEAH!!) ~ and this was my entry for today's "Tuesday Around the World" ~ which has a 'relax'ing theme!!

It's not me, but it used to be... my teenage son, lying on his back in the spring sunshine, playing guitar ~ so relaxed!

On Tuesdays YOU get to join in too ~ so hop on over and show the world how you like to RELAX :)

(apologies for those who've seen the picture before!! :))

I ♥ Faces - Fix it Friday - #17- "Smiles!"

I'm not sure this is a winner, but there is something about this photo and the little girls gentle smile that I just love. This is my daughter's best friend ~ she is a crazy, carefree, fun-loving, go-at-it girl ~ she's always messy and loves to be that way ~ there's nothing she loves better than crawling around in our field ~ and it shows in her face :)
There's something about the lack of focus and the messy background that enhances this shot to me, so whether it's a winner technically or not, it's a winner to me!


I had SUCH trouble picking a smile for this week ~ how to choose when I have SOOOO many! :)


To see lots more wonderful smiles head on over to iheartfaces and make yourself happy!

SOOC Saturday/Sunday ~ Sunshine Days!

I love that it's been warm enough to play out in bare feet!

...And to lie on the lawn in the sun with my son (and my/his guitar)...

...watching the bees in the dandelions.

click each picture to see it bigger and better! ;D

Then hop over and get a slurp of life over at Melody's.

YOU CAPTURE - "Sweet!"

"As sure as gold is precious and the honey SWEET...

...so you love this city..

...and you love these streets."

(Robin Mark ~ Revival)

What sweetness have you found in your life this week?

There's plenty over at You Capture ...

FIX-IT-FRIDAY - NO.51 - "Snow Smile"

original

_________________________________

Lightroom3 edit (#1) 

• auto tone
• punch
• my own preset called FB Grungey Glow!
• used iris enhance adjustment brush and set to taste

__________________________________

PSE edit (#2)

• opened edit 1
• opened original
• coverted original to B&W and then placed as a layer on top of edit 1
• set to soft light and reduced opacity ~ this really enhances the colours :D
• merged down
• copied the layer and cloned out the snow on her face using other areas of her face.
• I thought her eye colour was too much altered, so I selected the colour of her eyes from the original, using the dropper, and then in a duplicate layer of this edit I selected her eyes and used the hue adjustment to bring back in her original colour.
• I then reduced the opacity of the duplicate layer until I reached a compromise I liked!

____________________________

Edit #3 

(carrying on from #2) 

• applied my favourite action ~ coffeeshop Johnna's Tea Party
• reduced opacity of both layers and changed top layer to 'soft light' for more punch.

________________________________

Edit #4

(from #2)

Applied PW BW beauty with very little adjustment

_____________________________

Edit #5

(from #2)

applied PW sunshine with reduced opacity to taste.

___________________________

Edit #6

(form #2)

Applied PW sepia tones with no adjustment!

I'm pleased with my edits, but one thing I would also have done is to have dodged under her eyes a little (using a duplicate layer back on the initial PSE edit) to reduce the shadows a touch.

Hope you like my edits.

There are lots of other wonderful edits over at Fix-It-Friday ~ take a look!

5 Faves Friday ~ 6

Having trouble sussing out the new Mckinky, so hope you can link up OK 

Cx