new cat behavior

It's another "Fix it Friday" over at I Heart Faces!

This time it was a real challenge with bright highlights and some focus issues to try to correct.

Here is the original by Keli Hoskins.


I tried to keep detailed notes about all the steps that I took in Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS3.  Although when I was trying to get the exposure on the face right I did a bit of that without writing down exactly... so it's a little bit approximate when it comes to that area of the photo.

The photo started off in Lightroom. 

My first edit:


I cropped a bit to remove the walkway lamp, upped the temperature to 5333 and changed the tint to 14.
I pushed the recovery slider to 100, and brought the brightness down to 46.
I upped the saturation to 19,  luminance to 26 and blacks to 10.

Here's where I started fussing with the adjustment brush on "exposure".  On the bright edge of the face, the hat and the foot I did a layer set at -.25.  On the brightest edge of the chair I did a layer set at -1.  Then I brightened the entire face with a layer at +.2.  It didn't seem to be enough so I did another layer on all of the face except the brightest edge at +.4.

At this point I duplicated the photo so I could do another edit, then opened this edit in Photoshop.  I duplicated the layer I ran a "high pass" filter on the top layer, set it's mode as "overlay", then erased everything except the face and the center of the hat (the outer edges of the hat I erased to give it a more gradual sharpening effect.  That way the face is sharpened, but not the rest of the photo.

Then I added a subtle vignette (I will do a tutorial post on that soon), and a little blur tool on the cheeks to soften them. 

My second edit:



This was a duplicate of my first edit after I fixed the highlight problem in the face.
I cropped closer to focus on the face and hands.  (Do you see those adorable drool bubbles?)
I played a little bit with the levels of the colors under the "grayscale" menu in Lightroom.
I also upped the contrast to 30. 
Then I brought the photo into Photoshop, did the same sharpening, blurring and vignette.

That was fun!  And I think I was actually pretty successful with evening out the highlights on the face!

-----------------------------------

Now for an update -- I've been making slow but steady progress on the most beautiful chair.  But now I have to wait for some supplies to come in the mail.  Darn, I hate waiting!  But I'm so excited to finally finish it (and post the step by step)!

This week's photo challenge theme over at I Heart Faces is "innocent wonder".

I chose this photo of my daughter because I love the expression on her face.  When she's watching someone or something she leans forward, tilts her head and looks to the side with her big eyes.  It makes me smile every time she does it.

I'm participating again in the I Heart Faces Fix it Friday (their #82, my second).  It's fun to have someone else's photo to edit for a change, although their photos never seem to need much changing! :)

Here is the original (by Rachel Durik):



Both of my edits I did in Adobe Lightroom 2.



I felt it was a little too heavy on the negative space on the right. If there was a little bit on the left I think it would have felt more balanced. So, I cropped out a lot of it. Then I warmed it a bit, upped the exposure, upped the saturation just a touch, and sharpened the eyes. (Ok, so the eyes were already sharp, I just wanted to try out the adjustment brush in Lightroom!)



For the second edit I cropped close in on the girls face (love those freckles!). Then I ran a preset called "Matt's Vintage Style" (he also has one that adds grain to the image). I thought it was a bit too green for this photo so I moved the tint more to the magenta side. I upped the exposure, sharpened the eyes and added just a hint of an edge burn.

So much fun!

Ooo, by the way, I'm going to have a couple projects featured tomorrow (Saturday) morning at the DIY Showoff!  Yay!

Plus, when I get to 100 followers I'm going to do a giveaway and start my own linky party (with a catch).  Woohoo!

I'm participating in the I Heart Faces weekly photo challenge.  This week's theme is smiles.

I chose this picture of my son, spraying himself in the face with water then laughing and laughing.  It was fun to watch him do it over and over again!



Go here to check out more of the participants.  There are so many amazing photographs!

I Heart Faces has now opened the voting on the "Best Face Photo of 2010"


Look for my entry of my daughter (it's #142 - see below) or vote for one you like better!  (There are lots!)


You can vote five times, and voting is open until Friday afternoon.

That awesome photo website and blog I stumbled upon recently (I Heart Faces) is having a photo contest for the best face photo of 2010.




I decided to enter the photo of my daughter (started out as just a snapshot as you can see here) and quickly became my absolute favorite of the year. 
Starting on Tuesday about noon CST and continuing until Friday at 5 pm CST you can cast your vote for your favorite.

"My Daughter's Eyes"