Have a Happy Halloween!

Sorry guys! There will be no challenge this week. It was a last minute decision! Please take a minute to check out Branson's blog post today if you haven't already and pray for her, her mom, and family. 

Hope you have a great week! See you next week.

Trick or Treat from me and the little man!

xo

Stephanie

Winners!

Thanks for another great week Edit Mers! Hope you'll join us again for the next challenge! Our judge this week was Amy, head over and visit Little Adventures and check out her work here. 

 Here's a little more about her:

Hey everyone. My name is Amy. I am married to my best friend and we have one son who just turned four, Wyatt. We are in our second year of homeschooling. I never knew how amazing that would be and how it would be such a growth experience for my son and I. Photography has been a love of mines for a few years now, but since the birth of my son in 2008, it truly became a passion. I love taking photos, scrap-booking, reading, a good movie, spending time with old friends and making new ones via my blog. 

You guys made it near impossible to choose winners this week. WOW. I am beyond stunned by the creativity and the talent that you ladies possess. Thank You to all of you for taking the time out of your lives to edit my lighthouse photo, and a big thank you again for the Edit Me Challenge letting me Guest Judge this week. 

Without further ado, my winners:

Cindy @ Everyday to Us
I thought this was an amazing edit. The addition of the lake behind it truly gave it a different perspective. Great Cloning and lovely editing!
Great Job!

Kaylene @Le'Instant
What you did with the sky was phenomenal! I cannot even say enough great things about this edit. The coloring, the added reflection in the water, It just is perfect.





For the overall winner,
I choose...









Marilyn @TheArtsyGirl
I am in awe. This photo reminded me of something I would see in an old Bahamian history book of Hope Town, Abaco. This is our candy stripe lighthouse. This just brought back so many memories of looking through old albums that my grandparents have. Well Done Marilyn. The addition of the dinghy was perfect.
Congrats!

Thank You again! What beautiful edits.

Don't forget to grab your buttons!
New Challenge starts tomorrow!

Edit Me Challenge 10.24.12

 Hi guys! Thanks for stopping by. If you're new here check out our guidelines and see just how everything works around here. 

I'd like to take a moment to make a small request to make this challenge a little more efficient. 

I totally get making your photos unright-clickable (that's a word I totally checked. no. no I didn't) however, it takes just that much more time to do a winners post. Most of you blog and know already how long it takes to create a carefully thought out, edited post, with the photos just the right size, etc. So, if you disable the right click function on your blog, please send me a copy of your photo that you've entered for the challenge each week to our edit me email. If I don't have a copy via email and you are chosen as a Top 3 winner, you will only see a link to your blog post or flickr account in the winners post, without showing off your actual photo. 

Now, onto the new challenge! This week we have Amy as our guest judge. Are you excited as I am. This lady looooves editing. (so do I!) Without further ado... 

Hey everyone. My name is Amy. I am married to my best friend and we have one son who just turned four, Wyatt. We are in our second year of homeschooling. I never knew how amazing that would be and how it would be such a growth experience for my son and I. Photography has been a love of mines for a few years now, but since the birth of my son in 2008, it truly became a passion. I love taking photos, scrap-booking, reading, a good movie, spending time with old friends and making new ones via my blog. 

Welcome Amy, head over and visit Little Adventures and check out her work here. 

Here's the photo she has for us today! Be creative friends!

click photo for download

Here are the details:

1. When you link up, please use your edited photo as the thumbnail!
2. If you use the mouseover code or right-click protect your images, you need to either add a copy to the flickr pool(preferred) or it will be assumed that you agree to allow us to use a screenshot of your entry if you are a winner!
3. The judge for the week will choose the top 3 edits from the entries, and the overall winner of the 3.
4. If you would like to post multiple edits, specify which one is your choice for judging. Only one photo is eligible for judging, and it must be clear which one you are entering.
5. Don't forget so share your editing steps, or some tips and tricks so we can learn from each other!
6. Don't forget to use the #editmechallenge hashtag when you share your posts on Twitter. 
7. The linky will open at the time of the post on Wednesday, and close the following Saturday at 11:59 PM (central time).
8. Winners will be announced the following Tuesday.
9. Don't forget to visit the other participants, and leave some comment love! As usual, the more you participate the more feedback you will get!

Winners!

Thank you to Julie for being a wonderful judge this week! Here's a little more about her:

I am a stay at home mama with 4 children.  I started photo editing on a limited basis after my first child was born.  I worked on scrap booking projects and similar things for a few years.  When my Mom died in 2008, I started pursuing this hobby more seriously.  It became a sort of outlet for me.  I have continued to learn and grow, since then, in both photography and editing. 

Julie doesn't currently have a blog, we'd love to see a blog from her though! She always does such a great job here on the challenge! You can check out her work here.

Here are her choices and what she had to say!

 It was absolutely brutal choosing a winner!  

Larissa @ Mathew and Larissa

I loved the richness of colour in her edit and overall I thought it was just really beautiful.  

 Rebecca Curtis Photography 

 I thought her edit was a wonderful clean edit.  It was simple but so lovely and she really proved that sometimes, less is more! 

For the overall winner, I chose  Seeing Beauty by Amanda.  

Her edit was so vibrant and the frame she chose suited her edit perfectly.  I just loved it and thought it was extremely well done!  

 I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to edit my photo, they were all fantastic and it was super hard to only choose 3!

Thanks for another great week!

A new challenge starts tomorrow!

Edit Me 10.17.12

This week we have a great photographer and edit me regular! Last week's winner, Julie! Follow along with this week's challenge on Twitter and Facebook!

Here's a little about our judge:

I am a stay at home mama with 4 children.  I started photo editing on a limited basis after my first child was born.  I worked on scrap booking projects and similar things for a few years.  When my Mom died in 2008, I started pursuing this hobby more seriously.  It became a sort of outlet for me.  I have continued to learn and grow, since then, in both photography and editing. 

Julie doesn't currently have a blog, we'd love to see a blog from her though! She always does such a great job here on the challenge! You can check out her work here.

Here's the photo she has for you:

Click Photo for Download

Here's how it all works:

1. When you link up, please use your edited photo as the thumbnail!
2. If you use the mouseover code or right-click protect your images, you need to either add a copy to the flickr pool(preferred) or it will be assumed that you agree to allow us to use a screenshot of your entry if you are a winner!
3. The judge for the week will choose the top 3 edits from the entries, and the overall winner of the 3.
4. If you would like to post multiple edits, specify which one is your choice for judging. Only one photo is eligible for judging, and it must be clear which one you are entering.
5. Don't forget so share your editing steps, or some tips and tricks so we can learn from each other!
6. Don't forget to use the #editmechallenge hashtag when you share your posts on Twitter. 
7. The linky will open at the time of the post on Wednesday, and close the following Saturday at 11:59 PM (central time).
8. Winners will be announced the following Tuesday.
9. Don't forget to visit the other participants, and leave some comment love! As usual, the more you participate the more feedback you will get!

Winners

Thank you everyone who entered an edit of this BEAUTIFUL photo! I hope you saw my portrait tutorial and will tell me what you think! Connect with the group via twitter and facebook!

In case you missed it here's a little about our judge!

Hi! I’m so excited to be a judge for the Edit Me Challenge this week!  I’m a part time photographer and full time wife (to Mike) and mom to our 4 wonderful kids.  Most of my time is spent home schooling our children.  I think my love of photography was born from a desire to capture all the little details and moments in our children’s lives - the little fingers, toes, the silly toothless grins.  I love to watch people – to see their expressions, capture their emotions.  My own style of editing is very clean.  I like to draw out the colors, sharpness and richness of the life around us.  The great thing about photography is how personalized it is.  You could have 5 photographers taking pictures of the same thing and get COMPLETELY different interpretations – it is truly art.  Thank you so much for taking the time to edit my photo.  I’m looking forward to your interpretation!

Blog / Website / Facebook

Be sure to visit one of these sites and tell her Thanks! 

Wow!  You have no idea how difficult it was to choose my top 3 edits!

  

by Larissa Sibiglia

I love this edit!  It’s sharp, clean and the eyes really grab you!

Next up....

by Amy at Little Adventures

I like the texturing on this edit and the warm colors.  Nice job 

My #1 Edit is....

by Julie H 

I love the old film look of this edit and the crop.  It’s the photo I keep going back to – LOVELY!

and wait there's more...

I don't normally include the honorable mentions or any other than the top 3 but I'd figured I'd make an exception this time and include... a Model's Choice Award ;)

by Amanda at Seeing Beauty:  She liked the paper frame and how blue her eyes are (I must admit – I agree with her!)

Thank you to all of you who took the time to edit my photo.  You did such a great job!

Congrats to our Winners!

Don't forget a new challenge starts tomorrow!

Grab your winner's buttons!

Progressive Portrait Tutorial

Hi guys!

I want to be able to use this space a little better for tutorials and editing tips. So, every once in a while I’d like to post a mid-challenge tutorial. Mostly, I want them to be editing related, however, at times they could be geared more towards improving behind the camera skills.

So, I’m looking for some experienced editors to guest post! These tutorials will lean more towards improving the quality of work for someone looking to start a photography business, improving the photos they post or their blog, or creating art for your walls.

If you are interested in guest posting, please submit your ideas here.

To start things off, I couldn't resist playing with the beautiful photo for this week. So, I’m going to take you through the progression of my edit. When we have portraits, I see many of you writing that you aren't too comfortable with them, so I’m hoping this helps!

This edit can be done with almost any editing program (photoshop, lightroom, elements, or picmonkey – possibly more but these are the ones I’ve used).

Here’s where we are starting:

Original photo by Rebecca Curtis Photography

Edit 1: A Clean Edit

• Correcting the exposure:
• Increase Brightness
• Increase Contrast (slightly)
• Adjusting the Temperature:
• Increase warmth (slightly)
• Cloning:
• Using the clone tool I removed the panda (it just seemed a little distracting to me – I edit like I’m going to hang this in a large frame on my living room wall). Sometimes I use the blur tool after cloning to make sure there are no hard lines.
• Eyes:
• Select the dodge tool – make it small enough to fit between the pupil the outer right of the iris, opacity at about 20% or so. Now brush over the irises and the whites of the eye. Make sure you get toward the inside corner of the eye if they need brightening a little.
• Select the Burn tool – make your brush as small as the pupil, brush it over the eye lashes, around the iris and dot the pupil. I also used it on her eye brows and around her face to add definition.
• Make it larger and brush under the chin and in the hairline (you may need to decrease the opacity a little more for this.
• Skin correction:
• Select blur tool set to about 12% and brush on skin, being careful to not lose any definition by going over the lines of the face.
• Select your brush tool, use the eye dropper to select the color from her lips, at a very low opacity brush the color on her cheeks. This just gives her a little more life! In lightroom you would selct your adjustment brush and in picmonkey you'd do this using the "blush" tool. 
• Sharpen
• Save your work! 

Here is a cleanly edited photo:

We could end here. It's a beautiful photo, but I'd like to take it a few steps further to add personal style. 

Edit 2: Fall Fun

The photo has a really wintery feel with the dark jacket and the cool hues. So, here's a simple way to bring out the fall and warm it up a little more! Here we will use layering or a preset. 

Photoshop & Elements:

• Create a new layer
• Using the paint bucket fill it with a light pink, again you can draw from the photo - her cheeks would work here. 
• Now change your layer to hard light and decrease the opacity until you get an effect you like. 
• Save your work!

A slight change that makes a huge difference!

Edit 3: A Matte Look 

There are a few different ways to get a matte look to your photos in photoshop, but using a curves adjustment is one that can be done with almost any editing program. Here's a picmonkey tutorial. 

• Select Curves
• Anchor your light, mid and dark tones by clicking where the diagonal line crosses each t in the grid. 
• At the very bottom left corner pull up on your line until you start seeing the photo change. 
• Create and unsharp mask and make sure your features still pop, but don't look too harsh!
• Save your work!

Edit 4: B&W

• Go back to your Clean or your Fall edit. 

TIP: The black and white effect in any program almost never works. I do my black and whites mostly using the gradient map, but this way will work well on most photos also. 

• Saturation
• pull it all the way to the left
• Contrast
• bump it up just slightly
• I also decided to crop for this edit to bring the more contrasting elements into the center of focus. 
• Save your work!

Edit 5: Matte B&W

Same steps as Edit 3 with a little more haze added. 

• Select Curves
• Anchor your light, mid and dark tones by clicking where the diagonal line crosses each t in the grid. 
• At the very bottom left corner pull up on your line until you start seeing the photo change. 
• Create and unsharp mask and make sure your features still pop, but don't look too harsh!
• Save your work!

I also added a texture to this photo - but we'll save that for another tutorial. 

There you go! Here's the progression side by side. 

I would LOVE some feedback on this idea and on this specific tutorial! Also, feel free to Pin It! Thanks friends!
xo Stephanie

Edit Me Challenge 10.10.12

Hi Friends! I hope you are having a great week! Today we have a lovely photo. A portrait from last week's winner To follow along with week check out the Edit Me Challenge on Facebook and Twitter or subscribe on the sidebar!

Introducing our judge, Rebecca Curtis:

Hi! I’m so excited to be a judge for the Edit Me Challenge this week!  I’m a part time photographer and full time wife (to Mike) and mom to our 4 wonderful kids.  Most of my time is spent home schooling our children.  I think my love of photography was born from a desire to capture all the little details and moments in our children’s lives - the little fingers, toes, the silly toothless grins.  I love to watch people – to see their expressions, capture their emotions.  My own style of editing is very clean.  I like to draw out the colors, sharpness and richness of the life around us.  The great thing about photography is how personalized it is.  You could have 5 photographers taking pictures of the same thing and get COMPLETELY different interpretations – it is truly art.  Thank you so much for taking the time to edit my photo.  I’m looking forward to your interpretation!

Blog / Website / Facebook

Here's the photo Rebecca has for us this week:

Click for full download

Here's how it all works:

1. When you link up, please use your edited photo as the thumbnail!
2. If you use the mouseover code or right-click protect your images, you need to either add a copy to the flickr pool(preferred) or it will be assumed that you agree to allow us to use a screenshot of your entry if you are a winner!
3. The judge for the week will choose the top 3 edits from the entries, and the overall winner of the 3.
4. If you would like to post multiple edits, specify which one is your choice for judging. Only one photo is eligible for judging, and it must be clear which one you are entering.
5. Don't forget so share your editing steps, or some tips and tricks so we can learn from each other!
6. Don't forget to use the #editmechallenge hashtag when you share your posts on Twitter. 
7. The linky will open at the time of the post on Wednesday, and close the following Saturday at 11:59 PM (central time).
8. Winners will be announced the following Tuesday.
9. Don't forget to visit the other participants, and leave some comment love! As usual, the more you participate the more feedback you will get!

Winners!

We had such a beautiful photo this week! Thanks to everyone who stopped by and took the time to edit! Remember editing ends at Midnight on Saturday (Central Time Zone). To chat with the Edit Me crew please join us on Twitter and Facebook!


Amanda from Seeing Beauty, was here to judge for us this week. Thanks Amanda!
Here's a little more about her.

Hi everyone. My name is Amanda, I am a Wife and Mommy to a grown daughter. I live in the Bahamas with my husband and our two furbabies India & Axl.  Within the last year, I bought my first Digital SLR camera, and I have fallen in love with photography. I never realized how much beauty there was to explore out there, until I looked at the world through my camera lens. In my spare time, I love to take photos, kayak, read, and spend time with the people I love most. Thank You for taking the time to edit my photo this week.

Here's what Amanda had to say:

Again this week the edits were amazing, and it was really hard to choose my top three. Here goes.

 Kaylene @ L'Instant

 

I loved the way it was made into a poster for the Bahamas and the vibrant colours. 

Andee @ Match The Pictures

 Click link to see photo. 

Loved that you moved the kayaker to a more pleasing position, and the text was perfect.

My #1 edit is Rebecca Curtis Photography

 Loved this clean simple edit, the slight adjustments made it perfect.

 Thank you to everyone who took the time to edit my photo.

Be sure and stop by to tell Amanda thank you for judging!

Grab your buttons!

A new Challenge starts tomorrow!

Edit Me 10.03.12

Thanks for stopping in for another beautiful week! We have last week's winner, Amanda from Seeing Beauty, here to judge for us this week. Welcome Amanda! Here's a little more about her.

Hi everyone. My name is Amanda, I am a Wife and Mommy to a grown daughter. I live in the Bahamas with my husband and our two furbabies India & Axl.  Within the last year, I bought my first Digital SLR camera, and I have fallen in love with photography. I never realized how much beauty there was to explore out there, until I looked at the world through my camera lens. In my spare time, I love to take photos, kayak, read, and spend time with the people I love most. Thank You for taking the time to edit my photo this week.

Here's the photo she provided for us: 

Click photo to download larger file. 

Here's how it all works:

1. When you link up, please use your edited photo as the thumbnail!
2. If you use the mouseover code or right-click protect your images, you need to either add a copy to the flickr pool(preferred) or it will be assumed that you agree to allow us to use a screenshot of your entry if you are a winner!
3. The judge for the week will choose the top 3 edits from the entries, and the overall winner of the 3.
4. If you would like to post multiple edits, specify which one is your choice for judging. Only one photo is eligible for judging, and it must be clear which one you are entering.
5. Don't forget so share your editing steps, or some tips and tricks so we can learn from each other!
6. Don't forget to use the #editmechallenge hashtag when you share your posts on Twitter. 
7. The linky will open at the time of the post on Wednesday, and close the following Saturday at 11:59 PM (central time).
8. Winners will be announced the following Tuesday.
9. Don't forget to visit the other participants, and leave some comment love! As usual, the more you participate the more feedback you will get!

Winners!

It was so great to see all the unique edits for this photo! 

As always, be sure to follow along on Facebook and Twitter (#editmechallenge) to get the most up-to-date Edit Me Challenge info! 
Be sure to visit Larissa check out her adventures in photography and tell her Thank You for providing us with a photo and being our judge!

Here's a little more about our judge: 

My name is Larissa Sibiglia, I am 32 years old. I have a degree in Psychology. I first picked up a camera 18 years ago, when I was a freshman in High School. I fell in love then. I started shooting semi-pro about two years ago. Slowly trying to build a business, but it is very hard here in Southern California, since everyone is a "photographer." In my spare time I love to scrapbook, travel and attempt to keep plants alive (I am not great at that). I have a wonderful boyfriend who I have been with 6 years. We have a lovely home and a 14 year old Border Collie, Angel. She is the center of a lot of photos. I own another business selling dance clothing at Dancers Apparel. Other than that you can find me cleaning or photographing whatever I can get my hands on.

Here's her picks and what she had to say! 

Wow this was SOOOO hard. There were so many great edits to choose from. It was really hard to pick.

Jennifer at Fotoplicty

I love this edit because of the texture, it looks like a ripple effect from the plastic wrap edit she used. Great job great edit.

Amy at Little Adventures

I love how she made this a puzzle piece. The texture the colors it is a great edit. She gave me some great ideas on gifts this Christmas season for my puzzle loving friends. Great edit!

Seeing Beauty By Amanda

I love this edit. I really like how she made the balloon look like it was upright and floating in the air. I love the sky texture as well. I also loved the way she popped the colors in the balloon. Great edit. Great job. My overall favorite winner!

Congrats to our Winners!

Don't forget to grab your button! 

A new Challenge starts tomorrow!