Christmas Card

So, I have never altered a photo as much as I did this one.  I had my mom snap this when she was visiting us during thanksgiving.  I so wish I could take the picture and be in the picture at the same time to get it just how I want it.  It is just in our backyard against our fence.  To make it work with the card I had printed I reversed it.  Jordyn's face is pasted from another picture.  My face is pasted from another picture.  I added some light coming in from the right.  It played with it for days before I felt ok about it.  And still, I only feel ok about it.

Pumpkin Patch

What I love about these pictures:-bright contrasting colors; magenta, orange, sky blues, specks of green...
-angles; especially the landscape one
-lighting; what a bright beautiful day
-fall; I just love fall

What I don't so much love:
-the camera.  I took these with my small power shot and I remember why I love my DSL so much.

Birthday Girl

My baby girl turned 1 last week.  I have been trying to learn how to make a collage and realized there is so much I can learn!  Here is my first one:

This took me about 2 hours.  I started by editing all 12 pictures with the text.  I then realized that I could just add the text after placing the picture.  That was so much easier.  So these next few I made were a lot quicker.  I also figured out there are cool backgrounds, frames, colors, text and a whole lot more that I have not explored yet.

Here are all the pictures I took and edited of Jordyn on her birthday.  Well, I took a bazillion, but these are the best and the ones I chose to edit.  Originally, I was going to get some ballons for the picture, but I got lazy an just went with the birthday hat.

All Fun and Games

Another one...

So, after I edited and posted the last shot with the wrought iron, i went back and found this one that had some of the wrought iron in it too.

So my goal with this one was to bring out the iron.  There was really no direction to the natural light here.  So I made it black and white with about 80% opacity.  Then put in a strong spotlight coming in from the left.  I originally had the spotlight coming in from the right, thinking it would spotlight the iron.  But it really just washed out the iron.  When I took it to the left it brought it out a little more.  Still, not as dramatic as the first wrought iron picture I did in the last post.  But this is the best edit I have done with this picture.  Before I was trying to make the baby the focus, but when I gave up on that, it all turned out better.

Different

This picture is different for me.  I just played around with it, and love it.  The only thing I wish is that Jordyn was focused on me, and not reaching for whatever else has her attention.

I like how you see all the lights and darks in the wrought iron.  I made it black and white, at about 90%.  Then I added an omni flashlight lighting effect.  I was pleasantly surprised that it would spotlight Jordyn in the background so much without washing out the wrought iron, so you could still see all the lights and darks there.  It is different for me, but I like it and hope I can try more like this sometime.

Usually on Labor Day, I go up the mountain with my family.  We cook a huge breakfast, go on jeep rides, eat goodies, visit with loved ones, share memories and create new ones.  This is the first year I could not go.  Being in Denver, I thought about my family all day.  They are probably having breakfast now.  They are probably making sandwiches and getting ready for an afternoon ride.  I wonder where they will ride to this year?

Luckily my sweet husband took me out of the house and we did a little exploring here.  We went to a park and had a little picnic,and I brought my camera along.  I was really looking to get some bright colors in these pictures.  I wish I would have dressed Jordyn in something more solid and bright, but this dress is still one of my favorite anyway.  Also, it was early in the afternoon so the light was really harsh.  But oh well.





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Naturally, the light was coming from the top and left here.  I did a spotlight coming from the bottom right with the idea of trying to brighten up the dark shadows.  It was a little successful.  I took a lot of pictures with her playing here, but they were mostly taken from an above angle, and I could tell as I was taking them that they were nothing special.  When I bent down and got low, I could tell this one would be better.  I could see the blue sky and the green trees as opposed to the wacky colors of the playground.  It was just weird how when I snapped the picture, I could see huge difference that little change of background made.



I really like how this one turned out.   The colors are a little asku, but I like it.  A blue hue or something.  I manually adjusted the brightness/contrast/color enhancement.  The colors looked normal after all that.  Then I played with a spotlight coming in with the natural light from the top left corner of  the picture.  I messed with some other features there with the spotlight.  I played a lot with metallics vs. plastic and shiny vs. matte.  This is what I ended up with .  And I like it!

This is my favorite of the bunch.  I always find pictures of my little girl so much more endearing when they are up close, and I have been trying to focus in on that at least once each time I get my camera out.  I first made it black and white.  Then played around with the spotlight coming in from the top left.  I adjusted a lot of the other stuff there too, but I cannot remember any of it now.  All I can say is that it was all on the same menu with the spotlight tool.

Vintage

I had been wanting to take some old fashion looking pictures.  Then I saw this old hat in my mom's basement.  I thought for about 3 days of how I could create an old fashion scence with Jordyn and this hat.  I had nothing for her to wear that was not bright and summer colors.  Then I found my blessing dress in my mom's closet.  And sure enough, my baby blessing dress that fit me at 1 month old, fits my own 10 month old daughter. 

So, I had envisioned this old fashion brown, or black and white, photo.  When editing, that is not what looked good.  I think that to make an old looking photo, I needed more of a scenic photo, and everything I took was up close.  But, I sucked the color out on the saturation scale and did my usual spotlighting in the center. 

So, these next ones I took against the fence.  With all the pictures I have taken this summer, this fence is my go-to.  I like to use a hard light overlay. 

THis second one has a glow as well.  I took sooooo many pictures on this day and they were all a disater!  I found out how hard it is to take pictures without someone with me to get her attention.  Also, if you notice, the whole set started out being centered around the hat, and only one worked out.  She hated having it on.

Independant Baby

I wanted so badly for Jordyn to have a cute outfit for the 4th of July, but it was the day Chad was flying out and I knew we would not really be celebrating.  So I did not get her anything.  Then, on a dark and sad day when my husband left for 6 weeks, we got a package in the mail from Aunt Sherry.  She had sent this adorable outfit.  I had to take some pictures.
I did pretty much the same editing with all of these.  One thing out of the ordinary that I did was to put the spotlight coming from a corner.  Usually I do it in the center.  Also, I found something that changes the texture, I can't remember exactly where, but I put it really high on the metallic side.  I know, I have awesome photoshop lingo.

The best thing about these pictures is the lighting.  I took them around 7:30 one night as the sun was going down.  It made it easy to bring the spotlight in on the left side cause that is the natural direction of the light.  Taking these pictures really helped me to see just how important natural light is.   I have really been working on interesting angles lately, and anything out of the ordinary I took during this set did not really turn out.  These are pretty much just boring old, sit-her-down-and-shoot pictures, but I thought the lighting, the prop, and an actually smiling baby made up for it.

Cami's Family

With the addition of her new little one, I took some pictures of my sister's little family.  Her little boys cracked me up the whole time!  She was really nervous about what to have them wear.  I suggested to keep it easy and simple with white t shirts and jeans.  I think it was good advice for her.

All of these pictures were taken in my mom's backyard. I did the same kind of editing on all of them. Adjusted color, contrast, and added the omni spotlight I like so much. I especially like to do it with white clothing.

This one is the same editing as the others against the fence.  I tried to use the rune of 3  when framing this one.  One thing that bugs me is that the fence posts are not straight!  I am dumb about lines.  But it was either the bench be straight or the fence.

We did these whole family ones last and by this time Brooks was ornery, so no smiles.  I love how Cami's clothes contrast with the boys.  Her skirt and bare feet are flattering.  I like to do stuff against this fence and edit it with an overlay because it brings out so many different color densities in the fence.

Same thing, only the boys kissing the baby, and a light grey text in the corner.

So, I told him to smile, and I got this.  I know this kid, and I know what kind of a belly laugh he has and how funny he can be.  I felt like this pose was not genuin and did not reflect the personality I know he has.  Pretty picture, just know what I knew it could be.  So I told him to tell me a story about Disneyland and when he was done, I told him to smile one more time, and this is the pose I got....

I just cracked up!  He proudly put his hands on his hips and gave me the biggest cheese he has.  I really like the sense of dimention in this picture with the plants in front, Brooks slightly behind, and the flowers behind him again.  I also like the pop of color that the flowers add.  In both of these pictures of Brooks I straightened out the photos and cropped a bit.  It drives me nuts when a straight line, such as a fence post, is close to being straight, but not quite there.  I like it when it is obviously asku, as it is in these with Canyen.

Canyen was so patient during his pictures, so I was able to really try some different angles and stuff.  I love all the plants and greenery in the background here.  I also like how because of the fence lines you see the angles, but Canyen himself does not look so crooked.

I love the fence coming out of the corner of this one.  I with that I could have more of the green background in this one like I do in the others.  I was also telling him to put his shoulders down and his chin up, but he just was not getting it.  Still, I am glad he was so patient to let me try some new things.

New Nephew!

My sister recently had a baby, and he is beautiful.  I think he has the most beautiful skin, and the most adorable head of hair.  I took these for her when he was 3 weeks.  I loved taking pictures for her cause she is so grateful for anything.  I did not feel a lot of pressure to make them fantastic or jaw dropping.  I could just do my best and she was very complementary and grateful.

I love, love this one.  I had him on the boppy outside and just happened to stand up and get this one from above.  I love his cuddled up position.  I also had a color version of this, but love the strikingness of the black and white with the spotlight.  He is curled up just inside the boppy and I will definately remember this pose for another time and another baby.

This one is all about the setting.  You can hardly see the baby.  I like the setting for the most part.  The only things I don't like is the tan blanket.  I felt like the baby blended into the blanket so I had to make him look super red to create a contrast.  He looks sunburned!  The up close in this setting are really not good because his face and the blanket blend together so much.  But the back up with the setting looks ok.

I like the whole setting on this one.  I have taken a few against this fence with the red bench and everytime I use a hard light overlay.  I like how it brings out thelight and darks.

I laid him outside on the boppy, pulling his arm under his head to try and prop him up.  I had done this pose with Jordyn and it worked out well once more.  I adjusted color, brightness and all the normal stuff.  The most striking thing I did was add a spotlight with the center just under his chin.  This is the one we printed 8x10 and put on the announcement.

I took lots of different feet shots, but liked this one the most cause I fot the bottoms of both.  I did a glow with this one.  One of the things I like best with this one is the color.  I see some spots of deep blue, spots of deep green, and the contrasting bright white.  Plus the tiny toes!

What really works for this one is the angle.  I love the angle of the red bench across the bottom.  It is not great of his face, but works.  The thing I do not like about this one is the tan blanket again, blending with his skin.

There were a couple more that were ok, but it would take me all day to post and comment on them all.  I probably took 50 pictures and edited 20.  These are the best and the worst.  I got a couple that were just lucky shots with a cute little smile!  He is such a cute little baby boy!