It has been requested that for Foto Friday we show a “before” and “after” shot so you can better see what we are talking about when we explain the editing that has been done on the photo.

This week I wanted to show an example of how the look of a simple snapshot can be changed with just a few tweaks to make it look more like a portrait. This shot of Madeleine was taken about 2 months ago on a whim. She was in her church dress, laying on the floor, and in a good mood so we decided to just take a few cute snaps. Unfortunately, a baby laying flat on her back on brown carpet isn’t exactly the best look. I decided to experiment and came up with this “vintage” feel. It reminds me of old photographs I’ve seen in parents’ photo albums.

Here’s what I did: Even though the picture looks a little darker, her face is lit up more by upping the “fill light” and “brightness.” I darkened the shadows, and changed the saturation of the greens, aquas, and blues. I added sharpening, a vignette for depth, and a blue “split-tone” to the highlights.

Wow! That makes me sound really amazing!! Actually, all I did was move the sliders until I liked how it looked. Rob helped me write about what I actually did. 🙂

But about this photo of my daughter…the other night I was at yoga and was in the Savasanah phase of the class (the relaxing cool down at the end. It’s supposed to give your body the opportunity to refresh and restore itself). This is actually the hardest part of yoga for me. You’re supposed to relax and just focus on breathing, not thinking about anything. Yeah, right! That’s so hard! My mind always wanders to what I’m going to do when I get home, family issues, etc. So there I am trying to focus on not focusing and Madeleine’s beautiful little lit-up face enters my mind…and it made me really feel great. She’s so innocent and pure and I love her like crazy. So for one moment, I experienced Savasanah.