I Heart Faces Fix it Friday #57

I just recently found this great photographer community called I Heart Faces. They have photo challenges and photo tips galore, so definitely check them out if you need some motivation! On Fridays they regularly host, “Fix it Friday” where they post an image and readers can contribute their photo enhancements or edits.

The original photo was contributed by Andrea Riley and goes great with their weekly theme: Barefoot.

The first thing I did was rotate this photo counter clockwise. The thought never would have occured to me, honestly, if it wasn’t for the examples by the contributors. I don’t know why I don’t think about rotating others’ photos when editing them. I do it to my own enough. In fact, yesterday’s photo of Mr. Serious was rotated using “Free Transform” with the grid lines showing so it wouldn’t look like someone half drunk took the shot.

Since I’ve been going really crazy with the textures and post-processing lately, I decided to try to keep it simple and subtle. My goal was to bring out the detail of the foot while giving the rest of the photograph a soft glow. I kept it down to three steps:

1. Applied an action to sharpen the image, then applied a layer mask and erased the effect from everything except the foot.
2. Applied the “Sheer Blush” texture from the Kaleidoscope Gallery Collection in overlay mode at 57% opacity. Again, I used a layer mask to erase some of the effect from the foot in the foreground.
3. Applied the “Soft Abstract” texture from the same Kaleidoscope set in soft light mode at 100% opacity. Also erased some of the effect from the foot.

That’s it! Please feel free to leave me feedback. I appreciate the criticism and suggestions I received after posting yesterday’s entry on photo enhancement.

My newly found love: Layer Masks

As you may have noticed, I’ve recently discovered layer masks. They are an easy way to blend the applied effects. For white layer masks, a black brush takes away and and a white brush brings back. You can set the opacity, flow and other brush options to blend exactly to your taste. Layers and layer masks are immensely powerful photo enhancement tools.

I’ve included my layer palette to the right to show you what was done. Another wonderful thing about layer masks is that you can look at them and exactly tell what is happening to the photo.

I’m going to try to go through all the submissions this week to see what others did, but if you want me to definitely see yours, please feel free to link or add your image in HTML (not exceeding 500px in width, please) in the comments below!

Check back later today for my Friday Find round up. And please consider checking out and entering my photo challenge giveaway. It’s fun and the prize is neat. It’s no lens or Photoshop suite, but I promise you’ll like it if you need inspiration for your blog.