Shoot & Edit :: Week 4 {Red}

{SOOC}

to {know him} is to {love him}

{Raw Edit}

here is what i did in {Adobe Camera Raw}:
white balance: as shot
slight use of recovery
increased black light & brightness
increased clarity
increased saturation & vibrancy
once open from Raw, then used the healing brush
to remove any distracting spots on the hearts surface!

{Lustrous Edit}

for Lustrous edit:
used Lustrous Pop to help bring out the beautiful shades of red,
a {free} action from The Coffeeshop Blog
once applied, decreased the color pop layer to 50%
but kept the sharpened layer at 100%
used hue/saturation to increase the {reds} just on background layer
next used the elliptical marquee tool; select {love him} & increased sharpness
once finished choose inverse select & applied a gaussian blur effect {twice} & used despeckle once
and last but not least, inserted some vignetting to draw your eye into the heart!
phew, finally... all finished!!!!!!!!!!!


though i do quite love my {SOOC} shot, i am OH! SO! IN LOVE! with my final {Lustrous} edit :) that action is just wonderful {not to mention FREE}
& with a bit of tweaking you can have those reds bouncing right off the page without a harsh over edit of the color!

{Flickr Edit}

{a year living positively 19/365}
Ashley is encouraging texture use this week & since i already touched on that last week thought it would be nice with this edit to show everyone that you don't have to use PSE, CS5, Lightroom, or any other fancy/expensive program to get a great edited result. uploaded my {SOOC} shot into my Flickr account to solely edit the image in Picnik. notice that the spots on the heart are still there, you can upgrade your Picnik account in Flickr to offer features that will help eliminate those distractions. point is that a Flickr account & upgrade in Picnik are still cheaper to purchase than some Adobe editing systems, not to mention it is a very wonderful/helpful photography community to be involved in Ü

Second Shot {Optical Illusion}

{SOOC}

{Raw Edit}

here is what i did in {Adobe Camera Raw}:
white balance: daylight
slight use of recovery
increased fill light & brightness
increased clarity
increased saturation & vibrancy

{Vermont Edit}

for my Vermont edit:
applied maple & cream layering to soften lighting
{not to mention take those wrinkles away from my hands, ewww!}
used hue/saturation to increase the {reds} just on background layer
next used the elliptical marquee tool; select within the circle & increased sharpness
once finished choose inverse select & applied a gaussian blur effect & used despeckle
and again added vignetting to draw your eye in!

{Flickr Edit}

{bench monday & a year living positively 20/365}

here is my Flickr edit, used for Bench Monday! no prior editing on in Picnik :)
many of you asked on Tuesday how i achieved this effect...
well to be truthful it was much by accident with a bit of
experimenting thrown in!
you will need to have a {fish-eye} lens to achieve it:
lens comes apart in two sections
once apart you will notice that there is a larger convex lens that will bulge your image
and a smaller concave lens that {like the lens of your eye}
will flip images upside down, plus make objects seem extremely smaller than usual!
so there you have it, so simple, yet an awesome optical effect, now go grab your fish-eyes & start flipping the world upside down Ü



pop on over to Ashley's blog & link up for her part of Shoot & Edit...
& thanks for all the great/helpful tips Ashley & Jill!!!!

more shot & edit:

You Capture :: Red

“so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.” ~W. Williams

this week's theme at I Should Be Folding Laundry
for You Capture is {red} too!
more red:


oh & if you didn't know ole Puxatony Phil
is predicting an early Spring this year... Hallelujah!
And Happy Chinese New Year {The Year of the Rabbit}
to those who are celebrating today!

Happy {Red} Thursday!

xoxo