Help For Red Winter Cheeks!

This photo...

...was made possible with the magic of actions!

I'm not exactly a cold weather kinda gal...but this Ohio winter has forced me to venture out in the snow for a few snow shoots.  And you know what comes with snow...snotty noses, dry skin, chapped lips and bright red cheeks!  Those non-photo-friendly things are exactly what I was faced with when looking over my latest shots from a snow day at the park~

But, thanks to my newest favorite action, Baby Powder Room from Coffeeshop, I've been able to find a quick fix for those red winter cheeks and wanted to pass along this fabulous tip to you!

It's really so simple...

1.  I opened my original photo in Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac:

As you can see those cheeks are bright red from playing out in the cold and she's got a big scratch on her right cheek.  I used the Healing Brush Tool to get rid of her scratch then I ran Baby Powder Room action to lighten the red on her face.  This action has a Red Skin Repair layer that is specifically for lightening red skin...wow!  that's just what I needed!

Here's what it looks like with the action open:

2.  All you do to repair the redness is click the "i" key to activate the eyedropper tool.  Then I click the eyedropper on the skin that is NOT RED!  This will determine the color that I'm going to try and duplicate instead of the red.  

Next I choose my Brush tool and a low opacity setting and lightly click on the red cheeks, which are amazingly being replaced with the non-red skin wherever I click.  Disclaimer:  These are not the technical directions...please read Rita's directions if you download this action for a much more thorough explanation...mine is the lazy version:)

After I get the redness toned down then I proceed as normal with the Smooth Skin, Bright Eyes and whatever other edits I want to make.  After I completed the edits on her face I ran Coffeeshop Vivid 2 and chose the Bright option.  Here's the before & after:

Yeahh!!  You'd never know this little beauty was romping around in a foot of snow and 20 degree weather!

Here's a few more before and afters from this shoot...all of these were edited with Baby Powder Room to repair the little red cheeks...

here's the screenshot after doing the Red Skin Repair but nothing else...

and here's the after...

before...

...after

So if there's anybody else out there suffering thru the terrors of winter, maybe this little action will help ya out!

Rockin' The Blog With Rita & Heather!

Soooo...notice anything different???
I'm Rockin' the Blog with Rita & Heather!


The wonderful and talented Rita from Coffeeshop  designed this great new blog for me and I'm having so much fun with it already!  


Let me tell ya, my Wish List for a new blog wasn't exactly simple. But Rita was so patient, informative and  super-quick to return my emails with all of my dumb questions answered.  


Let me break down for you what I'm really enjoying about my new blog:


1. The Sidebar ~
I've been wanting to add a sidebar to make all my stuff easily accessible but I didn't want to distract from pretty little photos like this one~

I think the color combo we came up with works well and isn't too horribly distracting from the main post.  Now I'm able to display a few of my favorite links on the side plus I've got links to great photo gear, the button to subscribe to wayoutnumbered (it's easy!), my blog archives, a "follow me" link and a facebook button for my photography biz, just in case any of y'all have ever heard of facebook~

2.  The Background Graphic ~

I figured if I was going to give this photography business a whirl then I should have an "official" logo.

So I contacted Heather   {her official title is Rita's Lil Sis}  and she worked me up this FaNTaStiC logo:

Didn't she do fabulous?  Subtle was not one of the requirements when building this logo!  

I used this graphic as my background on my blog and I love the fact that it's unique to me.

Heather was just as nice as Rita in answering all of my dumb questions, emailing me proofs and providing me with all the little extras I kept asking for.  Fabulousness must run in that family!

I've got plenty of projects on my wish list for Heather...such as whipping me up a cute little blinkie like all the cool bloggers have...check her out if you're wanting a logo, graphic, blog button or blinkie...she highly exceeded my expectations:)

3.  Stuff I Love ~

The Stuff I Love pages are undoubtedly what I'm most excited about.  I get questions all the time asking about products I use, editing software, sites I visit and tons of other stuff.  With my new pages I'm able to list everything I love and it's easily accessible all the time, you don't have to go searching thru archives. 

I've listed my absolute favorite texture & action sites with links directly to the their home page.  If I've used their textures and love their products then they're included in my Stuff I Love pages.  It's a very exclusive club and I'm sure they'd all be very honored to be included...if they knew I existed!

I've got links to learning tools, the coolest printable cd's and even my dream camera ~  I will rock the photo world when this camera is in my hands ~

Be sure to check out my Stuff I Love pages and let me know if you've got a product or site that you think deserves to be included.  I'd love to check it out!

4. My Slideshow Header ~

I feel completely silly about how fun it is to see my photos in a slideshow!  The slideshow was Rita's idea and she sent me a ton of templates to choose from, it was so fun!  Even though she has tutorials on how to do all this stuff I would have never thought to do it myself.  

The instructions were very simple to understand and I was so proud that I built it all by myself in photoshop elements...but that's where my bragging stops because I have no idea how it went from a flat .jpg like this...

...to a real live moving slideshow!  Yes, I take joy in the little things~

I hope you enjoy my new blog design and find lots of helpful information.  I love sharing my photo successes and failures with everyone and really like the fact that this is the only place in my life where I can voice my opinions uninterrupted!  If you have kids at all (or dare I say a husband?) then you know that everything is interrupted!

I've got lots more features I plan on adding so keep checking back and I'll be sure to fill you in on all the cool stuff.  And leave me a comment if there's anything you'd like to see that I haven't added....I'm always up for new ideas:)

If you'd like to add any of these features to your blog you can find all these tutorials and more over at Coffeeshop.  Rita has tips and tricks for everything related to blogger blogs and plenty of new tips on the way...such as how to make the best use of bloggers new static pages...how exciting!  I can't rave enough about her fabulousness and there are not enough words to express my thanks~

Rita & Heather Rock!