EVERYONE KEEP THOSE SHOTS COMIN. SEND YOUR PHOTOS TO EH@ELIZABETHHALFORD.COM

If your photo has been featured on Reader Photo Friday and you would like to purchase digital copies for printing yourself, please get in touch. Digital files are only $25 each and 100% of these monies goes to Compassion International to help us edit out poverty for our little guy Victor.

Lightroom – One Willow’s Fairytale actions set. I used the action called ‘lavender sky’

Photoshop – Totally Rad action set ‘The Revenge’. I used ‘clareify’ and ‘select-o-sharp’ to paint on sharpness. I used ‘select-o-pop’ to juice up the grass a little

{Recipe}

First, I sharpened the edges with MCP’s ‘crackle’ action from The Quickie Collection. This set isn’t compatible with PS Elements.

Then, I used MCP’s ‘Eye Doctor’ which IS compatible with PSE (yayy!)

I then went into the MCP set called ‘Cover Model’ and ran the ‘Cover Model’ action (there’s also one called Urban Cover Model). I tweaked the resulting layers to customise it for this photo.

I then used the finger paint action from the Quickie Collection to make the yellow line more bold

Lastly, I ran an action from Totally Rad’s set called ‘The Revenge’ called ‘Select-o-Pop’ which I used to paint on pop on the road, his bike and his plaid shirt.

THANKS, MELISSA! EVERYONE KEEP THOSE SHOTS COMIN. SEND YOUR PHOTOS TO EH@ELIZABETHHALFORD.COM

If your photo has been featured on Reader Photo Friday and you would like to purchase digital copies for printing yourself, please get in touch. Digital files are only $25 each and 100% of these monies goes to Compassion International to help us edit out poverty for our little guy Victor.

“There is a story that goes along with these pics. I actually scratched my cornea during this shoot on a reedy weed. I had to go to the doctor today and have my pupil dialated and a bandage contact put in my left eye.  But the pictures turned out beautiful. I just kept shooting. Didn’t realize how bad my eye hurt until I got home.”

Heidi sent me a few shots, but I loved the feel of this one. I really wish she had her eyes open that would have made it absolutely perfect for me! Initial thoughts were that the vignette was overdone and I’m quite impressed with how I managed to nix that vignette in a really raw and inventive way. So here’s the B&A and below is the post production recipe.

1. First, I used MCP Actions‘ ‘Colour’ action from the ‘All in the Details’ actions set
2. Then, I used MCP Actions’ FREE ‘Touch of Light/Touch of Darkness’ action to dodge (lighten) the corners of the photo where I felt the vignette was a bit extreme. I did this with a very low opacity brush. {this action is available for PSE btw}
3. Next, I used the healing brush tool on ‘replace’ mode with a very soft edged brush (as soft as you can get it) to literally replace the darkened edges with grass from the middle of the photo.
4. Next, I used MCP’s ‘Magic Skin’ skin retouching action to retouch all of her skin with one click. I lowered the opacity because I thought the result was too extreme.
5. I then used that free ‘Touch of Light’ action mentioned above to lighten under her eyes with an extremely low opacity, soft brush
6. The last thing I did was apply Florabella’s new ‘Glam’ action from her new set called Luxe. I masked it all off of her skin and lowered the overall opacity down to 50%

THANKS, HEIDI! EVERYONE KEEP THOSE SHOTS COMIN. SEND YOUR PHOTOS TO EH@ELIZABETHHALFORD.COM

If your photo has been featured on Reader Photo Friday and you would like to purchase digital copies for printing yourself, please get in touch. Digital files are only $25 each and 100% of these monies goes to Compassion International to help us edit out poverty for our little guy Victor.

So naturally, I was photographing the event. Check out this photo of Elaine with the others who shaved their heads to support Elaine:

{How I Shot it}

This photo was pretty darn good SOOC. I used my

• 50mm 1.4.
• ISO 100 (it was really sunny behind them clouds!).
• f/2.5 (only because I had just been photographing something else)
• 1/640th sec shutter speed.
• WB cloudy.
• I shot jpeg, not raw (gasp!).

Sometimes, I choose to shoot in jpeg if what I’m photographing is reportage. It wasn’t likely that I was going to be texturising or vintifying any of the shots from this event because I wanted the photos to document the day as it really was. And, in the words of Natalie Norton, “I cannot duplicate the color quality of a well shot jpeg image (exposed properly with manual white balance) in post processing software.” The contrast, the colours…sometimes jpeg just makes me happy.

{How I Edited it}

I really envisioned this photo being B&W and for preset lovers like me, the jpeg thing presents a problem because most presets and actions are optimised for raw files. But alas, I used One Willow’s B&W presets “golden shimmer” and just had to make manual adjustments to the brightness, highlights, shadows, etc. until it was how I wanted it.

My first edit is on the image by Joelle.  I love the angle, the fabulous focus and the adorable but serene expression on the little girl. It was so much fun to edit, here is the Preset recipe I used…

The very first adjustment I made to the image in Lightroom was to crop it.  I wanted to angle it just a bit to the right, helping to get the image closer to the rule of thirds and bring more of the focus to her face and eyes.

Next, I applied one of my new favorite One Willow Presets- ‘Fairytale’  from The Fairytale Set.  This Set is scheduled for release in a few weeks, so you all are getting the first sneak peek!

Then I applied another One Willow Preset, also from the Fairytale Set, called Soft Light.  This preset added a light-leak coming from the same direction as the light source in the picture.  I also added a soft vignette by applying a post called Soft burn.

Finally, I used the adjustment brush on brightness to slightly lighten the shadowed areas under her eyes.  I also used the adjustment brush on contrast throughout her hair to add a bit more detail and depth.  I still felt like I had to much shadow cast under her eyes so to further lighten them, I used the spot tool on very low opacity and pulled in color from just below the shadows to create even toned coverage.

Thank you Joelle for entering this lovely image and for allowing me the privilege to edit it.  Hope you enjoy your new presets!!!

My next edit is on the image by  Natasha Williams Photography.  I loved the composition on this image, the sweet moment and the gorgeous backdrop. It would be a gorgeous edit in color but when I ran the Tatum preset from The Black and White Set, I adored the timeless feel it created.

The recipe on this was super quick and easy… As I mentioned above I used the Tatum preset.  It was almost a one-click edit but because my presets are for raw files I had to made a slight brightness and contrast tweak.  But that’s it!  Love, Love when I can get a fabulous edit straight from the preset!

Thank you Natasha for submitting this gorgeous maternity image, I am sure your clients fell in love with it!  I also hope you enjoy your new presets!   (btw… I will have them for ACR too)  :)

So, since Elizabeth has kindly given me the floor today, I thought I would pass along a few tips about getting the best look out of your preset.

1. If your image looks ‘over-toned’ by a preset, begin by checking your exposure.  Often a little exposure increase will bring the tones into place.  However, sometimes  further tweaking is needed and usually it involves the light and shadows. Don’t be afraid to adjust your tone curve, brightness and contrast.  All of these play a huge role in the look of the preset on your image.
2. Utilize your adjustment brush.  Occasionally, the majority of the image will look fabulous with the Preset but an area on the image may be to dark or to light.  Use your adjustment brush to make an isolated adjustment to that specific area.  For example, if your eyes seem to dark because of the way the preset deepened the shadows. Grab your adjustment brush, choose your desired brush setting (exposure, contrast, clarity, etc…) then decrease the brush density or amount on by pulling the control slider to the positive.  Then brush it onto the specific area you want to fix.  The same is true to darken an area, except you will pull the brush density to the negative. You will have to play with this for a bit to figure it out but once you do, you will love it!
3. One preset will not work for every image.  Yes, you will have a certain faves, but I strongly encourage you to try new ones too.  You can use your Navigation panel image window (located on the upper left side of your screen in the develop module)  You can scroll your cursor over each preset and get a little ‘preview’ in the Navigation window of what the preset will look like on your image.  I use this ALL the time, it’s a fabulous feature.
4. Lastly, have fun!   One Willow Presets let you have total control over your exposure and provide tons of options to finish the Preset looks with Post-looks.  Each Set contains Posts, which are a variety of adjustments that can be applied after the presets to give you different finished ‘looks’.  The Posts allow you to create new looks from one preset putting your creative energy to use and giving you more ownership of your image’s edit.

Okay, I could make a huge list of tips but I better not ramble to long on Elizabeth’s blog. :)  You can visit the One Willow Studios site for examples of all of the presets and for more tutorials on how to use them.

Best!

Jessica Paige

{Recipe}

First, I cooked this little beauty with Rebecca Lily’s ‘Beach Vintage’ preset

Then I added a dash of Flypaper Textures:

• ‘Apple Blush’ – Vivid Light @ 24%, masked away from the main bloom
• Antique Liasons – Normal @ 6%, masked away from the main bloom
• Antique Liasons – Color Burn @ 14% masked away again

I couldn’t decide what to do with these. I didn’t touch any of the settings and only applied Florabella’s ‘faux’ and ‘mai tai’ (from set II) at ‘overlay’ 100%, masked away from Jack @ 50%

{Edited solely with…}

{How I took it}

{Recipe}

I did everything in LR – just slid a few sliders so nothing ground breaking. I pumped up the:

{Please keep sending your shots to EH@elizabethhalford.com}

{Recipe}

Edited with Florabella Vintage Actions ‘Retro Vintage’ and ‘Vintage Haze’. Added Florabella’s texture layers ‘Vintage Mink’ & ‘Scratched Vintage’

And here is the before & after: