Kiss n' Tell: Homeward Bound style

Hey all!  Haven't posted a kiss n' tell for a while so thought I'd do one on my recent action pack I got from Paint the Moon :)

I just purchased the Fresh Wonderland 2 set and decided to play a little.  I never thought that Annie could get any better at what she does, but she has officially knocked my socks off.... again!

I started going through some archives and found some pics of our trip home from Maryland and New York... from CHRISTMAS!  Ugh!  A*N*Y*W*A*Y.... We had decided to drive all the way through the night with as little stopping as possible.  Translated to a photographer... NO stopping to take pics.... WAH!!!  I was in the primest (ok, so I'm using my own dictionary, sue me) country for barns, rolling hills, silos, and just plain gorgeousness touched by our Heavenly Creator and NO stopping!  Kill me now! :(  I decided to get creative (working on my problem solving talents) and see how I could capture stuff while flying down the highway at 70mph.  No, I wasn't driving and shooting at the same time, though temptation did set in occasionally.

Well, caught this barn and wasn't thrilled with it SOOC (straight out of camera).  I applied two actions and a texture!  I could NOT believe how fast this changed!!!  I LOVE it now!  I even played a little bit more and added a verse and some birds, teehee!  Photoshop.... some amazing stuff!

ran the "Serendipity"action, NO tweaking :D

Thought it needed an aged feel so added "Time Worn" texture

Still felt like it needed a little pop.... that reminded me of the "Pop My Flare" action.  One of the MAIN reasons I bought the set.  I ran it, and adjusted the whole action (a new feature from amazing Annie!) by setting the opacity to 75%. 

Added "Pro Edge Vignette", something I'm addicted to!!!  Voila!  LOVED it!  It screamed for only two more things...

Birds.... Yep!  Birds :D  A brush by Shadowhouse Creations

and the "piece de resistance"... One of my favorite verses!  I love this stuff :D

Kiss & Tell: Golden Hour....

Ok, so I promised you another Kiss & Tell and this time it was on one of my FAVORITE images I've done yet!  As you may recall, I posted a senior session a little while back and indicated that I had a ton of fun playing with a certain image.  Well, here it is.  If you guessed the sunglow one, either you are ingeniously smart, or you know me too well, haha :D

This is my FAV FAV FAV for several reasons!  I have been after that elusive "golden hour" glow/sun flare for two years now (I started photoging in 2009).  Gorgeous light and sunflare were some of the primary qualities I have been yearning for and have cried tears over.  Often wondering if I really could do this whole photography thing because I just couldn't seem to grab hold of that gorgeous glow like others had.  When you are self-taught, sometimes you are blessed to find a tutorial on some technique, and if you are REALLY blessed you may find another photoger willing to share their "secrets".  In the area of sunflare and glorious glow, I haven't been so lucky.  It's been try, try again, CRY, try, try again, CRY.... you get the picture, (haha, I love puns!)  This time, I got to cry for joy!  :D

We LITERALLY went out as the sun was going down.  The Rebel would have NEVER let me get this image.  The ISO range is lousy and my shutter would have had to compensate.  Not good when there is wind or people that breath, lol!  The 5D however.... :D gave me what I needed.  SO!  When people tell you that you don't need "better gear" they are only telling you part of the story.  The photographer makes the image, yes.... BUT you can be severally handicapped by limited means.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news peeps.  I'm bummered and sorry but it's the truth.

When we got the shot I was jumping up and down (literally, just ask Alyssa.... she wasn't sure who was more excited, she or me!)!!!  I couldn't believe I caught flare and SUN GLOW!!!!!  Fast forward to uploading and I was saddened to see that it wasn't quite to my standards... yet.  I knew I had good bones to work with though and was thrilled beyond belief when I got the final result!

I can't list out my exact steps (sorry, didn't even think about writing it all down, I was just sooo excited to play, lol!) but I'll give a sorta, kinda overview.

First things first, I had to deal with the lighting issue... she was WAY underexposed!  Adjusting contrast, lighting, basic stuff then the fun began.  I hated the road beside her :(  And that dad-gum power line!!!!  That HAD to go.  So OFF with it's head :)  Content aware, as always.... I LOVE YOU!!!!!!  Fantastic on cleaning up those temporary blemishes and unsightlys ;)  Little skin smoothing, then the BAM factor!  I copied the image as a layer.  Flipped it horizontally, did a layer mask and took off where she was.  This took some time to get the right opacity on brushes, etc but eventually I got it to work.  I didn't want it to be tell-tale so I took some of the extra leaves off the right side, took a reed out on the lower left (content aware!) and adjusted a few other spots accordingly.  NOW, yes.... I didn't fix the top of the image.  I know that you can see the "duplicity" of the image but I loved the "ray" affect it had and decided to leave it.  Who knows, I may look back on this and think, "good grief!!!" but for now, I LOVE it and that's what matters, lol!  I used an action to increase the vibrancy of the color around her, and then tried several different "sunlight" actions.  I played for HOURS!  The sun glow was my favorite so that's the one I posted :)  Maybe I'll post the others at another time so you can see the difference actions can make.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the fun that goes on behind the scenes :)

XOXOXO

Longhorn Caverns: Alyssa (sneak peek)

One of my loverly HEART Club photog students asked if I'd do her senior pics... FO SHO!!!!!!!!
We had such a GREAT time!  She wasn't sure she had it in her.  Always being the one behind the lens makes that tough.  GURL!  You totally knew how to do this thing, lol!!!!!

Can't WAIT to play with these pics!  Just a tease for you now..... full blog in a few days :D

Kiss n' Tell: Adding a little light....

One of the things I want to do is utilize back lighting.  In order to not blow out my highlights (which you can tell in the example below was a MAJOR "my bad" moment) I will have to learn more about fill-in.  I'm going to make myself a diffuser (more on that later), play around with it and see how things go.

As a self-taught photographer, I learn by trying... then trying again, and again, and again, well you get the picture (sheesh that was bad!).  Until I can perfect this, I will have to spend the time adjusting things in post production.  I've discovered a secret....  again, PSE9 and actions (specifically Paint the Moon) came to my rescue!

One day I'll be the ninja master of my camera, light and all that encompasses photography.  Of course, then it will all change and I'll have to learn even more, haha!  Truth be told, the challenge to learn new techniques, new processes, etc..... kinda drives me so no complaints here :D

(SOOC means "straight out of camera" and KISSED.... well, that's my special little term for "after" lol!)

Kiss n' Tell: Little Tricks, Up My Sleeve....

I've decided to show another before and after showcasing a Paint the Moon action called "Baby Soft Skin".  If you notice the picture on the left, while STUNNING she is SOOC, using a few actions, the "content aware" feature of PSE9, and "baby soft skin", she looks like someone off the Mary Kay ad :)

I LOVE this stuff!!!

Now, after I did this one, I realized you need to be careful around areas like the crevices of the nose, etc.  It does tend to lighten so you don't want it to look like the nose, eyebrows, etc are barely there, lol!  DON'T use it on the eyes, eyebrows, or lips.  Gotta have shine and definition there as well :)  You also don't want to use it much on guys.  It is great for taking some stubble out and helpful with blemishes but remember, we want our guys rugged, not soft and supple, haha!

Spring has Sprung...

I finally got the chance to go on a mini walk with my hubby the other night.  It was actually getting pretty dark so we didn't venture far.  My main goal (if I'm being honest) was to try out the 5D's ISO capabilities.  NOW, granted because I've played with this a bit you can't tell a whole lot but I've added a before and after shot as well so you can see the difference.  I'll post more that are SOOC later but had fun with this and just had to post it :)

Keep in mind that my Rebel can only get to ISO800 and it's HORRIDLY grainy at even ISO400...

More...

Ok, so I promised to show you more of my niece and daughter :)

We went to Austin to shop and grab a few shots of Nasya (adding to her senior pics).  One of our FAV stores is called, "Arty" (sorry no link).  We thrill over the stunning fashions, bling-a-licious bags, rings, tanks, purses, shoes..... Always a glorious place to visit in Cedar Park.  We did go to a few other places but those are being saved for another time, surprise!

I have been having sooooo much fun playing with my new actions!  Let me know what you think.... I put up several of the same shot with different styles of processing ♥

New Year, New Life, New Challenges, New Joys

I have been quite absent.  Things have changed quite a bit since I've returned from our vacation (which still is yet to be blogged). :(  I have now taken on another child to homeschool.  My fabulous niece from New Mexico.  She is a complete joy but still added responsibility.  She came last week and we've been a little scattered getting prepared for her sudden arrival.

I FINALLY was able to upload my new photo editing program, Photoshop Elements 9 (as I will be shortening to PSE9) after needing to spend hours deleting old photos and files, moving old photos and files and generally pulling my hair out to make the necessary room on the drive I have to use.  I had another drive I thought would work but I guess PSE9 decided otherwise :O.  I also purchased a mega texture bundle and ALL the goodies for PSE from Paint the Moon Photography!  I LOVE Annie's work and have been dreaming of the day I would get to use them :D

As you also may know, as soon as I returned I was incredibly privileged to have a baby session with Karson :)  FUN!!!!!!  He was a tad older than would have been best so he didn't sleep as much as I would have liked and was quite the wiggle worm but a WONDERFULLY patient little guy and we had loads of fun.

I have been working diligently on his images and the goal is to have them blogged tonight.  I am finding that playing with the actions and textures is going to be sooooo rewarding!  I just have to pick and choose what images and what things I'll do this time.  Gotta get this done!  Not much time to play.

Here is a little sampling of some fun with the program and a few different textures.  Nope, not Paint the Moon but fun none-the-less :)  This is a quickie cell phone pic going down the highway at 60+ mph?  Not bad once you add a little UMPH to it, lol!!!!