It's a wonderful world.

I mostly do shots of people (mostly myself because I'm the only available model) but living where I live, it would be a shame if I never took pictures of the surrounding landscape.



I think landscape pictures are easier to photoshop than people because they are much more forgiving. However, I did recently learn a new, more complicated technique to take my landscape photos to a new level. By adding a gradient layer on top of the picture and using the blending options to put it in the picture it can make the clouds bluer and the grass greener. It can also add contrast to the clouds to make the picture look more dynamic. These techniques can make pictures taken on a cloudy day look like the sun was shining bright!

Kiss me, I'm Irish!

Everyone at some point wishes they had a different hair color, eye color, or skin color. So why not change all three? Personally, I have always envied those with the typical Irish look. I wish I had red hair, green eyes, pale skin, and freckles. So I sat down at my computer and made it happen. I managed to be able to select each part of the photo, copy it, and change the color. The above picture had 6 seperate layers: The normal picture, skin layer, hair layer, eye layer, lip layer and freckle layer. The freckle layer was the hardest. I just used a a dry media paint brush a painted on the spots. Then I changed the opacity of the layer to try and blend the dots into my skin so they looked real. The end result was awesome. It was so well liked, in fact, that my best friend asked me to make her Irish!

One color

One of the most striking things that I believe you can do to a picture is remove all of the colors except for one. While there are some cameras that will do this for you now, I do not have one of these. Instead, I have to manually create this effect. It is a wonderful way to change what is focused on in a picture. My absolute favorite effect is doing this on someone who has bright blue eyes, such as my future husband, James McAvoy...



(Okay, so maybe that's just wishful thinking...)

Recreating a classic

My friends and I have an interesting sense of humor. One time when we were hanging out, we decided to create a new cast for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory. This was the result. I replaced all the Oompa Loompa faces with faces of my friends and Tim Burton replaced Gene Wilder.

Back in the old days...

I have always loved the style of the 20's through the 50's. I wish I could get my hair to do the strange curl/wave thing that they did then. I've never figured out how though. So, I settled for an alternative. I stumbled across some pictures of famous people of that time period and decided to put myself in those pictures. I had a lot of fun making these and I got to try out a new brush that I got. Parts of each picture were complicated. The most frustrating thing is getting my face shape to fit with the picture because most of the time, the person in the picture has a different face shape than I do. Also, getting the picture of myself to be at the right angle is challenging. That's why some of these pictures might look just a little off. But I did my best!


And of course, where would we be without good old Gone With the Wind? Haha, loved the move, despite the length. It was SO overly dramatic. I have yet to find the time to read the book but have heard that it is great.

Hope you enjoyed the flashback!

The composite picture

One of my favorite types of pictures to create with photoshop is what I call a composite picture. To make this kind of picture, I put the camera in a stable place (or preferably on a tripod), set the timer, and take multiple pictures of the subject (normally myself) in different positions in the room. Since the camera never moves, it makes combining the picture much easier and finding the lines between the pictures much harder. I have found that these type of pictures normally create the most enthusiastic response from those who look at them.

About this Blog

Yeah, that's me right there.

The main purpose for this blog is a way to effectively display my photography and photoshop work. As a bonus I'll get to write a little bit of information for the pictures I post if they need to be explained.

For instance, the picture above I created for my A.P. English class in the spring. I had to create a self portrait using whatever medium I wanted that represented me and then I had to explain why I chose the medium and how the picture represented me. Because I love photography and photoshop so much, I decided to cut and past (and erase and paint... etc.) some pictures together and make my own little creation. The above is the result and I have to say, I was definitely happy with it. I think you get a pretty good idea of the kind of person I am by looking at the picture.

So keep your eyes open for other posts of my most striking, oddest, and best work.

=)