Happy Chaos

Posted by Andrea on Mar 12, 2011 in Fix It Friday, I Heart Faces, Photo editing tips, Photoshop Elements | 4 comments

1. RAW Editor

2. The shadow under her chin had some noise, so I duplicated the layer and used Noiseware on it. I thin applied a layer’s mask and removed the Noiseware from all but the shadows and part of her skin.

3. I was fortunate to get to test MCP’s new Fusion set for Elements & Photoshop. I used her One Click Color. This is a great action for making all those tweaks that would normally take quite a bit of time. I adjusted some layers and turned some off until I got the look I wanted.

4. Next, I used Pioneer Woman’s Lovely & Ethereal action. I love how this action softens up the hair. Again, I removed the effect from some areas of the photo.

5. To soften up under the eyes, I flattened all layers and then duplicated the layer. I sampled the skin color near her eyes and then painted over the shadows. I then reduced the opacity of the layer until the look was natural

6. I sharpened the eyes using Unsharp Mask.

7. The photo seemed off balance, so I expanded the canvas at the top and used the healing brush to add “grass”.

8. I used Florabella’s Vintage Urban action and reduced the opacity

9. The photo had gotten rather bright, so I used the Brightness/Contrast sliders to adjust the brightness more to my liking.

10. Finally, I resized the photo and used Unsharp Mask to sharpen for the web.

Posted by Andrea on Oct 2, 2010 in Fix It Friday, I Heart Faces, Photo editing tips, Photoshop Elements | 5 comments

I’m a little late to the game this week. Let’s just say that I’m SO done with college, but, unfortunately, college isn’t quite yet done with me!

Here are the quick directions for the fixes I made in Photoshop Elements 8:

1. RAW editor

2. Levels

3. Noiseware

4. Cleaned up hair in eyes (clone stamp/healing brush)

5. Adjusted brightness contrast

6. Selected eyes, pasted into new layer, sharpened using “Unsharp Mask”. Used High Pass Filter and changed blending mode to “Soft Light”. Reduced layer opacity to 41%.

7. Used Pioneer Woman’s Warmer action at 12% opacity.

I liked this edit, but then I decided to make a slightly “sunnier” edit just for fun. I used Pioneer Woman’s Lovely and Ethereal Action at 65% opacity.

Posted by Andrea on Sep 24, 2010 in Fix It Friday, I Heart Faces, Photo editing tips, Photoshop Elements | 4 comments

Julie takes great photos, so there wasn’t much to be done with this edit. My goal was to make the subjects pop from the background.

1. Even though I have the full RAW editor in Photoshop Elements since it’s included with the Mac version, I have decided to only use functions in RAW that can be accessed from any Elements program. I made some slight adjustments in the RAW editor:

2. There was a small bit of red along the baby’s hairline so I used the healing brush to clear that up.

3. I used Noiseware lightly on the photo.

4. Next, I selected the background with the magic wand, copied and pasted it into a new layer, changed it to a motion blur (angle -8, distance 475) and then used a layer’s mask to remove any blur from the subjects.

5. Julie’s baby’s hands were rather red, so I used a hue adjustment layer, chose red, sampled from the thumb, and made my adjustments. I then duplicated the hue adjustment layer, reduced red from the dad’s face, and reduced the opacity of that layer. (His didn’t need as much as the hands.) My layers looked like this:

6. As usual, I adjusted the levels.

7. I ran Pioneer Woman’s Lovely and Ethereal action and reduced the opacity to 12%.

8. My typical unsharp mask settings were used:

50-1.4-0

5-250-0

9. Dad’s face was still a bit soft, so I selected around it and used unsharp mask settings 80-3.2-0.

10. Finally, I used a gradient map called “foreground to background”, changed the blending mode to “soft light”, and reduced the opacity to 34%. The photo was finished off by cropping to 5×7. Now that I’m looking at the final, if I had the time, one more adjustment I would make is to dodge the hair along the back of the baby’s head so that it doesn’t blend in with the black stripe behind her as much.

This photo seemed perfect for a black and white. I used a black and white gradient map and then used a hue adjustment layer (check colorize) and added a touch of brown tint.

Posted by Andrea on Sep 17, 2010 in Fix It Friday, I Heart Faces, Photo editing tips, Photoshop Elements | 11 comments

This photo was taken in RAW format. RAW is ideal for editing because drastic changes can be made in the RAW editor.

Here is the photo in the RAW editor:

This photo was overexposed. If you click the arrow in the top right of the histogram, red will appear to indicate any area that is overexposed.

Adjustments made in exposure and the help of the recovery slider are needed to bring back details to the sky and the subject’s face.

The RAW settings were changed to the following:

Temperature: 4150
Tint: -9
Exposure: -0.95
Recovery: 100
Fill Light: 8
Blacks: 5
Brightness: +50
Contrast: +9
Clarity: +8
Vibrance: +24
Saturation: 0

I then opened the photo in Elements. The photographer was showing in the reflection of the truck’s bumper. I used the clone stamp to remove the photographer from the photo and the blur tool overtop helped to smooth over the changes.

Next, I adjusted the levels to brighten up the photo (black 15, midtone 1.13, white 247). I didn’t want to lose the blue sky, so I used a black brush on the layer’s mask to bring the blue back in to the photo.

The subject’s face was rather red, so I created a hue adjustment layer. I chose the red channel and used the dropper on the subject’s face. I then slid the hue to +3 and lightness to +5.

The photo seemed to still have a green overcast, so I created another level’s adjustment. This time I used the white dropper on the whitest portion of the photo and the black dropper on the darkest portion. This did the trick.

In most photos where I have done quite a few adjustments in the lighting of the photo, I use Imagenomic’s Noiseware. My version is a purchased plug-in for Elements. Imagenomic also has a free Community version that works as a seperate program. Imagenomic has an incredible discount for teachers and students on a bundle of their three most popular plug-ins. (Wish I would have known this when I bought it!) Noiseware have become indispensable in my editing workflow, and I sure wouldn’t mind trying out their other great tools.

I felt like the sky was still a little drab, so I created a blank layer and colored over the sky in various shades of vibrant blue. I changed the layer’s blending mode to “Saturation” and reduced the opacity to 50%. I also used a free action to create a layer’s mask. This allowed me to use the brush tool to control where the blue showed up on the photo. (Unlike Photoshop, Elements does not have the ability to create layer’s mask without the aid of an action or a tricky manipulation of layers.)

Next, I flattened all the layers. I then duplicated the flattened layer. On the top layer, I changed the blending mode to soft light and reduced the opacity to 50%. This made the colors much richer.

To sharpen the photo, I went to the “Enhance” Menu and chose “Unsharp Mask”. The first time I used the settings 50 – 1.4 – 0. Then to adjust the contrast, I went to “Unsharp Mask” again and used the settings 5 – 250 – 0.

This photo needed a touch of warmth. I could have fiddled with the hue again, but I have a favorite action called “Sunshine” that gives photos just the right touch. It is free, and available to download through “The Pioneer Woman”. After running the action, I changed the blending mode to “Soft Light” and reduced the opacity to 47%.

My final adjustment was to bring just a bit more light to the subject’s face. I adjusted levels again (14 – 1.20 – 241) and used a layer’s mask to bring back all of the photo except on him.

Final photo:

Posted by Andrea on Aug 20, 2010 in Fix It Friday, I Heart Faces, Photo editing tips, Photoshop Elements | 10 comments

I was all over the place with this week’s fix-it. I wanted to keep the fix soft and girly while still keeping that great punch of pink in the skirt.

1. I adjusted the photo in the RAW editor. Below are screen shots of what I did. (Because I have a Mac, I have access to the full RAW editor.)

2. After opening the photo in Elements, I duplicated the layer and used the healing brush under her eyes. I then reduced the opacity of the layer to 45%.

3. Selected the eyes and used unsharp mask (44-3.6-0).

4. Adjusted the levels, only changing the midtones. (0-1.18-255)

5. Next, I ran Pioneer Woman’s Sunshine actions and reduced the opacity to 23%.

6. To bring more of a sunny touch to the photo, I used a sunshine overlay from Patti Brown’s Kaleidoscope “The Light Set“. I used “Touch of Sun Left” twice on the photo. The first time, I covered the entire photo. The second time, I extended the layer beyond the photo. This helped position the “sun” in different places.

7. Pioneer Woman came into play again with the Warm action reduced to 31% opacity. 8. I used Unsharp Mask on the entire photo (50-1.4-0). 9. I used the dodge tool set on midtones slightly around the edges to give a softer look. The photo now looked like this:

10. At this point, I cropped in on her face just for a different look.

11. I took the photo back to landscape mode. Because of all the grass, the photo seemed very green. I wanted to see what it would look like if I removed the green. I used a hue adjustment layer, chose green from the dropdown menu, used the dropper tool on a piece of grass, and removed the color. I love how the girl instantly became the focus.

12. I was in an editing mood, so I kept going. Over the previous photo, I used the FloraBella action “Milk & Honey” reduced to 57% opacity. (Love, love this action!)

13. To create an even more whimsical look, I went back to my layer of light (left) and brought it into the photo again.

14. I added a really light pink filter to the photo. Just for the fun of it, I also added a photo mask to soften the edges.

Posted by Andrea on Aug 13, 2010 in Fix It Friday, I Heart Faces, Photo editing tips, Photoshop Elements | 8 comments

Oh my goodness! Could this little boy get any cuter? I love the direct eye contact he gave the photographer.

Here’s what I did to fix up the photo:

1. Adjusted in the RAW editor – mainly adjusted exposure, added yellow in the white balance and upped the clarity

2. Ran Noiseware very lightly within Elements

3. Selected the green on the left, copied it to the right and then used the healing brush to get rid of the seams.

4. Selected the eyes and duplicated into a new layer – Used unsharp mask at 100 – 2.8 – 0. This made the eyes pretty sharp, and I was afraid that any further sharpening I did would make the eyes look fake. I decided to reduce the opacity of the sharpened layer to 60%.

5. Adjusted levels – 5~1.14~249

6. I flattened all the layers and then duplicated the layer. I used the healing brush under the eyes and along the ruddy parts of the cheek. I then reduced the opacity of the top layer to 38%…enough to bring in the bottom layer and keep some of the natural texture of the skin.

7. Many times when I sharpen a photo, the hair gets jagged-looking. To avoid this, I selected only the face (no hair) and sharpened the photo. I used the Unsharp Mask settings 5-250-0 and then used Unsharp Mask again at 50-1.4-0

8. Cropped to a square leaving green space on the right…

(I also converted to B&W using a gradient map.)

9. I then added the “fluff”. The quote used was from Steven Curtis Chapman’s song Fingerprints of God . I used the song recently in a VBS video , so it was fresh in my memory.

10. Fonts used: Handwriting-Dakota (comes with a Mac?) and karabinE . 11. Frame made with an action from GraffiShop.