My mixed editing style

[Jinxed_for_Life]

My first before/after thread!
Let's see if I can get this right.. x]

Before:


After:


First of all, this was taken with my old Rebel XTi and an 18-55mm kit lens..and also after just a few months of having my first DSLR..this is why I have no EXIF for you, sorry!

Anyway, on to the steps:

1. (using photoshop CS3, though GIMP or other programs can do the same, of course) I cropped it first, then adjusted curves -- deepening the shadows, bring up midtones just a teeeny bit, and the same with highlights.
2. Then went to levels, set it on 'blues', and slid the shadow-slider to the right, to get the shadows less blue. Did the same with midtones, and moved highlights-slider to the left(all of this verryy slightly)
3. Decided to see what auto-levels would do; it made her skin look more natural, but made the rest of the photo too yellow -- so I made a new layer, applied the auto-levels again, and decreased opacity down to 25%
4. Merged down the layer; did a bit of Amy-Rose work on her eyes(screened them via new layer at around 20-30%) and also did my own burning and dodging on them
5. Merged, duplicated again, and applied gaussian blur at about 23 pixels. Then changed the layer setting to soft light, and once again decreased the opacity down to around 20-30%
6. Again, merged all layers down to one and duplicated. On this layer I did a high pass filter at 1.3 pixels and set it to 'linear-light'
7. Mergemerge, plastered on a new copyright, and all done!

Nothing big, and maybe not a fantastic result, but I love it.

[candleman]

nice.. i like the effect.
i love the little cheeks an.. its a very cute perspective.

the little girls face is very "drawing" thats all i can see when i look at this.. there are absolutley no distractions. you did a great job of making her the focal point in the use of the colouring

A similar effect can very easilt be achieved by simply changing the layer stye from "normal" to "overlay" .. then reducing the opaciity to suit.

[dannyrich]

I like to process eyes, this has turned out very well.
Certainly made a keeper.

[prince]

My eyes are drawn and focused on her face and that is the whole point. The effects improve the photo to a large extent.. can fit right on to your wall

Thanks for the process.. I learned some new steps..