Cutie pie...

Just wanted to post another happy picture of my niece. I had a hard time decided between these two shots for the weekly fun at I ♥ Faces.
So here she is without the pout. :)

I ♥ Faces~Week 4~

Week four over at I ♥ Faces. This weeks theme is "The Eyes Have It". This is a picture of my adorably grumpy niece! I made another entry so you can see that she isn't always this grumpy! She loves her aunty, but she sure is a mama's girl!

Digital Designs

While I would not call myself a "graphic designer", I do enjoy dabbling with digital designs. I have made a few blog headers for friends, and some cards here and there, as well as a logo or two. Some cards I made just because I wanted to play...I love playing with digital designs and can custom create lots of different things. Just ask!! For a custom creation similar to these..or to customize one of these designs my fee is just $10-$15. (Click on the images to view them larger)

A little insider info...

I had a lot of questions and comments on this picture. Which is one of my favorites, btw. So, I got the idea from the I ♥ Faces blog (well, and lots of other photo blogs) to do a little tutorial. First of all, I use photoshop to edit my pictures. I don't run a lot of actions on all of my shots, but I do like to adjust some of them here and there.

To start...this little girl is just adorable...so that is where the picture begins its journey to greatness. (ha!) The picture started out with a cute expression, and good focus, but the color was a little gray. (Blah) I shoot in raw, so I can adjust the color before I even get started on editing the jpeg image. Though on this particular shot I just started with it straight out of the camera.

So I used CoffeeShop (free!) color pop action. There are several choices from decaf to triple shot. On this picture I used double shot color pop.

I basically just follwed the steps and clicked okay a lot. I adjusted a few things here and there after I had run the action once. But that would just depend upon your individual picture and the look you are going for.

Once I flattened the layers I then ran a free portrait pop action. (If you click on the link, scroll down to portrait pop) It works on the eyes and anything else you would really like to stand out. (Eyelashes, eyebrows, lips, hair etc.)

On this action you can adjust how much you want the high pass to affect your picture, the action automatically suggests between 5-20. If I only have one person in the picture (and the eyes are a large part of it) I typically use a higher number, closer to 20. I think I used a 19 on this.

I like to use a soft brush that is just a bit smaller than the section I am using it on. (In this action you use a white brush and you can adjust the opacity to your liking. I used it at 100% and typically do for kids. On adults (if I use the action) it seems like it has to be brough down to around 50% opacity.)

I then flattened the image again and saved as a JPEG.

The original picture, straight out of the camera is on the left, the edited picture is on the right.

Here is the final shot....

I ♥ Faces~ Kids Entry ~ Joy

One day last summer my daughters were playing outside in the water and I captured this picture as she was about to swing through a stream of cold water. I love the childish look of glee on her face. So this is my kids entry for this weeks theme of "Joy"....check it out at http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com/