Fix it Friday - I Heart Faces

Wow! If this can be saved . . .
anything can!

It took me a while to get from the first photo to the second photo.

• First of all, after opening the photo in Photoshop CS2, I made a levels adjustment moving the center slider quite far to the left. Also, the right slider over to the left just a hair also. It was amazing what that one adjustment opened up in the photo as far as color. It was amazing to see what was hidden underneath!
• Next I ran Coffeeshops Free Perfect Portrait, I used the Vivid Color layer to give a little extra boost to her eye and lip color, brightened it a little, increased the eye definition and a little vinyette. I tweaked all the layers opacity just a bit to get the look I wanted, then flattened.
• Next I ran another free action DNP Noise Reducer, and included all three layers, green, blue and red for noise reduction. In fact, I ran it twice.
• I love free actions and next used MCP's High Definition Sharpening Action to crisp things up a bit. I used the mask and black brushed everything but the eyes to make the eyes stand out more.
• Almost to the end: I cropped in closer, didn't want to try to recreate the missing left corner, so found a great crop that approximates the thirds rule.
• My goal I'm currently working on is to try to figure out how textures work and use them to add some dimension to photos occasionally. So I thought I'd give it a try here. I'm not very good at keeping track of where I get free textures, so I can't tell you which ones I used. (I'm going to figure out a system for this). But there are lots of free textures out there! Here is a great place to start. I applied two different textures, erasing the first completely from the subject, and on the second kept the opacity at about 75% removal of texture.
  

Drumroll please . . . ta da da da!

Kristin ~picasa~ ~photobucket~~flickr~
Sony a300, Sony a700
just using kit lenses right now: DT18-70mm/f3.5-5.6, DT55-200mm/f4-5.6 & loving it!
(But really want a 50mm/f1.7 !! - ha! Got it!
New puppy - Tokina 28-70 f2.8 dreamy)
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