Photography – Long Island Chick

No Photo Is Better Left Untouched!

Kathleen — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:22:14 +0000

Most photographs, even professional ones, can benefit from some retouching. Some need to be put through a thorough workflow to correct white balance, exposure issues or some may just need little tweaks here and there. Lightroom and Photoshop offer a myriad of ways to correct problems and allow photographers to be creative with their photos. I enjoy working with MCP Actions for Photoshop – I recently picked up Jodi’s Fusion and Eye Doctor Actions and played around with them a bit.

I decided to try something subtle on this picture of my son Ryan from his first trip to Disney World at the age of 18 months:

The tweaks enhanced his eyes and the catch lights, while smoothing his skin and making it more creamy.

I’ll be playing around with these actions to see what other recipes I can come up with to enhance my photos!

Wordless Wednesday and a Blog Hop! 3-21-2012

Kathleen — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:49:17 +0000

Also we have a Wednesday Blog Hop too, hosted by Haute Mom

Freaky Friday: Trapped Inside the Phone

Kathleen — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 21:03:36 +0000

I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was pure genius:

So I grabbed my son and took a picture of him behind some glass for my phone contact and here is our version:

Thanks guys at 9GAG! Now go take some pictures and have some fun!

Wordless Wednesday 2-8-12

Kathleen — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:37:22 +0000

Now You See It, Now You Don’t – Photoshop CS5′s New Content Aware Fill

Kathleen — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 23:51:38 +0000

Probably one of the most frustrating aspects of photography is annoying distractions in your candid photos. How many times did you snap that perfect shot of your kids only to notice later that there was a pole, a miscellaneous person or some unsightly thing marring your masterpiece. Photoshop users had some decent tools to deal with these blemishes but they were by no means perfect..until now.

Photoshop CS5 features “content aware” fill technology. Content Aware Fill uses the image details to recreate areas that are removed to match its surroundings. For example, if you have a tree branch extending over the side of building, then you can select the tree branch and use the content aware fill feature to replace the tree branches with a pattern that matches the building’s bricks. This amazing feature lets you easily remove unwanted details from images such as wires, trees and even buildings without leaving a gaping hole where the object used to be. It virtually eliminates the time consuming touch up work required after removing items.

Here is an example of content aware fill in action:

As you can see, the parking sign is gone from the photo on the right and Photoshop deftly rebuilt the tree with the yellow leaves leaving no trace of the offending sign. A defog action, some levels adjustments and cropping were the finishing touches on this picture (felt bad about cutting out the boy on the left but he wasn’t looking anyway). Photoshop CS5 has some other fantastic features that I haven’t gotten to yet, but content aware fill is my new best friend. I don’t know how I lived without it!.