Post-processing and getting kicked off the bird's nest...

I love taking pretty pictures, but what I like the most is taking those pretty pictures and making them even more prettier through a little thing called post-processing. Editing, in other words. Getting the right exposure, lighting, and ISO down are critical when shooting but after all that's set and done the creativity juices begin to flow when I open up my images in Photoshop. My older sister Arleth is a wedding photographer and she was the one that began getting me interested in photography. She  taught me the basics (exposure, iso, light reflectors, composition etc.) on how to shoot raw with an SLR camera in about one hour with a photoshoot she had me do of her, and after that she pretty much threw me off the birds nest and said "it's all you after this." She gave me a quick run-through in a day on how to import my images in Lightroom and Photoshop and like a little bird barely learning how to spread its wings in the photography little universe I had to pick up where we left off and I realized I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I'm still growing and this little birdie has alot of growing to do.

One of the things I had to teach myself how to used was Photoshop. Looking at some of the first photoshoots I did, I realized, well, I pretty much sucked.  First of all my exposure was off, my pictures we're too dark and and my photoshop skills weren't so great. Ok, they were wack. I was barely learning how to fly cuz' my sister threw me off the nest remember!! I'm kind of thankful she did though. That was I had to learn through trial and error. So far, I'd say my Photoshop skills have improved and now I feel a lot more comfortable in the types of actions I preferably like to use in my images. In this little bloggity post I wanna' show how I use post-process my images and how I use Photoshop to style my images and make them look more, well, pretty.

The actions I use in Lightroom are very minimal. I make sure that when I take a picture, my exposure and my ISO are right on the dot. That way it decreases the work I need to do on Lightroom. I ususally brighten or lighten my images just a tad bit and increase my black to 6. After Lightoom is done, I save my image and open them up with Photoshop.


In the picture below, the left image is the raw image and the right image is the final, edited version. In this particular image I brightened it up a bit, warmed it up with the "warm it up kris" action (15%), "get faded autumn" (10%), "pool party" (%15), "Lux soft" (20%) and I sharpened the image with "boutwell magic glass" (15%)

    ISO400 50mm f/2.5 1/100 sec

         (raw image) ISO400 50mm f/2.5 1/125sec

(Final version) In Lightroom: Black vignet. In photoshop, "Detroit black and white" (70%) "Lux soft" (8%) sharpened it with "Boutwell Magic glass" (15%)

(Raw image on the left and final image on right) Brightened it up a bit, "get faded autumn" (10%), "pro-retouch" (20%), "lux soft" (15%), "Flare up golden" (8%), shrpened it with "Boutwell glass magic" (15%).
ISO200 50mm f/2.8 1/125sec

Staying sane...

It's crazy how life can get a little, well, crazy. I've been super busy lately. School has captured me in its web of endless homework and studying, I have a theory my students at work are out to get me, and my car has been running on E for the past two days because I'm too cheap to put gas. Yeah, like I said, crazy. Recently my stress load has gotten' a little more stressful because in just a few weeks I have to take a little exam called the English CSET. I call it the devil. It's a qualification for becoming an English teacher and I'm just taking the first out of three sections. For the next couple of weeks my life revolves around allegorical dictations, anthropomorphism (say what?), the rythmic rise and fall of oral language and other words I didn't even know were part of the English language. So pray I keep sanity in tact.

But in other good news, this past Sunday my sister and borther in law announced they're having their first baby!!! Which in turn will make me the coolest aunt, like ever. Can't wait to see that little face in April. <3

Happy Thursday!

Why I love Fall...

It's that time of year. The time that makes you wannna' snuggle up with a fuzzy blanket, wear toe socks and rock a cute scarf. I looooove fall.  Like a fat kid loves cake and I really love cake, all you readers know that. Today, I looked inside my closet and I saw my mustard yellow knitted sweater I bought a few days ago tucked inside like it was yearning to see world outside the doors of my closet. I exagerate internet, just go with the flow. Southern California weather is funky, and every Californian knows that. Mr. sun  seems to hang out the entire year, so when he decides to let some clouds in, that's when all mustard yellow sweaters break loose and the booty shorts are gone. Yes, I said booty, and no I don't wear them. So what's my point? Booty shorts are hootchie. I'm kidding. I don't have one. I just really like fall because I get to wear cute sweaters and scarves and I just wanted to post it on the world wide web. BAM! Those are the perks of having your own blog. You can write about toe socks and and mustard. With that said, I'm gonna' go buy myself a hot pumkin spice latte and play in a bundle full of fall leaves.

 

Happy fall ya'll! :)

Portraits: Viviana & Evon

They make each other laugh the minute one of them looks at the other. Vivian and Evon are sisters and this past Saturday I spent my afternoon soaking up the Cali sunset and getting my shoes dirty with these two ladies and it was nothing but long laughs and STOP making that wierd face remarks the entire time. Seriously, I love these girls, and it's not because they compliment my outfit everytime they see me even when I look toe up from the flo up and my hair looks like it's never seen a comb. They're some of the sweetest girls I know. We met at church and having them in front of my camera being all rawr n' stuff was awesome.

Viviana and Evon, you ladies rocked the camera and made my job a whole lot' easier. Thanks for being such fabulous models! Love ya!

And for starters, here's Viviana. Work that hair girl, work-it!

Evon, you're gorgeous girl.  

After a quick outfit change we headed back for some more pics, and Viviana, all I gotta say is fierce!

Fierceness all over the place!

And I'll end with my favorite.