Fix It Friday {with textures}

Remember in my review of Florabella’s recent texture set (and giveaway) that I said I used to be seriously addicted to textures, but that I had learned moderation? Well, that new set I have in my hands has made me fall off the texture-wagon.

With today’s I Heart Faces Fix It Friday image, I new straight away that I wanted to use some textures on it. The trouble I had was deciding if I wanted my final image to be more colorful than the SOOC image or less colorful, more washed out. So, I played with it both ways and finally chose the desaturated version to be my favorite.

Here is the image they gave us, straight-out-of-the-camera:

The image is quite lovely all on it’s own (the talented Angie Arthur took this shot), so not much was really needed. So, I did a few adjustments to give it a bit of a “clean edit.”

Then I saved it, and played with a few actions, deciding on one of my own, Juno. After running Juno and saving, I added a few textures and saved as a different version, to keep the edits separate.

To create the desaturated version, I went back to the clean edit and did the following steps:

  • added a brown to tan gradient map, lowered the layer opacity a bit, to give the image a slight desaturated by warm look
  • added solid color layer, like a rich reddish-brown, set to Pin Light blend mode to give a rich warmth
  • added two textures, set to either Soft Light or Overlay blend modes
  • flattened, duplicated and added a blur layer, set to soft light to provide a slight “ethereal” quality to the edit

It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I loved the softness of it.

Why did I choose the desaturated version to be my favorite? The shot had a bit of a dreamy quality to it and the less intensive play just seemed to play up that dreaminess.

Here are all the plays, just to see them together and judge.

Do you enjoy editing or need some practice? Pop over to I Heart Faces and join in with the Fix It Friday fun! If you did participate, leave me your blog/Flickr address and I will go over and see your edit too!

About Amanda

I am passionate about helping others learn how to use their DSLR cameras and editing programs. More information about me can be found at my About page, or by visiting my personal blog.

Comments

  1. They look fantastic!!! I REALLY want to win these!!! We have decided to go back to China so I won’t be buying anything for a long time. 🙂
    Blessings!!!

  2. These are all so amazingly beautiful!! I can’t pick a favorite as I love them all!!:)

  3. I love the desaturated edit! Very pretty!!

  4. I love the desaturated edit too. And I love how your textures are so very subtle.

  5. love the softness of the last edit. thanks for sharing!

  6. love the desat!

  7. Rosemary Morrison says:

    So pretty! The Juno + textures is my personal favorite.

  8. I must say, you are very talented! I love each one for different reasons and cannot pick a favorite! That’s awesome.

  9. They are all very pretty edits, but my favourite is Juno + Textures. You’ve done an amazing job!

  10. Yay!!! I can see your whole post in Google Reader now! Thank you.

    So hard to choose between these pictures. They all look good for different reasons! I think I might actually just like the simple clean version though. Good work.

  11. Amanda,these are GORGEOUS!!!

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