Life Signatures

Ok, the game’s well into the second quarter, Philadelphia 16, Minnesota 14. The husband thinks I’m hyper active. Some people knit and watch football, some people drink beer and watch football, I play with Photoshop Elements and watch football.

This is Victoria, my cute little niece.

This is the SOOC and she’s adorable here too, but I can’t help playing with the image, no matter how adorable she is.

I did a little trick that I think can be used for most portraits. It’s super easy, I promise.

I opened the image up in PSE and I made a duplicate layer. Then I made another and to “save” the original layer, I clicked on the eye to hide the original layer. I don’t know if it’s necessary but I do it.

With the top layer selected or highlighted, I click on the select menu box over the layers palette. I think it’s called Blending Mode. I’m not really sure. Anyway, when the options show up, I select “Soft Light”.

You will see an immediate change, the picture will have much more contrast and that very annoying haze over your picture will go away. Unless of course, you are a better photographer than I am, in which case you won’t have a haze. In most cases this looks very harsh so selectively set the Opacity. I put it down to 50% for Victoria here, but each photo is different. Choose the best opacity for your photo.

That’s it. I think this photo is closer to how adorable she really is in real life. She’s quiet around strangers but quite the ham around the camera, much like the girl. That makes me even more drawn to her, I can relate.

This technique works with turtles too.

I think Philadelphia is going to win…just because they always rally around Donovan McNabb in a pinch. That makes him a true leader, which is not good for the Giants if they have to meet him in the play-offs. You know next year, all this will mean absolutely nothing.

Tomorrow the kids have school. Christmas break (I’ll continue to call it that) is over. I hope I can get them up for school! I also have a pile of work waiting for me next week. I wish I could photoshop all day and night!..it was fun while it lasted!

Until next time…

OK, the Ravens are advancing in the playoffs, they just beat the Dolphins. I was rooting for the Dolphins because I think they are the weaker team and would not have been effective again my team, the Giants. But the Ravens won anyway and they are just up the street so I’m kind of happy, I guess.

Now Philadelphia is playing the Vikings. I have mixed feelings about Philadelphia, I can’t decide whether to not like them or to really not like them. Kidding you Eagles fans…I have  an affinity for Philadelphia because they are just up the street too, just a stones throw from Baltimore…but they are a dangerous team, unpredictable, and I don’t know how the Giants are going to do against them if they have to face them…

Speaking of the Philadelphia Eagles, these are my parents Nanna and Poppop. They live in Pennsylvania and Poppop is an Eagles fan. Other than that, he’s a good guy.

I took this picture at homecoming in my home town last October. I liked the picture but I didn’t like some of the aspects of the SOOC.

It really bothered me that their glasses had so much reflection and glare on them.

I looked and looked and looked for a solution on the web…because that’s the way I am. And I found one – sort of. Let me explain…

Peachpit.com had a good solution for overall glare on glasses. So I followed along to fix Poppop’s glasses.

First, I make a duplicate layer (Ctrl J) because it’s my safety net, I feel better when I do.

I blew Poppop up really big and centered his eyes and eye glasses (Ctrl +). I clicked the quick selection tool, or you can find it by hitting A.

I traced around Poppop’s left eye. Now I did just the eye, not the entire perimeter of the glasses, I figured if I sharpened the eye only, the glare wouldn’t be so noticeable. And well…I was right, he he.

Then I clicked on the little circle that is half black and half right on the layers palette. You can see it above the layers, to the left of the garbage can. It’s called the Create Adjustment Layer icon. When you click on it, choose Levels. Move the little black arrow on the bottom on the left to the right (that’s on the left to the right) and move the little white arrow in the middle to the right until you think it looks right. It’s very technical, I know.

Do the same for the other eye.

Now it did make Poppop’s eyes look better but Nanna still had a huge reflection on her right eye. This technique will not work for her, she still looks really lopsided.

So I had an idea. Lets just darken her glasses and reduce the reflection that way.

So I blew up Nanna really big.

But wait, I have to flatten the layers because I don’t want to get messed up. I want to leave the original layer so I don’t choose Flatten Image, I select all of the layers I want to flatten and choose Merge Layers, leaving the original layer.

I then choose a color that won’t make her look too weird. I’ll have to tell you how to choose a color another time.

Then I choose the brush tool. I take the brush size to a manageable size, I think I chose 25 px.

I make another layer by clicking Ctrl J again.

Vikings just scored, now it’s 6 to 6.

I start painting her left eye. Eeekkkk.

I paint her other eye, double eeeekkkk.

Vikings kicked the extra point, it’s 6 to 7, Vikings.

OK, now this is really important, with the top layer selected, reduce the opacity. I have it reduced to about 84% I believe. Leaving it at 100% will make it look really bad, really bad.

Then I decided I didn’t like the hoodlum sitting next to them. He looked like trouble. So I just cropped him out. Done.

The before…

The after…

Poppop’s eyes pop (he he) a little more so the glare on his glasses isn’t as noticeable. Nanna’s glasses are darker so the reflection that was on her right eye is not as noticeable making her look more symmetrical to us (me).

Even though I liked the SOOC of this picture, I just couldn’t get past some of the things I felt were “wrong” with it. This picture isn’t perfect but it doesn’t bother me anymore.

I may just add this picture to the calendar I’m going to make for them next year.

The Eagles just scored again on an interception. Shoot. I wonder how many more tutorials I can crank out before the game ends…