The Bonnie 5: touch-up Tuesday

10.19.2010

touch-up Tuesday

Ashley did a tutorial on Paper Heart Camera a couple weeks ago about creating a fairy garden effect. Yesterday I finally had a chance to give it a try.

Here's my SOOC. (I have no idea what was going on in my mind when I framed up this shot. Nothing like one flower smack dab in the center of the picture, right? HA!)

Below is my "clean edit" (I cropped, did a slight curves adjustment and adjusted the soft light blending mode), as well as my final result with the fairy garden effect.

What do you think? Normally I wouldn't have cropped the flower so near the center of the photo, but I wanted to make sure I had enough room for all of the little circles going upward.

I did my edit exactly according to the tutorial, and then I tried it my own way. My process involved fewer steps (and is the edit that I posted), but I'm so glad I tried the tutorial step by step. If you're a Photoshop novice like I am, you might be intimidated by so many steps. I certainly was! But I stuck with it, and it took about 15 minutes. I learned several new techniques that I can use again in the future.

Head on over to Chelsey's to see some more edits! Happy Tuesday! :-)

9.21.2010

touch-up Tuesday

I turned touch-up Tuesday over to Chelsey so I could get a handle on the craziness over here, and what am I doing? Yep...a quick edit. I snapped this picture about 10 minutes ago, so I'll make it quick.

Here's the SOOC:

My clean edit:
(you all know my basic clean-up steps by now, don't you?) LOL! Same thing every week. ;-)

And here's my final edit, a little vintagy hazy look. This got a thumbs down from the hubs. He likes my bright, clean, colorful images (like the sunflower photo I posted yesterday). What do you think?

I would have liked to have played around with the colors more, but this a really quick edit.

I'm really going now...
Have a great Tuesday! :-)

9.14.2010

touch-up Tuesday

You know I had to find another excuse to use my new favorite picture of Livia, right? :-) I love her sweet face! The only part that bothers me a little is that her eyes aren't completely in focus. I'd tell you why, but it's a little embarassing.

Okaaaaaay, since you asked. We were outside coloring, and Livia refused to look up at me. (Imagine!) I was doing all my usual tricks and nothing was working. So I picked up a roll of scotch tape and bonked myself on the head with it, while holding my heavy HEAVY camera in one hand. I was like "oops! Mommy got an owie!" And voila! This is what I got:

I know a lot of photographers pursposely overexpose images SOOC. If you're shooting in AV or TV mode, you just need to adjust your exposure compensation to +1/3, +2/3 or whatever. I rarely do this, for two reasons: once you blow out your highlights, there is no recovering them in Photoshop. Also, on a couple occasions I did overexpose out of the camera, and ended up with many overexposed images that were unusable. You can always bring up your midtones, but you can't recover lost detail in your highlights.

Here's my clean edit:
Aly's basic boost
soft light blending mode
contrast bump
MCP's touch of light
PW's cooler action

Edit #2:
same steps as above, plus Totally Rad Action's lux hard

Edit#3:
same steps as my clean edit plus Sugar Cookies, and I cooled it down a bit for more of a pink tone...since I already did a peach and a yellow tone

Now that I have uploaded my edits, the 2nd and 3rd edits seem a little more overexposed than I usually do, but I don't have time to re-do them. And maybe it makes her look angelic (or something). Am I grasping at straws?

Do you have a favorite edit? I'm realizing my variations are quite similar, more so than I had planned on. I'm also realizing after seeing Chelsey's edit and a couple of the other entries (complete with tutorials), that my edit screams "beginner!" Oh well, I am a beginner! :-)

Remember, touch-up Tuesday is over at Paper ♥ Camera from now on, and I hope to see you there! :-) Happy Tuesday!

9.06.2010

touch-up Tuesday is moving!

Last week, I mentioned that because of my crazy schedule, I was going to change touch-up Tuesday to only the first Tuesday of each month. Then I got an email from Chelsey at The Paper Mama, asking if she could take over for me. I thought that was a perfect idea. So touch-up Tuesday lives on, WEEKLY, with a new and improved hostess!

Chelsey started a new blog called Paper ♥ Camera, so beginning next week, that's where the Mr. Linky will be. I'll still occasionally play too; I'll just link up over at Chelsey's. :-) Hope to see you there!

So let's get to the SOOC. Almost a silhouette, but not quite. I cannot take a square picture to save my life, and I always tip my camera the wrong way, making the person look like they're falling forward. Whoops!

I rotated and cropped a bit, but I didn't want to go any further. I didn't want to lose too much sky, or too much fence, or too much of Collin's body. The more you rotate, the more that will be cropped off. I wanted it to look like he was leaning backwards, but that didn't quite happen - oh well!

For my first edit, I did the following:
MCP Fingerpaint at 80%
PW's Dim the Lights at 50% - this is FANTASTIC when you "almost" get a silhouette
MCP's Urban Ocean at 25%
PW's cooler action at 65% (the clouds were a bit too yellow)

For my second edit, I did the following:
MCP Fingerpaint at 80%
color balance slider to red +50
PW's Dim the Lights at 50%
soft light blending mode at 70%
Isabelle Lafrances' Warm Retro action

So there you have it. ;-) I would have preferred more of Collin's body (like in the SOOC), but he was falling so far forward it looked a little off to me. That was the reason for the crop.

Here's the button to copy and paste in your post.

Hope you'll join in and share your SOOC and edit(s)!

Remember, this is the last week touch-up Tuesday will be on my blog. Starting next week, it will be over at Chelsey's. :-)

8.27.2010

the scoop on touch-up Tuesday

OK guys, here's the deal: this school year has gone off and left me behind. My oldest is in football, the next one is in soccer, both boys are in karate (yeah, I know...but they begged me), church 2 times a week...the list goes on. And moms of elementary school students: when they have homework...you have homework. Nuff said. Oh, and you've heard of the Tiny Tornado, haven't you? That's a full time job right there.

So here's the scoop. I'm going to start doing the touch-up Tuesday blog hop only on the first Tuesday of each month. How does that sound? I want you to know how much I really, truly LOVE seeing your edits every week. I've gotten many fantastic ideas from you guys, and I really hope you'll continue to join in. Please continue to "play"... 'K?

I'll do a reminder post on the Friday that comes right before the touch-up Tuesday date. I'll post only my edit, and remind you to come back the following Tuesday to see my SOOC. A real cliffhanger, I know. ;-)

I'll also have the upcoming date posted above my touch-up Tuesday button at the bottom of my blog. It will be posted on my information page as well. Does that sound like a plan?

I feel like a bit of a failure having to cut back, but I know it's in the interest of family time. I don't want to lose your wonderful contributions, so I hope to see you on the first Tuesday of the month.

Have a great weekend!

8.23.2010

touch-up Tuesday

Hi everyone! Welcome to touch-up Tuesday! We had a record number of edits last week - twenty-two! I am getting so many great ideas from you guys...new actions to try, new ways of editing...thanks! :-)

My edit this week is not quite what I had planned. (Thanks to your suggestions, I downloaded several new action sets that I was so excited to try. But for some reason, they just weren't working on the photo I wanted to use. Bummer! I was looking forward to trying some actions from My Four Hens Photography and Nelly Nero's Time Capsule set. Maybe next week!) :-)

Since the artsy stuff wasn't happening for me, I thought I'd stick to what I know best; the "clean edit." I'm showing you my edit first, because when you see the SOOC first, the edit looks too light.

Now for my SOOC - oops! Well, I am the self-proclaimed queen of underexposure, after all.

I could have avoided this massive underexposure by metering off one of my kids' faces, rather than using evaluative metering.

The steps for my touch-up:
Aly's Basic Boost
soft light blending mode
Everyday Vintage action to get the sky color; masked it off everything else
MCP's touch of light, just on the kids

I came up with a few more versions, but they were so similar to my clean edit, I thought I'd just stick with one for this week. Next week I promise to do something more artsy!

Please copy and paste the code below in your post, and be sure to link to your touch-up Tuesday post; not your blog home page. Thanks! :-)

8.16.2010

touch-up Tuesday

Welcome to touch-up Tuesday!

I'm going to switch it up a little this week, and start with my edit. It's not a shot that's going to make the scrapbook, but I wanted to include it to show what can be done with a reeeeeally bad SOOC.

Here's my edit:

Do you suppose the Canon 5D Mark II can take bad pictures?

Yep, it sure can.

Check out my SOOC:

Horrible! When I got my new camera, I truly, truly thought I would never get a shot like this again. I would visit photographers' websites that used the 5D Mark II, and their pictures were phenomenal. I thought for such a pricey camera, my pictures would look just like theirs. At first, I was so disappointed! It doesn't matter what type of equipment you have; if you expose it wrong or white balance it wrong...it's going to look like this.

Sometimes I feel the pressure not to post shots like this. You all give me such amazing, positive, wonderful feedback, and I don't want to disappoint. Yes, I take bad shots. Come visit my recycle bin, and you'll feel wonderful! :-)

What I did:
Aly's Basic Boost
PW's wamer action
soft light 35%
TRA's select-o-pop
Coffee Shop baby powder (Livia's cheek only)
MCP's burn tool (light vignette)

You can't take a horrible shot and make it perfect, but you can certainly make it better.

I tried a few hazy, vintage actions too. The two I liked best ended up looking very similar. Do you have a preference? They are from completely different action sets (both free), and I thought it was interesting how alike they looked. The right one is my favorite; a little more warm and peachy.

Make sure to link to your touch-up Tuesday post instead of your home page, and happy editing! ♥

8.10.2010

touch-up Tuesday

Welcome to touch-up Tuesday! Before we jump in, I think I might have confused you last week with the whole RAW/jpeg thing. When I took the picture of Drew, my camera shot in both RAW and jpeg. At the time I wrote the post, I didn't know how to open the RAW image, so I used the jpeg.

Maybe for an upcoming post, I will take a picture in RAW and show you the screen that pops up when you begin editing in Camera RAW 5.4.

Now that the boring stuff is out of the way, here's my image for this week. This was taken at our county fair. Fun! :-)

The SOOC:

Below is my "clean edit." (Am I coining a phrase here?) :-) This edit doesn't really do much for me, but it's what I used to run all the other artistic actions. If you're new to touch-up Tuesday, I never run artistic actions on my SOOC.
Aly's Basic Boost and MCP's fingerpaint

Totally Rad Actions "pool party":

Isabelle Lafrances' "easygoing vintage":

PW's warmer action and MCP fingerpaint:

PW's sepia and vintage actions: (Now those blurry edges are bothering me - oh well!)

I'm really liking the PW warmer and MCP fingerpaint edit. Do you have a favorite? If you want to turn your (evening) blue sky orange, give the PW's warmer action a try. If you don't have MCP's fingerpaint brush (from the Quickie Collection), try increasing your saturation slider. The result will be very similar. And free! :-)

Hope you'll link up today! I'd love to see your edits! Happy Tuesday! ♥

8.02.2010

touch-up Tuesday

OK, here's the scoop. This wasn't supposed to be my touch-up Tuesday edit. This shot of Drew is actually a lighting test-shot. I was doing a little photo shoot of Livia, and I always have someone sit in her place to get my bearings with my camera settings. Here is Drew sitting on Livia's teeny tiny rocking chair. :-)

Anyway, I was encouraged by a friend to shoot in RAW this week, so I accepted the challenge. There were two unforseen problems. Problem #1: Although we got up bright and early for Livia's little shoot, there wasn't one teensy patch of shade in the entire park. The result? Major squinting and nostril-flaring; Livia's M.O. if you are new to the blog. Problem #2: the fact that I've never shot in RAW before and now I don't know how to open the images. They don't open in CS4 the same way as jpeg images. My inspiration for shooting in RAW has left for a camping trip and can't hear my calls for help. SARAH!!!! I think I need to download and install a plug-in, but that sounds a bit ambitious for the old cerebral cortex this afternoon.

All that to say...what we've got here is a lighting test-shot. Sorry in advance. Tuesday kind of snuck up on me this week.

Here's the SOOC:

Here's my "clean edit" (see last week's post for my made-up definition)
Aly's Basic Boost - free
soft light blending mode, 35%
haze cutter on eyes only - free
PW's warmer action, 15% - free
vibrance +20 - his skin looked a little dull
contrast +6
TRA's Select-O-Pop on Drew's face only

Now for some "fun edits:"
Here I used Everyday Vintage from Isabelle Lafrances' freebie actions. See last week for the link. I am in LOVE with these vintage actions! (I also used MCP's non-destructive burn tool for a light vignette).

Here I ran an action from Totally Rad Actions called "Grandma's Tap Shoes."

My last edit is AMP's black and white action with a 10% beige overlay; also free.

Do you have a favorite? I think the Everyday Vintage is my favorite. Or maybe Grandma's Tap Shoes...

So I'm not completely in love with this shot, but I think it's a good example of the different actions you can run.

I'd like to say thank you to everyone that has participated in touch-up Tuesday so far! I think you have all linked directly to your touch-up Tuesday post and not to your blog's home page. Smart people in this blog hop!! :-) Go us! Also, I have very much enjoyed your edits. Everyone edits differently, and I have learned a number of tricks from you guys. Thanks!

Edit: I just got an email from my friend on vacation, and she walked me through how to download Camera Raw 5.4 (which is the version compatible with CS4). I cannot believe the difference in editing a RAW image and then touching up in Photoshop. There's hardly any touching up to be done! AMAZING! I can't re-write this post, but I can't wait to play around with it more.

I'm posting early tonight because I've been a single parent for the past few days. Doron and Collin are away at camp, and I'm exhausted!

7.26.2010

touch-up Tuesday

Welcome to touch-up Tuesday! I ran across some new, FREE actions a couple weeks ago, and I wanted to share.

Here is my SOOC: (watered down Code Red Mountain Dew that I bought from the gas station just for this shot)

The picture on the left (below) is what I call a "clean edit." (I don't think that's an actual term). To me, a clean edit means simply touching up the photo to improve it (whether it be to brighten, enhance the color a bit, a levels and curves adjustment, increase contrast etc; your basic editing). It does not include any special effects: 70's style, sepia, vintage, etc. I always do a clean edit before any special edits. For example, I would never run a black and white action on my SOOC. I would touch it up first, and then run the black & white. Make sense? For the right photo, I used "Soothe" from the Soulful-Inspire action set. (I will give the link at the end of the post).

For the left photo below I used "Indulge," also from the Soulful-Inspire action set, and the action for the right photo is called "Gentle Vintage" from the Everyday Vintage Photoshop action set.

Isabelle Lafrance has an entire page of freebies on her blog, so I thought I'd just link you to the entire page. Have fun looking at all her great actions! :-)

7.19.2010

touch-up Tuesday

Edit: Although I didn't list this step below, I always resize and sharpen for the web. I had to resize my SOOC, but I did not sharpen. The 2nd and 3rd pictures were resized and sharpened.

This week I'm going to keep it simple; my edit only has two steps (three if you count cropping as a step). Easy enough, right?

I got some nice compliments on my macro flower shots, so I'm going to show you how I edited one of them.

Here's my SOOC:

Step #1:
I cropped (which I won't count as it's own step) and did a curves adjustment. I wanted to lighten the green background, but in doing so it made the flower too light. I masked back the flower at 85%, almost returning it to it's original color.

Step #2:
I added this texture (using the soft light blending mode at 85%)...

...to give us this result.

When adding texture, I always mask it off of the subject. Otherwise in this case, you would have the texture all over your flower, making it look dirty. You can mask it off at any opacity; here I used 100%.

Here's the side-by-side. A subtle difference, don't you think?

If you like more texture, some options are:
1. use the overlay blending mode
2. use the soft light blending mode as I did, but hit Ctrl-J to copy the texture layer
3. use more than one texture (you can layer multiple textures on top of each other)

Hope you'll join in for touch-up Tuesday! :-) Please copy and paste the text below if you'd like to link up. Have a great one!

7.12.2010

touch-up Tuesday

Last week, I was taking pictures of Livia in a little forest by my parents' cabin in Branson. At first glance on my LCD screen, I thought they looked pretty good. Then after I started editing in Photoshop, I realized how "off" the color was. I white-balanced for daylight, (which it was), but the green leaves in the forest were creating a major color cast on Livia's skin. This is a situation where you would want to do a custom white balance. Notice that I said you. You would want to do a custom white balance. I would not. I should, but that's an extra step. And when you're photographing a tiny tornado (read: my daughter), you don't need extra steps. :-)

Here's the unedited version:

See how there's a greenish-grey haze covering her skin?

Here's the touch-up:

Brighter and cleaner, right? If you think it's too light or bright, it might be a matter of personal preference, or it could be because you saw the darker, hazier picture first. It's amazing how my eyes play tricks on me when I study a picture too long. I think if you had only seen the edited picture, it wouldn't look so bright in contrast to the SOOC.

This picture looks similar to one I posted last week, but it is actually a different shot. I don't remember what steps I used the first time around, so it is edited a bit differently. As you know, there are a million ways to edit a picture!

What I did:
Aly's Basic Boost
auto color at 40%
soft light blending mode 35 %
curves adjustment
MCP's non-destructive burn tool 60% (slight vignette)
MCP's magical color finder brush (background only)
TRA's select-o-pop 10% (on Livia only)

That sounds like a lot of steps, but I just wanted to see what all I could do with this picture. If you did only the first 3 steps, you would still have a nice result.

I want to say a special thank you to everyone who participated in touch-up Tuesday last week! We had a record number of "players" - yay! :-) Your edits were fantastic and I enjoying viewing them all.

If you're participating in touch-up Tuesday, please copy and paste the button below in your post. If you're new to the blog hop, please see the instructions in my menu bar.