week 6 edit Challenge!!!!

Ok to start off with I am so very excited to say that in week 4 I became part of the top 3 with this edit challenge with this water tower photo

This weeks photo is provided by Vic who also is part of for the love of blogs.

because this is a landscape/floral photo I decided to edit it pretty drastically.  First step was to fix the levels and adjusted to my liking. then I uped the contrast and saturation just a touch. I used a shadowhouse texture called oil painting and then added a layer with an artistic watercolor layer at 30% to bring out a painted look.  I added a vignette, rotated and cropped it more to my interpretation of the rule of thirds and in that thinking cloned a copy of one of the leaves to make 3.  Lots of steps but I like it.

for more edits check out the other participants at

Fix it fridays

Once again another editing challenge that I can't resist! here is the original photo:

and since it is a family portrait I didn't want to mess with it too much in the way of textures and such so as to be hangable on a wall like I would want so here is my cleaning up edit:

I just wanted to brighten them up and give it a shot of color...
I use photoshop elements 7
first I used levels and adjusted the sliders to the lightened effect I wanted then I corrected the skin color and up'ed the saturation and contrast.  I masked off the family and used a photo filter on the background to warm it up a bit.  I also used a couple Coffee Shop actions: urban grit on the leaves and glamour glow just to bring out the eyes a touch.

So that is my process for this photo I hope you like it!

So go  HERE   to join the I heart Faces Fix it Friday!

before and afters and editing challenges

ok to start with I got this original photo taken by Keara
our challenge is to edit it

so here is my edited version:

oops wait thats 3 different edits! LOL but I am submitting just the last "blue edit" for the challenge... what do you think?

now for my good to wow edit: on the left is my original SOOC and below is the edit

I just wanted to lighten up the girls a tad to see their expressions better.  Not sure its my best ever edit but I like it.

rewinding and venting!

Wow I know that sharing photos is updating some friends and family that follow my blog but I sure have been lacking in sharing anything with words lately and for that I am sorry.  I have been busy, I have yet to figure out how to juggle cleaning, taking care of my 3 little ones, and having time for me (aka my blog).  I spent all day Thursday cleaning... did ALOT of laundry and got it caught up, cleaned off counters, floors, did dishes.  Every room had been hit hard with making sure surfaces that always gather stuff had been cleaned off and that "stuff" put away.  I should show you guys the same house now, I can't believe it only lasted one day :(   I did all this so that maybe I could take one day off without having any major cleaning besides simple pick up which can never be avoided.  I wanted to pull out my scrap booking.  Something I haven't done in probably 6 months.  My oldest daughter has an album for each year of her life until 4 then it stops cause child #2 came along and I no longer had time.  She is 9 now and I have probably only gotten 10 more pages done in 5 years.  So I started albums for the twins.  I had only 2 pages each done with pictures of their birth.  I have stacks and stacks of printed pictures to go thro and make into album pages but I never have time to cause when mom takes a day off all her cleaning prep turns into another day of cleaning needed!  Laundry basket is again full, kitchen floor needs mopped again, toys need to be thrown away put up in their room. Even worse is that I didn't pick up my camera once. In saying that the follow pictures are from an earlier time and they are all SOOC since I also haven't had time to edit anything.

 This one is just playing with the kids in their room.  Notice the scratch on Alexis' face she apparently can't walk right in sandals and the sidewalk won.

 This was from mothers day when Alexis' hand was still wrapped up from burning it on the stove. I swear she gets herself hurt and banged up more than the boys do.  Anyways I am entering this one in the

This was just too cute! He ran to daddy when he came home from drill and the hat got thrown on him and of course its just super cute!

This little boy is just a ham and loves to smile for me with his red hair and baby blues!
Oh and my sister in law had her baby that I am not suppose to mention in anyway their names or pictures on the internet which I find super hard and weird but 9lbs! Oh my gosh better her than me... LOL

I am using this photo for the creative exchange
and this last photo for the I heart faces bright and vivid contest

edit challenge week 4

SOOC by Sarah

edit by me

steps taken to achieve my edit:

1) Levels auto correct
2) uped contrast by about 25%
3) 2nd layer of levels adjusting the grey slider until the tower was light enough and masked off the sky
4) uped the saturation by about 25%
5) I straightened the tower and cropped
6) clone tool to remove the glare in the sky
7) photo filter  blue  set on color burn 23% masked off the tower
8) urban grit effect from coffee shop on the tower about 27%
9) chamomile texture from kim klassen set on color burn 23%
10) 2nd layer of chamomile texture only on the tower set on multiply 100%

summer splashing!

Memorial weekend saw us break out the slip and slide!

SOOC

When I was taking pictures it was in the shade under the trees and I was in the sun and couldnt see how shadowy the pictures were on the camera so I had my own challenge to brighten up the pictures:




I think it turned our really well! I used adobe photoshop elements 7 and have a canon rebel.

 they all loved it! (well with maybe the exception of Logan):

Edit challange week 3

still getting things ready for the garage sale and that has kept me pretty busy so here is my new editing challenge I hope you like!

Forgive me but I did alot of things in just a touch increments
I adjusted the levels contrast and saturation just little touches to my liking
then I took a levels adjustments moved the gray slider closer to the black making the picture lighter in the midtones did it as a soft light overlay and masked it off so only the little girl was effected that way I could give her a bit of a glow. I also adjusted the color by using a solid color baby blue overlay at about 25%. The biggest changes were again using some coffee shop actions urban grit and blended it over just the balls in the picture to give them a gritty sharp look in contrast to the lil girls soft angelic appearance.  I then used the glamour action to soften her skin more and brighten her eyes a touch to help with the soft glow.  I didnt do anything major artsy to this because I want clean edits of my kids that I would wanna print so that is the direction I went with this.  The photo was provided by: Courtney

SOOC