Pack up . . . were going on a Picnik!

Have you discovered Picnik yet?

One of my favorite photo editing tools next to Lightroom and Photoshop.  The best part about it is the editing can all be completed online.  Every once in a while (like frequently!) I want to edit one of my FLICKR photos without downloading, editing, reuploading . . .

Like this one here!

We went from this photo (which I adore already!)




To this one . . . with a completely different look . . .




I started with the photo in FLICKR,
then clicked 'edit in Picnik' under Actions.  Once the photo is loaded into Picnik, there is a ton of stuff you can do!  But I started with the create tab because I was very happy with the photo and didn't want to make any cropping or exposure edits to the photos.

I first converted the photo to Sepia, selecting the exact tone with the color picking tool.  Next I used the soften tool to give it more of an ethereal look.  Added a little vingette and decreased the sliders to the adjustments I desired.

Next I added a texture with the texture tool.  So many fun ones to choose from.  It's great because you get to preview all your choices along the way.  Don't like it?  Just click cancel or the undo button.  It takes right back to where you where before.

With the texture I switched the mode to overlay.  It's fun to try them all out!

That is it!

Send the new 'photo' back over to my FLICKR acct as a NEW file so to not replace the original. 

Presto  - change - o  a whole new look.

There are a ton of editing tools you can use for FREE!  Or for a little bit (like $4.95 a month, or $24.95) a year you gain access to so many more really fun tools!








Kristin ~picasa~ ~flickr~ Sony all the way! Sony A700 & A300  50mm/f1.7 Tokina 28-70 1.2.8, DT18-70mm/f3.5-5.6, DT55-200mm/f4-5.6 loving it!  Personal Blog, Photo Blog

You Know i LOVE free STUFF!!!

You KNOW i LOVE

FREE stuff!!!!

And while technically, this isn't exactly free . . .

It's one of the greatest best photography bargains I've run into in a long time.

I joined the Rock the Shotforum about a month ago and have already come to appreciate so much the advice from seasoned photographers who are part of their forum and share both their knowledge of photography and business skills.

If you have a digital camera and want to really put it to good use, you'll want to check this out.  At the 

VERY LEAST

consider joining for a period of time to really experience all the opportunities their forums have to offer.

There's a couple bargains I want to emphasize!

ALL their MEMBERSHIPS are currently on sale!

If you use the code RTSLaunch when you join, you get 20% off right now on your membership fee

a trial of one week would be $4.80 which doesn't begin to give you time to really enjoy everything.  (But it's very inexpensive :)

You might want to be like me and jump in with both feet and spring for the annual membership at the discounted price of $40 - it's a bargain for a professional community.

FREE stuff!! - yes for joining you get FREE stuff - it's so cool!

They currently have available not ONE but TWO "members only" freebie packets available for download.  You get get Photoshop actions, Lightroom presets, lovely textures and templates, the list goes on . . .

So see - you really do get something really awesome for FREE!

Kristin ~picasa~ ~flickr~ Sony all the way! Sony A700 & A300  50mm/f1.7 Tokina 28-70 1.2.8, DT18-70mm/f3.5-5.6, DT55-200mm/f4-5.6 loving it!  Personal Blog, Photo Blog

I ♥ Heart Faces ♥ and their Fix it Friday theme

I ♥ Heart Faces ♥
and their Fix it Friday theme




Here's the SOOC provided by Michelle Johnson
from Love that Shot








Here is my edit - I basically liked the composition, great placement in the photo!  Her eyes are right on our rule of thirds marker and make a great focal point.

I opened the SOOC shot in PS4 and ran Coffeeshop's Perfect Portrait 2 (one of my favorite actions), nicked the sharpen box, did just a tiny bit of skin softening, I did brighten her eyes almost imperceptibly and sharpen them just a hair.  Applied a vignette and decreased the opacity to 20%

Flattened

Ran TRA Oh Snap decreased opacity to 15%
Ran TRA Contrast (Luma) decreased opacity to 60%
Ran TRA Ying Yang, touched up the wheat and grass to darken just a bit
Flattened

Ran MCP's awesome FREE action Mini Fusion - it's a new favorite!
Opened the layers to nick the pink and yellow tones

Sharpened for web and flattened again.

Such a darling photo!

I wanted to do one vertical crop.  Her pose lends itself perfectly to a vertical pose . . .

All I did was crop, kept the eyes as the focal point, and ran TRA Vingnette and Blur, opened the layers to decrease the vingnette to 15%.  I like the softening around the edges and think it draws the attention to the lovely face and beautiful eyes.



















Kristin ~picasa~ ~flickr~ Sony all the way! Sony A700 & A300  50mm/f1.7 Tokina 28-70 1.2.8, DT18-70mm/f3.5-5.6, DT55-200mm/f4-5.6 loving it!  Personal Blog, Photo Blog

All Free Actions and Tools for Photoshop Edits

Wow - Long time no see!
It's been ages since I've able to create a post for my almost always "totally free" photoshop tutorials and creative editing site!


But I had time today, so here goes . . .
This comes from one of my favorite sites for
excellent
FREE photography tutorials and information . . .
I ♥ Heart Faces ♥
and their Fix it Friday theme


Believe me I've spent plenty on LOVELY photoshop actions from MCP, Florabella, TRA - but what if you're new, just starting out, cheap, broke or ALL of the above.  You can do spectacular photo editing with many tools that are available online for FREE.  I'll point you to some of my favorites today.


I saw the photo from Dana Suggs, at  I ♥ Heart Faces ♥ that was available to edit today and couldn't pass it up.  And I had some free time, so I really went to town.


Here is Dana's shot ready to edit - lots of potential here, her handsome son, with naturally beautiful eyes. (I know that Dana like to keep the eyes natural looking, so I DID NOT touch up the eyes in any of these edits - they ARE just naturally gorgeous :)




While Dana's photo is very close to follow the rule of thirds I wanted a closer crop to really zoom in on that handsome face but preserve as much of the great background as possible.  So I used his eyes as my rule of thirds focal point, and began my edit with the free Coffeeshops Perfect Portrait 2.



This free action comes with a great tutorial that will teach you much about layers and how to apply and adjust photoshop actions.  Of all my tools, free and expensive, this is still one of my favorites and most used.  For this edit, I simply ran the action, nicked the sharpen box, used the skin softening very lightly with a tiny brush to erase a few blemishes and under eye circles.  You have to be careful with skin softening to not over do.  I prefer a mostly natural look, especially with men.  You can end up with a very unnatural and plastic look if you're not careful.  I nicked the vignette box, decreased the opacity to taste and that is it!  Probably the simplest edit ever!

But this would be really boring if I stopped now . . .

If you hurry on over to Facebook you can currently download this sweet Mini Fusion action from MCP.  Just be willing to 'like' their page and spread the word and it's yours, totally FREE.  And it is SWEET action!



I ran the action, with this action you need to open up the layers by clicking on their little down arrows, for this edit I simply nicked the box on cool blue sea, I was happy with the rest and PRESTO - done again! Just flatten and save.  Great color huh!  Love this free mini action.  Their is a wealth of info available at the MCP website - you could browse over there all day!

Hmmm . . . what else have I got here . . .

Then I decided to delve into Pioneer Woman Actions, haven't used them for a while, they turned out to be PERFECT for this photo.  By the way - there are really COOL updated and new files available where I linked, if you haven't updated your actions from Rita - stop by and do it today!



This is seventies - just decreased the opacity to 60%.  Again - love the color!





These two are colorized and sunshine, once again just decreasing the opacity to taste.  Nothing fancy, just normal on the layers menu.



For this last edit - which I think might be my favorite, given his denim shirt, the corrugated steel in the background, I wanted a little more dirt in the edit so . . . .  I really went to town . .  ;)


I used Pioneer Woman's Heartland, decreased opacity to bring back a little color, ran her sepia action cause I love those tones, and decreased the opacity again, I then ran Rita's Warmer action, a little to warm on the face and arms so masked those areas off at 100%.

Then because I wanted to do an edit with some texture to it - I used this FREE texture action from TRA.  I actually own all their action packs - but I got started with their FREE action demo packs.  All you need to do is fill out their form with your name, email etc and they will send you the link.  Watch out, you'll be hooked like me, now I can't live without their fun action sets.  You'll receive their DirtBag texture action which I used here, I decreased the opacity to about 30%, masked off the hands and face.

Last but not least ran Pioneer Womans Boost action, and her quick edge burn adjusting the opacity once again - and voila!

AWESOME and all for FREE :)
Gotta love it!

You can find me in many places these days -

www.pickledpepperphotography.com
and Pickled Pepper Photography - The Blog

Personal Blog - Alpine Klein Bunch

and of course here
at

Just me the Picture Taker 

Kristin ~picasa~ ~flickr~ Sony all the way! Sony A700 & A300  50mm/f1.7 Tokina 28-70 1.2.8, DT18-70mm/f3.5-5.6, DT55-200mm/f4-5.6 loving it!  Personal Blog, Photo Blog