If we live good lives, the times are also good. As we are, such are the times. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo
It’s time for Fix-It Friday at I Heart Faces!
This is such a touching photo from my fellow contributor Julie Rivera this week. A tender moment between father and daughter before he leaves for deployment. I really wanted to keep the emotion in the photo and just enhance it a little bit.
1. I wanted to lighten and brighten the photo first, to bring the focus into the family. I did this in two steps. First, I added a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer and selected the preset, Black & White with Red Filter. I set that layer to Screen blending mode and the Opacity to 25%.
2. Next, I added a Curves Adjustment Layer and brought the overall lightness up.
3. Then I added a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. I selected Colorize and chose a sepia tone. I set that layer to Soft Light blending mode and the Opacity to 35%. This give a nice contrast and tones down the reds.
4. When I lightened the photo, some of the noise stood out that was hiding in the darker areas. I thought it kind of added an intriguing detail so I added some more to make it look deliberate. I made a duplicate layer of the layers I’ve added so far and added a noise filter. I clicked on Filter > Noise > Add Noise. I set the Amount to 7.16% and the Distribution to Gaussian.
And that’s it!
The Final Image:
Michelle Johnson is a fine art photographer and the co-founder of Love That Shot, a website for photographers with tutorials, workshops and fun products! Find her at her blog, My Two Seasons, and her website, Love That Shot.
Have you heard?
Angie and Amy of I Heart Faces are hosting their second annual Photography Workshop in Dallas, Texas, at the beginning of November and guess who’s going to be teaching a section in the Beginners Class… ME!!!
I would totally love to meet our Love that Shot/I Heart Faces readers, so register if you can!
I Heart Faces “Dream Big” Photography Workshop • November 5th and 6th, 2010
- Over $1,000 worth of amazing door prizes!! Fabulous swag bags!
- Advanced Photographers get an entire “Dream Day” of learning, pampering (yes… they plan to pamper you!), fabulous gifts, tools for business and amazing photo shoots for portfolio building.
- Beginners will come away from the day with a ton of knowledge about how to use their camera and take better photos. Practice what you learn with hands-on help from the I Heart Faces team.
My fellow I Heart Faces Contributor, Rachel Durik, is the featured instructor for the workshop for Advanced Photographers, and Angie and Amy will be teaching throughout the workshop. They are also expecting several surprise guest photographers to pop in too!
So if you are a beginner photographer wanting to learn how to get out the auto modes and into using the manual modes, if you want tips on how to help your photos look spectacular, and great lessons on editing your photos, or if you are an advanced photographer looking to be inspired with a high-stylized photo shoot and business information, come on over and register now! The spots are filling fast so don’t be left out!
And don’t miss me! I would totally love to meet you all!! 
***Edited to add: The Advanced Day is sold out! But if you are a beginner/amateur, there’s still room for you.
It’s Fix-It Friday Time again at I Heart Faces!
This is such a fun picture this week from Angie! I love that gorgeous truck. I have to admit, I was not too sure of what I would do to this photo. The white sky scared me a little! So I let it sit for a few days until I was inspired.
I thought I’d go with something totally different and unexpected! I like to do that sometimes. As always, I worked with my trusty adjustment layers and came up with this fun, masculine look in no time. I wanted so show off that beautiful truck as well as the handsome young man next to it. (Ok, I feel little bit weird saying that! He’s not a cute little kid, so I can’t gush over how sweet and precious he is! Gah, I think I’ll just shut up now. LOL!)
1. Ok, on to the good stuff! First, I added a Levels Adjustment Layer and brought the outside two slider in just a bit to add some contrast and give the photo a little boost.
2. Now it was time for some fun! I added a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer to make a split-tone effect. I first click on the gradient in the dialog box and that brings up another dialog box where you can adjust the colors. I clicked on the bottom left box and chose a nice buttery tone. Then I clicked on the bottom right box and chose a very dark navy blue tone.
3. Next I ran my darkening action from Love that Shot and brushed around the edges to bring the focus inward.
4. I then sharpened the photo using the Unsharp Mask. I selected a high radius and a low amount percentage.
5. I sharpened again using the Unsharp Mask. This time I added a black mask and only brushed over the truck, sharpening it a second time. This brought out all the little details and made it shine!
And that’s it! It’s pretty different than I what I normally do, but I like it!
Michelle Johnson is a fine art photographer and the co-founder of Love That Shot, a website for photographers with tutorials, workshops and fun products! Find her at her blog, My Two Seasons, and her website, Love That Shot.
