PHOTO TO FRAME

I have decided to begin new segment in my blog, that will appear monthly (hopefully more often, if I have the time and inspiration!)dedicated to getting you photographs frame worthy! I don't claim to be a photographer: I am a stay-at-home mom with an art degree, some Photoshop skills, and a little bug whose cuteness just needs to be captured. In each segment I am going to show a before and after, share my experience, and share some editing tips to get an eye-catching professional looking photo.

Today's Photo:

I really wanted to get a cute, bright outdoor shot, but the weather just wasn't cooperating. The lighting was dull, it was rainy and windy, and when I looked through my images I was pretty bummed. I knew I needed to warm up the whole tone of the picture and add some contrast. These are the steps I used to get from point A to point B:

1. I ALWAYS start with cropping, it just helps me think. I wasn't thrilled about the location I shot at, but I knew I could make it work.I decided to use the columns in the background to frame the little guy, but  I knew I was pretty much stuck with the handrail. After some playing around I found that if I cropped the handrail at the corner of the picture it added a focal point to pull the viewer to the center of the picture. I think I was able to turn a less than ideal situation into something that works.

2. For this photo I only used one other step! I have been really interested in Photoshop Actions lately. An Action is basically a pre-recorded set of moves that someone has created to edit an image to achieve a certain effect. They are similar to Instagram "Filters". Many Actions are available for free online, and I have been trying out a bunch! The one that I used on this image is called Goldygates Color Boost plus Warmth. And it seriously works wonders right?

Here is a larger view of the final image. 

More pictures to come from H's One Year Photo Shoot!

PHOTO TO FRAME

I have been having way too much fun taking pictures with the cutest model in the world! 

I am still learning everything there is to know about photography and having a riot while I am doing it.

Here is some picture inspiration for you today.

In Photoshop I re-sized the images and placed them all on one canvas. I then ran a filter in a sepia tone. Using the Color Picker, I selected a color from one of the dark stripes to use for the background image. I love the sequence of these 3 pictures. They would look darling in a frame, but until I get around to doing that, I have this image.

PHOTO TO FRAME

BABY'S FIRST CHRISTMAS

Pictures like this have been all over Pinterest lately. I thought I would take the leap and take my camera off Auto and give it a shot! I really love how they turned out. 

I hope you enjoy!

PHOTO TO FRAME

So I've been photo editing like crazy! I am way behind on scrapbooking, well "behind" is a bit of an overstatement. More like I have never even started one. So I am gathering all the pictures I have from when my husband and I started dating to now. It's a really big project, but it has been fun to look back over the last couple of years. I have also been editing pictures and wanted to share a couple of my favorites!

I saw these cute ideas on Pinterest and wanted to do my own versions. It was really fun except for the fact that I hate being photographed! I made my husband take A TON of pictures so I could pick out the ones I thought turned out :) The hardest part about having your husband take your pictures is that he always thinks you look much cuter than you actually do. It is a sweet compliment actually, but at the same time it is almost horrifying to look at the pictures of you he thought were cute! 

I used basically the same (very simple) steps in Photoshop on these pictures:

1. Create a canvas size the size of the final image that you want (I chose 4"x 6" because I want to scrapbook with these images.) 

2. Then divide the canvas into 2 or 3 equal sections and crop your original images to this size.

3. You can then drag the images onto your 4x6 canvas without too much difficulty.

4. I then merged the layers and ran a black and white filter over the complete image, by merging the layers it will create a more cohesive look than changing each image to black and white and then moving it.

5. On the bottom image I added the text "20 Weeks" to represent 20 weeks in the womb and 20 weeks after birth.

I was so happy to catch Holden in almost exactly the same position as his ultrasound picture! What a cutie :) If any of you have done a photo like this feel free to post a link, I would LOVE to see it!