Square Balloon Actions and Tutorials

Say what?

admin — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:51:08 +0000

This is my youngest niece. Isn’t she gorgeous?! At first she was a little unsure about having her picture taken but she soon realised that sitting on a soft rug with warm air blowing over your skin wasn’t too bad and put up with me making stupid noises to make her smile. For all of these I used my editing actions and Sharp contrast black & white conversion. I also ran one of my Frame actions (frame2) on each one before saving for the web. These one click actions are a simple way to give your pictures a lift for web. Available here for $9

Helping hands

admin — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:16:08 +0000

Finding out that my neighbour’s beautiful 17 year old niece was also a talented makeup artist seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up so in excange for some pictures of her makeup skills she agreed to model for me. Another lucky break for me was to have a friend who owns the most gorgeous clothes shop Toil and Glitter and she very generously lent us some gorgeous clothes and jewellery for the shoot. Thank you Hannah and Jill! On top of that a fellow photographer lent me his 85mm 1.2 lens which probably cost more and weighed more than my camera and worth every penny. Thanks again Mark! For our shoot we started in the Botanical Gardens, Glasnevin and then back to the house for a studio set up as the rain started.

For all these edits I used my usual editing actions and also Colour Film Bright and Film Grain B&W from my upcoming set.

All smiles

admin — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:19:13 +0000

This is my second time shooting this gorgeous bundle but third if you count her mummy’s maternity pictures. At almost 6 months she was full of smiles and giggles that were so infectious! I think you’ll agree she has the most gorgeous eyes ever. I used my usual editing workflow actions for these pictures to get a clean edit that would fit nicely with the pictures I have already taken with this family. For the conversion I used Fresh Black & White from my set. For more information on my action set visit the store. Now also available for Elements11

White on white

admin — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:47:42 +0000

My sister in law really does make cute models! For these pictures I kept my single light setup with the speedlite in the 50×50″ softbox camera left and had some natural light for fill camera right. I did minimal processing on these as you will see from the before and after picture at the bottom of the page. Conversions were done with my Fresh Black and White action. The little dress my niece is wearing is from H&M as is the grey vest that my nephew is wearing.

Here you can see what I did for most of the images. I fixed the background and in some cases made it bigger with a background stretch, I used skin smoothing and sharpening actions from my set and I also used my Pop action to bring a little oomph to some of the images. For this particular image I also changed the page in the book to tie in with a valentine brush tutorial I was making. For more information about the actions I use visit the Store

Headshots

admin — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:06:07 +0000

I’m sure you can see why I was delighted to be asked to take the headshots of these gorgeous siblings. I only had one reluctant model but despite that I think he did an extremly good job of looking both mischievous and very cute at the same time. Processed with my clean editing actions like skin smoothing, eye define, lighten up. I also lightened the white backgrounds as per one one of my tutorials. To learn more about my actions and tutorials please visit the store.

All things bright and beautiful

admin — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:20:33 +0000

All these pictures took just a few minutes to take and almost no time to edit. I softened the direct sunlight coming in by hanging a net curtain from IKEA (LILL) over the curtain pole and shot with my 24-70mm and a little with my 50mm. I edited them by running them through ACR and making slight adjustments here and there and then taking them into Photoshop where I ran an action called Bright and Beautiful from an upcoming set. For the conversions I used my Sharp contrast b&w action from my existing set. Details of the new set coming shortly.

Playing with toys and perspective

admin — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:59:21 +0000

I can’t even tell you how much fun this project was for me. I had seen similar images here by a guy called Joel Robison and really wanted to try it and work it into the class I was teaching on Ilovephotography.com. It turned out to be a whole lot easier than I thought it would be with one image taking no more than 20 minutes if you thought about them carefully enough beforehand.

Brotherly love

admin — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:29:05 +0000

The mother of these beautiful boys taught both my children in their first years of school and a such a kind and patient teacher she is! It’s always hard to know whether a two year old sibling will row in with posing with a newborn sibling but this gorgeous boy was more than happy to gently hold his brother and give him little kisses.

Happy 2013!

admin — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 21:59:55 +0000

My new year’s resolution is to buy myself a new background stand. My old one has been held up with duct tape and hope for the past few months but today it would only extend up to about 6ft. With my 12 year old now being 2 inches taller than me it’s impossible to take pictures without having to do some unnecessary editing. That aside she very kindly allowed me some shots to show some action conparisons. For the initial picture I lit it using my speedlite at 1/32 power because I wanted very soft lighting. I had it in a 50×50″ softbox above her, camera right, tilted down. I also had a reflector below her on a stand to soften the shadows. For the initial edit I took the s.o.o.c and with my editing actions I softened the skin, sharpened the eyes and darkened the eyelashes and eyebrows. I then brought her fringe/bangs down a little using the Warp tool on a separate layer and masked to blend. I also used a Jessica Drossin texture called Mysteries1, set the blend mode to multiply and masked back the skin.Apart from the necessary painting needed on the Soft and Dreamy action each action listed is run on the initial edited picture with no adjustments other than the opacity in some changed.

To purchase the actions visit the store page.

Sweet cheeks

admin — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:49:44 +0000

I find it impossible to look at this adorable baby’s cheeks without saying ‘awwwww’ He was a terrific little model and even slept for a few minutes so I could get some pictures of his lovely lashes. At the end of the post I have added a couple of pictures with the two twinkle lights overlays that I have made. If you would like these overlays they are free with every action order between now and New Year.

All these images were edited with my editing actions and these following two were given a holiday feel with two twinkle light overlays I’ve made. If you would like these overlays I am now offering them free with each action set bought between now and December 31st 2012. You will also receive a link to a tutorial showing how to use them. The first is best for close ups and the second for slightly further back.