Friday, March 26, 2010

Hello Kitty - 85/365 Photo

Just a bit of Hello Kitty art to share with you today. She looks huge, but she really is only like an inch tall. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

I ♥ Faces - Fix it Friday!

What a great photo they have for Fix It Friday this week!  Here's one of my takes on it (more to follow).  Head on over to http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/ if you want to play along or just see other renditions of the photo!

Before:


After:


1. Imported to Lightroom and adjusted temperature a tad to warm up the photo a bit.   I used the dropper on the white of the eyes as my basis for the adjustment.

2.  Still in Lightroom, I adjusted the brightness just a bit (+40).  I took a free online class recently on Lightroom and the instructor suggested that it is more beneficial to adjust the brightness instead of exposure so that highlights and shadows don't blow out.

3. Then I used the adjustment brush at a +75 exposure to bring out the catch lights in the eyes and then a new brush with a +100 clarity to sharpen the eyes.

4.  Then I hit the 'Punch' preset to just pop the photo a bit.

5. I imported the photo to Photoshop and cloned out some of the spots/blemishes on her face.

6. Ran MCP Actions 'Powder Your Nose' to smooth out some of the roughness of the skin and work on some of the blotchiness around the eyes and mouth. 

7. Ran MCP Actions 'Magic Skin'.  Because I had just done the powder your nose, I reduced the opacity on the layer to 23% - I didn't want it to look like too much.

8.  Almost done!  I ran the MCP Action 'Crystal Clear Resize and Sharpen and then masked out the sharpness of the skin, kept the clarity on the eyes for sure and the rest of the image.

Pioneer Woman's B&W and MCP Actions Burnt Edges


MCP Actions - Chocolate Covered Strawberries (I think this one is my favorite)


MCP Actions - Throwback Vintage (at 65% opacity)

and finally...one with a Texture!  It's called Cream Bokeh Swirls and the creator is  Pareeerica on Flickr.  There are so many textures in his free set and they're all gorgeous!

Hello Kitty - 84/365 Photo

I don't think this bird knew quite what to think about Hello Kitty...

Hello Kitty - 83/365 Photos

I'm going to cheat a little bit and post a few photos of Hope for today's Hello Kitty photos. We went to Starbucks for a little mommy/Hope bonding time and I couldn't resist. She loves her Strawberries 'n Cream drinks.  She does have a Hello Kitty shirt on :)

80-365, originally uploaded by Photography by Michelle Hires.

80-365

80-365

80-365

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Hello Kitty - 82/365 Photo

Today's photo is courtesy of Hope. She was playing this morning, quite quietly I might add, while I was getting ready for the day. She dragged me over and said 'Mom, look! Take a picture of the Hello Kitty family!' How could I resist?

Monday, March 22, 2010

Hello Kitty - 81/365 Photo

Hello Kitty has, to put it delicately, two left feet. Today was a day of boo-boos and nothing helps that more than a band-aid, right?