Week 41 good to WOW Edit Pumpkins

Time to share our edits!  This weeks edits were pretty straightforward.  I am very glad Ashley shared that video on split-toning...it makes a ton more sense now...kind of similar to a two colored gradient map in PSE, but in some ways a lot simpler.  However, neither of my photos really lent themselves to split-toning well...though I did try.

But with the pumpkins I ended up with a clean edit...basic sliders in Lightroom, crop, and white balance.

Oh, and I took out the distracting, little, round bits of bokeh in the lower right hand corner with the LR round clone tool.  I find it much simpler to do in PSE but I don't like to go back and forth. 

Then I did a very simple edit on Sunflower...simple and subtle was my goal.

I adjusted the white balance and used an adjustment brush on her face to lighten, brighten, and soften just a smidge. Plus a tiny bit of noise reduction -- + 25 luminance, +6 color.

Then I played around with split toning quite awhile.  Here is my final...split-toned, but not necessarily favorite...edit.

 

This is with a pinkish/purple for the highlights and a green for the shadows and with my blacks boosted (removes the haze a bit and gives it some shadows for split-toning.)  But I just couldn't get the colors or balance right, so I desaturated it all.  I definitely see the potential for what split-toning can do (that video added a blue sky to washed out sky voila!) which is very exciting, but for this one...not really necessary.