Colour splash

I think I may have a new crafting addiction - like I need another one of those lol.
I was checking out the blogs I follow today and happened across Rosie of 'Leavesnbloom photography's    'Colour splash tutorial' for her Colour splash weekly challenge.
I kind of just glanced at it the other day and figured  it was probably beyond my capabilities, even with Rosies brilliant tutorial.
Today however I thought I'd give it a go and I have to say I'm quite chuffed with the results - they're not brilliant, but for a first attempt surely this can only get easier and better?

Here's my colour splash palette

How darned cute is that and who'da thought these things were so easy to do!

I basically just followed Rosies tutorial for this.
I did  download some watercolour brushes from 'here'  (I used the 'watercolour splatters') and the rest I did exactly as Rosies tutorial and all of it in CS5.
The whole file size thing goes over my head so I simply made my new file size the same size as the image I wanted to use but added an extra couple of inches to the width for the splashes. I'm sure that's probably not the correct way to do these things but hey, it worked!
Seriously once I'd read Rosies instructions and had downloaded the brushes (which were free by the way) the whole thing took me maybe 15 minutes. Obviously you can spend much much longer and fiddle and faff to your hearts content but I just wanted to see what a basic colour splash would look like.
Loving it!

What do you think? Have you done any of these and have some handy hints for those stunning finishes?
Thanks for looking.

 

EditMe challenge Wk4

EditMe Wk4

This weeks guest judge and adorable baby photo provider is Ashley Sisk of  'Ramblings and Photos' . If you are an avid photographer and want to get the hang of editing those photos you've taken that you feel could do with a little 'tweak' or even a complete leg removal then you need to check out Ashleys blog. I have and believe me when I say that the tutorials are A.mazing!



Here is the very adorable SOOC image

and here's my edit

• Opened the image in CS5
• Used the Coffeeshop vintage clipping frame mask
• Used a texture already on my puter.
• messed around with the opacity of all the layers.
• Oversharpened the image.
• Saved the image before I started over again for the 9th time in 2 hours!

As always I want to thank the hosts of the EditMe challenge for taking the time to make these challenges a joy to take part in.

Thanks to you guys for also for taking the time to read this. Head on over to the EditMe website 'here' to check out the other entries and/or have a dabble yourself and also check out Ashleys blog 'here' for a whole load of help and inspiration.

EditMe challenge Wk3

EditMe challenge Wk3

This weeks fabulous image we get to edit is from Marilyn of  'The Artsygirl Connection' and was taken at Disneys Animal Kingdom last year. Head on over to Marilyns fab blog to check out her other awesome Disney images alongside a fabulous crafty section and an inspirational causes/projects section where Marilyn talks of and of course photographs the projects she has created to raise awareness for good causes. Seriously, you guys need to check it out - but not till you get to the end of this page obviously! lol.

So here is the SOOC

Here's my edit

You honestly would not believe the palaver I had with this one. A fab image to begin with and I just couldn't get the effect I was wanting (not that I actually knew what that was, but I would when I got it).
Initially I wanted to clone out those holidaymakers who draw the eye but try as I might I just couldn't get it perfect enough.
So I then decided to do a tight crop instead to crop em out but I wasn't happy with that either.
So here's what I did:

• Opened in CS5.
• Cropped the image.
• Opened HDR and toggled a bit.
• Used 'coffeeshop' sharpen action.
• Opened curves and messed.
• Opened variations and messed.
• Created an extra 15 pixels of Red canvas.
• Screamed because it's still not what I want.

There you have it. I may have a mess around with it again and I'll post any improvements on it here if I do.
As usual I want to thank the EditMe team for hosting this challenge, myself and many others enjoy this weekly challenge immensly and always look forward to the next image.

So if you guys want to check out the challenge click 'here', you never know you may even find yourself joining in.
Thanks for stopping by and staying long enough to read this.


 

Edit Me: Wk2 2012

Crikey that came round awful quick didn't it!
Oh well I'm not complaining because I just love seeing what the next image is that has been submitted  for the EditMe challenge.

This weeks guest judge and image owner is Tara of Wild Ginger Photography whose website is full of amazing images ranging from adorable babies to fine art.
Grab a coffee, head on over to Tara's place and prepare to go all googly over the adorable images.

So here is the SOOC submitted by Tara

and this is my edit

I did warn you! Adorable huh?
It's no secret that I panic a tad when it comes to editing images of children, after all, these are someones adored ray of hope and sunshine and I am sooooooo aware of how easy it would be to insult a person with an edit that I interpret as 'different' and others interpret as .... well..... wrong! (I love putting googly eyes on things and turning them into neon glowing objects) sigh!
Can't do that with such gorgeous images as this one though - even I would agree it was just wrong!

So here's how I did it. (yes I do remember almost every step for a change - yay me!)
Opened the image in CS5, created background copy (many mistakes mean I now remember that one!), tight crop keeping image dimensions,  added another new layer and filled this layer with white.
Then I added extra canvas around the image in layer1 and then added a bit of space inside the image on the background copy.
Added a layer mask to the background copy, went into filters, brush strokes  added a sprayed strokes effect and then trimmed the canvas size.
Finally I did a tiny bit of sharpening and then just played with exposure, levels etc until I got the look I wanted.

Thank you to both Tara and the EditMe challenge team for hosting this challenge, judging our edits and submitting such gorgeous photos.
Thank you also to all you faithful followers and looker inners (I've just made that word up). I hope you enjoy this challenge and don't forget to head on over to Taras website and /or the EditMe blogsite to check out the other participants entries or to even have a go yourself.


 

Edit Me: Wk 1: 2012

Yay the 'EditMe Challenge' is back after the holiday break and boy have I missed it.

The challenge has a brand new member to the team who just so happens to also be the judge for this week. So a huge Hello to Sarah of  'Naptime MomTog' I hope you enjoy checking out all the Edits for this week and future weeks to come Sarah!
This weeks photo to edit is Sarahs son Dustyn and his adorable dog Dudley and if you head on over to her fabulous blog you will find many more gorgeous images.

My initial reaction to this photo was 'Eek, another one of someone's beloved child. Another chance to get it all wrong and possibly insult somone'. However I loved the image - who couldn't love a picture of a child and his best pal - so I figured I'll just go for it and see what happens.

Here's the SOOC

and here's my edit:

Being a New Year and all that I had promised myself that I would finally remember to write down the steps I took in my Edit, however this time I didn't record them because I really did just open the image and play.
I did open the image in CS5 though, made a background layer and then simply messed with whatever I could find to get the tone I wanted, which happened to be a bit of a HDR type thing.
I hear talk of various filters that people use for edits but I haven't a clue how to use half of those things or even where to get them from in the first place lol - Hmmmmm, maybe I should make it a goal this year to dabble and learn a bit more about editing photos.
Anyway once I had the tone I wanted I cropped the image slightly and added a Black border.
I did think about adding some wording but with my imagination being as basic as it is I just couldn't figure out what adaptation of a boy and his dog to use or where to put it. So I convinced myself it doesn't need it anyway - which it really doesn't.

Anyway there you have it. I hope you enjoyed this Edit Me Challenge, if you want to join in and have some fun editing images then mosey on over to the Edit Me blog page and you're in!
Thank you again to Sarah for the piccie and for judging and for joining the team so we all get to have such fun!

 

Edit Me: Week 26

Edit Me:

Another week, another edit.
I so look forward to these weekly edits and love a piccie that challenges me so I was quite pleased with this weeks submission from Alita of 'Alita jewel's treasure'

Here's the SOOC

and here's my edit:

Opened the image is CS5 and after spending a good hour wasting time by getting everything wrong I decided I was being too technical so started over and kept it simple.
Opened HDR toning in image adjustments and moved the multitude of sliders until I got a half decent image.
opened curves and created a loose 'S' curve.
Created a white border by changing canvas size and that was it!

Hope y'all head on over to the 'Edit Me' challenge, take a look at the other cool edits and maybe have a go yourself.

Edit Me: Week 25

Edit Me: Week 25

Well that was a panic. I completely forgot about the challenge this week and would have missed it if I'd not popped on to check out my blog.
I downloaded the image in a rush, edited it in a rush and just as I was blogging it I lost internet connection for a few hours. Wouldn't normally be a problem as blogger would save it BUT I, in my wisdom, started a stand alone page in Blogger for the Edit Me weekly challenge so it didn't save - Arghhhh!

So forgive me for the fact that the Edit Me challenge keeps moving around on my blog, it's no longer going to be on a stand alone page because no one knows it's there. lol. However, this may change in the future.

Any way, I digress.
This weeks image is one of my favourites so far. I love inaminate objects cos I figure I can't really offend anyone with my edits.
This weeks judge is Misty from 'Through a Photographers Eyes'. A cool looking mum who has a wonderful website filled with amazing images that I could only dream of achieving, tutorials and her own challenge titled SHOOT.EDIT.SUBMIT.
Take a mosey on over there and I promise you'll be inspired!

So here is this weeks SOOC

whimsical tracker (forgive the attempt at country talk)

and here's my edit

As for what I did to achieve it, well, in my defence I did actually save detailed instructions this week so yay for me. BUT I disposed of them after I had written them on my blogger before I realised that they hadn't been saved to the stand alone page. So, I'm going to have to give basics of what I remember.........for a change!

I opened the SOOC and a background image in CS5 and worked on the background first.
CTRL + I to invert the tones.
CTRL + A to select the image. CTRL + X to cut the image.
Create a new Alpha channel, select the channel, CTRL + V to paste the cut image.
CTRL + click on Alpha channel thumbnail to select all white areas.
Click on RGB channel to activate it.
Add new layer.
Invert the selection.
Alt + Backspace to fill the selection with foreground colour.
Create square area using polygonal lasso tool and feather 2pixel.
Duplicate selected portion.
Open Eraser and choose a brush to erase the edges as desired.
Open SOOC and desaturate the image.
CTRL + A then CTRL + C to copy the image to clipboard.
CTRL + click on previous layer.
Edit & Paste 'into' (not just 'paste'. Took me ages to figure that one out).
With photo selected used dodge and burn as desired and touched up with previous eraser brush.
Create new fill/adjustment layer, photo filter and then Sepia. Messed with the sepia and clicked 'preserve luminosity'.
Fiunally I flattened the image, saved as JPEG and Voila!
May seem alot of moves but there were many more. Some were tutorials from the net but alot I had to chop and change to suit.

Hope you enjoyed, thanks for taking a look. Now head on over to the 'Edit Me' blog and look at all the other fabulous entries and you never know, you may be challenged to have a go yourself.

Edit Me - week 21

You know how last week I promised that I'd start taking proper notes on the steps I've taken to edit these images? Well I did start to - honestly! It's just that I made soooooo many mistakes and started over sooooooo many times that it was literally luck that I ended up with an image I liked.
I do remember the basic steps but that's pretty much it - again! Sorry!

Anyway without further adieu, this weeks image for edit is from Amy of 'Artistically Amy', check out her blog for more great images. Thank you Amy - love the picture and the blog!

Yet another lovely image and yet again I had no clue what to do with it for ages - my imagination appears to be decreasing as my age increases - what is with that!

Here's the SOOC

And here's my edit

Sooooo, the steps I took are along the lines of:
Opened the image in CS5 and created a copy layer. Then I cropped the image just slightly, went to the canvas size and added 1 inch to all sides to add a Black border.
Next I added a channel mix layer, increased the red to 150% and reduced the Green & blue to -24&. I then did the same to the Green channel (increased Green to 150% and reduced the others to -25%) and the same to the Blue channel.
This basically boosted the colours.
Next I went to layers - adjustment layer - levels and moved the slider until I got what I wanted (very technical huh).
Then I created yet another layer and created a brush border by basically playing with the brushes and messing.
Finally flatten the image and all done!

So if this edit interests you and you want to see others or even join in yourself then head on over to 'My Reflection of Something', try not to get sidetracked by all the cool stuff going on there and download the image - you never know what you can do till you give it a go!

Edit me: Week 20

Ouch! This one hurt. The picture is so darn cute to start with and as with all baby / children photographs I am acutely aware that this is someones adored child and that my idea of a good edit may be their idea of an insult. Eek!

Luckily I have been stuck in doors all day waiting for a delivery - you know the kind, anytime between 12pm & 6pm and we'll phone when on the way! - so I'd been grumpily patiently waiting for said delivery to arrive when I happened across this weeks edit.

Once again I just couldn't decide what to do with it so I googled ideas - as you do - and if I wanted to turn this adorable baby into Shrek, or give her google eyes or even wanted to plant her in a barrel I had a plethora of tutorials before my eyes.
Not gonna happen though.

So I guess you wanna see this adorable cutie courtesy of Kala at 'The Wishful Lamb' - here you go then.

This is the SOOC

Told ya, little cutie pie ain't she!

And here is my edit

Now I know I should have catalogued the steps I took for this but believe me I have done so many different things and started over that I have completely lost track of what I did.
I opened it in CS5 though - I know that much! As for the rest of the edit well it's vague but I cropped the image a tad, boosted the colours before then desaturating it (actually don't know why I did that but it seemed to help).
I then played around with the tones somewhere (sorry don't remember where) until I got a Sepia type look and then messed with the highlights, shadows etc until I got what I wanted.
Next I added a 5 pixel border in Black ( I tried a multitude of different colours for that before deciding on Black - how original)
Then I added the text 'twinkle, twinkle little star' and then finally I used the colour fill tool to add colour back to the flower.

Like I said there were many many steps to this edit, many of them deleted and I could have used shorter and easier paths along the way but this edit was basically playing and deleting until I got what I wanted.

I also need to thank Branson from 'My Reflection of Something' for not only hosting these edits but for hosting a gorgeous blog too.



Linked to

Edit Me - week 19

Yet another cool image to get to grips with.
This weeks image was submitted by our guest judge this week, Deb from 'Deb Duty Photography', please take a couple of minutes to check out her blog and awesome images.

So without further ado here's the original image

and this is my Edit

I must be remembering how to use Creative Suite (finally) as this was a fairly quick one.
I opened the image in CS2 and created a new 'channel mixer' adjustment layer.
I then messed with the setting until I got the vibrant punchy tones I wanted. The first 2 setting were about +200 and +100 and the final two settings were approx -75 and -79.
Next I created a new text layer and added the text 'Autumn, the year's last, lovliest smile' and added a drop shadow via 'Blending options'. I also played with the drop shadow settings and distance until I got the effect I was after.
Finally I cropped the image to make the leaf less central and voila! Edited!

I have to thank the guest judge for this image. I usually like more active images as my imagination can be limited but I loved working with this one.
I did attempt a frosty ground and crispy leaf number but kinda didn't work out and so I had to rein myself back in - I get a tad too enthusiastic sometimes and go overboard.
So thank you to Deb and to Branson from 'My Reflection of Something' for co hosting these challenges.

I'm lurving this - Edit me : week 18 : Ferris wheel.

">I've had so much fun with this weeks photo, provided by Kathryn of 'our tiny big life'.
I really wanted to do something fun with such a fun picture and at first wanted to turn it into a night time shot with the wheel and lights all lit up, however I just couldn't get my head round it so I decided that turning it into a jigsaw would be just dandy!

Here's the original shot

and here's my jigsaw

I spent a fair while on this image as making jigsaws is apparantly harder than you'd think! However I'll try to dilute the steps down a little or else this will take pages and pages.
First I opened the image in CS2 and created a background copy.
I didn't touch the colour etc  as I felt the colours were vivid and accurate enough already for what I wanted.
Next I created a new layer and filled the background white.
Then I opened the Filter box, went to texturiser and opened the Puzzle filter (this had to be imported from the Filters file in the Photoshop folder in the guts of my system (getting confusing huh!)
Once I had the Puzzle filter on the screen I dabbled with the controls to get the largest pieces I could and set the light to 'top right'.
Next the really cool part. I decided I'd like to remove some of the pieces altogether but also set some aside on top of the puzzle to look like an unfinished puzzle.
So I selected the Pen tool and traced the outline of one piece, then accepted the cut out, clicked on new layer - layer via cut and renamed the layer piece 1.
I then hit CTRL & T to transform the piece and be able to move it to the side, rotate it etc. Next go to layer style and drop shadow and change the dials until you get what you're looking for - I basically had Opacity @ 80, angle 160 and the others at whatever took my fancy (though try to keep each piece the same).
To delete each piece I again used the pen tool to select the piece and hit delete.
Each piece of the puzzle that was moved (not deleted) has it's own layer.
Finally flatten the image.

And that was basically it though it took me a couple of hours.
I have to thank Kathryn for such a great image. I was dissapointed with myself with last weeks entry and could have kicked myself for even entering it. Whatever possessed me to turn an interesting farmhouse into a boring, bog standard nothing by removing the most interesting part of it is still beyond me, however I've loved this weeks challenge a whole heap, so Thank you Kathryn!


Check out: 'EDIT ME, WEEK 18'. for all other entries and a fabulous website 'My reflection of something'.

This post is linked to:

Oooooh something completely new today

I've not been able to get on with my craft projects over the last couple of days, mainly because I've become addicted to reading blogs belonging to my friends on Blogfrog etc.
However, I came across an 'edit me' submission on 'My Reflection of Something' Blog and just had to give it a go because I loved the photograph so much.
The guest judge for this 'edit me' is Stephanie from 'Behind the camera and dreaming', so why not pop on over and take a look at some adorable, classy and downright fabulous work.
This is my first ever submission and from what I can gather the idea is to take the original photo and adapt it using Photo editing software in whatever way you feel.
So here's the original:

See what I mean about it being a gorgeous picture!

This is what I did to it

I struggled with this one, not just because it's my first, nor because it's a photo of someones else's child and I'm very aware that my interpretation may not be her parents' but mainly because I liked the original so much it seemed such a shame to alter it.

First I opened it in Photoshop CS2 and diddled with the exposure to make a base for the warmth I wanted to create.
Then I added a Warm filter to the image and adjusted the settings until I got the 'feeling' I was after - I wanted to create a warm, early evening feel.
I then added a Glass filter and adjusted the settings until I got the effect I have here, this took a suprisingly long time and found me also experimenting with a load of other filters.
Originally I wanted a pencil effect but I loved the Glass effect and seeing as the child is on sand - ironic!
In a separate layer I added the words 'Discovery in a grain of sand' as that is what the image says to me.

Voila! My 'edit me' submission.

UPDATE:

The winner of week 16 'Edit me' is - drum roll - Deb from 'Debduty Photgraphy'. Well done!