I Heart Faces: Fix it Friday #59
Posted in The Digital Darkroom on Friday June 18, 2010 | 14 commentsIt’s time once again for I Heart Faces Fix it Friday!
This week’s photo is of a beautiful little baby girl, taken by IHF Contributor, Julie Rivera.
Basic Edits
Certainly nothing major is “wrong” with it. The color is off a little bit and her face is on the pinkish side, but the focus is awesome! For my basic edits, I just corrected the levels and colors and cropped it a bit. Probably not the best crop, but I couldn’t really get anything that looked great. I ran CoffeeShop’s Baby PowderRoom (one of my very favorite actions!) to smooth out the skin just a tad and MCP’s Color Safe Bleach to whiten the sheet and stripes on her shirt. Finally I used MCP’s Vivid Color Finder to paint over her shirt and make the pink pop a bit more.
I like the basic edit enough to stop there, but I wanted to try a few things on top of it, because you know how crazy I am for actions and textures. For pretty much every texture or action I applied, I customized all the settings and used layer masks to erase the effect from some areas until it looked good to me. There’s no science to this.
Fun Edit #1
The crispness it adds is interesting. If I were going to print any of these edits, this is probably the one I’d pick, though it is not necessarily my favorite.
Fun Edit #2
I like the lightness this adds to her skin! This is slowly becoming one of my favorite actions because it doesn’t go over the top with crispness, contrast and saturation, which most color popping actions do.
Fun Edit #3
This might just be my favorite. I like the vignetting effect the edge overlay gives. The Wonderworker + Etheral give a very similar effect to the Details Soft Color action, but I like it more since her skin tone is a tad warmer.
Fun Edit #4
I went back up to my Details Soft Color edit (using my history palette, that was super easy!) and applied a few different B&W conversion actions. I always try a few, but usually end up using Pioneer Woman’s B&W. I just love it! I’m starting to fall in love with MCP’s Newsprint B&W too, but it doesn’t work on as many photos. After PW’s B&W was applied and tweaked, I decided I wanted just a hint of color, so I lowered the opacity on the B&W layer. I like the results!
Side by Sides
Middle: Fun Edit #4
Bottom: Fun Edit #3, Fun Edit #2
Which is your favorite edit? As usual, if you have any constructive criticism, I would love the feedback!
Update: Thanks to everyone who commented on the sharpness of my edits. I had uploaded them through WordPress and they were compressed considerably! I moved them over to Flickr, so the resolution should now be a lot better. Thanks again!
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All your edits are lovely. The only thing extra I might have done to any of them was sharpen and lighten the eyes a touch, BUT that is just a matter of taste!!
Your tones are lovely 
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your feedback. I did define the eyes a bit with the Baby PowderRoom action. I lowered the opacity a lot for that layer though… I found it kind of looked odd with the eyes too sharp. Striking that perfect balance is definitely a fine art!
Twitter: @lynda
I like them all…can’t decide which is the best. Nice colors and tones. I agree with Caroline- sharpen the eyes a bit and it will be “picture perfect!”
Thank you so much for your feedback, Jennifer!
Twitter: @lynda
Love the contrast of fun edit 3!
Amanda´s last blog ..Fix It Friday – 59
Thanks!
Twitter: @lynda
I like all your edits, but no. 2
is my favorite.
My favorite of all your edits is #2. I just love how the colors turned out. Well done!
Buckeroomama´s last blog ..Body Parts… Love/Hate
Twitter: @Buckeroomama
Beautiful edits! I had a hard time picking a favorite but in the end, I think I like just the basic edit you did at the beginning the best. Actions are so much fun to play with and you did a great job with them!
Cheryle´s last blog ..Fix-It Friday #59 at i heart faces
Great edits, Lynda! My favorite is number 2. They all seem somewhat soft to me- do you sharpen for web? Great job!
Thank you Kelly. I don’t “sharpen for web” specifically, but I do sharpen.
I’m starting to wonder if this isn’t a case of wordpress compressing my files. Hmmm.
Twitter: @lynda
OMG. That is exactly what was happening! WordPress was compressing the photos poorly. I uploaded to Flickr and they look a lot better now!
Twitter: @lynda
So glad you got it figured out!!! I love these fix it fridays because of all the other eyes that can give you suggestions and help you improve!
Thanks for stopping at my blog! I am following you now to see more of your stuff.
These are all gorgeous edits, but I particularly love #2. Very clean and cute!