Merry Crustmas.

Sorry for such a late Christmas post. I feel like I've been neglecting the blog lately, but things have been crazy around here. Between my brother's wedding, work, and the holidays I am just now feeling like my brain isn't oatmeal. I wouldn't trade the craziness for anything, though... well, I think I could give up dealing with all the rude people that came into the store.
Anyways, how was everyone's Christmas? Mine was amazing. I got to spend tons of time with my family and my handsome boyfriend and I now have more lovely vintage looking dresses than I know what to do with. We ate so much food I think I could go without for about a week... all that country ham is starting to give me strange dreams.

Mom got my dad a new truck. I, unfortunately, didn't get to see him be surprised with it as I was dealing with a mob of unfriendly people at work, but I think the top picture explains it all. I think that is my most favorite picture ever. He looks really, really happy. He needed that truck. His old Explorer was like riding in a covered wagon. I was afraid for him to even drive to work in it. Good job, Momma!

Speaking of my mom, I had my own little surprise for her. Back in October she was in Nepal and I got some of the family together for a secret photoshoot. Let me just say, I have the sweetest grandparents ever and I am so thankful I got to shoot some pictures of just them together like this. I also got several family members to write letters to my mom, which I made her read on Christmas morning before I showed her the pictures. Yeah, there was a lot of crying. My dad has informed me that I have ruined Christmas because no one can top my present. Bahaha.

Also, my brother got married to the coolest gal ever. They did the rehearsal dinner at a little Japanese place in town. The wedding itself was really pretty... I am pretty sure I cried more than they did and they were the ones getting married. Haha. The reception was amazing! So much dancing and fun. 

So, that was my holiday in a nutshell. How did everyone's go?



Love,
Emily.

A quick eye tutorial.

So, when I do portraits of people I am a sucker for the eyes. They just really draw you in to the picture. If you have a camera like mine that likes to soften the image and dull the colors, or if you aren't shooting in the greatest lighting, sometimes you need a little help. That's where a good photo editing software comes in. For this tutorial I am using Photoshop CS5.1, but I am sure you can do something similar on Paint Shop Pro.

Open your image up in Photoshop, or whatever program you decide to use. I decided to use a picture of my little cousin that I took this summer (I MISS YOU CRAZY BERMUDIANS SO MUCH, BY THE WAY. JUST SAYING.). Hahaha. :)

Create a duplicate of your background layer. If you are very, very new to photoshop you do that by right clicking on your background layer then clicking duplicate layer.

Use the lasso tool to select both eyes. Draw a circle around one, then shift+click to select the other one at the same time. Then go to Select > Refine Edge. Smooth it out until you get a nice circle, and then feather it as much as you want. I tend to do mine around 7 or 8.

Next, go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Try to keep it under 100 or else your eyes will look ridiculous. Remember, you don't to overdo them.... which I am more than guilty of doing... you just want to make them pop.

Then go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and adjust it to your liking. Deselect the eyes (CTRL+D) and use your eraser to erase around the eye.

BEFORE

AFTER

 

There really isn't a wrong or right way to do it. It really varies between picture to picture how I adjust everything, so really just do anything to your liking. :)

And here is the image completely edited just for the heck of it. 

Love,

Emily.

We have a winner!

As everyone pretty much knows I have been having a contest over on my photography page. It has been a lot of fun. I did not expect it to get as crazy as it did for a while there, but it was very entertaining to watch it unfold. I was going to hold it out a bit longer, but I just can't the suspense.

AND THE WINNER IS....

Brooke Ray, you are one competitive lady. I think you guys totaled at around 240 votes. Anyways, I am so so so excited to work with you and your mister and you better believe I am going to snap some pictures of your little one. I can't resist that much cuteness.

What you won: A free, one hour photoshoot. Any location of your choice (as long as it's not Narnia or outer space.). You will get a disc with all your pictures which I will edit in Photoshop, plus your original ones if you would like to edit them yourself.

Okay, now to everyone who participated. Thanks so much. You guys are all amazing and if I could I would make it so everyone could win. Since I unfortunately can't make that happen everyone who participated is getting 25% off a two hour photoshoot. Whoo!

Well, it is going on 1 am and I think my brain is turning into oatmeal. I apologize for all the misspellings and poor grammar I am sure is scattered throughout this post. Again, thanks to everyone who participated and thanks to everyone that voted!



Love,
Emily.

Testing... One.... Two...

Hello? Is anyone out there?

I originally began planning this blog as a way to showcase my photography. I have really started to get serious about it these last few months, and I have been blessed with people who are actually interested in letting me photograph them. It's great being able to view the pictures on my faceboook or my flickr page, but I wanted to be able to talk about each person I take pictures of. Everyone I have worked with so far has just been completely wonderful and I have yet to do any photo shoots that weren't fun.
The more I planned, the more I realized I wanted to do with this blog. Anyone who knows me knows that I love hair and makeup, which is strange because I am not very girly at all. I hate doing my own face and hair, but I love dolling other people up. I am planning to go to cosmetology school soon and I want to find a way to incorporate it with my photography business one day. I promise you will see a lot of hair and beauty tutorials on here from me.

Thanks to anyone who is taking the time to read this! This will probably be my most boring post, considering it's late and I am new to all this. Hopefully I will have an "About Me" post up soon!... And hopefully a new, prettier layout. Haha.

Emily.