Bring me your tired, your poor, your….

damaged old photographs.    Case in point – photograph sent to me by my beautiful/awesome sister-in-law, Julie.  Julie – aka – Hoo-lee, Jules, Trophy Wife is married to my youngest brother Rusty.  She’s a saint and one of the sweetest people on the face of the earth. 

She wrote:

“Rusty said that you know how to fix pictures with your magic….do you think you can fix this photo that your darling nephew Luke cut in half?”

Said photo of my SIL, Julie (left) and Debbie.  Circa 199?? and probably right after a Van Halen Concert.  She’s a major VH Fan!   Phoofie Bangs and Acid Washed Jeans.  Man – that brings back so many memories.

So I opened the photo in Photoshop and made a duplicate layer copy of the original photo.  This way I can check what the original photo looked like by hiding the new layer and making all the adjustments on the new layer copy.   There are some really cool tools in Photoshop.  I used the clone tool to repair the tear across the center.  This has to be done carefully as it copies part of the picture to another to make it appear like part of the original photograph.  I also removed white spots using the same tool.   I removed Hoo-lee’s red eyes and added back natural flash reflection in her eyes.   Then, I went to work on Debbie’s side.  Notice Debbie had Flash Washout.  Well – I had to correct that side of the photo without making that side of the photo too dark.  And, fixing the tear on that jacket was a little more time consuming.  But, all in all I think it turned out okay.

With older photos, you don’t want to tweak them too much.  Repair damaged areas and color correct (if possible).  If you have an old photo you’d like for me to tweak out water spots, creases, tears, or color correct – scan it and e-mail it to me at starwoodgal@live.com.  I’ll see what I can do.

Photoshop – the love story continues

Okay, okay – so I’ll give GIMP a try.  I’ll let you know how it compares to Photoshop.  Fair warning – once I’m in love with something, it is difficult to persuade me to try anything else.  But – who knows, I’m might be pulled over to the dark side of open source.

As previously posted, my daughter married last summer and I’ve been slowly but surely editing, cropping, and other fun things to the photos.  The photographer, JS Photos did a beautiful job and some of the wedding photos can be viewed Here.  Just in case you’re wondering, the wedding was held in the formal garden at the Crescent Hotel in Historic Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  We had a blast!

On with the Photoshopping.  Em wanted to give her Dad a picture of them from the wedding for his night stand as a Christmas present.  Problem:  subjects are not close enough to the camera, ugly speaker on the right and an ugly telephone pole shooting out the top of my daughter’s head.  While I’m against cloning animals and human beings, this is one instance where I approve of cloning.  Cloning (in Photoshop) is a good thing!  Your clone tool in the Photoshop menu appears as a rubber stamp icon.  Select that tool, and then select an area to replicate and the paint over the uglies.  Be very careful while duplicating or it will look fake.  A little bit a time, patience and steady hand.  Here’s the original photo.

And, here’s the corrected photo after cloning out the telephone pole and part of the speaker (had to clone trees, rock wall and grass), zooming and slight color correction.  Viola! No Uglies.  Just proud Pappa and lovely bride.

Go play with the clone tool.  Erase wrinkles, erase moles, erase people you don’t like – go for it.

GO OUT AND PLAY!

Photoshop Love – so cool stuff

I downloaded the latest trial version of Adobe Cs3 and I’m pretty sure I’m going to sell my jewelry or a small child so I can afford to buy a license once my trial expires.  (just kidding – I don’t own any jewelry). 

Here are some photo edits I’ll share with you.

This is the original photo of my great niece CC taken at my daughter’s wedding last summer.

I’ve rotated the image, zoomed in, cropped it, color enhanced it, blurred the people in the background to create depth of field that did not exist.  Cool, ain’t it!

Then, desaturate the color to B&W and sharpen and enhance contrast (added a little “noise” for fun).

I LOVE this software!  Okay – here’s another one.

Original photo of my daughter waiting in the bride’s room just before the wedding.  She was reading a card my mother gave to her.

Here’s the enhanced version.  Created depth of field on the background, desaturated color levels and filter “glow” was added.  I think it creates a dreamy look.

If you haven’t tried photoshop, go give a try at http://www.adobe.com.  Trial version is free for 30 days. 

Now I have to decide how to afford this without breaking any laws.  (just kidding……really…….I am……STOP!)