@ Grandma Barton's

We started taking pictures with the kids sitting on the front porch.  But the green fields with the yellow dandilions, purple flower weeds, the bright red tractor, the shortly-after-rain blue sky, and the white barn way in the background were just to picturesque not to take in.

Before editing.  When taking this picture, I had the camera set on a high aperture nubmer (or maybe that means it is a low number.  I can't rememer but it opens the shutter up really wide to let in a lot of light.)  I think I had this setting for most of the pictures in this series.

After editing.  I am proud of this one.  I did auto on the light and exposure and manually enhanced the color.  I found a new lighting effect button on the full edit menu. I adjusted the lighting so it was coming from the bottom, lower intensity and wide focus. 

Guess I forgot to upload the bofore for this one.  I had to lighten the picture quite a bit.  I realized it is different to photograph a dark boy like Tate, especially whe the light source is behind him.  I also manually enhanced the color.

Before editing.  I actually thing this one is pretty good as is.  I should go back and enhance the colors to bring out the greens of the trees, blues of the sky, and the orange of the tractor.

After editing.  I might like the original of this one better.  Auto lighten and exposure.  Manually set the saturation to low in the enhance color menu.  Played with the lighting effects and had the source from the top left corner.  I think this one is too washed out.

Before editng.  I like the green grass, red tractor, and blue sky here.  Good colors.

Auto lighten and exposure.  Manually set the saturation to low in the enhance color menu.  Played with the lighting effects and had the source from the top left corner.  This one is not as washed out as the other I think cause it had more color to start with.  I wish Jordyn stood out a little more.

Just proof that getting 6 kids to look at the camera at the same time is impossible.  I took 78 pictures this day and did not get one with all the kids looking at the camera.

Before editng.

After editing.  Auto brightness.  Manually darken darks and lighten lights.  Love how blue the sky came out in this one and I could not get it to come out like this in any of the others.

Before

After. Change coloring to sepia.  Played with lighting effects again, this time having the light in the center.  I wish that Brigham was more of a focus here.  I think the tractor overpowers him.  But I do love the simplicity of it.

Casey's Kids

I am starting to get into a system when it comes to editing pictures with this fabric background I keep using.   I adjust color and brightness on the quided menu, usually using just auto.  Then I went back into the full edits and turn it black and white with a soft overlay.  I kind of feel ike it really turned him pale, but I like how it enhanced his messy cheeto face.  Such a little boy!

I like the round cheeks here and the little nose profile with the long eyelashes.  I did the same editing here as the one above, except I flipped it so it did not look exactly the same as the one above.  I think it is weird how much worse the shadows are in this one.  I wish I remembered what settings I had my camera on.

This is probably the best picture I have ever edited.  I am really proud of it.  I selected her bright blue eyes, then did an inverse.  I turned everything else brown, then b/w, then brown again with an overlay.  I also played with brightness and contrast.  It really made her blue eyes pop.  I did not edit the eye color at all.

Honestly don't remember what I did with this one.  I know I cropped it quite a bit.  I think I did some brown tinting with a soft overlay.  And obviously, the text in the corner.

I got to watch Casey's two adorable kids one evening and took an opportunity to take pictures of someone besides Jordyn.  Again, I took these in Jordyn's room, actually the same night I took those of Jordyn in the coral dress.  I really have to play around with colors, exposure, and do some creative/odd things with brightness, contrast and tints when I take pictures indoors.  Again, I cannot believe how much easier it is outside.

First Try..

I actually took these before I took the Easter Basket set.  The ones in the tub were taken in my basement and I was so frustrated I only took a few.  These were the first pictures I took with my new Nikon and I quickly realized I had a lot of reading to do before I could just jump in and start taking pictures.  I did not do much editing to these cause I thought, and still think, they are just a lost cause.  I hated the lighting, the harsh shadows, and all in all, I was unhappy with the whole situation.  I did the same thing to all three, brightened them up, and cropped so her face and not the yucky backdrop and shadows were the focus.

I gotta figure out how to edit out the drool!

I like her little ski jump nose in this one.

This set is one that I did in Jordyn's bedroom.  The walls in her room are painted a bright yellow and it makes for weird colors in photos, and in her room in general. (I was always going to repaint and tone down that yellow, but I was super pregnant and never got around to it.)  I did a lot of shots with her and the easter basket, but never edited them.  The outside ones just turned out so much better.  I have posted the original photo and then a few different edits.

The original.  Things I don't like:  harsh colors (too much bright is bad, a few bright pops is good), the egg, the way her white bow looks gray, her back foot looks purple.  Things I like: the whole composition, i did not feel like I needed to crop, she was actually looking at the camera.  

This one is a faded version.  I sucked out a lot of the color by playing with the hue/saturation.  I tried to do it again and could not figure out how I did it the first time.  Look how it makes the bow look white!

This one is a fade out from the center.  It gives a hint of the bright colors in the photo without having them so overpowering.  I only wish I knew if it was possible to adjust where the center of the color is and I would move it around her face.  I have a lot to learn in photoshop.

Black and white is always a good option for crazy colors.

This one is my favorite.  I selected her and the egg (stupid egg!) and then did a inverse select to get everything else.  I then did a black and white.  The only problem I have with it is that you can still see little reflections the yellow around her face.  I love how bright it makes her dress though.

Jordyn 6 Months/ Easter

This was my first attempt taking pictures outside and it was so much easier than indoors.  No stupid shadows or harsh lighting.  However, Jordyn was soooo distracted by everything going on!  Not her most photogenic moments!  While taking these pictures, I really tried to focus on some different settings with my camera.  Mostly shutter speed and aperture.  I really wanted to try and get a subject focused in the foreground with an unfocused subject in the background.  It turned out ok.  Next time I need to remember to create more distance between the two subjects.  The eggs were fun to use and added fun color.  My favorite is the black and white one.