Ella Boot Camp: Vampire eyes no more!

So excited to learn this new technique! I am using PSE6. Yep, 6. Someday I will upgrade, but for now this works. Maggie Holmes, photo editing teacher extraordinaire, taught us how to brighten eyes. This has been the bane of my photo taking existence! Natural light- check. Catch lights- yep, got em. Not every time, but I can capture them quite a bit. But the eyes would end up looking like hungry vampire eyes by the time I would run an action to process them. So I was very happy to try this out. Here is my original: I used Maggie's Vintage action on this photo of my daughter. She turned one and even though she had the chapped face I wanted to get a few pictures.So I loved the color but as you can see: hungry Cullen vampire eyes!

So enter the eye brightening tool. This was my first attempt, mind you. So here you can see the eyes are quite a bit brighter. Well, probably too bright because now she looks like a recently fed Cullen baby! The golden eyed vampire baby!

Finally, I decreased the opacity using that brilliant layer copy. So cool to learn that technique. Just like that. I might actually want to print these and use them on my wall now!

Here is a quick look at the before and after too.

So thanks Ella for an awesome boot camp. I am hoping to get some more of the challenges done, but we will see.

The Story of This Photo

Had fun today playing with a freebie template from Cathy Zielske and word art from Ali Edwards. They were having a chat at Designer Digitals and gave away this free kit. The challenge was to use your latest favorite photo in a layout. This is one we took at the splash park, love the sun flare and the water behind us. My husband captured this one. So happy to get in front of the camera more too. 

Journaling reads:

Maggie you are my light and my joy. I loved playing at the park with you this summer. Even though you were skeptical of the splash park, as long as you were in our arms you were brave. And I think you even enjoyed it! I love being with you. I love being your mother. I love watching you grow and discover new things. I love being a part of your learning and growth. Someday I know you will be running through the water, arms flailing wildly, laughing hysterically. And I will remember this day, how you timidly put your hand in the water and smiled when it splashed around us. It is such a contrast as to how you are in other situations, where you jump in with both feet and don’t think twice about it. The ocean? Meant for walking straight into the waves. The dirty pond? Yeah, my shoes look like they need to be thrown into that murky mess. But a clean, fun splashpark? Now that’s another story. But as long as my mom and dad are right there, it’s all good. Well my darling girl, we will always be here for you. We love you. August 2011

Supplies used: Template and word art from Cathy Zielske and Ali Edwards Designer Digitals Freebie

Stampin Up Digital Papers: Kraft textured, Sweet Details Designer Paper