I Heart Faces: Black and White

I looooooove black & white photos!!! I wish the rest of my family did, because then I could have them all over my house ;)
One of my all time favorite photography websites, I Heart Faces is starting a new type of challenge. A monthly photo challenge with a CASH prize!!! Amazing right? On top of that each person that enters the challenge is also entered to win a prize, this month it's a Tamron 17-55mm lens!
This is a seriously awesome new twist to their challenges!

I've been fiddling around in LR3 trying to create my own B&W preset. Something that I can use on all my images in the future that speaks to my style and will save me a ton of time!



Here is a recent photo of my sweet baby girl edited only in LR3 with my B&W preset.

I'm so excited to see what unbelievable B&W's will be entered this month! Check them all out here!

I Heart Faces: White

The theme this week at I Heart Faces is white!
My son turned 2 yesterday (Sunday) and I pulled out my white backdrop and took some birthday shots of him. This is definitely one of my favorites from that day!




Happy 2nd Birthday Little Man!!!

I Heart Faces: 1st Day of School Sparkle

What an amazing theme for this week's challenge at I Heart Faces! EYES! I have to admit I'm totally partial to my little guy's eyes =)








Here he is this morning on his first day of Preschool! Those baby blues are just sparkling ;)

I Heart Faces: Lets Hear It For The Boys

The theme this week at I Heart Faces is: Let's Hear It For The Boys!

I LOVE this photo of my son experiencing the sprinkler for the first time. With toys in hand, he is ALL BOY!

Stop by I Heart Faces for more BOY photos! This should be a great week!

I Heart Faces: Bright & Vivid

What a fun and colorful prompt this week at I Heart Faces! I had a fun newborn session this weekend and sweet baby {C} had the most bright and vivid quilt I'd ever seen! We had to use it for some pictures and it's perfect for this week's theme!

Thanks for stopping by and check out more bright and vivid pictures over at IHF!

I Heart Faces: Yellow

I had just taken this image of my daughter when I saw that this week's I Heart Faces theme was Yellow! Perfect!

We were going to a friend's house for a BBQ and she said that if she's going to a 'party' then she must wear a dress! It wouldn't be a party outfit without a flower headband too, right!? ;)

Thanks for stopping by. I'd love to hear what you think about my photo!

To see more yellow images, head on over to IHF!

Fix It Friday #99

I'm back editing a photo from I Heart Faces' Fix It Friday!

Here is the SOOC:

My edit:

I began in ACR and increased the exposure, fill light, brightness, contrast and vibrance.) Then over to PSE7 where I cropped the bottom slightly and than ran Florabella Luxe II action: Timeless and Vivid Color (just over her hair and lollipop!) Then my favorite, MCP's Eye Doctor to give that extra pop to her eyes!

Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to hear what you think of my edit!

I Heart Faces: flowers

The theme this week @ I Heart Faces is flowers! No faces required. This is a no-competition week since Amy and Angie are busy getting ready for the latest Dream Big Workshop! Having attended the previous workshop, I know how much fun all the ladies have instore!

Although this isn't my "normal" type of photography, I LOVE this photo!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

please dont use my pictures without permisson, thanks!

I Heart Faces: Wind

When Amy and Angie over at I Heart Faces announced this week's theme was wind I knew I had the perfect photo to enter! After all... There is no wind like an Oklahoma wind!!!

My daughter trying to play in our backyard during a particularly windy day =)

Gotta love Oklahoma! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're having a wonderful day =)

~Michelle~

I Heart Faces: Shadows

To go along with my attempt of getting back in the shooting & blogging groove, I have a great photo for I Heart Faces weekly challenge! Shadows! This is a photo of my daughter on her first big bike ride! She LOVED it! Of course her little purse had to come too ;) It will be so nice to have her biking along while I push her little brother in the stroller =)

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful week!!!

Fix It Friday #89

A fun shot today from Dana Suggs for this week's Fix It Friday at I Heart Faces.




SOOC:







Edit 1:





In ACR I made minor changes: vibrance +20, clarity +20, contrast +20, exposure -5, blacks +6
Then in PSE 7 I cropped the image and had fun with a few actions:
Florabella Luxe II Vivid Color & Timeless




Edit 2:




Florabella Luxe II Vivid Color & Smitten



Edit 3:


Florabella Luxe II Vivid Color & B&W Vanilla.



I know IHF is having some website server problems today, so hopefully this gets linked up eventually! I liked the image so much that I wanted to post anyways! Thanks for stopping by my blog =)

I Heart Faces: Anything But Faces!

Something a little different this week at I Heart Faces. The theme is: Anything But Faces!

Here is my daughter in her pink Crocs playing a new game of hopscotch with the letters in her brother's name! She learns SO much from her 3 "big sisters" that live next door =)

Thanks for stopping by. Check out other interpretations at I Heart Faces!

Fix It Friday #88

Did this week's picture get posted late, or am I just that behind????

We are going out of town this weekend and my Photography 101 Workshop is next weekend.....so I must be the one that's behind!! LOL!

The model for this week's image is Angie Arthur's beautiful daughter!

SOOC:

Edit 1:

adjustments for my taste: Brightness +4, Contrast +20 and vibrance +15

In PSE7 I created an adjustment layer and increased the saturation +20 then used a black brush on 70% opacity to mask the saturation away from her skin. I then created a duplicate layer and used the burn tool to create a vignette. Sharpening using the High Pass Filter and blending mode set to overlay.

Edit 2:

Image from edit 1 then I ran Florabella's Luxe II action: Vanity.

Edit 3:

Image from edit 1 then I ran Florabella's Luxe II action: Tuesday.

I think edit 3 is my favorite! Whatcha think?

Fix It Friday #87

Another FIF over at I Heart Faces. The pose in the photo today is similar to one I already use for newborn sessions. LOVE it by the way ;)

SOOC:

A very nice, typical SOOC.

Edit:

basic edits in PSE 7. I created a levels adjustment layer and increase the mid tone brightness. I then created a background duplicate layer and changed the blending mode to 'soft light.' That is a really neat trick I learned a while back. It made the dad's shirt all black (the look I was going for.) That's it!

Edit 2:

Same edit as #1 and then I ran my favorite B&W action: Florabella's Vanilla.

Edit 3:

Same as edit #1 and then Florabella Luxe II action: Lullabye.

I like them all!

Hope you have a great Friday and long weekend!!!

I Heart Faces Challenge: Red

This week's photo challenge at I Heart Faces is: RED. Perfect for Valentines Day and perfect for the maternity session I had this weekend!

This adorable couple will be welcoming their little Buckeye in about 6 weeks!

Stop by I Heart Faces to see other interpretations of RED!

Fix It Friday #86

A seriously adorable picture for us to edit today! This little model is Rachel Durik's daughter. I've had the wonderful opportunity to meet Rachel in person and take one of her online Lightroom classes. She is SO nice and I only wish we could've met when I was living in Florida (where she is) and not after we moved to Oklahoma!!! If you're interested, check out Rachel's blog too. =)

Moving on....

Here is the SOOC:

After looking at one of the I Heart Faces FIF tutorials by Andrea Riley, I wanted to give her look a shot.

Edit 1:

I really like it! I've recently re-discovered the burn tool and have found a lot of uses for it! Seriously, the learning never ends in Photoshop!!!

Edit 2:

I took the base ACR edit and ran Florabella Luxe II action Vivid Color. It is very cool, you run the action and then "paint" on where you want the vivid color to be (here I painted vivid color onto her red hat, pants and blue jacket).

Edit 3:

Same basic ACR edit and then Florabella Luxe II action Smitten.

Edit 4:

Same basic ACR edit and then I finally had the time to play with the 2 B&W actions in the new Florabella Luxe II set. This one I actually LOVE, it's called B&W Blush. What a nice rosy color added to a B&W image!

Feel free to let me know which edit you like the best! More edits of this image can be found at I Heart Faces!

Happy Friday everyone!!!

Fix It Friday #85

Friday, woo hoo! It's been a LONG week here in OK. We woke up to surprise snow flurries! Yeah, had no idea that was coming....and supposedly, more next week! Should be interesting. =)

So for FIF at I Heart Faces I used the new, awesome Florabella Luxe II actions! Yep, I broke down and purchased the new set. (The 3rd set of Florabella actions I have!) Luckily, I had a lovely email in my inbox today with a $20 off coupon code =)

Anyways, I had to use them ASAP!

SOOC:

Edit 1:

Florabella Luxe II action: Angel

Edit 2:

Florabella Luxe II action: Blush

Edit 3:

Florabella Luxe II action: Film (you know me, I had to use a B&W!)

I totally plan on playing with these actions this weekend on my own images. I can't wait to report back to you all with some great Before/Afters!

Have a great, safe weekend!