"At the Sea-Side"

How crazy is that! So happy!

When I was down beside the sea

A wooden spade they gave to me

To dig the sandy shore.

My holes were empty like a cup.

In every hole the sea came up

Till it could come no more.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson ~

Hi!

Got back again this week to the Edit Me Challenge

Thank you, Kat, for the photo to edit (not that it needed it)!

Find Kat at Living Like the Kings

(She has a really cool header, btw)

Here's the SOOC:

I had another lesson on remembering to SAVE as you go along.

You really ought to.  It saves your hair from being pulled out from frustration as well.

Did you know that Photoshop CS6 has auto-save?

I think that alone will be worth the upgrade!

I worked on bringing out some of the water detail around the little girl

so the effect would be as though we were right there playing along, getting wet and sandy!

Here goes:

Expanded the canvas for a different view point - to feel the endless seashore.

 (MCP Actions has a great tutorial here)

Adjustments:  levels, curves, brightness (lowering it helped bring out wave detail), contrast, saturation

After stamping those layers:  dodged and burned the highlights/shadows, especially on the water near her.

Used the sponge tool to bring out color in her outfit; dodge tool on her face shadows; burn tool on the bright spots - and a little color brushing, too, sampled from another area on her face.

Used the sponge tool to bring out the reflection of her on the water.

Swapped out the color on her little hair band to purple.

Added a sepia adjustment, masking as necessary.

Added some more back lighting with an omni light rendering.  (Helped with the lighting/shadows on the water)

Add some extra canvas to frame it out.

Brings back memories of  Alabama...