Monday, August 8, 2011

It's the Little Things

I didn't have as much time to play with photos as I'd hoped today, but I really miss it when I cannot participate in at least one of the Tuesday Challenges.  Since what I was spending my free time on was looking at past photos and trying to eliminate some of them, I came across this personal favorite of mine of Sunflower at 4 1/2 months.  I thought it would be perfect for Texture Tuesday's "It's the Little Things" edition, since she isn't so little anymore.
Original
Of course it needed a little editing in order to fit the rules of Texture Tuesday~use one of Kim Klassen's fabulous textures.
It is kind of funny what I ended up doing here.  First I ran a softening action~twice, but only on the background.  I masked Sunflower off.  Then I used the CoffeeShop's Perfect Portrait 3 for skin softening, but I lowered that down to 38%; even still it might have taken away more detail than I intended.  I also used the soft glow layer on her face (18%).  Now here is where I have to laugh.  I had softened to death the background, but I needed to use a texture. So I added Kim Klassen's Canvas Magic~screen layer per her tip.  LOVE it!  But her face...well, not so pretty, so I circled her again, but this time used a Gaussian blur on the part in the circle to remove the texture from the texture but keep the color.  Seems kind of silly that I used so many different softening methods to make a picture with textures.

Anyway, the important thing to note is this is Canvas Magic on 100% screen mode~awesome!  Now I am tempted to edit even more of my old pictures; I may not have time to take new ones!
Photobucket


20 comments:

Buckeroomama said...

She's adorable... and your edit totally brightened up her lovely face. :)

Anonymous said...

I think it's amazing what you did. I was reading your recipe and thinking you definitely rock Photoshop! I've to read it more carefully to learn your tricks. thanks for sharing :)

Joy Burkhart said...

Such a difference with the texture, isn't it! Great photo and editting!
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your sweet comments, too!
XoXoXo
Joy

Barbara said...

the texture makes the perfect and cute baby really sweeter than sugar...

The Artful Diva said...

This is terrific. Your choice of texture is perfect. I love the baby's name too - Sunflower - how wonderful - she will go through life making everyone smile.

Ashley Sisk said...

So sweet - love that texture set. It's become a new fav.

- Jessi - said...

Really like how you brightened her up. Great job, not to mention she's a cutie and I don't think she could take a bad photo lol

The Charm of Home said...

Very nice. That makes a perfect background for her pic.
Sherry

Susan said...

Cedar!

This is just incredible!! She is just a doll.

Great job...

Sivinden said...

Such a cute child - the background is so well edited!

Kathleen said...

Wow, what a great job you've done with the editing on this (already adorable) picture. You've really lightened up her face, so there is less contrast with the background. All attention is on her, where it belongs!

Geri said...

very sweet!

Marla said...

What a cutie. :)

Marla @ www.blueskiesphotoblog.com

kimB said...

What a cutie-patootie :) Great texturing and take on the challenge!

Becky said...

I had to laugh a little because I've done the same thing so many times! But that's how I learn :) I love all the processing~the end result is great!

Reena said...

The difference is so awesome!!! I must someday tackle this kind of editing if it gives these kinds of results! Such a cutie!

Anonymous said...

Adorable! Love your edit.

johanna said...

i love what you did to this photo! such an improvement, your little one really sparkles!

Evelyn ~ Indigo Beach Art said...

Beautiful processing work and a very lovely portrait!

Charlotte Wilson said...

Cedar
Sunflower is precious and you did a fabulous job of editing her portrait. Did you know that you can make a layer mask beside the chosen mode, like "Soft light", "screen", etc. and then use a soft black brush and just go over the parts you don't want the texture. Then adjust the opacity. Easy peasy!