Photo Editing - Just a Touch

A lot of the colors in my photos turn out just right, but maybe one single bead or charm is way too bright, which can be misleading to potential customers.

Basic editing programs will usually only allow simple retouching or not allow you to pinpoint exactly the item you want to tone down, so the effect is a blanket filter that effects the tonal value of everything in the photo.

pretty, but the color pink is much brighter than the actual item

So, I use Picnik. You can buy a membership for extra features, but this feature is free and easy and an invaluable tool for helping edit your photos.

First, go to "create" on the top tab bar, then "effects",  then choose "sepia" on the left hand menu column.

click on photos to enlarge

Then a pop up box will appear and hit the "reverse" box. All you have to do is select the hardness of the edge, strength and size of your brush to shade in the item with your sepia tone, then slide the sepia bar to the degree of fading you need to adjust the color to the correct tone you need.  I like to keep the fade level at 0% when I am coloring the item so that I can see if I miss anything. After it is fully colored in, then I adjust the colored levels.

once fully colored, adjust the fade to get your desired tone

Afterwards, you can adjust the photo however you need, add a signature or have fun trying out different effects, just remember, for online selling, try and keep the colors as close to the original item. I have another example tutorial for fixing products here, here (using photoscape) and here (editing faces) and some good posts on photography, here, here, and decor8's amazing post on product staging.  I also have a simple little tutorial on making heart bokeh here. Necklace in photos is one of my Jeweled Ambrosia handmade designs.

This post is included Kimba's DIY Day.

I Heart Faces

This is the original, unedited photo.

I Heart Faces is a site dedicated to photography of people and editing styles. While I am not a photographer, nor a trained editor by any means, I do love playing around with my simple little program, Picnik on photos. (click on photos to enlarge)

edit 1

First, I cropped the photo just a bit taking out the negative space on the left side. I minimized a few little baby blemish spots and softened those areas. Then, I whitened the eyes just a bit and added a hint of peach blush to the apples of the cheeks. I used a 'gritty' filter, then boosted the color a bit and used the lomo filter.

edit 2

For the second edit, I cropped the photo a bit, added blue tint to lightened eyes, brightened the whites and emphasized the lash and lid lines and added peach blush to the cheeks. Then, I filtered the photo with a little boost of orton-ish and a bit of  a cross process.

edit 3

For the third edit, I added more exposure and color contrast. I very lightly airbrushed the chapped skin and added just a hint of peach blush.I whitened the eyes a touch and went over the lashes, lid lines, smile marks and other facial features with "mascara" to bring out any features faded in the exposure. I used a tiny amount of lomo-ish filter and a soft gray matte vignette. Very soft and bright.

edit 4

I used edit 3 for the base. I added a black and white filter, but took it just to the point where the slightest color is left. A hint is seen in his lips, cheeks and blue shirt. I then added a softened black frame and a focal blur, keeping the face in tact and softening out the rest of the photo.

I wanted to keep the baby real and sweet looking, with a vintage, dreamy feel, and I think I captured that. Which of the 4 edits is your favorite? Feel free to check out the links of what everyone else has done to this adorable photo!

Fancying Photos with Photoscape

dragon fly necklace gussied up, click on photos to enlarge

In yesterday's post, I showed you some free photo editing with Picnik. Thanks to Cam, I discovered Photoscape, another free download photo editing program. I used the the pre edited picnik holga-ish photo of my dragonfly necklace from yesterday, to turn it into this beauty with Photoscape, with my youngest toddler in my lap the whole time! It took me less than 10 minutes to download the program and finish this photo. For now, this little program will help with my graphic design learning bug.


before, stand back boys, this lady is taken, beware, do not click on photo to zoom!

Now, I want to see what it will do with beautifying a blemished photo of a person (if you remember, Picnik does a great job of that, but you have to pay for that feature). So, I took this photo of me and Isaac when he was a wee one. Note the haggard skin. Aside from cropping, all I really wanted was to erase some hormone induced imperfections... no need to say the actual word, it may summon them back (like the "he who must not be named" HP fans)!


after

First, I used "mole" to individually clear those areas, then I went under "filter" then "smart blur" (clear skin). I first tried the "noise reduction (clear skin)" but it really made it look too freakishly anime-like airbrushed. So, I still look like me, not ultra perfect, but not as yuckified either. And there you have it!

I much prefer Picnik Premium (not free) for the human edits, but for the other fun stuff, Pissaca 3 is wonderful for basic touch ups, Picnik is a most excellent for enhancing with features and playing with exposures and photoscape is best for layering on the goodies (limited options, but still good).



Here is a glorified version of mommy and first born yet to be potty trained 3.5 year old love of my life son. (In case you are wondering, the "1" is for "first-born"... I was going to do his birthday, but got lazy, so there!)

Editing Your Photos With Picnik

holga-ish on my dragonfly necklace

Whether you have an online business and you would like to make your photos really pop, or you want to enhance your blog photos, or you enjoy photography as a hobby, or you just want to edit your family photos to make you look ultra hot, then you would love to try Picnik. It is a free program that is quite user friendly.


infrared film with yellow matte a signature and logo

Though only the basic edits are free, you still get some neat choices. I edited the same exact photo in this post using only the free tools for examples. Now, for basic editing, I really love Picassa 3 which is totally free does have lots of neat features and easy to use, but Picnik has lots of other features for more "play". You can really acheive the look of vintage photos, holga photography, and the style of film noir and a play on exposure that is just beautiful. Of course, this program is probably a nightmare to the true photographer that has studied and learned their own tricks and uses the lens and darkroom to capture these effects, but this is just for fun!


boost, vingette, 1960's round corners and a touch of film grain

Of course on the free version, you have limited uploads and for more advanced tools like "gritty" (so neat!), and photo editing for people, like eye and teeth whitening, sunless tanning, eye color brightening, red eye reduction, wrinkle softening, airbrushing, mascara highlighter!!, shine reducer... (wish I could get these and a belly roll reducer and a make dinner and do dishes tool in real life!). All of these tools are in the premium package that you have to sign up and pay for, but you can at least try them out (one at a time though) to see if you would like the investment.


touch of black and white, cross process and focal softening

I hope you have fun experimenting with your images. You can give your shop or blog an entire overhaul without ever having to retake photos. Unless your photos are very dark, overexposed, blurry or poorly staged, most can be saved with an artful flair with Picnik.


boost, filmgrain, vignette and orton-ish

Edited to add~ as you can see through my photos, the colors have changed drastically. For fun, artful purposes, this is totally acceptable and encouraged! But remember, if you are selling online you need to remember to keep the colors as close as possible to the real thing so that your buyers won't be mislead.