Flattering Portrait Effects-Lens Flare & Smoothing

This little angel was a downright blessing to shoot this past drizzly Saturday morning.
She was compliant, quiet and naturally beautiful.

The rain drew out of the vibrant greens in the English garden. I was in photography heaven.

I wanted to add a little visual interest to the photo with a lens flare. Under the filter tab, scroll down to render, then over to lens flare.

Move this cross to where you want the focus of the lens flare to be. Increase/decrease the brightness to what your little heart desires.

Here’s what the lens flare looks like once it’s applied to your picture. The flare inspired me to push the image to a more dreamy look. Let’s play with the ‘diffuse glow’ function again.

You’ll find this function under ‘filter’, scrolling down to ‘distort’ and then over to ‘diffuse glow’.

This will pull up a preview screen. You can adjust the graininess, the glow and the clear amount. The preview will adjust a portion of you image as you move the sliders around.

On the right hand side, where your layers are visible, you can adjust both the opacity and the fill of the diffuse glow. Move your sliders up & down until you are happy with your image.

This is how the diffuse glow looked once it was applied to my image. Isn’t she precious?

I wanted to smooth out the fly-aways in her hair. Using my magic lasso, I drew around both sections of her hair. You can lasso more than one area by holding down the shift key as you draw.
To blur her hair, click on the ‘filter’ tab, scroll down to ‘blur’ and then over to ‘gaussian blur’.

I chose a radius of 7.0 to ‘blur’ her hair. Goodbye fly-aways.

Here’s the final product that I sent off to the client.
Below is the ‘before’ photo for your comparing pleasures.

Just a Normal Friday Night

‘So, Rebekah, what did you do last night?’
‘Ah, nuthin. We had a relaxing glass of wine and sat in the backyard. I even lit the chiminea. You know, the usual.’

Then Hubby told me to get all dressed up in my cutest clothes because he was taking me out.

And yes, we had a wonderful conversation…we talked of God and politics and how wonderful each other were.

I have never felt more relaxed in my life.

What I really enjoyed about last night was there was not a single distraction. Hubby was totally focused on me and my needs.

My brother (this guy in the picture) even called, and normally Hubby always picks up his call. Last night, we were so engrossed in each others eyes that he ignored the ringing phone.

We decided to call it an early night and went home to get a good night’s rest.
We fell asleep in each other’s arms. It was a wonderful night…

Ok, so not really.
I stood for five hours in high heels on a concrete floor next to sweaty dancing people.
The bass drum ripped a hole in my chest and my ears are still ringing today.
I stood by while two tweens flirted with my husband after his performance. He did not respond to the flirting. I love that man.
We got home and fell into bed around 2 am and I had to get up for a photo shoot five hours later.
That’s normal, too..right?

Stingy ‘Green Cleanin’

When ‘being green’ was still attributed to Kermit the Frog, out of necessity, I came upon these homemade cleansers that cost pennies on the dollar.
And I have a theory, if I can eat it, then I can clean with it. This theory doesn’t work all that well when I come to vacuums…

“Ocean breeze will make you clean.” Name that Kermit movie and you’ll get a star.

If you have hair on your head like I have hair on my head, you need this recipe.

Green Drain Cleaner:
1/2 Cup Baking Soda
1/2 Cup White Vinegar
Boiling Water
Pour Baking Soda down the drain. Add white vinegar and cover the drain, if possible. Let set for 5 minutes. Pour the boiling water down the drain.

We are dusty people. We like to leave the doors open for fresh air, but then regret it when we wipe our fingers along the coffee table, leaving a stripe behind. You win some, you loose some.
This recipe has restored life to most of our vintage finds, too!

Green Furniture Polish and Cleaner:
3 Cups Olive Oil
1 Cup White Vinegar
Mix together in a jar and pour onto a soft cloth. Remix every so often by shaking the jar again.

If you restore old homes, or parts of old homes, this recipe is a must. I have removed years of gross crap off of fixtures, fireplaces and doorknobs.

Green Brass Cleaner:
Lemon Juice
Baking Soda
Make a paste the consistency of toothpaste. Rub onto brass with a soft cloth. Rinse with water and dry.

Lime and gunk will magically disappear. I use this on all of my faucets and chrome baking tins.

Green Chrome and Stainless Steel Cleanser:
1 Cup Vinegar
1/2 Cup Water
Mix in a recycled spray bottle. Spray solution on the chrome/stainless steel and let sit for a minute. Wipe off with damp sponge and dry with a soft cloth.

I know we don’t like to talk about toilets. Or their bowls. Or the funk that grows inside. But, you gotta clean it. Why not do it green style?

Green Toilet Bowl Cleaner:
Baking Soda
Vinegar
Sprinkle baking soda into toilet bowl. Add vinegar. Scrub ‘er down with a toilet brush.

Scrappy Plywood Art

I am not a professional painter, by any means. However, what I do have is plenty of time on my hands, leftover remodeling bits and a little creative inspiration. A small budget and the need to have some crap on my walls is my creative inspiration.
Today, we are going to make a piece of art from cheap plywood. And, it’s gonna be awesome.
What you will need:
Oops paint (this is paint that has been mis-tinted and is usually $5 a gallon at most hardware stores), or leftover paint you no longer have feelings for.
A paintbrush, sanding block or sand paper, a tape measure, a skill saw with a wood blade, polyurethane (I use the fast drying kind) and a scrappy piece of plywood.

I spare EVERY expense when it comes to art that I might burn later on if I hate the outcome. Get the cheap ‘chipboard’. It has a blue edge. A 4×8 sheet of this stuff costs around $10, or go by a salvage store and buy some scrap.

You will need an electric drill and 2” drywall screws (that is, if you want to hang your art directly onto the wall like I do.) Otherwise, you can mount picture hanging devices on the back and hang it the old fashioned way.

Custom measure how big you want your artwork to be. Draw a line with a level and cut that sucker.
I wanted a large piece over our bed, so I went with a 4’x3’ piece of scrap plywood.

Sand the edges and any burrs that are sticking up on the face of your plywood lightly.

Next, draw a silhouette-type design on it. I decided to go for a deer head with antlers.
I know, don’t freak out. If you think you can’t draw, google ‘silhouette’ and find a design you like. Print it off and outline your design like you are in kindergarten. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Check out my line work below and it will make you feel better.

Use your oops paint to fill in the silhouette. Again, it does not have to be perfect. This is a rough piece of plywood and the paint will not go on in a straight line all of the time. That’s what makes this cool…and easy.

Paint the edges of the plywood and wrap it around to the front of your painting about a half of an inch. This will make a nice border to showcase your awesome talent.

After your paint has dried, break out the polyurethane. I usually buy one of those disposable foamy brushes, but I didn’t have any on hand. If are applying polyurethane with a paintbrush, make sure that it is an ‘oil’ paintbrush. You will also need mineral spirits to clean it out. Yuck.
Thus the reason why I usually buy a foamy brush. Let the poly dry. You can apply a second coat of poly if your wood is really thirsty or you want it doubly shiny.

Now is the glorious moment.
I hung this piece by drilling straight through with 2” drywall screws on the black sections of the silhouette. I then touched up the screw heads with more black paint.
You can also use picture hanging devices that attach to the back side of the plywood and hang it as most normal people do.

But you know I have never enjoyed being normal…