I was going to keep track of each step as I edited this photo, but I did so much I kind of got lost!

Here is a general run down of what I did:
1)Opened the photo in ACR and increased exposure, brightness, and warmed it up a bit
2)Opened in Photoshop CS3
3)Did a defog filter>sharpen>unsharp mask amount 35% Radius 5.6 Threshold 6
3)Created a curves layer and brought up the exposure some more and added some contrast
4)Created another curves layer and used it to color correct the skin
5)Did a TON of skin editing. This needed lots of spot healing brush and patch tool work. I think the skin looks a little overdone, but it needed a ton of work.
6)Ran MCP Actions Powder your Nose and brushed it on the cheeks.
7)Ran MCP Actions Eye Doctor and sharpened just the right eye since it was a bit out of focus
8)Cropped and sharpened for web

Maybe next week I’ll do a better job and keep track of every single step

Go check out I ♡ Faces to see all the other Fix-it Friday participants!

This is my 6 month old niece. I loved the expression I captured on her face!

Be sure to check out I ♡ Faces to see all the amazing photos that were entered in this week’s contest.

I played around with this photo quite a bit. I think it was a bit out of my comfort zone. I’m used to editing portraits and making them look as natural as possible. I had fun playing with this one adding grain and making it look “old”. I tried a bunch of different things, but kept starting over. Here is what I finally settled on.

Then I played around with a new action I got this week. Here is my before and after:

Go check out I ♡ Faces to see all the other Fix-it Friday participants!

This week the theme is beach photos. Since I live in Utah, I’m not near a beach I dug out one of my photos from our last trip to Maui. It really doesn’t showcase the beautiful beach, but it does fit the theme. I love the expression I captured on Ian’s face.

Be sure to check out I ♡ Faces to see all the amazing photos that were entered in this week’s contest.

For this week’s photo, I didn’t think there was too much that needed to be done. I brightened it up a bit using curves, and then I adjusted the skin a bit. I thought it would be fun to try adding a texture also. Here is what I came up with:

Go check out I ♡ Faces to see all the other Fix-it Friday participants!

I did a little photo shoot for my niece this weekend. Her mom had painted both of their toenails to match, and wanted some photos of them together. I thought this was the perfect shot for this week’s theme.

Be sure to check out I ♡ Faces to see all the amazing photos that were entered in this week’s contest.

Be sure to check out I ♡ Faces to see all the amazing photos that were entered in this week’s contest.

My photo placed 4th this week. I am so excited I can hardly contain myself!

I have been faithfully entering the I ♥ Faces contests every week. There are always so many wonderful photographs. Each week I enter I hope that it will be my week. I can’t tell you how many weeks I have spent hours on my photo, and then been disappointed when I didn’t win. I just kept entering hoping that soon it would be my turn–and this week it was!

Last week I took the kids out in the backyard one evening to snap a few photos with a lens I haven’t used in a while. Everyone else I know who has it just raves about it, so I wanted to play with it a little more. Ian was in his PJs and I just started taking a few photos of him. I got one that I really liked.

I have been so busy lately I hadn’t had a chance to check to see what the I ♥ Faces theme was. I was so happy when I saw that it was “Let’s Hear it For the Boys” I knew which photo I wanted to enter.

Unfortunately, I am having some trouble getting the colors in this photo to show up the same way on my blog as they do on my monitor. I have been having this problem lately with many of my photos. I think I know how to fix it, I just need to do a little reading up on it to figure out how to fix it.

Anyway, I was thrilled to place in the top ten this week! It just gives my confidence such a boost.

Thanks to everyone for their nice comments, too

I don’t know how I missed last week’s Fix-it Friday, but I am back this week I really liked this photo–it was a fun one to work on.

Here is my edit:

Go check out I ♡ Faces to see all the other Fix-it Friday participants!

Be sure to check out I ♡ Faces to see all the amazing photos that were entered in this week’s contest.