Edit Me and Flip Flop

Two editng photo challenges in one!  I didn't have a ton of time so I kept both edits pretty simple.

 First off, it's Edit Me with this adorable photo by the lovely Branson!  

Ran my usual clean edit in Lightroom by upping the blacks slightly, clarity, fill light, recovery for some of the blown highlights on her skin.  I used the sharpening brush on the water to make it stand out a little more.  I cropped in tighter, as well. Then I brought into photo shop and ran Amber sun from the left to warm up the sunlight that was already shining beautifully down on her.

Now on to the second edit!  

This is from the Flip Flop Challenge on Amy's sweet blog Little Adventures.  Here is her adorable son Wyatt!

In Lightroom, I straightened the horizon line and cropped out some of the window.  I used the cloning tool to fix the scratch on his face.  I also used the brush to sharpen and slightly lighten up his eyes.  I did some skin softening using noise reduction and played a little with the hues.  Then I brought into picmonkey and ran Intrepid at a low opacity and added a watermark.  I think that's it!

Edit Me and A TAG

I was just working on some edits for a friend when I checked my facebook tonight and saw there was a new photo up on the Edit Me Page!  It was the perfect timing for a little break from editing to do . . . more editing;). 

Here is the original photo by Nancy from The Rural Journal.  Make sure you go take some time to check out her pretty pictures!  And check out this cat!  Totally lounging in the sun.  If I had a margarita and was sitting next to that cat right now, I would be a happy camper.  I think the happiness may have more to do with the margarita than the cat, but I'm sure he/she would be fine company.  

Oy!  Can you tell I've been editing too long tonight?

SOOC by Nancy from the Rural Journal

Photo by Nacy from the Rural Journal

As you can see, I kept it pretty simple for this edit.  I brought into lightroom and did my usual increase in blacks and contrast.  I actually brought the exposure down a little and then increased the fill light.  I went to the hues and toned down the green.  I cropped, increased clarity, sharpened.  Then I brought into photoshop and add a slightly pink tone at a very low opacity (to play with that sun light on the cat.)  I finsihed off with a little sunshine at about 25% opacity.  Then I finished up in picmonkey by resizing and adding a watermark.  That's it, I think!

Thanks for looking!

Hopefully I'll remember to link up tomorrow! :)
You should link up tomorrow, too!



Oh, and one more thing!  This lovely lady tagged me and told me to show what I was wearing on my feet.   Now that it's nice out, I'm barefoot most of time or I throw on some old flipflops.  Please don't look too close.  That is the same nail polish that has been on my toes since March!  I am most certainly a beauty FAIL.  Those extra toes belong to Miles and Stella.  This is where they spend much of their day--climbing all over me. Oy! I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to tag other people, but that seems like a lot of work. ;)  Now you know not to send me a chain letter.  I will most defintitely break the chain, but if you want to play along and show off your foot wear or lack thereof, please do!  Let me know so I can check out your footsies!  They HAVE to be prettier than mine!  

Edit Me and Photo A Day Challenge

I've missed a bunch of fabulous photos on Edit Me, but I thought I would jump back in and give this one a try.  It really caught my eye because I LOVE those trees and the reflection that they made in the water. 

Here is the SOOC by Kaylene Maalaste from L'INSTANT. Go check out her blog and awesome edits!

Photo by Kaylene Maalaste


I took this photo into Lightroom and increased blacks.  I also went to the hues and turned up the saturation on blue and turned the saturation down on reds and greens.  Then I ended up bringing it into PicMonkey to clone out a few branches and tried out the FILM STOCK effect (TriX option).  It kind of gave the photo a spooky feel which I liked.  Unfortunately it made my poor cloning stand out a little more.  Please don't look too hard. LOL

Photo by Kaylene Maalaste

Now it's time to head over to check out the other edits or go do one of your own.  Click HERE to play along!

Before you go,  here is another black and white.  This is for prompt #9 {Rule of Thirds} in the Photo A Day Mom Challenge.

Thanks for looking!! :)

17/52 White

I'm truckin' along on the My Four Hen's 52 Photo Project.  This week's theme was "White" and here were a few of my favorites from this weekend. . .

Hoping to post Assignment #49 SOFT a little later this evening!  If you have any, send them my way!!

Edit Me

**Edited To ADD...Yay!  Thank you for choosing my photo, Pam!

I decided to give the fabulous Edit Me Challenge another go this week.  Here is the original photo by Pam Bowers at Kassie's Beach.  Look at the landscape!  And the beautiful kids!  I can't wait to do photographs like this when my kids are a little older and will sit still for 5 minutes.  Absolutely gorgeous!  Here is Pam's SOOC shot!

And here is my edit.

Photo by Pam Bowers

I would say I did about 98% of this in Lightroom.  I did my usual messing around. . .cropped and adjusted contrast, blacks, fill light, exposure, brightness, to taste.  My goal was to brighten up the kids and I initally used a brush to brighten and saturate the background as well, but decided I liked it better faded looking as the children stood out a little more.  I also tried to de-contrast their clothing a bit, because I couldn't see many of the details after I tinkered around too much.  Have I told you how much I love that brush in LR??  It really helps when I feel I have overdone part of a photo.  Finally, I brought into photoshop and ran Soft Sunshine which gives a bit of a warm hazy look.  I always bring the opacity way down so it doesn't look too unnatural, but I always have a bad habit of doing that anyway.  Trying to work on that! :0  My goal was to make it earthy and warm.  I think that's it!

Edit Me

I missed another challenge and a beautiful horse last week, but just got done quickly scanning some of the edits and they are so pretty!!  This week's EDIT ME photo was taken by Belle Hess from Belle Pics Photography.  Oh my goodness, look at these adorable boys!!!

And here is my edit of Belle's photo.

To be honest, I actually really liked the crop of the original photo.  It had interesting lines and it was right on target with the rule of thirds. That said, I thought I would change it up a bit for practice.  I just cropped out half of the photo and added a canvas and a Three Musketeers quote on the left.  I went into lightroom to increase fill light, exposure, blacks, some recovery.  I use the brush to try and sharpen and pop the eyes a bit.  It's not a close up so I don't see much of a difference with that.  I did text and some slight cloning of a couple miniscule pavement lines and a teeny tiny bit of grass I had left.  I did that in a program called picmonkey which is new and is exactly like Picnik.  I mean EXACTLY!  Finally, I brought into Photoshop and ran an action called soft sunshine at a very low opacity.  That's it!  (I think.) ;)

Thanks for looking!!  Now go check out the other edits.  Oh wait, I think this is my first time editing early.  Go check them out TOMORROW here. :)

Edit Me

So excited to be in the top 3!!!  Thank you!

I took a couple of weeks off of the Edit Me Challenge so I could finish up some other stuff, but I'm done and decided to jump back on the editing wagon and try to do something with this gorgeous photo by the very talented Stephanie from Behind the Camera and Dreaming and Gray Mornings Photography.  Look at this cutie patootie!!!  He's givin' me a serious case of baby fever.  Oy!

Photo taken by Stephanie from Behind the Camera and Dreaming.

And here was my take this week!

I began by cropping and adding some more to the right side of the photo.  I did this with the cloning tool in Picnik.  The rest I completed in lightroom.  Increased fill light, exposure, and increased the blacks slightly.  Messed with sautration (increasing in some areas, decreasing in others), tinkered with hues, sharpened and smoothed out with some noise reduction.  I'm probably missing something.  I used the brush to brighten and sharpen up the eyes--they look so blue/green!!

And a black and white for fun. . .

Thanks for looking!! :)  Now go check out all of the other cool edits here.

Edit Me. Week 6

Thank you, Selena!!

Check out this gorgeous SOOC shot from Selena at Stoneyville  and  Selena Stoney Photography.  Gorgeous couple, gorgeous lighting--so fun to edit!

Okay, my plan was to go for a warm, vintage look. And since the shot was pretty awesome SOOC, I just decided to have fun with it.  Here are the steps that I took.  And if I missed one (I probably did), I apologize.  I loved the composition of this photo so I just cropped a tiny bit off of the right side (making sure not to cut off that pretty flare--Oh I heart flare) and added just a tiny bit more to the left so that the couple was directly in line for rule of thirds.  I pinked and yellowed up my photo using the white balance sliders in lightroom.  I also played with fill light, contrast, shadows, lights, darks and ran a preset called Trusty (from M4H) and brought into photoshop and ran sunshine and a pastel pink haze over the photo adjusting the opacity to about 30% for each. Also after all of my edits the shadow between her blades started to look really muddy so I smoothed that out in picnick using a cloning tool and airbrush.  (So sad picnik is closing;().

And just for MORE fun, I did a couple of black and white conversions trying to keep that old school look. . .

Thanks for looking! :)

Edit Me

I am just loving this challenge.  While it is certainly fun to edit photos and practice different techniques, it is even more fun to see what everyone else does with it!  I have learned new things every challenge and I am blown away by all of the creativity.  So cool!

Here is the original photo by Linda at Coach House Crafting.  Absolutely gorgeous photo!  I. want. to. move. there.  Sigh.

Photo by Linda at Coach House Crafting.

And here is my edit.

I really messed around so I hope I don't forget any important steps.  To begin with, I brought it up in Picnik (eek, I can't believe they're closing!) and cloned out the boat and part of the harbor.  Normally I woudn't mess with part of the landscape, but since this is just for fun I thought I would get rid of some of it so that it was less distracting.  I tried to crop it with rule of thirds in mind.

Then I went to light room and played.  I upped the exposure and fill light.  I used the brush in some really dark places.  I messed with hues of the blue and green and upped the saturation of those hues.

Then I brought the picture into photoshop and ran Soft Sunshine at 25% and Vintage Dusk at 33% opacity.  (Both helper actions from Florabella).

I think that's it!

Thanks for looking! :)

Edit Me

This week on EDIT ME we have an opportunity (until Saturday) to edit a photo from one of my faves, Ashley Sisk.  Very intimidating, I tell ya.  She is a master at what she does.  Check out this gorgeous babe SOOC. . . 

Photo taken by Ashley Sisk

Let's see if I can remember this. . .
To begin with, I brought up the photo in Lightroom and brigtened up the photo by increasing fill light and exposure.  Increased blacks a bit.  Sharpened. I also messed around with shadows and highlights.  I really loved the light that was coming in from the window on his face.  So lovely.  I may have increased it a little too much and blew out the highlights.  Well, not may have-- I know I blew them out, but that sun looked so warm.  I did use recovery to help a litle bit, but it was changing his skin tone too much so I held back.  I cropped and changed the angle ever so slightly.  I also cloned out the very corner of the chair.  I didn't find the line super distracting, but decided just to fade out the edge a bit.
Then I converted it to a black and white and used a mocha tint in photoshop from Paint the Moon.

 I decided it was looking a little muddy so I went back to my first edit.

So, this is my final photo for consideration. . .

Thanks for looking everyone and for sharing all of your steps in editing!!  I'm learning so much!!

Edit Me

Practing my editing skills over at the Edit Me Challenge again. What a great way to learn different techniques and find fun, new blogs. Here is the original photo from Artsy Girl Connection.  It was taken at the Disney Animal Kingdom.  How cool is that?  

And here is my edit.  Okay, it might be bit much, but I decided to have fun with it and make it feel like this scene was from a children's story book.

Here are the steps I took in editing this photo:
Opened up in Picnik.  Cropped and cloned out umbrella and people in corner.  Also cloned out some folliage in right lower hand corner.
Then I opened up in Lightroom and ran a fun and free preset called Toy Camera.  That is what gave it the frame and the slightly hazy/whimsical feel.  I will try and find the link.  I know I found it on Ashley Sisk's awesome blog.
I adjusted exporsure slightly and sharpened, as well.
Finally, I opened up in Photoshop and ran Florabella's Soft Sunshine.

Thanks for looking! :)

First 'Edit Me' Challenge

I thought I would jump in and try this challenge called "Edit Me" on this awesome blog.  Someone submits a photo and everyone edits it how they choose.  I need a lot of work in the editing department (in every department, really) so I thought I would give this challenge a try for some practice.

Here is the original (ADORABLE) photo which was taken by the very talented Tara.

And here are my edits.  Due to the fact that this was my first time, I didn't write down all my steps as I was doing them so these are just from memory.  I will do a better job of documenting my moves next time.  I swear.

Cropped photo.

Cloned the corner with the window.

lightened and brightened (in photoshop)

Did a slight air brush (in picnick)

Ran Blue Ginger and lowered opacity some (Florabella Action) for the color version.

Converted to black and white for the second photo and brighted up a bit more.

And for my final edit that I'm entering into the challenge I cropped in a little differently.  I'm always drawn to photos with negative space so I thought I'd try it on this one.  Not sure if it works.  Obvisouly had to clone a larger area.  

And I added a little Soft Sunshine (Florabella) to my original color edit.

Thanks for looking!!