Last week, I had so much fun editing Courtney of One Mom’s Perfect Imperfections photo for Branson’s, over at My Reflection of Something, Edit Me challenge (in case you missed it, click HERE)! Branson will announce last week’s winner on Friday so I can’t wait to see who Courtney selected as her favorite.
For this week’s challenge, my friend Sarah, the Naptime Momtog is judging. I decided to use the mouse over effect (described HERE), so just “mouse over” to see her original image.
I love Sarah’s composition and intent with this photo…it has so much potential! I decided to start my processing in Adobe Camera Raw. I really love that even though we were given a JPG file, I’m still able to open the photo in ACR by going to FILE>OPEN AS>Selecting my photo and then using the drop down to select CAMERA RAW>Click OPEN!
In ACR, I was able to adjust the white balance, exposure levels, curves and saturation. It looked nice, but I was going for WOW! I applied my favorite high-pass filter with soft light at 18% then ran two curves adjustments. The first adjustment focused on the tower – I wanted to brighten it up a bit. The second adjustment focused on the sky – I wanted to bring out the rich blues. I kinda did the same thing with my Levels…then adjusted my Brightness/Contrast (again, to bring out the sky – pulling up the contrast just a hair and pulling down the brightness…using a layer mask to remove the application from the tower). I duplicated my Brightness/Contrast layer and set the blending mode to 25% and then lowered the opacity. I then merged my layers. Again…it looked nice, but I was going for WOW.
Once again, I applied a really subtle pixel bender layer. This time, I wanted it on the tower but didn’t want it to overwhelm the sky (I know it can be distracting for some). Easy peasy…just used a layer mask to remove most of the effect from the sky. In which case, I then merged the layers and applied Daybreak at 58% opacity. You can download Daybreak by clicking HERE (thanks Shannon). I then added another curves layer to further bring out the clouds and added Kim Klassen‘s new subtlyyours texture at 20% opacity on a soft light blending mode.
So, I’m completely aware that I might have lost you as I described my steps…but, what do you think of my edit? I hope Sarah likes it. Check out more edits at My Reflection of Something. Be sure to enter your own edit for a chance to win a cute bag. And, don’t forget to come back tomorrow for Week 22, Part 2 of Shoot and Edit. I’ll show you how to render a bubble (it’s kinda quirky and fun). While I’m here, I also want to thank everyone that voted for my SOOC shot on Jill‘s blog. I am tickled pink to win and can’t wait to show off my new bag! You guys are the best. Finally, don’t forget to enter this week’s giveaway – a customized monogram from A Bit of Whimsy!
