Fix-it Friday #74 at i heart faces

This Fix-it Friday photo was submitted by Dana Suggs, an IHF contributor. I love pumpkin field photos and this one just need a little brightening up... it's gorgeous! Here is the original photo:



And here is my edit (image is clickable to see it larger):



The image is strong, it just need a bit of brightening. First I opened the photo in ACR to correct the exposure and white balance. Then I opened the image in CS4.

Workflow in PS CS4:
~cloned out the pumpkins in the upper left corner to make the edge clean
~added a curves layer set to screen at 30% opacity, masked just on the little girl to brighten her (similar to center fill light)
~ran Noiseware at low opacity
~ran Florabella Luxe's Sweet Sunshine action, lowered to 20% opacity to add warmth
~ran My4Hens Highlight Glow from Toolbox #2, lowered opacity (I love the glowy feel to the highlights!)
~ran Florabella Luxe's Sapphire action with lots of layer tweaking, lowered opacity of group to 65%
~added a subtle (10% opacity) vignette
~high pass sharpening layer set to soft light

Thanks for looking and come check out the other edits at i heart faces!

Fix-it Friday #73 at i heart faces

This Fix-it Friday photo was submitted by Keli Hoskins, an IHF contributor. What a beautiful little girl! Gorgeous eyes and I love the chalk. Here is the original photo:



And here is my edit (image is clickable to see it larger):



I wanted to add a lot of warmth, a bit of haze, and a touch of a vintage effect. First I opened the photo in ACR to correct the exposure and white balance. Then I opened the image in CS4.

Workflow in PS CS4:
~cloned out the leaves, grass, and mulch on the sidewalk around the girl, I found those bits very distracting
~also used the healing brush on the bruises on her arm and leg
~added some contrast with curves
~ran Noiseware at very low opacity
~very lightly dodged highlights in the iris of the eyes
~added yellow haze for a sunshine-kissed effect
~slightly desaturated
~added a very subtle vignette

Thanks for looking and come check out the other edits at i heart faces!

Fix-it Friday #70 at i heart faces

This Fix-it Friday photo was submitted by Amy Locurto, an IHF contributor. What a beautiful little girl! Here is the original photo:



And here is my edit (image is clickable to see it larger):



I'm working on a cleaner editing style at the moment, so hopefully I achieved that. I thought this image was really strong to begin with but had too much contrast. I'm noticing on the blog, however, that my edit looks a bit soft in the contrast department, but looking at it full-size, it seems okay? So first I opened the photo in ACR, fiddled with the white balance just a bit, upped recovery just a bit to tone down the highlights, and added a tiny bit of center fill light. I then reduced the contrast a lot. Then I opened the image in CS4.

Workflow in PS CS4:
~adjusted levels
~Noiseware at low opacity
~I thought the girl's right eye looked a little off in the lower section, so I duplicated the left eye, masked it to only cover the bright section, and lowered the opacity to 80%
~created a curves layer set to screen, masked and inverted, then gently painted in with a 20% opacity brush under the eyes to lighten the shadows there
~added a color fill layer with an off-white and set to luminosity, lowered opacity to 20% to brighten skin tones
~added a vignette
~ran TRA's web-ready sharpening action

Thanks for looking and come check out the other edits at i heart faces!

Fix-it Friday #69 at i heart faces

This Fix-it Friday photo was submitted by Rachel Durik, an IHF contributor. Here is the original photo:



And here is my edit (image is clickable to see it larger):



Doing such an intense crop on a low-res photo made it quite grainy, but you get the gist of what I was wanting to accomplish... focusing more on the couple and their faces.

Workflow in PS CS4:
~cropped
~fixed shadows/highlights
~adjusted levels
~Noiseware at low opacity
~warmed up tones by adding a color fill layer with a golden tone and set to soft light, lowered opacity
~added a vignette

Thanks for looking and come check out the other edits at i heart faces!

Fix-it Friday #68 at i heart faces

This Fix-it Friday photo was submitted by Angie Arthur, an IHF contributor. Here is the original photo:



And here is my edit (image is clickable to see it larger):



Initially I did a color edit adding a sunshiny haze to this photo but the more I looked at it, the more I wanted a vintage, creamy look with a texture to match the tall grass.

Workflow in PS CS4:
~cropped and fixed the tilt
~adjusted levels
~curves adjustment layer set to screen, masked to show only on girl to lighten dark shadows
~flatten, then Noiseware at low opacity
~slightly increased contrast
~ran Florabella's Mink action from the Luxe collection, lowered contrast, tweaked tone and other effects within the customizable action
~added Paint the Moon's Timeworn Soft texture on soft light at 80% opacity, masked, then reduced the effect by 50% only on girl
~unsharp mask at 50%, 1 px, 10 threshold to add a touch of sharpness
~added a vignette

Thanks for looking and come check out the other edits at i heart faces!

Fix-it Friday #63 at i heart faces

This Fix-it Friday photo was submitted by Angie Arthur Photography, an IHF contributor. Here is her before:


And here is my edit (image is clickable to see it larger):


I wanted to go black and white on this image since the pink shirt felt out of place to me. I also wanted something very gritty in feel to go with the scratchy texture of the grass and meadow.

My workflow, using Photoshop CS4:
~crop
~recover highlights
~add contrast and darken midtones
~convert to black/white using sliders to tweak each tonal range
~unsharp mask to increase contrast (20/30/5)
~high pass layer to sharpen and add grain
~vignette

Thanks for looking!

Fix-it Friday #58 at i heart faces

This Fix-it Friday photo was submitted by Susan Keller, an IHF contributor. Here is her before:


And here is my edit:


My workflow, using Photoshop CS4:
~cropped to remove arm aiming camera at self
~shadows/highlights
~levels adjustment layer to lighten midtones
~noiseware, then art history brush at 50% add freckles back in
~unsharp mask 20,30,5
~duplicate layer, high pass, .5, overlay
~duplicate background layer set to soft light 100%, add a gradient of cyan to white from upper left to lower right set to soft light, erased at 30% opacity over faces
~new layer of yellow set to color 20%

Thanks for looking!

Fix-it Friday at i heart faces

I've been exploring more photography sites and I joined i heart faces a few weeks ago. They have a challenge every Friday to edit a photo and I thought I'd jump in today! Be kind, it's my first time, tee hee.

Here is the original photo:



And my edit (image is clickable to see a larger version):



My workflow looked something like this:
~crop for a different focal effect
~levels and curves adjustment
~noiseware
~hue/saturation adjustment layer colorize, 35/25/0 set to 20% soft light
~flatten
~convert to b/w
~Paint the Moon Sugar Cookies action with tweaking
~vignette

Thanks for looking and letting me play!