A Little Christmas Fun

Okay, I am going to try something new with this post. For my final project in my Photoshop class, I was required to post what improvements I made to my photo in a step-by-step type way. I really liked it, so I thought I'd share my final project and I how I got there. First of all, most of the credit here belongs to Sampson- my wrinkly-face baby was a trooper! He sat through a few costume changes and even let me tie a bright red, flashing nose to his face at one point. He certainly loves his momma!

So here's my original photo. Obviously, there is a lot going on. The photo is pretty dark overall and there is so much stuff pulling the attention away from the subject (my pup). I knew my photo would need to be cropped, but first I chose to tackle the my major adjustments.

I opened my photo in ARC (Adobe Camera Raw) and I brightened the entire image and I made some slight adjustments to the white balance. The photo had a slightly yellow tint to it due to the color of my walls and the tungsten lights in my bedroom. I saved my photo as a PSD (Photoshop Document) and then I opened it in Photoshop to begin my more local adjustments.

Like I mentioned before, there was a lot going on. My bedside tables-including lamps, toilet paper, and a case of blank disks- are in the photo, along with the photos I have hanging above my bed. So, the first thing I did in Photoshop was crop my photo. That alone made a huge difference. The next thing I wanted to do was blur the background of the photo because, although I loved the bright lights, I hated their cords, so I wanted them gone. I made two copies of the background layer. (I was taught to never make destructive edits, so everything is done in a new layer or layer mask) In one layer, I made a selection of the entire wall behind my subject (all of the lights were selected). I then added a Gaussian Blur. (I don't know the exact number, but it as pretty high) Then, because there was such a hard edge to the blur, this is where my next background copy was used. I made a selection of the middle of the photo, excluding my subject, and I added a Gaussian Blur to that as well at a much lower number.

After I got the blur the way I liked it, I added a Curves Adjustment Layer to the entire photo to brighten it even more. I then used my color sampler tool to find the brightest highlight and darkest shadow and I made them both neutral (setting the highlights to 248 and the shadows to 8). After that, I wanted to lighten up the wall even more to make the lights super bright. I added another Curves layer and a layer mask with only the wall selected, then I increased the brightness. Then, my final step, I added a Vibrance layer and a layer mask and I selected just the blue blanket on my bed. I decreased the saturation to make the ornaments and my subject stand out even more. And VIOLA!- my final picture is one that I am pretty dang proud of!

What do you think? I love it! And seriously, without my amazing, loving, spoiled brat of a pup, I would have nothing. I still can't get over how well Sampson took direction that morning!