Touch Up Tuesday: Elf

My little elf edit of my daughter for Christmas! I worked with the Liquify tool for her nose and ears. Added a later of blue for her hair (and switched that layer to overlay and adjusted the opacity to 50%). Added rosy cheeks and lips! AND: done! It was really fast and fun! I hope you all had a lovely holiday!

Touch Up Tuesday

Before and After:

Edit: ALL I did for this edit was to run the Florabella Afternoon action and adjust some of the settings. That's it! I just wanted to add a little lighting.

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Touch Up Tuesday: Bubbles

SOOC and After:

Edit: So, I know I talk about my love for the Florabella actions A LOT... BUT, I do love them. And, if you use actions a lot in your editing... you'll understand that finding that perfect/favorite recipe of actions blends is the best! I've been playing around with this blend from Florabella: First Sharpen/Defog, Center Fill-Light (opacity lowered to 25%), Soft Sunshine, Afternoon, and then Sheer haze (opacity lowered to 30%). One of my fave blends!




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Touch Up Tuesday: Happy Summer!

Edit: First I cleaned up the dark spots on her face... then I worked on the brightness and contrast. From there I ran the Afternoon action from Florabella. And, a sheer haze action after that. 

I hope you all are enjoying your summer! Ruari is!

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Touch Up Tuesday: Eye pop

SOOC and After:

Edit: For this edit I really wanted to make Ruari's eyes pop! First I adjusted the contrast/brightness... etc. and cleaned up the shadows using my clone tool (I also removed that little bit of pacifier and the crusty under her nose).

Next I ran my Florabella Sharpen/Defog action. Flattened... and ran that same action a second time! But, this time I erased the sharpen/defog over everything BUT her eyes, just for a little extra pop. Then, I ran my Florabella Afternoon action (that gave it the golden glow). And lastly, I ran the Florabella Sheer Haze action. I lowered the Sheer Haze layers opacity to 25% and erased the layer just over her eyes... for just a teeny bit more pop. :) AND, that's it!




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Link up your Touch Ups below! Linky's always close at 11:59 PM Wednesday evenings (Pacific time).

Show and Tell: Green

Inspiration: Green

Show:

Tell: Nice enough weather to play in some water on the soft green grass!!!

...................................  
You are welcome to link up to your blog post or a flickr photo. Please link back to Paper Heart Camera. Thank you!

Link up closes on Thursday's at 11:59 PM my time. :)

Note:
Once a month we will give you a one word (sometimes 2) inspiration/suggested prompt for a self portrait challenge. Have fun with this! This next months self challenge will be up on July 31st and the suggested challenge word is "Floor".

Touch Up Tuesday: Cropping

SOOC:

After:

Edit: I don't crop my photos that often... but, sometimes I just want to get in there and focus on a certain part of a photo. I actually like my SOOC... but, I really loved Ruari's sweet little face... so, I cropped it so I could see it better.




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Touch Up Tuesday: Ruari

SOOC:

After:

Edit: I wanted to give this sweet photo of Ruari a little more pop. I adjusted the brightness/contrast and ran a couple Florabella actions. Then I ran a sheer haze action and erased over her eyes to keep them popping.

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Show and Tell Challenge: Silhouette

Ha! I completely spaced this weeks challenge! I was driving home from Seattle on Sunday. Just now catching up!!! :D

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Inspiration: Silhouette

Show:

Tell: I just snapped a photo of Mike and Ruari real fast one night. Love their little silhouettes. :)

...................................  

You are welcome to link up to your blog post or a flickr photo. Please link back to Paper Heart Camera. Thank you!

Link up closes on Thursday's at 11:59 PM my time. :)

UPDATE:
Once a month we will give you a one word (sometimes 2) inspiration for a self portrait challenge. Have fun with this! This next months self challenge will be up on May 29th and the challenge word is "Number".

Touch Up Tuesday: Dark photo

SOOC:

Edit:

My edit: Ruari was having a rough day the day I took this photo. I wanted to get a photo of her playing with the ukulele... but, she wasn't having it. So... I was stuck to take the photo in the dim room with her in my lap. Everything was very dark and noisy... I adjusted the brightness and contrast. Ran my noise action a couple of times. And, that's it! OH... I did run a Pamela Topping action in the end. 




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Link up your Touch Ups below! Linky's always close at 11:59 PM Wednesday evenings (Pacific time).

Touch Up Tuesday: Swapping heads

On Sunday I was taking some photos of mine and my friends baby (Coral and Ruari)... they were wearing matching outfits! Can't miss that! :) There was one photo that I liked Coral's smile: but, Ruari was looking down. The other photo Ruari was looking up, but Coral blinked. So....

First photo:

Second photo:

Blended together:

Edit: First I grabbed the Lasso tool. I set the feather to 40. I cut around Coral's face in the second photo... and dragged and dropped it into the first photo. Since Coral's head placement was almost in the same place for each photo... it wasn't too hard to blend them together. Using the Eraser tool set to 50% Opacity I erased the edge from where I cut with the lasso tool. Flatten the image and I'm done! Yay!

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Show and Tell Challenge: Valentine

Inspiration: Valentine (you don't have to create a Valentine card... I just did for fun... just a photo is fine.).

Show:

Tell: I made this Valentine for her Daddy... :D

................................... 

You are welcome to link up to your blog post or a flickr photo. Please link back to Paper Heart Camera. Thank you!

Link up closes on Thursday's at 11:59 PM my time. :) Come back Saturday to see if we share your photo as a favorite.

UPDATE:
Once a month we will give you a one word (sometimes 2) inspiration for a self portrait challenge. Have fun with this! This next months self challenge will be up on February 27th and the challenge word is "Nourish".

Touch Up Tuesday: Simple touch up.

SOOC:

Edit:

Edit: I ran my brightness/contrast action first. Then I used the dodge tool on their eyes just a tiny bit. The shadows on the eyes were very dark. Sharpened things a bit and that's it! Simple edit today.



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Link up your Touch Ups below! Linky's always close at 11:59 PM Wednesday evenings (Pacific time).

Show and Tell Challenge: Activity

*NOTE: The linky below is not working at the moment. It's now a paid subscription. I have paid, but it isn't showing up yet. I'm working on it. For now, you are welcome to post your photo challenge link in the comment section. :) 


Inspiration: Activity

Show:

Tell: Ruari was a little too shy to join in on the playground activity... so, we watched from a distance. :)

................................... 

You are welcome to link up to your blog post or a flickr photo. Please link back to Paper Heart Camera. Thank you!

Link up closes on Thursday's at 11:59 PM my time. :) Come back Saturday to see if we share your photo as a favorite.

UPDATE:
Once a month we will give you a one word (sometimes 2) inspiration for a self portrait challenge. Have fun with this! This next months self challenge will be up on February 27th and the challenge word is "Nourish".

Touch Up Tuesday: Black and white

SOOC:

First edit:

First edit: I adjusted the levels, curves, and did a little Selective Color adjusting to brighten things up. Ran my photo through noiseware, then Sharpened things up.

Black and White edit:

Black and white: For the black and white I just went with an action. I used Pamela Toppings B/W Bonjour action from her Bella set. By the way... don't forget to enter to win a necklace and action from Pamela Topping here! Ends January 19th, 2011!



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Link up your Touch Ups below! Linky's always close at 11:59 PM Wednesday evenings (Pacific time).

Touch Up Tuesday: Dodge and burn.

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about the "Dodge" and "Burn" tools in Photoshop.

SOOC:

The basic edit: I always start ANY of my photos with the basic edit. This involves the adjusting of the levels, curves, and getting rid of any noise with Noiseware. Then I'll usually sharpen and run one of my favorite actions to brighten up the colors. Then I flatten and save my image.

Dodge and burn: With my basic edit done I'll now take care of any other detailed edits I'd like to do. For this photo I noticed there was a dark shadow on her face. Using the "Dodge" tool at a lowered opacity can get rid of that little bit of shadow. BUT, you need to be careful. Using too much dodge can erase a lot of the details in a photo. 

After the shadow I wanted to fix up my shading. I use the burn tool (at a lowered opacity) to add more shade to the photo. By doing this it can really make a photo pop out. I burned a bit on her frown lines and the creases in her eyes. I also shaded under her feet and around the hoodie on the face to intensify the shadow.

Do you ever work with your dodge and burn tools?

After:

AND, if you all have a moment to spare... you can vote for the above photo over at I Heart Faces through Friday. :D We're #106. Vote for you favorite face of 2010! I'd love if it was Ruari!

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Link up your Touch Ups below! Linky's always close at 11:59 PM Wednesday evenings (Pacific time).