Before and After, Then and now

So over at iHeartFaces this week it is the before and after theme, meaning post a picture of when you first started editing/photography and then one of your most recent edits/shoots, which I have taken literally so I have posted a before and after when I started and a before and after now, since I have kinda started backwards in this whole photography world of editing first and then learning photography later... when I'm in school and when I have a decent camera other than a point and click. So I choose the photo of my nephew from April 2007 which I was so proud of and then a photo from last weekend, which is so much better. It’s amazing that with a little practice and patience how much you can grown in a short {2 years} time frame. So introducing:

Then

Knowing what I know now, this picture was almost perfect in it's orginial state and just needed a little cleaning, not a complete overhaul - along with the non-knowledge of curves and trying to make everything look perfect I have learned to try and leave stuff more au natural...

Now

I still feel I am pulling too much contrast in so I'm trying to learn still the balance of just right and a little over done, but hey, I'm learning right? :) Any hints, suggestions, or ideas? On how to bring in some color and contrast but not so it looks so processed?

I wish I could get LiveWriter to post the pictures to my blog in a better quality then it does, anyone have any tips? So I half use flickr and half live writer which makes it a bit difficult sometimes... oh well.

Fix-It-Friday: Sweet Boy #23

{Original}

Click for more fantastic edits from this week!

{Edits}

{Fix-It-Friday: Pretty In Pink #17}

I'm a little late at doing this this week, but loved the photo and wanted to give it a couple of quick fixes. Love this picture :)

{Original}



{First Edit}



{Second Edit}



{Third Edit}



See all the other wonderful edits at iHeartFaces

Fix-It-Friday: Little Beauty #13

Let me preface my normal readers by saying, "Yes, I am still alive." We are trying to find a house to buy and it's a little crazy! But I am still here, and I know I haven't finished the other parts (buttons, sidebar, background) of my blog design and it looks unkempt or incomplete... but I am working on it or will work on it one day".

I do however find time to edit photos for Fix-It-Friday because I love doing it! iHeartFaces has to be my favorite obsession and glad I got on the band wagon a while ago. So enjoy my edits and head over to iHeartFaces to see some more wonderful takes on "Little Beauty"!

{Original Image}



{First Fix}



{Second Fix}
i loved the sun in the background and the genuine care in her expression and wanted to highlight that



{Third Fix}
wanted to focus on the vibrancy of the image



{Fourth Fix}
this image is my favorite and makes my heart sing, i absolutely love the tenderness of the hand placement and the way she is holding the flowers, beautiful moment



{Fifth Fix}
this photo was begging to be done in low saturation but a true black & white didn't fit, i like how it turned out

If you haven't noticed it was really hard for me to stop playing with this photo there are so many wonderful things you can do with it - it is a great image!

Fix-It-Friday: My Shadow #12

This weeks photo
{click on each image for a larger view}

My fixes



Come play along!

Fix-It-Friday: Cooing Baby

I was so excited to do this picture (it might or might not have anything to do with how baby hungry I might or might not be)!

Original

My-Edits



I've never really done a tight crop and always feel strange cutting off parts of peoples faces but I thought I would try it and I think I like how it turned out. I need to play some more with croppings.

Head over to iHeart Faces to see some (I'm sure to be) amazing edits on this precious little one!

Self Portrait

This weeks contest topic is "self portrait". I took this image of myself (a couple weeks ago) in the mirror in our yellow bathroom I had to remove the color to remove the yellow overcast/glow.

To see lots more wonderful entries for this weeks contest head over to

Fix-It-Friday: #10

Before

Afters

I forgot to keep track of what I was doing until I was almost done...so it's just the edit this week.

Fix-It-Friday

I am new to this whole world of photography, but I am finding I am really enjoying it! I took this picture of my nephew:



And then edited with CS4 to get this:


It is very yellow and bright - how can I keep the brightness of the eyes without brigthening his whole face? I don't have a nice camera yet and have just started with editing - so I just use the normal factory settings on my little pocket sized Olympus (I know some of you are cringing...) one day I hope to have a Nikon...soon.

Thanks for the help!

EDITED PHOTO:

This is what I ended up with after using all of the wonderful advice I received!

My Friend & I - Week 13

I love this site! As I am starting to learn in get into photo editing it's the best website. I am new at this but will be participating in the contests on Tuesdays and the Fix-It-Fridays - so be prepared to see new photos on the blog - even though they might not be very good sometimes.

My Entry
"My Friend & I"
{Click for larger view}

This is my brother and sister (who are a lot younger than myself) but they really are the best of friends.