IHF Photo Challenge- Hearts

This week's theme for the weekly photo challenge over at IHF is "Hearts."  I almost didn't enter b/c I thought I didn't have any photos that matched this week's theme.  And I thought "How can I forget the heart on the belly from Tracy's Maternity shoot?"  I should really start keywording my photos as I upload them in Lightroom!

This is one of those "poses" that I saw that I just had to re-create.  The original photo that I saw was so different from this, and I must admit, I love mine more.  How perfect is Daddy's face?  How peaceful and content does Mom look?
What a fantastic couple and a fantastic family!

Self Portrait - Week 4

This week's theme was given my a friend of Jenn's (You can find her children's portraits here and her wedding work here) and the theme is [Drum roll please] DIRTY DISHES!!!

I had big plans that involved me and a sink full of dishes in my kitchen, but my motivation to clean the kitchen up enough to put in a picture and to stack dishes in the sink which I would later have to put away didn't really appeal to me.  So I took the lazy way out.
1 pot, 1 shower, 1 lazy picture. :-)

As far as editing, I went with Dark, stark, and yet some-what vintage.  I wanted that whole 1950's fake ad funny.  Did I achieve it?
I love doing these self portraits.  They're really causing me to become more comfortable in front of the camera and they're really quite fun!

Sharing the Training Love

I've got too much to do today to put pictures up [bummer] with a full post so I thought today would be an awesome day to give a few shout outs to some really neat up and coming photography things.

First, the release of Photoshop Actions "LUXE II" by Florabella is out. You can get $20 off the purchase this week. I own ALL her actions and these will be no different.
Check them out here.
Or on Facebook here.

Second, the newest thing out is an online Photographer's show called [Framed] Show.  It's starting today and you can catch the first episode teaser HERE
I really really think this is going to be something really cool so here are some other links to get you in touch with [Framed].
Facebook
Twitter
and their website
Really.  If you have any interest in growing yourself as a photographer I just know this is something you're going to want to CHECK OUT!

Third, (non-photog related but still awesomely cool) is a giveaway over at Crafted Love.  Love Allison!  She's awesome.

Finally, a free month long class via email to help you with your photography.  This is from
www.willettedesigns.com.
It's the Joy of Love class! Check.It.Out

Until tomorrow when I hope to do a blog post of a twin maternity shoot have a great day and stay warm!

Willette- Joy of Love - Day 01

Have you signed up for the Willette FREE February Joy of Love class yet?  Daily emails with tips, tricks, inspirations, and topics.

The first day had a topic of "What They Do."  Many people took pictures of their husbands at work.  I took pictures of Amalie taking a bath.  Her tutorial for the day talked about making the most of indoor light and how to get catch light in a person's eyes.  Not bad on the catch light huh?  For those that don't know what a catch light is.  I've labeled with a handy dandy arrow.  It's the little block of white in the person's eyes, caught by the reflection of light (in this case, my bathroom window.)



The window in this image is behind me, over my right shoulder.  Try playing to see if you can get a catch light. Using a flash or strobe will make it easy, but try with natural light.  It's a fun activity!
I really liked this image of Amalie so I did a couple edits on it.  Sometimes I think I'm still trying to find my editing "voice."  Which is your favorite?

Ivy


April


Posy


Lilac

Getting in the Valentine Spirit

My lovely friend, Allison Kaye, over at Crafted Love isn't the lovey dovey type that likes Valentine's Day so she's been trying to get herself psyched up by posting pictures of valentine crafts and items on her blog.
So this is for her.  Happy Valentine's Day. ha ha.

The theme for yesterday over on Twitter for @Photoshoot was RED.  So this was my red submission. Red gummy hearts.  Yum.



I opened this is Lightroom and adjusted the white balance and played with the curve a little bit to really bring out the sugar bits on the candies, then exported to Photoshop.  Once opened in PS I ran a LOVELY action by Pure Photoshop Actions called "Brown Sugar Baby."  It's in their set #1.  If you're going to buy actions I recommend them highly.  They're well priced and they're things that you do to pictures anyway, but streamlined into little easy to operate packages.  They made my workflow so much faster.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fix It Friday (#84)

This week's fix it friday picture was a litle tricker to edit.  I guess many people requested this, so the founders over at IHF granted their wish and uploaded a picture with lighting problems.  I'm kind of short on time today so I didn't do much to fix the lighting except on baby's face.

I intend to do several edits every week.  A contemporary color edit, a vintage edit and a black and white edit. 
Without further ado.. the original, SOOC image:


My contemporary color edit:

I did a lot on this image, included several selective color layers, a popping action, and a high pass filter on baby's eyes.  I kind of lost track to all the things I did to tweak it.

The vintage edit:

Added some softened red and yellow layers, along with a very very tweaked vintage action.
(kinda wishing I had added a vignette here.)

Finally, the black and white edit:

This was simply a gradient fill, along with a slight yellow color layer set to soft light.

Go on over to IHF and check out the other entries.
And leave me some blog love, will you---.... what's YOUR favorite edit?