I completely missed last week’s Touch-Up Tuesday, but I promised that I would share a “head-swapping” experience from my family portrait session with Sarah at Loving My Life. Trying to get a decent family picture where everyone is looking at the camera is not easy. However, you can fake it if you know how to seamlessly swap heads.  I opted for having both parents looking at the camera (they’re even smiling)…I thought that Dustyn attempting to give his brother a kiss (I promise, he was kissing not biting) added character. However, Sarah is smiling in the shot on...

For those of you with children, you know how much “fun” it can be to get a two year old to stop and smile at you. The reality is that you get comfortable and play like a two year old to get that perfect shot. Alright…so, take all of that with a grain of salt – I’m certainly not a professional, but my limited experience tells me that children are more likely to act natural and show their personality if you’re playing with them. Well, I did just that on Tuesday evening. As I mentioned the other day, I met up with Sarah and her family for a mini-portrait...

A week or so ago, Kathy sent me a picture of her son taking a bath in the kitchen sink. I’ve edited a couple of photos of Andrew before…he is such a cute kid! Although she edited a few photos from the set (see them here), she wanted to see what I could do with this particular shot. I’ll be honest…I think I like her edits better. Nonetheless, here’s what I did.  I started by pulling the raw file into Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). If you want better control of your photos, I strongly encourage you to 1. Shoot MANUAL and 2. Shoot in RAW. Typically, any exposure data that...

Earlier this year, I stumbled upon a tutorial on I Heart Faces called: “In the Fairy Garden.” At the time, I was so excited to use it that I wrote my own variation of the tutorial for Photoshop Elements – HERE. I used those same steps to create the photo I submitted to Pioneer Woman (you know, the one that made Group 1…even though it didn’t make it onto the finals), and then I used it again on my Macro Monday this week…teasing you that I would give you a tutorial today. Well, wait no  more…I wrote a tutorial over at Paper Heart Camera today!...