Week 19 good to WOW Edit Umbrella/Rain

Thursday again!  This week proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that getting it right in camera makes for the easiest and simplest edits--because I definitely did not get it right in camera.  To be fair to me, I am not sure I could have gotten it better without a lens that could have a wider aperture at 116mm focal length than 5.6, a tripod, and an external flash and possibly a reflector thingee.  (The guy who published a book of pictures that he took around the country with his iPhone could, but not me.)  I did try some pictures with my on camera flash, but they were even worse--still missing the details on the side of her face, but with scary eyes!

Here is the original:

I only edited this picture.  It took me many days and attempts to be satisfied.  I did attempt the other picture because even though I liked her expression better in this one, the other one was taken at 800 ISO and this one is 1600 ISO.  I thought the other photo would have less noise, but it actually lost more detail around her face making it a much harder image to "fix."

One of the reasons I liked the other image was that there were no people in the background.  So today, in the spirit of learning from Ashley's tutorials, I did a new clean edit and cloned those people out.  Here is my final simple edit without the people.

 

I had done a simple edit in the week that somehow I did not keep except for after a crop that I do not love.  It is however the edit I worked with in order to get my final image and, except for the people still being in it, I like it better.  So to make my post longer than it needs to be when I could actually have a short post, I'm going to show it to you, too.

 

I had done a little more skin smoothing here and ran a noise reduction filter in PSE--I know it doesn't work as well as the outside program Ashley and others have recommended, but it is what I have.  I cannot remember what else I did, but I do think this is almost a photo I would print.

Then I took the non-cropped version and ran some actions.  I played around a lot, but what I ended up liking the best was PW Beauty BW with a PW Colorized ran right after it.  I then adjusted things and added a multiply layer for her face because it was too washed out.  Added a little more color to her eyes and lips (maybe more than I should have) and finalized it with a vignette.  Oh, and then this morning I cloned out the people, because they were starting to bug me. Given what I started with and the fact that I have only been editing pictures (except for cropping and maybe an occasional auto correct) since March 5th, I don't feel too bad about it. 

I think she looks adorable.

Be sure to visit Ashley's Blog to view other Rain/Umbrella edits.  I saw most of the SOOC, and the edits are bound to be awesome!

Oh, and here is my before and after so you don't have to scroll up.