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 cute picture of Keli’s little girl! I love the angle and the direction of light. I really wanted to lighten and brighten this one and draw the focus right to that sweet little face! My edit was pretty simple, not too many steps.
1. First, I added a Levels Adjustment Layer and brought the two outside sliders in towards the middle a tiny bit. This took the digital haze off and gave a little boost in contrast.
2. Next, I added a Curves Adjustment Layer. I clicked in the middle of the graph and pulled up and to the left a little. This lightened the photo.
3. Now, I wanted it to be brighter so I added a black and white Gradient Map Adjustment Layer. I set the blending mode to Screen and the Opacity to 50%. This really gave a nice brightening effect!
4. I wanted to add in a little warmth to the photo so I ran my Warming Action from Love that Shot (it’s coming very soon!).
5. Next I ran my Darkening Action from Love that Shot (also coming soon!) and brushed around the edges of the photo. This brings the eye straight to the subject.
6. Finally I sharpened the photo using the High Pass Filter.
And that’s it! Here’s the before and after:
To see more great edits of this photo, visit I Heart Faces!
And don’t forget to enter our Love Your Shot! | Link-Up at Love that Shot! Angie and Amy of I Heart Faces are our special guests and there is a fabulous prize from Florabella! The link-up is open until Wednesday, October 6th.
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.
