Fix-It Friday #71 - 4x4

Original

I did all my editing in LR3 today because, well let's be honest, there wasn't MUCH wrong with this awesome shot!! 

All I felt it needed was some creative colouring and maybe a bit of "pull & punch" to make it edgy...

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EDIT ONE

• Used Direct Positive LR preset
• Set recovery ~ +48, exposure .60, brightness -26, 
• dodged the dark side of his face to even out the tones
• burned the sky lightly with a creamy colour brush
• General punch
• sharpening;  +41, 1.2, 15, 60
• NR; 13, 89, 18
• Blacks -14
• Export.
• Publish to Flickr :D

(the sky is way too obviously dodged though, need to work on that ~ probably would do better with that in PSE/Gimp in reality).

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EDIT TWO

Working from Edit One

• Crop to 5X7
• Used Preset Heaven's Yellow-Green Tone
• exposure -1.33, contrast 83, Brightness 22, recovery 56
• General Punch 
• Scenic Sharpening
• Red Settings; luminance -73, Hue -36, Sat 41
• Export & Publish.

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EDIT THREE

working from edit one again

• Crop to 5X7
• applied Preset Heaven 'Wedding Look'
• auto tone
• dodged any darkness in his face and burned over brightness
• contrast -2
• Narrow edge (scenic) sharpen
• General Punch
• recovery 39
• Orange saturation -20
• PC Vignette 2 (changed feathering to 66)
• Vibrance -22
• Export & Publish

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EDIT FOUR

Of course there HAD to be a BW of this shot (working from edit three this time);

• Converted to BW
• contrast 52, recovery 52, Brightness 16, Exposure, -0.05
• Export & Publish

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EDIT FIVE

• From edit Four I just changed the shadow and highlight hues to give a greeny tinge (Shadow 37, Highlight 76)

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My personal critique of my edits this week;


Edit 1~ yucky sky - wish I'd left it alone!
Edit 2~ a little to orange
Edit 3~ DEFINITELY my favourite of the week!
Edits 4 & 5 ~ love them both, 5 wins it for the BW's. :)


What do you think?


POST-SCRIPT...


I read the 'do something about the sky' on iheartfaces, so I felt obliged to do so.
Not so easy in LR, so I took it into gimp, downloaded a sky from here; http://www.flickr.com/photos/leooosterloo/3812218298/
layered it over (set to darken only and lowered opacity), erased from everywhere but the sky (!!), merged down (Gimp 1), duplicated & set layer to 'screen' (Gimp 2). Applied a 'vintage effect' fu (set to screen and lowered opacity), framed. 
Done.


GIMP ~ 1

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GIMP ~ 2

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GIMP ~ 3

OK ~ so NOW my fave is GIMP ~ 3 ;D

To join in with Fix-It-Friday head on over to iheartfaces and link up :D

Communal Global ~ "Around the World"

Paul bought me flowers this week ~ he knows that Lilies are my No.1 favourite :D

Not only are they beautiful, however you look at them...

 but it's like have permanent air freshener in the room, only MUCH nicer!

At least if we haven't had so much summer outside, I can enjoy some inside...

Link up to Communal Global TODAY and share your Tuesday with us :)

Fix-It Friday #70 - Cute as a Button!

This weeks FIF's all edited in LR3 :)
For more fabulous edits head on over to iheartfaces

Black & White Wednesday # 5

A couple of weekends ago we visited some friends, so I took the opportunity to get some shots of them and their beautiful children.

I don't shoot professionally (yet) but one of these live-long days, when I eventually manage to have enough money to buy me a DSLR, I would love to do this for a living.

Meanwhile I practice whenever I can and on whoever will let me.

Most of these were taken candidly, at a distance and/or without the 'victim' knowing I was shooting/about to shoot them ~ that's just my style! I'm not a 'smile & click' photographer, but I am very happy to capture a naturally occurring smile! However, faces to me are not all about the smiles ~ they are so much more than that.

I was very pleased with my shooting this particular weekend and my camera seemed to play well too (it's been a bit temperamental of late).

These are all converted to BW p-p in LR3 and I love each one!

To join in click the LOGO at the top of the page and link up to BW Wednesday :)

Linky Fun!

  

OK ~ so it's not Monday, but hey the linky for Macro Monday is still open and this little lady was too awesome not to share :)

 

This beautiful dragonfly sat on my front wall today, in a glimmer of sunshine, and posed for me ~ quite literally. Each time she flew off she settled right back on the spot my lens was focused on ready for the next click! 

This is my 'dragon's-eye' view for Perceptive Perspective.

(just noticed that Perceptive Perspective has a 'labour' theme this week, but I cannot think of a single relevant shot that I have for that theme ~ yet! My own personal 'labour' won't be until sometime in December, and I won't be taking photos of that event either - I'll be to pre-occupied me thinks!! In any case, I hope I can be forgiven for submitting a non-theme related shot ~ it was taken from a different perspective after-all!)

And as I took these today I figured they qualified for Sweet-Shot Tuesday too :)!!


BTW ~ Click the pictures to see them SUPER-SIZE!!

In a Yellow House ~ On The Water

Joining in this week with Yellow House's challenge :)

I took this on holiday in July. Kite-surfing looks like excellent fun!! 

Communal Global ~ Tuesdays Around the World!

Here's the rest of the story...

I love watching boys play! :)

share your Tuesday with us over at CommunalGlobal...

Fix-It Friday #69 - Forever in Love!

Two UBER quick edits this morning in Lightroom3...

ORIGINAL

EDIT #1

EDIT #2

Click the LOGO at the top to link up and join in :)


With a few spare minutes I took edit #1 into PSE7 and used Childish David's 'babyskin' action (works in the action player of PSE) at reduced opacity & Coffeshop's Perfect Portrait, mostly to soften and lighten Rachel's skin a little & lighten both their faces. It looks softer & gentler now I think :)


#3

A few more just because it's such a lovely picture to play with..!

#4

#5

#6

Original

Edit in Picnik

Silly, slow connection on silly slow laptop ~ this is all I can manage today!!

Better late than never!!

Link up to Fix-It-Friday


POST-SCRIPT ~ looking at this now I am home shows me I NEVER want to edit on that laptop again!! YUK ~ SOOOO pixelated & dark ~ sorry folks!!

Black & White Wednesday # 4 - & - The Gallery # 1

  

One of these is new for me..

A photo I'm proud of...

Well that's a tough one!

I'm proud of so many of my photos for many different reasons, 

but not least because they speak of the journey I have been making these last 18 months.

So here goes...

A repeat ~ purely because I really love it!

I'm proud of moment's captured ~ always to be remembered!

I'm proud of the friendships my girls make, share, and keep!

And I'm proud of this lot because they are mine ~ who wouldn't be!!

(I'm also proud I managed to get them all looking OK in one shot ~ all bar my goofing teen, but hey - that's teens for you!)

I'm proud of this growing young man, who still has a soft spot!

I'm proud of this photo... well, I just am!

And this swan was a bit proud too!

Show us a shot you are proud of ~ for whatever reason and link up to STICKY FINGERS

And if you have a B&W to share with the world, link up to LISA'S BLOG.

See you there!