All About The Eyes

I've been playing with enhancing eyes and having a ton of fun doing it. I've used some actions and have also been learning how to do it without an action, thanks to StarSailorScrapper aka Lisa Gregory over at Swirlydoos.com. She has shown me a lot of great tips. Here are several before and afters of a few photos I just snapped.

His eyes are SUPER dark so I wasn't sure if I could do a lot of change, but I was happy with how they turned out.

I chose this pic because of the highlights in her eyes and I just wanted to enhance them even more so I washed out most of the photo using a Florabella action and adding texture. My goal was making her eyes pop.

The actions I used were from MCP Actions. The coloring actions I used were from Florabella. Then don't forget Lisa's tutorial over at Swirlydoos!!

Dirty Faced Country Girl

Sometimes the opportunity just calls and you have to snap some shots even when your subject is sportin' a dirty face. The funny thing is, I'm not really sure how she got it lol. I tried playing around with some to see what I could do, but that face was just way too dirty.

This is one I tried some texture on. I highlighted her cheek as well and it cleaned up pretty nicely.

This one I tried to blur out. Not my fave, going to print this one without the blur, but I thought I would show my attempt.

This one was nice because the shadows hid the dirt. Look at her messy hair lol.

Tried an intense B&W which really made her eyes pop and it hid the dirt pretty nicely.

Expecting Mommy

This is my good friend, Kelly, who modeled for me recently. She is expecting her very first baby and she looks absolutely amazing! These are some of the photos I took of her on a shoot out at my place.

~SteamPunk Attempt~

I am loving the new Steampunk trend in scrapbooking, so I decided to take some pics to go along with some of the awesome upcoming papers that I've seen. Here is my daughter, Tyler, dressed up in a sort of Steampunk fashion. Again I used several different actions in Photoshop.

Thanks again for stopping by and God Bless!!

~Fun Shots with Rylee~

Rylee and I got this idea from a similar photo we saw somewhere online with a girl wearing blue eyeshadow all the way around her eyes. Not quite sure where I saw it, but it was cool and inspired us to do this. I played around with some of my actions to create different looks for different photos.

This first photo I lightened and used a warming action. I didn't add any extra details.

This one above I actually used an action from The Pioneer Woman site, called Old West. Then I adjusted the opacity.

This one above I call Sleeping Beauty. I used an action from the same site called Lovely and Ethereal. Then I did a soft overlay of color around her eyes.

I just fiddled with layers and masks on this one above and below. I also added a harder overlay of color around her eyes for the bottom photo.

I can't wait to scrap these!! Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!!

~Some Scenery Photos~

Last year my family went to Yellowstone National Park and had a nice time driving through and seeing all the beautiful scenery and animals. Mostly we saw buffalo and some elk, but the land was breathtaking. Here are a few of the photos I took.

~Triple Birthday~

In June our household has four birthdays, myself included. So to not completely irritate my extended family, I do a triple party for all three of my June babies at one time. Then I will do something special for them on their big day. We ate at this pizza place, that has the tiny pepperonis, oh I love the tiny pepperonis!! Anyway the lighting was bad and there was this HUGE red sign that lit our entire area up!! So I broke out my new lens, a Canon 50mm f/1.8, a very inexpensive, must have lens!!

Not bad considering the light was not good, there was constant movement and I was holding the camera, so I am sure I was moving as well. Oh that cake has 2 lbs of vanilla mousse in it!!!

My Dad is helping my hubby light the candles. Did I mention that cake had 2 lbs of vanilla mousse in it!!

This is my hubby's Uncle Rocky!! It's VERY rare to get him in a photo!! He's a great guy!! Oh and don't forget the cake that has 2 lbs of vanilla mousse in it!! LOL!! Ok ok enough :)