Peekaboo! Edit Challenge

Now, this was a surprise!  I found the EditMe Challenge is up and running again.  I appreciated their challenge when I was first practicing my editing.  I learned so much from the participants, and I connected with new bloggie friends.  Glad they are back :o)

It is a busy week... but in honor of reconnecting with EditMe, I set aside a little editing time to submit an edit.
This photo was taken by Stephanie from Gray Mornings Photography.

Here is my edit:

As far as what I did to edit it... yikes!  I kept trying so many ideas:
I first changed out the colors of the quilt background to bring more attention to her face, but I wasn't satisfied with the results. After other attempts, the main changes that you see are from: some smoothing on the skin using a reversed highpass filter; adding a heavy gaussian blur and some painting over the quilt to draw all our attention to that cute little smile, some cropping, a photo filter to tone the color, and a copied layer set to overlay to pop some color.  Then added some canvas for the framing, and a bit of text. That's the main idea... I had so many layers from experimenting :o)

Here is the original:

Let me know what you think!

Glad you're back, EditMe!

Lighthouse Edit

I'm glad I'm getting quicker at photo editing skills...  I squeaked in just enough time to participate in the Edit Me Challenge this week.

This awesome lighthouse shot came from Amy at Little Adventures... you can find more of her work here. Here's a little bit about Amy so you can meet her:

Hey everyone. My name is Amy. I am married to my best friend and we have one son who just turned four, Wyatt. We are in our second year of homeschooling. I never knew how amazing that would be and how it would be such a growth experience for my son and I. Photography has been a love of mines for a few years now, but since the birth of my son in 2008, it truly became a passion. I love taking photos, scrap-booking, reading, a good movie, spending time with old friends and making new ones via my blog. 

This is my edit:

• Adjusted Highlights and shadows
• Added more contrast and saturation
• Cropped
• Added omni light for sun effect from the clouds, then lens flare
• Added a slight warmth with a filter, masking away as needed
• Added some brush work to create the edges
• After sharpening, increased the saturation and contrast as needed.

Thanks for stopping by!

Autumn Composite

Autumn is my favorite.  I love the changing of all seasons, but the colors and crispness of Autumn steal my heart.  Add in cozy sweaters, baking apple pies, simmering soups, and luminescent leaf coloring... and I'm on sensory overload.

With squeezed in time, I edited an autumn photo submitted by Julie.  

Here's a short bio about her: 

I am a stay at home mama with 4 children.  I started photo editing on a limited basis after my first child was born.  I worked on scrap booking projects and similar things for a few years.  When my Mom died in 2008, I started pursuing this hobby more seriously.  It became a sort of outlet for me.  I have continued to learn and grow, since then, in both photography and editing. 

And here's my fun I had on the edit:

• I made a mirrored copy of the original image, cloning and patching tree trunks, seams and uber-obvious mirrored shapes.
• Next, copied layer and set to overlay.
• Imported a photo of Lindsey (someone should be enjoying this autumn vignette!), inserting her by masking around her, adjusting coloring to match.
• Stamped layers, blended photo with more cloning.
• Burned in some shadowing around Lindsey.
• Added a warming filter, then a curves adjustment, and burned edges.
• Resized and sharpened for web.

Go play in the leaves!

Sparkling Eyes Edit

Back to another week at the EditMe Challenge  :>)

My previous weeks have been full of soccer games and photos.

Lots of them!

High School Guys

High School Girls Senior Night

College Men at Huntington University

...and even sneaked in some fun time photographing friends (see Norah!)

The photo to edit this week comes from Rebecca Curtis,

a wife and homeschool mom

who loves capturing life's little moments and expressions.

Visit Rebecca at her website: Rebecca Curtis Photography

Here's my edit entry:

How gorgeous are her eyes!

Cropped in tighter, and slightly rotated.

Beginning sharpening.

Selective surface blur on skin.

Cloned out jacket applique and swapped out shirt color, to keep all focus on those awesome eyes.

Slight sponging on lips and eyes.

Dodge and burn to bring out eye detail and collar detail.

Selective surface blur on background.

Overlay.

Inverted highpass filter brushed on skin.

Resized and sharpened for web.

Here's the original photo:

Thanks for dropping by!

I'm going outside to enjoy the crisp autumn weather and colors...

Anniversary Beach Photo

Back to photo editing!  

Stephanie, co-host of the Edit Me Challenge, was married about four years ago on this beach.

Back for a visit, she photographed the beach, which is our edit challenge.

◄ This is my edit.

• A vertical crop, bringing out the human element for a different perspective. Otherwise, I would have left the original photo alone!
• Duplicated layers with blend modes, overlay and multiply, masking where needed.
• Curves adjustment to lighten beach and water detail.
• Dodge, burn, and saturate for sky, water, and silhouette detail.
• Another curves adjustment for sky.
• Lens flare for fun.
• Burnt edges to deepen color on sides and direct eye to sun and people.
• Scruff up edges with brushes.

This is Stephanie's original photo ~

(I know, it's already a great photo!)

Our fast and full summer provided ample opportunity to snap away with my camera.

The camera knowledge went up a notch, and I'm hooked on a new hobby.

Soccer season has begun; what an incredible difference taking photos with the dslr camera!

School is in full swing, and it's time to challenge the CGT skills again.

More editing, and Illustrator here I come.

Depart from the Usual!

Mk.  This isn't the typical posted photo edit!
I'm a mom of all boys... can you tell?

The Edit Me Challenge is doing something different, too, for the summer.  It's called THE SUMMER SHOW OFF. We're to send in photo edits that we have done just to showcase our own work.  After thinking a bit, I thought I'd send in something a little more... unusual.






The above is a photo of my two younger boys taken a couple of years ago, James and Justin, of whom I refer to as the "J" men - which I spelled out as "Jamen" for this edit.  It's a collage of a number of photos created for a project - reminiscent of the fantasy epic war novels they love.

Here are some of the photos I used to create the final edit:

Tricky part: Getting the guys to help me.
Solution:  Tell them they can play with fire :>)

We did end up cracking and burning the terra cotta planter by accident.

This is asphalt from my driveway. It ended up "wrapped" on Justin's face. (Justin is a bit offended by this.)  Blend modes were used to colorize.  I also transported another set of Justin's eyes that were looking up at the camera - on top of his eyes (looking down) from the original photo. Also, I took off writing from their clothing and hat.

  I have no idea why this photo imported sideways.

Living in the cornfields of Indiana, I had to call my niece working in downtown Chicago to go outside during her lunch break, look up, and take a photo for me.  Isn't that awesome?

I used different blend modes and adjustments to create the look in the edit.

It took a while to create the flame look to the "Jamen", then a blend mode was applied that fizzled and diffused the flames... and I went with that. The flames were too competitive with the flames in the terra cotta container. Then I added some brushes/scrolls.

• My favorite add in:  The shadow of the boys against the building... used blend effects.
• The terra cotta pot needing cloning and some scrolls wrapped on it.
• The dragon and the back of a falcon was used from stockphotos.  I couldn't make those. I used different blend modes and opacities to make them translucent.
• I rendered the sky in photoshop, using blend modes for the coloring.
• Added some sponge type brushes to blend colors and fogging.
• Added some type and brushes for the text.

It's amazing what you can create with Photoshop!

A Splash of Jonah

Look at Jonah... boy, oh boy, he is growing :>)

Stephanie from Behind the Camera and Dreaming is co-host of the Edit Me Challenge, and this is her little guy, Jonah!

It's a fun, splashy, summery photo to edit.

Enjoy the summer... we're officially half way back to Christmas :>)

Loving all the sparkling water droplets, especially on Jonah's cute face!  

For the edit, I wanted to bring out the sparkles and to be sure that his eyes were the focal point.  

Here it is:

What is in the edit (using Photoshop CS4):

• Cloned out areas next to arm, neck, and above head.  Used patch tool to soften transitions.
• Cloned more sparkling water droplets over left side of photo, using patch tool to blend.
• Curves adjustment, to lighten and brighten.
• Second curves adjustment, inverted, and brushed on face - to lighten shadows
• Levels adjustment, to increase the darks which popped the color
• Increased contrast, slightly lowered vibrance, increased saturation
• Used color balance to mask out skin redness
• To bring out eyes, used dodge tool, saturation tool, selective sharpening, and hue /brightness adjustment.
• To highlight droplets, used the dodge tool. Also used burn tool to the left of Jonah to bring out shadows
• Another curves adjustment
• Sized and sharpened for web

Summer Fragrance

My blog makeover creator:  Stephanie (and Jonah)

Hi...  Thanks for dropping in!

  

For my friends who haven't yet seen my new blog look, I owe its wonderful makeover to Stephanie Clark, co-host of the Edit Me Challenge. This is Stephanie and Jonah...

 If you would ever want her services, I highly recommend her... she's knowledgeable, creative, and easy to chat with over ideas. Stop by her blog, Gray Mornings Photography or etsy shop to find her!

Jaymi's submitted photo for us to edit

This week at the Edit Me Challenge:

Edit Me Challenge has a great photo by a very adventurous Jaymi at Live, Love, Travel. Here's a bit about her:

Hello, my name is Jaymi and I blog over at Live, Love, Travel. I'm 30 years old, living in Los Angeles and working in the (sometimes) glamorous world of TV. In the meantime, I try to teach myself photography and blog about what I learn. I also host a link up every Tuesday called Tips & Pics for people to share their own tricks so we can all learn from each other! You can follow my blog or on facebook!

My submitted entry :

Hoping to create a bright sunny day, where breezes blow the fragrance of flowers across the fields!

The edit process using Photoshop CS4:

• With mostly using the patch tool, removed unwanted flora from in front of the young lady. Fussed quite a bit with hair and earring to blend well.
• Stretched and expanded the canvas to help balance composition.  Used clone tool, patch tool, and selections with copy/paste to blend in grasses
• Soften skin with healing brush, patch tool, and an inverted high pass filter (set to 60% overlay)
• Brightened eyes, lips, touch of bracelet
• Duplicated layer, set to overlay to bring out colors.
• Adjusted brightness, contrast, vibrance, saturation to get achieved look, masking as needed
• Curves adjustments
• Selected outside areas with a gaussian blur
• Added canvas for white and black framing
• Sharpened and resized for web

Glad you wandered by!

Farm Storm Shower

I remember helping Grandpa in the hay fields when getting caught in a summer storm shower.  Rain poured down, hail pelted our jeep shelter... then the rainbow came out.  It was magnificent! Soon the sun was out again, hot and sticky. This photo reminds me of that day!  Putting on the rain effect was rather fun...  here's a tutorial.

The original photo is from Sarah from The Stiles Files, from St. Paul, Minnesota.  Love your photo, Sarah!

Here's a bit about her:

My name is Sarah and I live in St. Paul, MN with my husband, Jeff, and our two kiddos, Miles and Stella. I am fairly sure that I was passed over when they were handing out any sort of domestic skills, but my husband picks up the slack and we make it through most days with the kids intact. :) It's been a little over a year since I got bit by the photography bug and I got bit hard. I love being a mom more than anything in the world, but I desperately needed a creative outlet that was just.for.me.so.I.wouldn't.go.too.(make.that.any.more.) crazy. I absolutely love taking and editing pictures and, while I have a long way to go, the process of learning has been absolutely wonderful.

Sarah's SOOC

Here's my entry:

What is in the edit:

• Slightly straightened the photo
• Several adjustment layers - levels, curves, contrast - to bring out detail and color
• Sponge tool, dodge, and burn tools to selectively bring out color and highlights
• Imported a tree on its own layer - under the barn layer - carefully masking to reveal the tree using a round brush and a spatter brush
• Rendered an omni light effect and a solar filter - to set up the light in the sky versus the dark stormy clouds
• Worked at the rain effect - see link above for a tutorial
• Added a burnt edge, masking off the lighter corners.
• Curves inverted layer - brushing on light and darkness as needed
• Resized for web

It was nice reminiscing about Grandpa. Thank you, Sarah!

Glamour Kitty Shot

Oh, boy.  Just couldn't decide which edit to submit...  It's week 20 already at the Edit Me Challenge!
Here's the original photo, provided by Nancy at A Rural Journal. Take a look at her photo journaling of her country life!

"I am a 52 year-old farm wife and mother of two grown sons. My union iron worker husband and I live in a 100+ year-old farm house in eastern Nebraska, United States. In my spare time, I enjoy photography, knitting, reading, cooking, hiking and blogging (which I've been loving since 2007.) We live on 80 acres of conservation reserve land in a rural county of about 20,000 people. We have three dogs, several farm cats, geese, ducks, turkeys, chickens and one guinea -- all of which keep me company and extremely busy. My blog is primarily a place to feature my rural photography, talk about what's happening on our quiet, lazy farm and to meet talented, friendly people from all over the world."

It was a blast working on this cat's photo...  we have a familiar feline character at our home as well.  Got to love a cat's life!

So here is the first edit (but not final pick)...  well, I almost picked it. Then I didn't. 

 I love the context of the lilac bush in the photo.

Then I almost picked this one...  

But in the end, by picking a number from one through ten....  I picked out what I call the "Glamour Kitty Shot".  It makes me laugh a bit.  I hadn't intended a close up, because I love the composition of the original photo.  But then a random thought crossed my mind...  what would a glamour shot look like for a cat?  Ha!  So I cropped in tighter, boosted contrast, adjusted brightness, deepened the background, a little dodging and burning... and had a good laugh!  A cat can portray its self-satisfying "I am so wonderful" attitude so well!

My entry:

My family was split in their voting for which edit was entered.

Give me your input!

Enchanting Twirl

Happy Twirl!

"Twirl me!," I still say at times when I walk past my husband. He gets that slight smile and obliges me.  Sigh.

As a little girl, twirling was the "test" of a new dress.  It could make me feel pretty and lift me away into my fairy world.  Mom worried about me a little :>) Anyway, that's the emotion I wanted to capture when I saw this little girl in her pretty dress and shoes!

This week's challenge comes from Andi at The Hollie Rogue. Any edit will be charming with this little beauty! Andi, you have a fun and delightful blog.  Stop in and have a read!  Here's a little bit about her:  "I am Andi--an elementary teacher turned SAHM to two little ones, a wife, follower of Christ, crafter, etsy shop owner, and lover of all things vintage. I am a self-taught wanna-be photographer who just loves to learn new things about the art of photography. I am on a journey to learn more about myself and my passions through this amazing avenue of blogging." 

My edit is below:

I just love the expression of this little girl.  Andi, you captured it so well!

My favorite parts of the edit:

• Cropping and tilting the scene - less arm on right, but with legs lined up to edge - accentuates her twirling, and I like the stronger diagonal line it creates, along with the sweeping movement of her hair.
• Adding ice crystals from a texture - creates a bit of fairy dust and sparkle, and adds to the swirling movement of her twirl.  Feel the air magically stir!
• Rendering an omni light effect - helps her glow, more magical - as far as fairies are concerned.
• Now you know why Mom was a bit concerned ;)

What I actually did using Photoshop CS4:

• Cropped and rotated the photo
• I clarified the colored photo first before converting to black and white:  Adjusted curves, levels, exposure brightness, contrast, vibrance - then applied a black and white adjustment layer, using sliders to blend tones. Then added another curves adjustment to clarify that.
• Added some gaussian blur, masking off her face, and most of it off her dress and arms/legs.
• After stamping the layers, added the ice crystals texture and used more adjustment layers - brightness, contrast, levels to brighten, curves again.
• Stamped those layers then added an omni light effect
• Touched up her dress smocking with a bit of brightness
• Sharpened and resized for the web using mcp actions

Enjoyed this edit!  I'm going to go find my husband and ask him for another twirl... just for fun.

Australia Edit Challenge

Can't believe it! :>)

A fun part of the Edit Me Challenge are the photos from other parts of the country or world.  It's a mini travelogue!

Our photo is from Kaylene Maalste of Australia.  I love looking through her digital artwork. You can find her here!

"I am retired and live in Berri, Australia with my husband and bossy cat. I have always been interested in creating, in my early days it was playing around with beading, paper maiché, mosaics, quilting and embroidery. I always felt that I needed to focus my creativity into one if not two mediums and I have accomplished this with Art Quilts and photography. My surrounding countryside is full of many different landscapes, in fact sometimes I do not need to even leave my garden."

For this challenge I wanted to strategically arrange the composition ...  

• level the horizon
• reverse the photo so the wheel was on the left - with the longer branch leading the eye to swoop left-to-right, up and across the photo
• take out a few branches to keep the focal point on the wheel
• lighten the bottom corner to also keep the focal point on the wheel
• work on bringing out contrast, to highlight wheel and pop it out from the background
• Bring out the fencing, adding more definition to the composition

Here's how my entry turned out - with an added texture:

And just for fun -

 Here's before the texture, clean and clear - which shows off a water ripple above the wheel.

(Did a fish just jump? Or, Kaylene, did you throw a pebble?)

Basic Idea of Steps:

 Reversed photo

Cloned out unwanted branches/reflections

Used dodge tool a little at a time to lighten bottom of photo

Curves Adjustment and Brightness/Contrast to adjust lightness

Vibrance/Saturation Adjustment

Spent time sponging, dodging, burning the wheel, foreground branches, fencing, and ripple.

Worked on burning tree water reflection

Contrast Adjustment - to lower background contrast (to pop out focal point in foreground)

Burned all shadows for more contrast

Added a texture for artsy fun, masking off foreground as needed

Added a blur to frost top and bottom of photo 

Australia is a far-off wish to visit.  It seems so beautifully rugged... and I love the kangaroo.

"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...

Beach Beauty

It's  Edit Me Challenge - Week 14  

The photo this week is from Alicia at Project Alicia.

She has some magnificent blossom photos you need to see...

perfectly aglow in the "golden hour".

She's posting tips on how to capture that moment,

so go see her blog!

This is her SOOC photo for us to edit.  Love the starkness, the sky, and definitely the curve.  

Here's my edit...

What I like:

• The vibrant, sherbet-like colors of the "sunset"
• The wispy "movement" in the photo with that gorgeous curve and the flight of the added kite.
• The stark graphic nature of the tree
• The added tree's shadow

How I did it, working in Photoshop CS4

• As usual, I always start with a simple sharpening - slight quality loss is always there from importing.
• Curves, working on dramatic sky, masking where needed
• Lowered the brightness
• Levels adjustment, masking where needed
• Vibrance adjustment
• Hue/Saturation adjustment.  At this point, it is very dark, and the colors aren't yet correct
• Put in a lighting effect in sky, to simulate the sun; shines through clouds, around tree, onto beach
• Made tree shadow.  Selected the tree, copied, rotated, then stretched it a bit by pulling handles, then reduced opacity
• Put some brightness back in the sky to illuminate clouds
• Dodged highlights, and burned the tree and shadow to increase contrast.
• Blurred the background, to blend the colors
• Another brightness/contrast adjustment
• Used the channel mixer to change into the "sunset" colors
• More dodge and burning
• Added a kite...  from a sunset photo I took on vacation, which worked so well with the naturally backlit kite tails. They already glowed!
• Small crop
• Add a slight vignette, and resized and sharpened for web using free  mcp actions

Thanks, Alicia, for providing a fun edit!

See the other creative entries at  the Edit Me Challenge

Edit Challenge 13 - Hiking

Hi!  My family had sun time in Alabama this week.  Wonderful warmth!  Just had a little time to do some photo editing... and here it is.  The original photo comes from Pam at Kassie's Beach.  She has some incredible photos posted of animals and, in particular, a posting on the most gorgeous butterflies.  If you have a minute, you should flit on over!

Pam's SOOC...  these kids are cute!

And this is my photo edit:

I think the added gradient border and text need some color blending... but no more time to fuss!  :>)

My favorite parts of the edit...

• The circular edit.  Kinda different.  Kinda fun.
• Replaced colors in the boy's shoes to blend in; also adjusted his hat color and replaced the green lettering in the girl's coat.  Unified the photo by taking out distracting colors.
• Used an omni lens effect, upper left.  Brings a back light effect, directing focus on the kids, and a slight vignette effect on the bottom.

p.s.  I like to visit the participants of Edit Me - I've learned from you all... so talented and creative.  Though I've tried,  I can't leave comments on a few of the sites (different systems?). Just wanted to let you know I still look and learn!

Berries!

Berries!

Berries make me smile.  Not sure why, but it's something simple that I enjoy.

My favorite needlework art from my Grandma have berries on them.

Berries are tucked in vases, baskets, grapevines, and window treatments.

Now, my kids don't have the same emotional response to berries...

they've worked on a blueberry farm. 

 They close their eyes after work and see nothing but berries, but they think of the pay check at the end of the week.

I love the photo, and honestly it's such a GOOD photo that I thought it could skip editing.

But a challenge is a challenge!

I'm posting the "berry picking" process of choosing my final entry.

This way my post page is full of my favorite berries.

First of the berry edit process:

I rotated the photo for a different perspective.

My favorite part about this composition is...

the branch on the left with the highlight on it.

I know that's random, but it's true.

To bring out the colors and clarity:
Ran the levels adjustment (pushed the end sliders in a bit, adjusted the midtone slider too)
Adjusted the contrast slightly.
Used Hue/Saturation to slightly desaturate the foliage, masking out the berries.
Inverted the berry mask, and used the vibrance adjustment to enhance only the berries.
Used a warming filter at a low opacity to help it glow.
Darkened the edges to draw focus to the berries.  (Quick way is to use mcp actions burnt edges)
I liked the result, but the composition balance was off.



Second Step of Berry Editing

 Cropping was in order, but I really wanted to keep that highlighted branch... that random preference. I made sure some of it was left in the photo.

I

The larger leaf in the right foreground posed a problem after the crop, so I cloned more branches and berries to fix it.

Darkened the new edges accordingly.

I really liked it, until I accidentally zoomed in giving it a tighter crop, and decided that was a great effect.

(Still say my best "ideas" are happy accidents.  One of these days I'll be deliberate in editing!)

Bring on the third attempt

 The accidental close up is awesome!

 The upper left corner had bright highlights that detracted from the focal point, so they were darkened.

The news edges needing vignetting.

And I really liked it... again!

But -

The final happy accident (and my entry)...

I was attempting  to darken an additional spot without isolating it, so I inadvertantly adjusted the brightness of the whole photo.

Using the Brightness/Contrast adjustment, I lowered the brightness,

giving the berries all the attention they want!

The adjustment affected the sunlight on the leaves...  the detail is brought out to see the transluscence of the leaves, glimpsing the branches behind them.

Well, hopefully you can see that on your monitor, too, especially on that foreground leaf and also on the oblong leaves (upper left center).  How ethereal and feathery!

Added some canvas to enhance the final composition.

I like the previous photo (attempt number three) for its summery, bright feel

but decided to enter this last one, finding the berries more striking with the heightened contrast.

So, thank you, Beth, for such a fun photo to work on.

Go visit her on her blog Snaps of Our Life

and meet her and her family!  You'll be glad you did :>)