2sets1year

i heart faces Week 13 - “Dramatic B&W” Photo Challenge!

2010-03-29T13:48:00.005-05:00

This week over at i heart faces they are having a Dramatic B&W challenge.

We are looking for B&W photos that are dramatic, sensational and/or moody in the way they are presented. Something about your entry must catch our eye as being dramatic or moody for it to be passed along to the judge as a top entry. I thought this photo seemed dramatic with the sun flare, lines of the trees, off kilter angle and the way her eyes seem to be looking right through the camera. I can’t wait to see what everyone else comes up with this week!

This bridge in our local park is my new favorite spot that I discovered in the dead of winter. Now that the snow has mostly melted I was able to go under the bridge to get some great shots looking up. I love the weathered wood and suspension cables that hold it up. There are so many angles to take advantage of here that the possibilities are endless.

So meet Mehandis. I used a gradient to turn this black and white then adjusted by using several level layers to darken and brighten areas. I then added in a photo filter and used a creamy tan to warm up it up a bit. I really love the sharp angles that frame him in horizontally and then his parents legs framing him in vertically.

Thanks for stopping in! Be sure to check out more entries over at i heart faces.

Jen

i heart faces Photo Challange "Bundle Up"

2010-03-15T20:14:00.001-05:00

Recently I had the joy of taking some photos for a 7 year old at my girls school. The mom wanted to head outside and it was nice out...for Wisconsin. Gray sky's, no sun, snow on the ground...about 20 degrees. So real nice! Jake decided that we needed to explore his fort...his very own pirate ship. So I went on the pirate adventure with him. He asked me to hang out below so I sat below and waited. Out of nowhere he poked out of his trap door. So of course I snapped away.

We had so many great photos from our pirate adventure that it was hard to narrow it down to just one, but this one really embodies the fun we had.

Be sure to check out more “Bundled Up” photos over at i heart faces today…

Jen

I heart faces Fix It Fridays

2010-03-05T13:23:00.003-06:00

This week's photo came from Sarah Halstead who blogs at Loving My Life. The little cutie-pie is her son, Dustyn. Sarah wrote that she was "having issues with overexposure in the top left corner and with blemishes on his face." Here is this weeks SOOC.

First off I use PSE7. I did a creative crop to clear out the blown area. Fixed the face blemish, etc. Then I ran Noiseware on it, perked it up, dodged some of the face shadows, ran Coffeeshop powder room. Adjusted the layers for him and then the background seperatly masking each layer differently. I also fixed the face and warmed it up a bit, but being uncalibrated I am unsure of if it is too light. I probably messed with the saturation and hues as well. Then I ran Noiseware again lightly to smooth out the edits.

Overall I am pleased with the edit. I would have liked to clone in the grass better from another image since when I did the creative crop I had to edit in some additional grass. I also think his face is still maybe a pinch to light. The noiseware I just purchased yesterday and still am trying to learn it all. So he may be a bit over-smoothed, but I did pull it back after noiseware ran on a duplicate copy. If anyone uses this I would love a tutor. :) I have read what I can find about it, but I think I have to just work it out.

Side by side:

Stop by i heart faces to see more Fix it's.
Jen

i heart faces “I Wanna Dance!” Photo Challenge

2010-02-15T10:17:00.001-06:00

This week over at i heart faces it is all about dancing. I recently had the opportunity to take photos at the Snowball Dance for the special needs high school kids and adults in our community. I had loads of great captures throughout the night but this one really sums it up. Most of the kids in attendance had their aids with them. The aids got into the mix and really engaged everyone to dance. Here is one student cuttin' a rug. The student is non verbal and in a wheel chair, but you can really see the pure enjoyment in this moment.

Stop in at i heart faces to check out more dance shots!

Jen

Photo Challenge: "We heart kisses"

2010-02-08T14:24:00.000-06:00

This week over at i heart faces it is all about kisses. This is my nephew and sister in law. Nothing sweeter.

Go and check out more kisses here.

Jen

i heart faces, Week 3 - “We Are Family” Photo Challenge!

2010-01-18T15:34:00.005-06:00

Let's celebrate families this week at i heart faces.

It doesn't matter to us at all if your photo represents a "traditional" family or a "non-traditional" family. We are looking for photos that show off a cool way to capture a family together...be fun, creative, unique and enter the most awesome photo you can! We would also like each photo entry to have at least one (1) adult in it and even possibly a wide variety of ages represented. So here is my entry, I love when you capture those moments in between the typical family pose. These moments make for the best photos as we all know.

Be sure to click over to i heart faces to see more entries!

i ♥ faces Photo Challenge "Best Face Photo"

2010-01-11T13:19:00.001-06:00

First off Happy Birthday to i heart faces!! I am so pleased to have this resource and since stumbling upon you a few months ago I have really enjoyed my Monday mornings. This week's contest is sharing your best face photo. It was so hard picking the best face photo I have; it is my favorite thing to photograph so I have TONS. But this is one that I took most recently and I love the red frame around Abby's face. We were at the museum and she was popping her head out of the play farm gazing out onto lake Michigan.

As the photo says, this is Abigail. Be sure to check out all the entries at i heart faces.

Finally!

2009-11-20T14:20:00.000-06:00

After 4 weeks I am finally getting my camera back! I am as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. The pop flash took a dive and thankfully it was under warranty so it was fixed for free. To celebrate I am going to take a gadzillion of photos this weekend and maybe buy an external flash to makeup for missing Halloween photos with my good camera. Oh..and of course I am going to pray the sun comes out this weekend so I can try to get some sun flare shots for the i ♥ faces challenge next week.

i ♥ faces Photo Challenge Autumn Beauty

2009-11-16T07:43:00.001-06:00

I was lucky to catch Amelia making a mask out of a leaf. Fall is my favorite time of the year so it was hard to choose just one photo that we took that during our leaf romp at the park.

Check out more here.

i ♥ faces Fix-it-Friday

2009-11-13T10:58:00.002-06:00

This week the photo was submitted by Susan Keller.

Here is the sooc:

Here are my three edits. I really like a tight shot on the face so I cropped and rotated. I played with it for so long that I couldn't really tell you all the steps, but I did adjust the colors to remove some green from his hair. Worked the eyes, skin and background. Finally I used the CoffeeShop chocolate BW and then adjusted the opacity to add a bit of color back in.

i ♥ faces Fix-it Friday, week #35

2009-11-06T11:56:00.001-06:00

This week the mother that submitted the photo said... "This is a picture of my daughter. She and I always practice with my camera, she loves to pose and smile for me. I just think the straight of camera is dull and her cheeks are really rosy. I also really wish her eyes would be more clear."

So here is the before image:

I rotated and cropped the photo to highlight the face more. I adjusted the skin color and smoothed out the face. Next I popped the eyes and sharpened the hair. I like a bit of rosy in the cheeks so I didn't remove it, just smoothed it out. Finally added a burn to it.

Here I wanted to really define the hair more. I still don't know if I am a 100% in love with this one either. I think she looks too washed out. I did play around with the hue's on the green for the grass as well.

So I couldn't leave it alone and had to come back here to play around again with some tips from Wendy....Thanks! I am sure that I didn't take the best route on the curves feature, but it was the first time I had ever done it. I applied it to the face on a copied layer, cut out the eyes and then unchecked to use the copied layer. I really need to get my head around what masking is. I also played with the hues on the green as well as adding a filter. I didn't do any blurring this time and I really like this last edit the best.

Be sure to check out more i ♥ faces fixes here.

Blurring and Watermarks

2009-11-04T17:35:00.000-06:00

So today I decided to focus, or should I say unfocus, on the blurring technique. I also decided to make a watermark on my photos. I'm sure it isn't the best way to watermark, but it works for now. Plus she cracked me up since she too is new at it and was fumbling during the video. If you search it out on You Tube I am sure you will find better ones out there. I am finding a wealth of info on You Tube however I wish I could ask questions!

There were two blurring videos I watched and both used slightly different techniques. This one was pretty involved and described the steps fairly well, but I couldn't get the key function with clipping layers together. So I had to then switch to use this one instead. I am sure that the first technique is the correct way to do it and the second way is the down and dirty way, but I think they both work. I also took a stab at the glausen blur too for the background.

Here is the SOOC shot (with the exception of red eye fix). This is Amelia. It was taken this past December just a day after getting the camera. We were at an indoor playground.

Here are the blurring effects. I also popped the eyes up a bit.

Here is a side by side look. Perhaps her face is a bit to blurred?

Vintage Attic...

2009-11-02T20:27:00.000-06:00

I have been trying to learn PSE 7 on my own for awhile now and now I am starting to get it thanks to the CoffeeShop blog. Her actions are awesome and have made editing photos fun again. So I took one of my favorite photos from the summer and decided to give it a vintage look using the vintage action provided from her blog.

So here is the before SOOC (straight out of the camera) image:

Here is the vintage photo:

Now I just want to get rid of the houses in the background so if any of you experts know what to do then please comment!

This weeks task is to master masking which I think is what I need to have a handle on before moving forward.

i ♥ faces Balloon Photo Challenge

2009-11-02T12:38:00.000-06:00

This was taken at my nephews birthday party. Alice (in brown) started with just a balloon in her dress walking around pretending to be pregnant. Then Audrey got into the action and this quickly turned into a Sumo fight!

I am happy to report that no balloons were popped!

Check out more balloon shots here!

Friday Fix-it's at I ♥ Faces...brand new to this!

2009-11-01T14:04:00.000-06:00

So with my DSLR in the shop I decided it would be good to start working on my PSE skills. Something to take my mind off of not having a camera. I came across lots of great blogs, and think that i ♥ faces has easily been one of the best for getting new tips. From there I have explored many more and I will be adding them to my blog's on the right. So many thanks to i ♥ faces for not only the great info, but for finally motivating me to start my own blog...

This weeks challenge was to edit this photo...

Here is what I came up with...

I took the same edit and adjusted the tea stain layer to Color, Saturation and then Hue.

The Process

I first popped the eyes following the methods found here. I used a combination of #1 and #4 methods. Then I used my smart brush and cut out the background using the cloud contrast and setting it at saturation. I further edited it by cleaning up the skin using the brush healer, sharpened the photo and adjusted the skin tones.

I then purchased the textures from Florabella. I used the tea stain over each and it added some great coloring on her costume. I loved the looks from all three so I decided to combine them into a grouping.

I am looking forward now to next week's fix-it. Hopefully I will have my camera in a few more weeks, in the meantime here come the edits of the photos I already have!

Halloween...

2009-10-31T16:14:00.000-05:00

So, my GOOD camera, the Nikon DSLR is in the shop leaving me with the old, used, and abused point and shoot. Here is an example of what we got.

I decided to go with the KISS theme this year as it was the first idea that popped up when I Googled "costumes for 4". After having several other parents stop us and ask to take a picture themselves, they mentioned the local gyro and burger joint a few blocks away had free ice-cream and a costume contest when Trick-or-Treat was over. They won best costume and received a big iced pumpkin cookie. We have a Halloween party tonight so we are trying to keep them from touching their faces for the next 2 hours...urrgh... that's not going too well.