Preschool Photos at Home

My daughter was all dressed and curled for preschool pictures, so I tried taking a few at home. My goal was to catch her sparkly eyes, and I think I accomplished that, even though the background leaves something to be desired. Above is a photo that I played with in photoshop elements before Scott Kelby’s PS Elements 7 book arrived from Amazon.com.

Here is a similar shot that was edited using Kelby’s 3-step portrait finishing technique. I like the ‘glowing’ effect it gave to the photo.

Looks like I caught those pretty brown eyes here!

And here’s the same shot in sepia.

My husband took these photos next to an old shed in Iowa when our oldest son was still a baby. I love the texture of the peeling paint in the background. The original photo is at the top. I applied Scott Kelby’s ‘trendy high-contrast’ effect on the second version, and used his ’3-step portrait finishing’ effect on the third image. I also wamed up the color a bit on that last one. I think the last one is my favorite; it seems like a mother-baby picture should be warm and soft.

Indoor Portraits using Natural Light

I tried taking pictures of the kiddos inside our house today, just using natural light from a window. These ones of my youngest daughter turned out the best.