My Home Sweet Home: Decorated with Family, Faith, and Photoshop

Decorated with Family, Faith, and Photoshop

Before & After Shots: Cherry Blossom with Text

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Ephesians 2:8-9

The edits for this week’s Sunday Scripture aren’t complicated, but they warm up the image (we can’t increase the temperature, but we can simulate spring in our photos, right?) and make it easier to add text.

I usually keep the rule of thirds in mind when I shoot; however, all I can think about with my new macro lens is getting closer. {Composition – what’s that?} I liked the blooms and the visual interest of the branch in the original photo, but the background looks gray and cold and wintery, as opposed to warm and golden cherry blossom weather.

130317_MacroFloral_004

130317_MacroFloral_004

The Edits

  1. Increase contrast.
  2. Crop using the rule of thirds, creating a space for text.
  3. Apply the Sunkissed RAW preset for Lightroom from Pretty Presets (download it for free at Lightroom Killer Tips), which slides the Temperature and Tint sliders slightly to the right in Lightroom.
  4. Add a light vignette (darken the edges).
  5. Add text (I exported to Photoshop, pulling the text color from within the photo, and used a font with an oriental feel, in honor of the cherry blossoms).

Like before and after shots? Find links to my 31 Days of Before & After Shots series here and all before & after posts here. Sign up here to receive new posts in your inbox (click the link in the confirmation email from FeedBurner to complete your subscription).

Before & After Shots: Here Comes the Sun

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Saturday evening my husband and four daughters attended our homeschool group Father/Daughter Dance, one of the highlights of a father’s existence. The fun for the mother (before she enjoys a quiet night at home or a mother/son date) is photographing them as they leave.

We had a lot of rain last week and honestly, I was just happy that it wasn’t too cold or wet when we took these pictures. Cloudy weather can enhance a photo by softening the intensity of the sun or making an interesting skyline, but in this case it looks dismal.

I decided to warm up these shots with some artificial sunshine!

130223_FatherDaughter_050

130223_FatherDaughter_050

130223_FatherDaughter_035

130223_FatherDaughter_035

The Edits

  1. Use the Make It Better – Auto Tone preset, a free download on Sean McGrath Free and Premium Lightroom Presets page. This boosts color saturation and contrast.
  2. Apply the Sunflare Left RAW preset for Lightroom from Pretty Presets (download it for free at Lightroom Killer Tips).
  3. Apply a light vignette (darken the edges).

The warmth adds a lot, doesn’t it? The Sunflare Left preset is designed to be used on images shot in RAW and uses a series of graduated filters, which you can drag and shift if you want the flare effect to come from a slightly different angle.

With my youngest daughter I chose black and white: she has the remains of a red Kool-aid mustache (I rubbed off a lot of it with a baby wipe, but it’s still there) and light blue/green eyeshadow that her sister applied (I’m not fond of make-up on 7 year olds), so I thought eliminating color was a good idea here.

130223_FatherDaughter_016

130223_FatherDaughter_016

Like before and after shots? Find links to my 31 Days of Before & After Shots series here. Sign up here to receive new posts in your inbox (click the link in the confirmation email from FeedBurner to complete your subscription).

31 Days of Before & After Shots: Day 31 {Coca-Cola Sign}

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Woo hoo! Can you believe we’ve made it to Day 31? Would you be interested in this series published as an ebook? If so, feel free to email me or leave it in the comments.

I like photographing old things. Sometimes I take something new and make it look older by the way I edit. As long as you’re not a journalist, your photos only have to reflect your version of reality, right?

Look closely at the before and after photo and see if you can tell what I did besides changing the coloring and contrast/texture. I’ll explain below.

Day 31 - Before

Day 31 - After

Do you see it? Although I like side angles, I really wish I’d stood a little more in front of the sign. So I moved. In the edits. Yes, you can actually changed your perspective/point-of-view in Lightroom.

Although the Lens Correction panel is used mostly to correct lens distortion from zoom lenses, it can also rotate your image vertically or horizontally, rotate or scale.

The Edits:

  1. Shift the Horizontal Perspective in Lightroom’s Lens Corrections panel
  2. Shift the Vertical Perspective in Lightroom’s Lens Corrections panel
  3. Crop.
  4. Add a medium vignette (darken edges).
  5. Apply the Vintage-Retro Warm preset from the OnOne Signature Collection Presets for Lightroom 4, a free download. (If you have Lightroom 2 or 3, check out these free presets from OnOne.) You can still use LR3 presets in LR4 if you use the instructions from Day 3, but you can’t use LR4 presets in LR2 or 3 (I guess you could, but I wouldn’t expect good results).
  6. Increase contrast.
  7. Increase clarity.

Day 31 - Before Part 2

Here’s a second shot from the middle of the process. The horizontal and vertical perspective shifts created blank areas on the right. I had to crop to eliminate those areas, but I was careful to keep the red door on the left, which is awesome—right?

31 Days of Before & After Shots | click here.
To comment | click here.

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To read my other 31 Days series, 31 Days of Encouragement and 31 Days of Real Life | click here.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4

31 Days of Before & After Shots: Day 30 {Editing Skin}

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On Day 19 we talked about splotchy skin. Today we’ll talk about another problem: zits. Thankfully it’s simple. I use Lightroom’s Spot Removal Tool for minor editing or the Spot Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop for more extensive work.

You can read more about my approach in How I Edit Guys.

Day 30 - Before

Day 30 - After

The Edits:

  1. Crop
  2. Use Photoshop’s Spot Healing Brush Tool to remove blemishes.
  3. Add a vignette (darken the edges).

31 Days of Before & After Shots | click here.
To comment | click here.

To receive new posts in your inbox click here (click the link in the confirmation email from FeedBurner to complete your subscription).

To read my other 31 Days series, 31 Days of Encouragement and 31 Days of Real Life click here.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4