If we live good lives, the times are also good. As we are, such are the times. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo
It’s Fix-It Friday Time again at I Heart Faces!
This is such a cute photo of Amy’s daughter! The light is great and I love the composition. The only problem I see really is it’s a bit soft. So I went to work and sharpened it up a bit, then I had some fun with textures!
1. First I added a Levels Adjustment Layer and brought the two outside sliders in just a bit. This adds some contrast and takes away the digital haze from the image.
2. Next, I ran my Eye Sharpening Action from Love that Shot and brushed over her eyes. I use a very light opacity because I want her eyes to look really natural.
3. To sharpen the image, I use the High Pass filter. It can be found in the Filters menu; just click on Filter > Other > High Pass.
4. The image looks pretty good at this point! Now it’s time to play! I used three textures from the Olde World Collection from Love that Shot. First I added the Chevaliers texture using Soft Light blending mode at 25%. Next I added the Vienna texture using Soft Light blending mode at 50%. Last I added the Champagne texture using Soft Light blending mode at 14%.
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.
It’s Fix-It Friday Time again at I Heart Faces!
This is such a great photo this week! I loved working with fellow contributor, Rachel’s photo. Isn’t she a cutie? When I saw it for the first time, I knew I wanted to bring the focus straight to the beautiful couple. In order to do that, I needed to crop out the white sky. I felt like it was competing for the attention too much. And hey! I think I’m getting better at the whole cropping deal! 
I really love to keep portraits natural, so I didn’t do too much here.
1. First, I used my lightening action from Love that Shot and lightened the couple from their heads to their waists.
2. Next, I added a Solid Color Adjustment Layer and chose a nice buttery yellow color. I adjusted the Opacity down to 25%. This added a touch of warmth to the photo, and even a teeny bit of vintage toning.
3. Then I used my darkening action, and lightly brushed around the edges of the photo. This darkened the edges a little bit, directing the eye straight to the couple.
4. Finally I sharpened using the High Pass Filter.
And that’s it! It’s super easy to do a natural-looking edit to your photo!
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.
What a cutie this week! Wow, those eyes are just stunning! I absolutely loved the vibrant colors in this photo so I decided to do a clean edit this time. It was super easy and took me less than 3 minutes to do!
1. First I cropped to a portrait orientation. Hey, look! I’m getting better at cropping, lol! Normally I would have probably left the crop alone, but I wanted all the focus to go straight to that handsome little boy.
2. I added a Levels Adjustment Layer and brought the outside sliders in towards the middle, just until they reached the beginning of the upward slopes. Then I grabbed the middle slider and moved it to the left just a little. What this levels adjustment did was brighten the exposure and give the colors a little bit of a boost.
3. Next I ran my Eye Sparkle Action from Love that Shot and very lightly sharpened his eyes and brightened the catchlights. I really go for the natural look with eyes, so I lowered the opacity of the layers way down to around 5-10%.
You’ll notice that I didn’t do anything to the darkness under his eyes. I always leave these sorts of things because I really feel they are part of them. Funny story, when I had my Senior pictures done the photographer took out the darkness and circles below my eyes. We got the finished photos back and something just didn’t look right about me! It seemed like part of me was missing, and we were right- my eyes weren’t “me” anymore! My daughters have inherited the shadows under their eyes and I always leave them in because it makes them unique. So long story short, that’s why I never touch those kinds of things!
4. Next I added a teeny tiny bit of warmth with my Warming Action.
5. Finally I darkened the edges a little bit to bring the focus straight to the little boy.
And that’s it! So easy and quick to do and it gives beautiful results!
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.
It’s time for Fix-It Friday again at I Heart Faces! What a fun theme this week! I love these color themes and I was going through the kindergarten school photos I took of Autumn in June (I know, I was so late!) and thought this one might be fun for Fix-It Friday this week.
I went pretty simple on my edit for this photo. I wanted to keep the beautiful colors, but give a bit more warmth and extra pizazz.
The first thing I did was add a Levels Adjustment Layer and grab the two outside sliders and drag them in towards the middle just a bit. This gives the colors a bit of a boost and clears up any digital haze.
Next I created a Curves Adjustment Layer and selected the Red Channel. I pulled down on the red a bit to reduce some of the red in her skin. She is naturally very pink and translucent and I normally keep that in, but it was a little hot that day and she was flushed. She also has darkness around her eyes that is a family trait, so I kept that in too!
I then went back to the RGB Channel and slightly lightened the entire image.
I added a texture from Florabella, Frou Frou. I set the blending mode to Soft Light and left the opacity at 100%. I added a layer mask and lightly removed some of the texture off of her face and skin.
Finally I sharpened the image. And that’s it! Pretty simple steps, but I love the results!
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.
