Pinterest Challenge #2 - Photoshop Actions

Time to report on my next Pinterest project completed!  (This really does feel good)!  Just to give you a little background...

 I have been using Photoshop for awhile now to design all of my stationery.  I have never taken a graphic design class in my life and taught myself everything i know through many painstaking hours of trial and error and online tutorials.  Editing photos, however, is not something I have really dabbled in... like at all.  I have always just relied on my camera and iPhoto for everything (plus a wish and a prayer).  Sometimes that has worked out for me, and well, sometimes it hasn't.  Photoshop is like a treasure box.  It has so many hidden gems, but I know I haven't even begun to scrape the surface to really see what it can do.

This brings me to today's challenge.  Last fall I pinned some free Photoshop Actions that Jenn from Dear Lillie blogged about.  Her post featured an absolutely GORGEOUS picture of her daughter and it was then that I vowed to learn how to do that myself...someday.  Well, that someday is now! 

This is the original photo I took of my little peanut, Morgan - with no editing at all:

The original Photoshop Action downloads that Jenn spoke about and used in her editing, came from another blog,  The Pioneer Woman (who you may know from The Food Network)!  Within the last month or so, I hopped on over there and downloaded them, but had still yet to try it.  In the image below, I ran the "Bring on the Eyes" action, and followed all of the tips and tutorials that Jenn gave to use it.  I also brightened up the image a bit and ran the "Lovely and Ethereal" action, but felt like Morgan ended up resembling a character from Twilight.  Those eyes are just too much, and his skin seemed to have that vampire glow.  I since went back and re-read Jenn's post and realized that I needed to reduce the opacity of the action in order to make his eyes look not so fake.  Come to think of it, I probably could have done that with the other one as well.  Hindsight, right?

Then, last week, I did a search on Pinterest looking for some more Photoshop goodies.  It was then that I found these Free Photoshop Actions via Jenn B.  The downloads are available at MCP Actions.
I downloaded each and every single one of what was free and got to work.  I decided to remove the previous "Lovely and Ethereal"  action and reduce the opacity on the "Bring on the Eyes".  Then I ran a new one from MCP Actions, "Pop and Sharpen".  This gave me just the pop that the photo needed, and I was able to slightly sharpen around his eyes and features.  It also offers a layer that really evens out the skin tone - which my little Edward, I mean Morgan, really needed.  In the end, I was really happy with the way this photo came out.  He still looks like my little man - just as cute as in person, and much better than the original photo suggested.

So there you have it.  Me just tipping the Photoshop iceberg.  I still have a ton to learn, but at least now I know how to use a little more than I did a week ago.  Let me know if you have any tips or suggestions, we can learn together!!

XOXO

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