Sparkly eyes

I know!  Somehow I’m slowly getting over my fear of posting faces.  Or maybe I’m  just so in love with this one that I really wanted to share it.  This is AJ yesterday, and yeah, she can still wear her Mrs. Roper dress!  Except now it’s a top.  But all of a sudden she loves it, and wants to wear it all the time (and the same goes with ponytails, which she used to flat-out refuse, but now she wants every day…kids).

So have you ever looked at those great photos on flickr and wondered, “how do they get those great eyes?”  Is it the camera?  Is it the light?  Is it the kid?  After I got my DSLR, I was so sure I would have instantly awesome photos like the ones I saw on flickr all the time.  Well, I was disappointed.  As it turns out, the camera does help (and actually the lens is more important than the camera), but most of those shots that look so great are post-processed in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

Now, the light is important, and you have to know where to position the subject to get something to work with.  With this photo, I had AJ positioned with the afternoon sun behind her, then had her look up at me.  The open sky behind me reflected into her eyes and gave a soft glow to them.  But the original, straight-out-of-camera photo looked like this:

See how murky that is?  Blah!  Boring!  Go ahead, scroll back up and look at the improved version.  The colors are brighter, and her eyes (even though they’re brown, and notoriously hard to photograph nicely) have nice catchlights in them.

So here’s how to get that yourself.  You need Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, or possibly Paint Shop Pro (I know it does layers, but I’m not sure about what types, so you’d have to experiment if that’s the software you use).  First, let me recommend shooting in RAW, if your camera has that option.  If you do, your image will open up in Adobe Camera Raw, where you can make adjustments to the image easily.  With this photo, all I did was click the “auto” correction button, and everything brightened up and looked exactly like the photo at the top of this post, minus the eye part.  I started shooting in RAW a few weeks ago, and I’m never going back!  ACR just makes it so easy to liven up your images.

OK, so you’ve perked up the photo with ACR.  Or you’ve opened it in PS or PSE and used an action like Pioneer Woman’s Fresh & Colorful, or something from CoffeeShop to give it that bright and cheerful look. (Be sure to flatten your image if you’ve run an action, before going on to this next step).  Next you want some sparkle in those eyes, right?  So here’s what you do.  Go to the menu bar and select Layer–>New Layer.  Then in the drop-down, choose Overlay Mode.  Check the box that says “Fill with overlay-neutral color (50% gray)” and click OK.  Now, zoom in on your eyes and select a soft white brush.  Paint over the eyes on the new overlay layer with the brush, and you’ll see sparkle!  A word of caution, though…at first, it might be TOO much sparkle, so you’ll need to reduce the opacity of that overlay layer until it looks right.  You don’t want freakish alien sparkle in those eyes.  When you have it the way you like it, tasteful and sparkly, flatten the layers and save. I’ve tried all sorts of eye-sparkling methods, like sharpening and other layer styles, but this one works best for my brown-eyed young’uns.  If you try it, I hope you like it!

Project 31

I’ve been working on a 31-day photo project since April 3. A friend from church did it, and it seemed like it could be a fun way to jump-start some creativity and just take more pictures. I take lots of pictures, but not every day, so I thought it would be pretty easy to take it up a notch. Well, guess what…it’s hard to find different things to take pictures of, when you have to have something new every day! I’ve taken a lot of shots of dogwood blossoms, because I love them and they’re all over our yard, but you can only do dogwood blossoms so many ways! So, I’ve been pushed out of the box and into new creative possibilities. I’m about halfway through the 31 days now, and looking forward to seeing what else comes out of the camera. :)

Here are a few of my favorites.

(A friend’s daughter.)

(Dogwoods.)

(Speed Racer.)

(More dogwoods.)

(A volunteer paperwhite?)

And some outtakes…

(Defies explanation.  We were feeling creative in more ways than one that day!)

(View from the kitchen window.)

(Egg dying=boring.  Or, that was our final verdict, anyway.)

(Swish.)

I recommend a P31 for anyone who wants to have a little fun and motivation to take more pictures in new ways!  It’s fun.  For the complete Project 31 set on flickr, click here.