iPhone Photo Phun

I already posted on my main blog today--can see it here-- but I really wanted to participate in the fun meme iPhone Photo Phun- as I love taking pictures with my phone, especially now thanks to the Camera+ App and Instagram (user name Emmymom).


So here are a few favorites I took this week with my phone.

Lunch was just too exciting this week

What happens when I let the kids use my bathroom

Reflections

Storm's a comin'! Too bad it never panned out and just blew on by

Head on over and see other great phone shots.

iHeart Faces: Beautiful Eyes

iheartfaces

This week's iHeartfaces theme is beautiful eyes. When I heard this I immediately thought of my daughter- as her big bambi eyes have always received so many comments. So I looked through my pictures and found this one, just something unique and different about it that keeps bringing me back to it.
Check out the other beautiful eyes at iheartfaces.

iHeart Faces: Friends

I am participating again in iHeartfaces weekly photography challenge. This week's theme is friendship.

It is every parents dream for their kids to be best friends....
and when they are not only friends but your big brother is your hero...

well it sure makes this mama happy.

iHeart Faces: Props

It has been forever since I have done anything with this blog.. I am still taking pictures, just haven't had time to keep up this blog-too busy with life and my main blog.

iHeartfaces

I already did a post on my main blog today, but when I saw the iHeartfaces theme, I knew I had to participate. This week's theme is props, and I knew immediately what picture I wanted to use.
When I saw this hat at Ross- I was so excited as I knew it would make the perfect prop for my son's 1-year-photo shoot. It was tricky keeping it on him- but oh it sure made for cute pictures.

Head over to iHeartfaces to see other great prop pictures.

You Capture: Youth

I know I usually do You Capture on Thursdays-but well I didn't get any photos "fixed" and so I am doing this today instead.

This week's You Capture Theme is Youth

Youth is

Getting totally messy while you eat and not caring one bit
found in favorite childhood toys and all the memories that comes with it
And Youth is

Little ballerina feet and tutusHead over to Beth's to see some more Youthful pictures.

How To Edit Pictures in Lightroom 3

This week for my Fix it For Me Wednesdays, I am going to show you how I edit pictures using Lightroom 3. I decided rather than just tell you what I do, I would show you. So first here are the before and afters-the after is a slightly different than the one I showed on Monday as I started over from scratch to show you how Lightroom 3 works.

BEFORE

AFTER
And how I am going to show you how Lightroom 3 works? With this video tutorial. It is a bit long, but if you are interested in photo editing you should enjoy it. You might want to click to view it larger to see the details better.

Monday Mugs: Green

Okay I wasn't going to post today, but when I got Ryder dressed I put him in a green shirt and then I remembered I had some pictures I love from when he was wearing that same shirt. And since the theme for today's Monday Mugs is green... well here ya go.


And the best part--on Wednesday I am going to show you how I got the picture to look like this, with my fix it for me Wednesday.

Do you want to see the original?
Come back here on Wednesday.

Monday Mugs: Dinner

Okay, I am finally back here. Yes, I missed a Fix it For me Wednesday last week... last week was a beyond crazy busy week and well today is Eric's birthdays and my in-laws are here visiting so this week is just as busy.

But I did want to participate in today's Monday Mugs-whose theme this week is "dinner" as last night, we began celebrating Eric's birthday with a big family dinner (22 people)

Eric likes food, especially meat so we made sure we had a feast he would like

Some of the spread
Dinner consisted of three different types of meat-including Ribs, fruit platter, rolls, twice baked potatoes and a green salad... and of course a cake, but you have to head over to my main blog to see the cake I made for Eric.

If you want to see more great dinner pictures, head over to Oswald Cuties for Monday Mugs.

Monday Mugs: Whatever I Want

How could I not participate in this week's Monday Mug's Theme, it is Whatever I want

But with no constraints it suddenly almost seemed hard, so I went to my last picture folder and picked two of my favorite pictures.

My two boys and I am so glad my big boy is willing to hop in a picture for me, unlike his little sister

he even asked me to take a picture of him like thisThanks Lucas, for making this picture taking mommy happy!

Head over to Oswald Cuties for more great pictures!

Fix It For Me Wednesday: Lots of Looks

This week's picture came from my good from Em (Emily-awesome awesome name) of Emilisq. She has been one of my long time blogging friends. She sent me this adorable picture of her daughter that her friend actually took. Today, rather than go through a step by step-I want to show you how drastically a picture can change and how with simple presets available for Lightroom can change the look of a picture with one click.

Whenever I am going to be trying lots of different looks to a picture, I always "fix" the picture first. Fix the exposure, sharpen the eyes, get rid of any blemishes (which there weren't any on this baby), do any cropping. Basic things that I know I will want to be fixed no matter what look I give the picture.

In this picture, besides the eye sharpening, etc, I extended the blanket in the upper left hand corner, I increased the exposure a lot and also decreased the red saturation quite a bit to get that creamy white skin that is popular on babies in pictures currently.

And then I just started to have a little fun

1- Preset: Summer Love (by Pretty presets)
2- Preset: Old Hoga B&W
3- Preset: Kiss & Tell
4- Preset: B&W Bliss and Black Border (by Pretty Presets)
5- Preset: Mocha And the Preset Vignette

Before I applied any of these presets, I went back to my fixed picture and started from there. In a lot of ways I think #3 is my favorite-the coloring just really seems to work for me with the whole look of the picture. Obviously I would not want to give this look to an entire session, but for a single picture here and there it is awesome.

Which is your favorite?

iHeart Faces: Cell Phone

This week's iHeartfaces theme is cell phone. This week the picture has to have a human face in it and be taken with a cell phone.

I love this picture of my brother-in-law, not only was it taken with my iPhone, but you can see me taking the picture in the reflection (and my mom too). This shot is just straight out of camera-or phone in this case.

Linking up with Monday Mugs too

Head over to iHeartfaces for more great cell phone pictures.

You Capture: Warm

Well last week was cold and this week it's warm...and no I am not talking the weather but I am talking about the theme for You Capture this week.

Nothing quite says warm like palm trees and sunshine

And swinging outside
with bare feet
Head over to I Should be Folding Laundry for more warm pictures.

Fix It For Me Wednesday: Good to Amazing

This week's picture came from the wonderful host of Monday Mugs... and I just realized I don't know if she ever uses her real name on her blog-so the nameless beauty of Oswald Cuties :)

She is a very good photographer who is getting better all of the time because she is always getting out there and shooting.

This tutorial will show how when you have a very good picture to start off with, how easy it is to make it outstanding.

She took the following picture of her daughter and loved it and asked if I could give it that little extra something.

And then after just a few fixes

So how did I get to my fix?

She had a bit of a rash on her face and a runny nose, so I first used the retouch brush in iPhoto. Most programs have a retouch brush that you just click over the area you want fixed, so easy.

Then I took the picture into light room and the following is all I did.

1- Increase black clipping (sliding bar by the word black) +6
I did this as the little triangle on the left side of the histogram was not lit up and so I increased the black a little

2- Increased the brightness +61

3- Used a brush-Wow Eyes Sharpen and did one quick swipe over each eye

4- Used the Brightness brush, increased the size of the brush and swept it once over the left side of her face as it was a little too shadowy

5- Used Preset- Semi Fix the Flat

6- Increased the Vibrancy

7- Decreased the red saturation to -27

So 7 steps may sound like a lot-but it took me at most 4 minutes, probably less to make this fix.

Obviously, the less time you can spend fixing a picture the better off you are. So when you start with a great picture it is so much easier.

And she actually sent me a couple of pictures asking if I could fix one or both, and since the fix was so easy and fast, here is the second picture I did just for fun.

Have a picture you would like me to fix?
Send me a picture at photo (at) emmymom2 (dot) com

Just be advised I have about three more pictures waiting, so it will be about one month until your edit is done.

Monday Mugs

This week's Monday Mug's is over on my main blog, you can find it here.

See you Wednesday for my next Fix it For Me Picture.

You Capture: Cold

When I saw the You Capture topic for this week- "cold" I thought, huh? It is in the mid 70's here, this one might be tricky.

But then I woke up the next morning to this
yes that is real frost on the grass-it does get chilly in the morning

And Alex-well she was complaining she was cold

And nothing says cold like a long sleeve flannel shirtand yes he was really wearing this-it was only in upper 50's this day-brrr!

Don't hate!

Grab your blankets, some hot chocolate and head over to I Should Be Folding Laundry to see more cold pictures.


And head over to my main blog for an interesting thought about the biggest number and the national debt.

Fix It For Me Wednesday: Presets

This week's picture was sent to me by someone who I was lucky enough to "meet" as we were partnered for a Christmas Swap. Mandy of Mandy's Marvelous Musings sent me this cute picture of her nephew.

To edit this picture I used both Aperture-as I do love the sharpening tool in it and mostly Lightroom. Really, one of these weeks I will use something else promise! So here are the original and finished pictures top to bottom.


The original picture wasn't completely sharp, her shutter speed was probably not quite high enough for the amount of light. So something I find that can often work for pictures that aren't as sharp as you want them is to make it black and white.

One of the great things about Lightroom is a lot of the presets that you can get for it. Sometimes though when you click on a preset you might think it isn't quite right.

So I first cropped the picture just a tiny bit-to help it fit the rule of third's a bit better. And then I used the preset B&W Creative-Look 2 and this is what I got

Obviously way overexposed. Now at this point I could either undo this and chose a different preset or I can just work with this, which is what I did.

I then went and decreased the exposure by almost a whole stop (.75), I adjusted the highlight recovery and then continued just playing with the exposure a bit. I also sharpened the picture a bit (almost always a must for any picture you will be showing online anyway), added some clarity, and then added a slight darkening vignette around the edges.

And just for fun here is the same picture with the Preset Summer love and some vignette
So quick easy fixes, mainly using just presets that can make a very cute picture totally adorable.