More Photoshop Practice

Just fooling around with different crops on this first one.

Here is the Original...

First, I ran a noiseware to soften it. Then, I straighened the picture by using the ledge of the bench as my guide. As usual, before taking the shot, I again overlooked the pizza face so I had to clean her up around her mouth. Almost just as good as a washcloth, don't you think? Then, I did the eye pop that I have just learned this month.

Finally, after fixing the blowout on the left side by playing with the saturation, temperature and tint, I cropped it in tight to avoid the distraction of the restaurant window.

Since I am focused on practicing different composition possibilities, here are two other angles of the same shot.

Coming in from the left...

And finally, the right...

In the editing of the second shot, I did many of the same things.

Here is the original...

This time, however, I had the window to the left of her face and it kept drawing my eye to it. So in order to draw the eye to the subject of the photo, I copied the bench to the other side, covering up the window. And again, did a tight crop. I like this much better.

Well, thanks for looking!

Love em? Hate em? Could I do something differently? Please feel free to comment.

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

First Picture in 2009!

Before taking down the Christmas tree for another year, I was fooling around experimenting at poses with our baby, and was able to get this great shot. He was looking at my husband behind me. We had trouble getting him to take his hands out of his mouth because he is already teething in the bottom front of his mouth. Even so, I liked the potential in the picture. I was able to do the eye pop. At screen size, you can really tell, but in this small format, it doesn't seem to show up as well. But anyway, it is fun trying!

Here is the unedited version before...


...and the after


Here is a closer look...do you see the "pop"?



Okay, indulge my photoshop experimenting, I just couldn't help myself, here's some more plays...

In a sepia-like shade...

...in black and white...


...and finally(yes, I mean it this time, tee hee!) in black and white with a frame...


I think I want to take pictures of my children every Christmas as they grow up, in front of the tree to see how they change throughout the years. I wish I would have done this with my daughter when she was his age. Oh well, better late than never. In the next few days, I will probably post some of the shots I took for Christmas of them together.

Thanks for indulging me, and especially for looking!!

Happy New Year to all of you!

Denise

Yikes! What a difference a monitor makes!!

Our monitor quit working, so we had to go back to using the old one. At first I didn't really like it because it was so much smaller, but now I am glad we had to use it. I pulled up my pictures and was able to see some really orangish pictures and a lot of red eyes. As discouraging as it was to see, I never would have known there was a problem with the other monitor. So I was able to fix the pictures a little that were posted on this page and will be more cautious before posting them in the future. I really need a better camera. It is supposed to have red eye reduction but that feature doesn't seem to work very well. Oh well, as soon as I can save up for one, I will have more ability to control those things and produce a better quality photo.

It's so exciting to learn new things!!

I have been playing around with my Photoshop Elements 5.0 and have been having a ball learning as I go!

Here are a few of my plays.

This shot was taken at the local county fair back in October. It was kind of tricky to take the shot with the duck in the cage, but fun trying, and still salvageable. I love the final result.

Here is the original shot before...


...and the after

These shots I experimented with the "eye pop" to focus on their eyes. I used the tutorial from Scraps of Jacki's Life . I love the look. I think it is subtle enough to look natural, but still draws you to their eyes.

Here is the original shot of our daughter before ...

... our daughter after

My original shot of our son before ...

... and the finished shot of our son after

I am trying to find a tutorial to show me how to bring out Christmas lights on a tree. I've seen it where they can be made to almost glow. Just beautiful! You can almost catch them twinkling. I just can't quite figure out how to do it on my program. The tutorials I've seen are not for the PSE 5 that I have. Oh well, it's fun to experiment.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed looking! Remember, your feedback and/or constructive comments are very much welcome!

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

I'm back!!

So much has happened in the last year!

Since my last entry, we've had a new baby boy and he is keeping us quite occupied. Pleasantly so, I might add.

I've still been practicing my composition and have gotten some great work to add to my portfolio. I will be posting some of it over the next little while. I'd love to hear what you think. I know I can always improve. I have so much to learn still.

As you can imagine, I am able to get a lot of practice now photographing our new baby. So I am trying to take advantage while I still have the privilege of watching him sleep, grow, smile, coo, not wiggle too much, etc,. You get the idea. The possibilities are endless.


I will be sharing some of my practice shots as I go, and again, would love your feedback on composition. I love to learn, and as they say, "you're only as good as your last (photo)"

Our computer went kaput just after the new year, and we finally were able to get a new computer! Yay!! So I am finally able to use the Photoshop Elements 5.0 that I bought over a year ago. Of course, the first thing I did was purchase "Photoshop Elements 5.0 for Dummies". I'm so excited!!

Well, I'm off to collect some of my favorites over the last year since I last posted. So please, come back again soon!!

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

Another Practice Shoot!!

Well, this was actually my third practice shoot. I couldn't obtain permission by the parents to post my 2nd practice shoot which took place that same year. I so appreciated the practice anyhow.

It was an outdoor shoot at a local park with a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. I am so excited! I had so much fun! What an adrenaline rush!! They are such a sweet couple and were such a pleasure to work with.

The lighting was not that great that morning though in some of the pictures, but I think they will like them nonetheless. I met them at 9am and the shoot lasted about an hour and a half. I think in the future I will probably try at 8am and see if that might avoid strong sun spots and shadows.

As my thank you for them letting me practice on them, I had an 8x10 and a wallet size of the best shot, made for them, as well as a collage of my favorites, also an 8x10.

I dream of someday owning a Nikon D80, but for now, please excuse the point and shoot(Nikon L11 Coolpix). In the meantime, I am focusing on my composition. CC welcome!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Edited to add correction suggested by helpful comment...

Before (with green sign post)























After (removed sign)

I Think I Inadvertently Got My Christmas Shot!

I was playing around with a spontaneous shot that I had taken of our daughter in her bathroom, and think I may have found my Christmas shot! I had so much fun getting rid of the background and experimenting with different editing tools. I'd love to know what you think.

Original(unedited)


Edit number 1 (filtered, burned to blend, overall clean up, and cloned ribbon tail)

Edit number 2 ~ In Sepia