Moving On

Due to Blogger no longer allowing me space for more photos this blog will no longer be updated.  But...you can now find me at my new blog .  See you there.

B&W vs. Color

It has become apparent to me that I tend to stay with color when I'm processing an image and I'm not sure why that is.  Often, processing a color in B&W or sepia actually makes the picture so why don't I do it more often?  It's probably because the color coincides with my memory [of the shoot] so to do anything but be at least close to true looks odd.

But with this image I stepped out and used the PTM action Silver Spoon.  And it worked.  Beautifully.  This is exactly what the image needed.

Getting into the Season

I'm posting this on each of my blogs - I don't want anyone to miss this.  If the video doesn't work go here.

Out-of-the-Ordinary Christmas Cards

Sometimes I think there's a bit of ol' Ebenezer Scrooge in each of us when it comes to selecting Christmas cards, after all there's nothing new out there, the cards are all the same so why bother. 

WRONG!  This year you don't have to settle for a card that's just okay.  This year you can send your Christmas wishes with cards that are new and fresh and unique.

But that's not all, if you hurry you'll have a chance to win some of these cards - you may even find yourself wanting to keep the cards for yourself. :o).  As they say in most TV infomercials, "...but that's not all," these cards are earth-friendly.  Can you believe there's even more?  Well there is, 10% of all proceeds go to World Orphans!

In a nutshell here's what you'll get:

• Unique & beautiful cards to send
• To do your part to preserve the earth (eco-friendly materials & packagine)
• And most importantly you'll get to be a part of caring for orphans around the world
• promo code ILOVERLPCO gets you 10% off your order.

Don't waste another minute, go visit RLPCo. (Red Letter Paper Co) and enter for a chance to win some truly unique cards.  But hurry, it ends at the end of the day, Monday, November 22. You're going to fall in love with these cards so remember to put RLPCo in your "favorites."

Want a Chance to Win?

“Win a fab giveaway from Paint The Moon on http://www.moms-with-cameras.com/!”

These actions are wonderful - all of Annie's Paint The Moon products are worth every penny, but here's your chance to win her latest set - just released yesterday!

Processing

Over at Paint the Moon's FB page Annie asked the question, "What is one of the biggest 'lessons' you learned in either processing or photography?"  It was interesting reading the various responses - lots of good advice.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to learn from the mistakes of others?

Overprocessing was mentioned by more than one responder.  Overprocessing is so easy to do... it's a bit of the Tim Taylor mentality of "more...", after all if a little is good a lot must be very good, right? :o)

This past weekend I did a shoot of a young couple and found myself falling into the overprocessing trap.  The background was predominantly a lovely autumn mix of oranges and golds with a smattering of green.  It's sad, but it didn't take me long to get tired of the background (even though in the majority of the images the bokeh was perfect) so what did I do?  Well, start layering actions on actions, tweaking every little thing then topping it all with at least one texture, of course.

As I was processing this evening I consciously held back, looking at each image critically and asking myself, "what does this particular image really need?"  It's rather interesting that even with the intentional processing I had to fight the urge to keep doing "more."

Here are a few examples of what I ended up with this evening.  Any suggestions or advice?

Fix-It Friday #77

Click on the link above to see how others edited today's photo by Michelle.

Here is the image by Michelle SOOC (straight out of camera).

The following are my edits.

Rats!  The images never look as good on the web as they do on my computer.  Oh well, nothing I can do about it...

IHF - My Story - Fall



We've been trying for weeks to do this particular photo shoot and the wonderful colors of autumn were fading quickly.  But after all the illnesses were gone and the schedules arranged we were given a beautiful sunny morning for the shoot.  This little guy was fascinated by the texture and sound in the leaves and never once tried to put them in his mouth.  He did have his face turned down in concentration quite a bit of the time though. That's when I decided to capture what had captured him.

Fix-it Friday #76

Fix-It Friday

Click on the link above to see how others have edited this photog by Susan Keller.

Today's edit was a lot of fun - a wonderful beach scene.  Perhaps it's because the weather has cooled down quite a bit so I'm enjoying the warmth from this scene, or maybe it's because this boy is so unaware of the camera that he pulls me right in.  Thank you for sharing this wonderful photo, Susan, and for letting me play with it.

This is the image straight out of Susan's camera.

In this edit I tweaked the curves, applied the Orton Effect, then finished with two Paint the Moon (PTM)textures.

 Tweak the curves / Run PTM actions The Works then Skin Smoother / Finished with PTM Timeworn Texture

Tweak the Curves / Apply CoffeeShop Action Bakery Glazes (Blue Berry & Strawberry) / Run PTM action Hush Now / Apply PTM texture Reminisce-b 

CoffeeShop Irish Breakfast Tea action / PW Colorized action / PTM Golden Child Action

I Heart Faces Weekly Photo Challenge - PINK

  

This is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I'm celebrating the fact that my sister is a Breast Cancer Survivor.

In honor of BCA Month the Weekly Challenge at I Heart Faces is to post a picture that has pink in it and a face.  I think this one fits the criteria.  Click on the second link above and see the other entries.



Incredible Giveaway at Paint the Moon

Don't miss out on Annie's Incredible Giveaway at Paint the Moon.  Not only will there be daily prizes but there's Grand Prize as well.  You can also find Paint the Moon Photography on FB.  Don't hesitate, don't think about it...just go!

Autumnal Color

Who doesn't love the actions that were created byAnnie Manning at Paint the Moon?  They're wonderful for portraits but I wanted to see how they'd work without people in the image.  What I found was this - the subject of the image doesn't matter, if the action is right it's right.

If you haven't purchased Annie's actions - she has them for both Elements & Photoshop - you're really missing out. 

Fix It Friday #75

Fix it Friday

Click on the link above to see how others have edited this shot.

Today's photo is by Angie Arthur but the edits are mine. 

This image is so full of life, looking at it makes my heart happy.  Thank you, Angie!

I apologize for just posting the edits without any information - I'm being a bit lazy.  What I'd like to do is post some screen shots of what I do in case anyone else is interested, but alas, I'm ignorant of that process.  Does anyone know of a tutorial (I prefer video) of how to post screenshots [from PSE8] onto my blog?

My main issue this week was the little boy's vest becoming just a black smudge.  Please tell me how you took care of that.

Little Peanut

Since I wasn't the photographer for this shot I don't know if the original color of the dress is white or a creamy tone, but in this edit I made it white.

Fix-It Friday #74

Fix it Friday

Click on the link above to see how others have edited this shot.

Today's photo is by Dana Suggs Photography but the edits are mine.  Thank you, Dana!

TM Edits

Tauna Marie

Original

Edit #1

Edit #2

Edit #3

Edit #4