I updated my iPhone operating system this week and I almost had a heart attack when I thought I had lost 434 pictures from my phone.

Four HUNDRED and thirty-four.

That’s a LOT of pictures!

I like pictures.  I take pictures every day.  I take pictures with my phone and with my Canon Rebel XS.  You should see the amount of pictures on my computer!  I’m sure any mother would agree that when you have little people running around, your cameras work overtime.  Along with being an amateur photog, I dabble with photo editing programs.  I tried learning how to do digital scrapbooking but that hobby went by the wayside ( I really should do it again…it was fun!).
It is really fun to play with pictures in Photoshop and with a little practice, you can turn a boring picture into something special.

Here is a cute picture (or so I think) of Nathan at the pumpkin patch recently.  I love his tongue.  You should see it go when he’s trying to concentrate!  I actually had to put chapstick around his face the other day because he had chapped his chin with his tongue.

Anyhow, his face was a little dark in the first picture so I decided to lighten it up.  To lighten the entire photo without losing color, duplicate your layer (Control J in PSE8) and then set the top layer style to “screen.”  It is one of my favorite tricks to lighten up a picture lost in shadows.

Sometimes just a simple lighten will improve a photo, but in this case, it kind of overexposed some spots.

I never claimed to be a professional!

So instead I tried to run an action.  Actions are awesome little pre-made programs that will edit and colorize your photos at the click of a button.  One of my favorite places to get free photoshop actions is the Coffeeshop Blog.  The action I ran on this photo is called “Attic Vintage.”

When all else fails crop the photo in close.

I usually will edit a photo ten different ways before I find something I am happy with.  I really wish I had the creative editing talent like some of my friends.  I just keep practicing.  Maybe once I figure this out I will try a movie editor!

One can dream.