Freebie

Freebie

Freebie: Make Me Dark Photoshop Action

Posted in: Freebie

I’m obviously not good at coming up with names for my Photoshop Actions. My 4 Hens has names like “Glee” and “Silly Nilly.” “Make Me Dark” was the best I could do at 6 a.m. :) This action allows you to paint darkened areas onto your photograph. You can download it here. I would normally use it between 50-80% opacity but I wanted to show the effect here. Here is a before & after:

I’m sorry to Photoshop Elements users – I don’t have Elements so I can’t test to see if it works. If you run into problems, please let me know. Otherwise you can download the action here.
Mini Photography Lesson + Assignment: Not All Shade is Created Equal

Posted in: Freebie, Tips!

As photographers, we often look for shaded areas to place our subjects in. The light is even, we don’t have to deal with harsh shadows, and no one is squinting their eyes. However, not all shady areas are created equal. Some areas will be better than others and looking for them will improve your photography. Although sometimes you can’t help the location where you’re shooting, instead of arbitrarily looking for a shaded area to photograph, see how light reflects back onto your subject.

Using Walls As Reflectors

A few of my favorite areas to photograph are alleyways or in between buildings. Usually one side of the wall is lit by sunlight. This light bounces off into the shaded area directly across and essentially becomes a huge softbox.

The photograph below was taken in the men’s bathroom at a local park. While walking around before my client arrived, I noticed the white bathroom walls and sunlight illuminating one side of the wall and essentially bouncing light around everywhere.

f/2.0 at 1/640

Using Garages/Overhangs/Covered Areas

Look for shaded areas with an area of sunlight in front of your subject. One of my favorite areas to photograph when I’m shooting at the beach is underneath the pier. The pier overhead provides shade and light reflects off the ground and bounces back into the shaded area.

Underneath a pier:

f/2.0 at 1/100

In essence, think about the location where you are photographing. If you have control, try to find locations where light is being bounced onto shaded areas. This will light the face well, light the eyes, and reduce those muddy shadows especially underneath the eyes.

Assignment

If you would like feedback for your photographs, please e-mail them to contact@inspiremebaby.com. Feedback for assignments is open for one week (ends December 7, 2010).

1. Find an area where the sun illuminates a side of a white wall. Place your subject in the shaded area facing the lit wall.

OR

1. Open up your garage door in the afternoon. Place your subject facing out. You will be shooting into the garage.

2. If you’re photographing one subject, shoot at f/2.0, f/2.8, or the widest aperture your lens will open up to.

3. FOCUS ON THE EYES and shoot.

4. Upload the photographs onto your computer. Is the face well lit? Do you have light in the eyes?

Assignment photograph courtesy of Sweet Moments Photography // Facebook
Freebie: What to Wear Baby & Toddler

Posted in: Freebie, What to Wear

A reader suggested that I do a baby & toddler What to Wear – so here it is! It was actually a little difficult to do these since I’m trying to make them holiday-free but most of the clothing right now is Christmas related. Please feel free to download and use the version without our logo.
Freebie: What to Wear Siblings & Seniors

Posted in: Freebie, What to Wear

Last month, you requested What to Wear guides for siblings and seniors. Two outfits from the What to Wear Siblings were put together by Gap. All clothes from the What to Wear Seniors are from Wet Seal. If you haven’t been to Wet Seal’s website, they have an online application for putting together outfits. Download the What to Wear Siblings here and What to Wear Seniors here.

As always, please feel free to use these on your website and/or blog and to put your logo on them. :) Happy Thursday!
Guest Blogger: Newborn Photography Processing How-To and Free Photoshop Action from Photography by Jacqueline

Posted in: Freebie, Guest Blogger, Tips!

I know one of the things I personally struggle with is how to process newborn photographs. They’re red and splotchy! One of my favorite vendors, Jacqueline, has generously written a fantastic tutorial about how to process newborn photographs. Please visit her website or Facebook and give her some love. For those who are in need of newborn posing help, you definitely want to check out Jacqueline’s shop.

I’ve been so excited about this tutorial, I decided to post it a day earlier than planned! ;) P.S. You can click on the images to view a larger version.

Here is the before and after.

First, start by cropping the photo the way you would like. I tilted mine just a little. Don’t worry if you crop over the image. You can use the clone tool later. Here is how I cropped mine.

Now, using my clone tool. I fill in the areas left over from the crop. We will blend these a little better later.

Now, I use my own action, Jacqueline’s Creamy Curve. This is a free download ONLY for Inspire Me Baby! Please do not share this action. (You can make adjustments to the action accordingly. Babies are usually a little red so the action was created with that in mind). You can download the action HERE (After you run this action, take this time to remove blemishes on the baby’s skin or blanket).

Now, create a new blank layer. Use your eye dropper tool to select a sample of the blanket from the front. Get a brush with a low opacity and paint over the background. (I only paint behind the baby). I used a hardness of 15%. Don’t worry about painting over the baby. I then dropped the layer opacity to 75%. After you are finished painting, use a layer mask to erase it from his skin.

After I use a layer mask and erase the paint from the baby skin, I went to ‘filter/blur/lens blur’. I am going to use this to blur the background so it lessens the ability to see where we painted. Now, use a layers mask to remove the blur from the baby. I used a radius and blade curve of 30% with a rotation of 120. You can adjust this to your own liking.

Use your burn tool to darken the background to your liking. Now, because I notice that my image is still a little more red than I would like, I use the curves adjustment to pull some more red out. And there we are… ALL DONE!

Thank you so much for visiting. If you are not a fan of my Facebook, you can view that HERE and to get inside access to giveaways and tips, fan my shop HERE.