Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Black and White Wednesday


Another Wednesday is upon us, so it is time to share another Black & White photo. This week I decided to show you my start-to-finish process for one of my favorite photos of my little Ladybug.

This past summer, my daughter was playing outside. She had on an adorable gardening hat and gloves, while dancing around in a frilly princess dress. Quite a silly combination, but she looked adorable. As she was walking around our deck, I happened to stop her just at a time when she was trying to pick herself up on the railing. This quick pause in her otherwise busy afternoon of playing and dancing produced an amazing image that I knew I could create into an ethereal delight. I used Photoshop Elements to do all of my edits on this image.

Here is the original image,



From there I softened the face, cropped the image a little bit and boosted the contrast. I really wanted those soulful eyes to pop, so I brightened them as well. Below is what I came up with,



After this, I turned the image into black & white. I absolutely love how beautiful this image looks as a black and white. It translates so well because of its simplicity.



But, as is often the case with me, I just had to play with it a little bit more. So, I went back to the colored image and "posterized" it with Photoshop, then cropped it into a square image. I then turned each of those two photos into black & white. Below are those four photos,









When I look at these last few photos now, I honestly see a girl far beyond my daughter's three years of age. The softened colored images also give her an almost porcelain look. As beautiful as these images are to me, with the soulful eyes and delicate features, there is one thing missing in all of them... my daughter's amazing, joyous, infectious smile. And that, is what I will be sharing next week. Until then...

~~Aloha!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Look at her perfect little lips! She truly is beautiful.. I couldn't agree with you more, those eyes look far wiser than three..

Great edits! I really think I like the first b/w the best. They are all so good, it's hard to choose!

Kayce said...

Absolutely beautiful!!

Dita said...

Wow...love all the different steps in your processing. I am just learning to process and I love looking at how everyone else accomplishes their own artistic processing.

Your daughter is truly beautiful.

Amandalynn said...

She's beautiful! I love the high-key B&W!

Donna said...

Oh wow! These are beautiful! I can see why you had to keep playing around with them. So different but so pretty in very unique ways.

Donna
Our Blog: Double Happiness!

ellieshine said...

oooohhhhh! she is so beautiful. my favorite is the one near the bottom with her lips a little red :)

Half Gaelic, Half Garlic! said...

She is beautiful!! I love the close ups at towards the bottom........You are right, her eyes are telling a story!

Have a wonderful week!

Lisa

Unknown said...

What a gorgeous girl, and great photos. I think this one is a winner no matter how you edit it. Her eyes are so intense, they just demand attention. What a great little lady outfit too. Precious!

Formerly known as Frau said...

Wow they are all gorgeous! She is beautiful!

JinXiu said...

amazing photo

I can see why you kept playing with it. it only gets better and better

Mei Mei s and Mayhem said...

Wow, just stunning!! And those lips and eyes, O My!!

Briana's Mom said...

She is just beautiful!!!!

Gail said...

What a beauty!!!! I absolutely love what you did with these images!

Kim said...

She is stunning! Those last couple images would look amazing up on the wall. What a doll!

Anonymous said...

Wow! That is awesome. I'm just starting out learning how to do photo editing and I love seeing how other people do theirs.

Your daughter is beautiful!

Unknown said...

Your daughter is so beautiful. She takes my breath away. What a lovely image to work on. Gorgeous!