Friday, May 21, 2010

Fix It Friday

Each week "I Heart Faces"  hosts a challenge to fix a photo that needs a little work to make it something special.  This week's fix-it was really a challenge!  Here is the original photo...


This sweet baby girl belongs to blogger "Mommy Can't Sing" where she is trying to do a 365 photo project.  She took this photo hastily in dim light, but there is a wonderful photo underneath all that.  After a good hour of post processing this was the end result...


Here is how I edited this photo:
  1. Upped the brightness significantly, about 70.  And lowered the contrast slightly.
  2. Adjusted the color balance to include more blues and greens while reducing the yellows and reds
  3. "Dodged" the eyes, especially her left eye, to reduce the cross-eyed look and to bring out the color of the iris. 
  4. "Burned" the lip's edges, particularly the left corner to give her smile a slight upturn.  And her eye brows so there was a little more emotion on her face.  
  5. Upped the color saturation slightly, very slightly.  
  6. Over-layed a warming photo filter.
  7. Cropped the edges just slightly to remove the wall on the side of the photo reduce some of the background clutter.
It took less steps than last week, but it really was more of a challenge!  And what beautiful eyes she has.

Just for fun I also ran a couple of photo shop actions on the finished photo.   
Which one do you prefer?  You can click on them to view them larger.

Black and White
Soft Light
Vintage (hard to tell between the last two isn't it?)

If you have a photo that you would like me to "fix-up" for you check out my website for more information.  I love doing these challenges and  working on your photos.  To see more of this week's entries for Friday fix-it please check out the "I Heart Faces" website!  And of course, let me know what you think about my photo fix!  I love your comments and advice.




5 comments:

  1. Oh I really love the vintage, she looks like a porcelin doll! And I love the BW too! Thanks for spending so much time on my photo! Sorry it was such a challenge! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. My fave is the vintage {I'm a sucker for that} but I love that you did the detail around the mouth. Great tutorial too!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like the black and white best, then the vintage....thanks for sharing! Great job editing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love vintage touches on photos. I only have a point and shoot camera so i usually edit mine. And I mostly do something like that. Nice photo treatment! Stopping by from SITS!

    ReplyDelete

I love and appreciate all comments! If you have a question please ask away and I will certainly reply.