Photo Editing Fun / Fix it Friday #80

I Heart Faces has weekly editing challenges.  This is a fun way to learn some new editing techniques, and see what various editing tools can do.  This week's original photo is by Jessica Page, for the "I Heart Faces" Fix it Friday challenge.
Link to Jessica Page site

If you want to play along, and edit this too, or just read the tutorials,  here is the link.

Link to I Heart Faces - Photo Editing Fun / Fix it Friday #80

THESE ARE THE STEPS I USED TODAY:
Software Used:  Adobe Photoshop CS
Step 1 - Actions Used - Paint the Moon - wonder quickie
Paint the Moon blog

Step 2 - Dodge tool on teeth, eyes, and under eyes to lighten.  I used the healing brush on the older girls scar between her eyes, and I cloned the younger girls teeth to fill the gap.  I burned the background and the hot spots on the girls faces to recover some of the lost detail from the bright sun.

Step 3 - MCP action - fake blue sky (in the Bag of Tricks Action Set)
Link to MCP Actions - Bag of Tricks

Step 4 - Rotate 15% CCW and crop in a square.  To keep the fingers I had to clone the older girls jacket and shirt to fill the frame.

Voila. That is my edit.  I look forward to seeing yours too.  Happy Fix it Friday!

There's something strange and powerful about black-and-white imagery. Stefan Kanfer

     In my first high-school photography class, I was taught to photograph portraits with black and white film. Then we retreated to our chemical fragranced dark room, and waited patiently as our photos came to life in our lab.

     Fast forward a few years, to this well developed age of digital media, and voila, black and white happens at the push of a button.  

I edited these images with various photoshop actions.  This one has a black and white haze, from The Florabella Collection.  http://florabellacollection.blogspot.com/2009/11/florabella-actions.html

This one is from Mandy Chiappini Photography, and is a Fairytale black and white action. http://mandychiappiniphotography.blogspot.com/

I felt this photograph had a sweet vintage feeling, so I added a free TTV texture from Skeletal Mess, on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/skeletalmess/sets/72157611177099692/

There are so many things you can do, using actions, including unifying clothing choices that don't necessarily match in color.  This one has a softer, more sepia tone, which brings this three generation grand-mother, mother, and grand-daughter trio even closer.  One thing is for sure, digital phototgraphy and editing give us so many choices, and feels less like you're a mad scientist in a lab, and more like you're an artist at a pixel easel. Happy shooting and editing everyone!