Edit Me: Week 4

Disclaimer: This is not my photo. I did not take it.
Copyright belongs to the original photographer:
Ashley Sisk

SOOC:

My edit:

My steps were somewhat complicated this time. First, I opened in pse8, resized the canvas, and stretched the left side. I cropped the canvas to cut off the uneven edges, and resaved. Then, I opened in LR3 to do some tweaking: increase warmth, decrease exposure, increase fill light A LOT, and increase blacks slightly. I also upped the clarity and vibrance a bit. I resaved again, and brought it back into pse8. I used Amanda Padgett's action to remove hot spots, ran Amy McMaster's Olive Juice Color (lots of tweaking), duplicated the background and smoothed out his face, and applied PW's Seventies at 50% (brushed softly off his face and eyes). I didn't apply any sharpening to his eyes, since they were slightly out of focus. Lastly, I finished off with a haze, a soft vignette, and some NR.

If you couldn't keep up with all of that, I'm sorry! I know that this much editing is time consuming, but I had this look in my head. Unfortunately, it took a lot of steps to accomplish. I am so happy with how it turned out. Too bad I can't write an action to do it all much faster.

Edit Me: Week 3

Disclaimer: This is not my photo. I did not take it.
Copyright belongs to the original photographer:
Marilyn from The ArtsyGirl Connection

SOOC:

My edit:

My steps in LR3:
-crop
-move tint slider to the right
-increase blacks, vibrance, clarity
-sharpen boat with adjustment brush
-my own preset - Twilight: New Moon
-tweak greens
-sharpen preset from Pretty Presets

Edit Me: Week 2

Disclaimer: This is not my photo. I did not take it.
Copyright belongs to the original photographer:
Tara from Wild Ginger Photography

SOOC:

My edit:

My steps:

In pse8, I stretched the left side of the canvas to cover the window in the corner.

After importing to LR3:
-crop and rotate
-add touch of warmth
-Sarah's Clean Edit
-decrease contrast
-decrease blacks a smidge
-Romantic Era preset from ILP (tweaked)
-add slight vignette

I'm not good at the editing part of newborn photography. Please let me know what you think of this edit! Thanks.

Edit Me: Week 1

I am so happy that the Edit Me challenge has returned!



Disclaimer: This is not my photo. I did not take it.
Copyright belongs to the original photographer:
Sarah over at Naptime Momtog

SOOC:

My edit:

My steps:
-crop
-preset from Seim - Color Year
-my own HDR preset
-noise reduction
-adjustment brushes to darken spot on hood, darken face, and sharpen/brighten eyes

Edit Me - 11.18.11

Disclaimer: This is not my photo. I did not take it.
Copyright belongs to the original photographer:
Alita over at Alita Jewel's Treasures

SOOC:

My edit:

I processed this with 2 steps in LR3:

-crop
-Seasonal Winter (my own preset)
-sharpened branch with adjustment brush.

Okay, so, it was 3 steps. Sue me.


Anyway, I've been creating my own LR3 presets, and seriously having fun with it! I've made 13 so far, and I've considered making them available to all of you, if anyone is interested. My only problem is that my photos aren't professional quality. I've tested some of my presets using photos from the Edit Me challenge (as above) and i♥faces' Fix It Friday, but I'd really feel more comfortable doing more testing on professional photos WITH the photog's permission. Anyone want to offer up some photos for me to use?? Email me at yma367 at hotmail dot com.

*If you offer up some of your photos for me for preset testing, credit will be given for all online use. JPEG and RAW files are acceptable, SOOC preferred with some minor editing (blemish/spot removal).

Edit Me - 11.11.11

I wanted to post today because it's 11.11.11 and that only happens once per century. I just couldn't decide what to post about. A life update is not really needed because, let's face it, my life is a bit mundane. I work, I eat, I sleep. Occasionally, I see my husband. The only exciting thing that has happened recently is that my friend had a baby, and we are the godparents!

Besides that, though, we are just enjoying married life when we are together, missing each other when we are apart, and that's about it.

So, I decided to make a post for my edit of this week's Edit Me photo. I have only been posting these photos on flickr for the past few weeks because it's much easier than typing up an entire post. I'm doing it this week because I love how my edit came out, and I need some blank space to explain how I did it.


Disclaimer: This is not my photo. I did not take it.
Copyright belongs to the original photographer:
Kristy over at Through a Photographer's Eyes

SOOC:

My edit:

My steps in LR3:

-crop and straighten
-auto wb, add warmth
-auto tone, add brightness/fill light/blacks
-sharpen preset from Pretty Presets
-Color Years Xi preset from Seim
-export to save my clean edit
-my own aged photo preset
-export again to open in pse8

I used an aged postcard texture from Shadowhouse Creations. Here are my texture layers:

Dreamy Stream

Last week, I was able to be a guest judge for Branson and Kathryn's Edit Me challenge! It was tons of fun, but oh, so difficult! Picking only 3 of my favorite edits, out of all the amazing entries... There are some very talented photoshoppers in this group!

I couldn't help but do my own edit. Here is the SOOC again:

And here is my edit, called Dreamy Stream:

Ooh, I love this one so much. I didn't write down my steps like I normally do; however, I do remember that I used a combination of the Orton effect (Rita's tut) and Coffeeshop's Sunkissed action, plus some tweaking of my own.

Remember to head to either Branson's blog or Kathryn's blog tomorrow to see who I picked as the winners!

Edit Me - 10.5.11

I won't be participating in the Edit Me challenge this week....


Because I am guest judging!

Click on either Branson's button or Kathryn's button above to go to their blogs and read all the details. Here's the basic timeline: the linky is open now, it closes on Saturday, I'll post my own edit of the photo on Monday, and then the winners will be posted on both Branson and Kathryn's blogs on Tuesday. Now go do some fabulous editing!

Edit Me - 9.29.11

Disclaimer: This is not my photo. I did not take it.
Copyright belongs to the original photographer:
Kala over at The Wishful Lamb

SOOC:

My edit:

My steps in pse8 after adjusting sliders in ACR:
-levels
-Baby PowderRoom
-Faded Daydreams (tweaked)
-added a texture from My 4 Hens - one layer on soft light @ 90%, brushed off baby's skin.
-vignette

Edit Me - 9.22.11

Disclaimer: This is not my photo. I did not take it.
Copyright belongs to the original photographer:
Deb Duty

SOOC:

My final edit:

My steps: I did my usual thing in ACR, which is "adjust sliders until I see something I like." In pse8, I cropped, and then ran a few actions. I loved my third edit using the Cozy September action (tweaked) and a texture (nature's beauty from Kim Klassen), so that's the one I decided to post here. To see my other edits, click here.

Edit Me & Macro Friday - 9.16.11

Disclaimer: This is not my photo. I did not take it.
Copyright belongs to the original photographer:
Kathryn from Our tiny BIG Life

SOOC:

My ACR edit:

And my final edit:

To get the vintage feel in ACR: increase warmth/fill light/brightness/vibrancy, slide tint to the left, and decrease contrast/exposure.

After that, I opened in PSE8 to run a high pass filter. I also added an artistic watercolor filter and a texture from My 4 Hens (one layer on overlay @ 30% and one layer on soft light @ 90%). Lastly, I used the CoffeeShop Web Color Block It action to add the color block.


And here is my photo for Macro Friday:

And an update on my life... ?

Sure, why not?!

Umm, let's see: I started traveling for work 2 days ago, although my body refuses to accept it. The long days, the hours spent in the car, the insane amount of coffee I am drinking, the increased pressure on my feet/hips/back from standing... I guess my 5th year of this lifestyle will be the hardest one to acclimate to. Don't get me wrong; it's still oodles of fun and I love it. It's just that transition period that's kicking me in the booty. I spent the past 10 months sitting in my comfy chair, in my little office, getting lazy. Now I have to get back in gear for 2 months of a completely different life. For those of you who don't get it, I mean life as a college admissions counselor. I plan on capturing 'A Day in My Life' at some point this fall, which will give you a much better understanding of it.

Speaking of fall, it's definitely starting here in southeastern New York. The leaves have already started changing color. I splurged at Old Navy the other day and bought myself a new fall jacket, just in time, too! The days are less humid; the nights are cooler. I'm ready to turn the AC off and throw open the windows, although Jon is not too keen on the idea. It seems that nerdy gamers don't enjoy fresh air like crazy hippies do.

Speaking of Jon, I love referring to him as "my husband" or "hubby." Looking at his ring makes my heart giggle. We are truly enjoying married life together! It took awhile to get to used to being married; however, now, we are embracing it. We're cooking-dinner-together, clothes-strewn-on-the-floor, lazy-Saturday-TV-on-dvd-marathons married. And we are planning to enjoy this period of lives as much as we can. For a certain period of time. Before changing it up with babies or houses or the like.

I know you all want to know, because that's what happens when people get married. Generally, they have babies and/or buy a house. And yes, we want babies and a house. Just not yet.

Well, that was kind of a lie. We love babies (and houses) and want them now. Except that we don't want them yet. So we're waiting. And while we kinda sorta have a plan for the future, we're more inclined to go with the flow for now. We want to see life has in store for us.


Oh wow, I just previewed this post and realized it's kinda long. I'll end it with just one more thing: I updated my 30 by 30 list! Go check it out.