The Truth Is -

The truth is -
it's been a while. A long while!

A while since I have blogged, shot, talked to you guys, posted on facebook, or anything else. 

And honestly - I am ok with it.

One thing I am sorry for is leaving you guys in the dark. So,

Let me explain:

First and foremost I am Mom to some amazing little boys. This past summer I felt like I needed to spend every second with them. They grow up so fast I don't want to look back and say "I wish I had done that differently." We found a new sport - surfing, went to the beach - a lot, parks, pools, game nights, lazy days, and just had genuine family fun! 

At this time I did not realize that I was on the emotional roller coaster of life.

They were all going to school at the same time! I was excited for the year to start!

 So I thought. 

I didn't realize until that first day of school how not ok I was.  

 What do I do with myself now that they are gone!?

I had been writing an entire list of things for at least a year! 

And then it hit me - holy crap I have been letting life eat at me for like forever! 

And it literally effects everything - and I mean everything! 

I won't get into all the details and bore y'all with all the nitty gritty details.
 But, it's life- y'all know what I mean. 

Here's the thing:

I know what exactly I want to do - but it's doing it that is the problem!  I know that I want to finally get around to those goals written down in that book. I want to make all of my clients extremely happy. I want to have an abundant amount of clients. I want to make some amazing images.  All the while still being a good mom.

I want, I want, I want!

Am I bored with photography? Am I over it? What is it?!

It's called a rut.
Doing the same things day in, day out. Doing the same ol, same ol. 

It sucks! 

So, how do I fix it! 

I have spent pretty much all of this summer trying to figure out exactly how to "fix it."

I "fix it" by instead of going down the straight narrow road, I am taking a turn down that backroad. See what new adventures there are! Not planning out my adventure for the day, just go! 

While there are some things in my life that are definitely not perfect, this - this job right here - it's perfect for me. 

I have had a lot of jobs in my past, and they have never stuck. I get bored with it and move on to the next thing. I was the kid that changed their mind a million times of what they wanted to be when they grow up. Only thing is I did it until I was about 24. LOL! 

I finally found my thing, my niche, my love. 

So, I am not giving up on it now!

This blog post right here is one of my steps into getting out of my rut.

I have also gone out to play with my camera (which I wasn't doing) and even learned new things! I am even exploring new ways to get the creativity flowing with new things like digital art, and photo manipulation!

It's an amazing feeling to have that fire lit again. 

I just need to learn the steps to not let it get burnt out again. :)

So, I apologize for leaving you guys in the dark.
But, you guys deserve the 110% Amanda, not the 50% Amanda.

I am happy to report though
The 110% Amanda is back, and here to stay!
And I am excited!
So, y'all be ready for some great stuff coming up!

And when you guys see me needing models, or other things - don't be afraid! Lets get together and play! Lets go down the unbeaten path together! You never know, you might find something new that you love too! :) 

Thanks guys! Thank you for always being there and going for the ride with me!
Without you guys, there would be nothing!

Love, Amanda

PS: I cried writing this, and almost had an anxiety attack pouring my heart out! LOL! :)  It's tough being an artist - we are emotional folk!

Tutorial Tuesday - Color Correction

Happy Tuesday everyone! 

I told you this week was going to be harder. And believe me it is! Todays tutorial tuesday is about Color Correction! 

When I studied color correction, color management, and color space in college I drank a lot of coffee and my eyes twitched a bit from all of the studying. 

For today were just gonna focus on color correction. They are all very different -  If you have time though I definitely suggest googling color management and color space and getting some facts! You may think you don't need all of them but they are definitely good to know ;) 

Nerd Moment: What is Color Correction exactly? - Modifying the color balance of an image, usually to produce a more accurate representation of the colors in an image. Maybe you have a color cast in your image, your white balance is off, or maybe you just want a "pop!" 

And yes it is different from color management, and color space. (see why I was twitching?)

Ok, it's best showed with an example and I am going to show you the way I do it - which is totally easy! There are several different ways to do it, but this is the way I like to! 

Here is a before and after: 

Completely different right! 

Ok this is how you do it: 

Step 1: Open your photo in photoshop - make any adjustment in RAW that you would like and then open. 

Step 2: First your going to select your color sampler tool in your tools panel, and then make a THRESHOLD adjustment layer.  Looks like your histogram right?! That's cause it is.

Step 3: In the threshold adjustment layer move the slider to the highlights. Everything but your highlights will turn black. And you want it to where you see the brightest highlights. So, go as far as you can go into the highlights before turning everything black. Then using your color sampler tool click on your highlight on the image. You will see a number 1 pop up, this is your first sample.

Step 4: Same thing but to the left for your darks/shadows. And this time everything will be white but your darks. Again go as far as you can without turning everything white. On my image I have lots of dark spots so I just moved the slider all the way to the left. Then again, using the color sampler tool sample the black area. Now you will see the number 2!

Step 5:  Now simply delete the threshold adjustment layer. Your color samples will stay behind.

 Step 6:Add a LEVELS adjustment layer and turn your CAPS LOCK on!

 Step 7: Look at the red arrow in the example below. The eyedropper tool is for the highlights. Click the white eyedropper tool.

Step 8: Now that you have the caps lock on the eyedropper tool will look like a circle with a dot in it, just like your color sample! With the white eyedropper tool line up your circle with the circle with the number 1 beside it and click. That easy! See the difference already!

Step 9: Just like the highlights for the black we are going to select the black eyedropper tool. Again with the caps lock still on.

Step 10: Again, take your circle and line it up with the number 2 circle and click! You are all done and color corrected! :)

Step 11: Finish it up! Flatten your image and then with the color sampler tool selected go to the top menu bar and select clear. This will remove your samples so you don't have any numbers hanging around. Don't worry though if you forget they won't show up on the saved image. :) 

You are all done!! 

You can also correct the white balance in camera RAW using the white balance tool and just click on a neutral area. Meaning a true gray/white area. That's where it's difficult though and that's where you get into numbers and stuff that I get confused with.

But take a look at this: 

Big difference! The one on the left is with the white balance only adjusted in camera RAW. And the one on the right is with no white balance adjustment only the threshold adjustment in this tutorial. The one on the right is the truest to the original image. We all know that a krispy kreme box is white, and I used a flash on that pic. So, to me its perfect! 

And when you get the threshold color correction down pat, it takes seconds. Literally seconds. 

I hope you guys enjoyed todays Tutorial Tuesday and of course any questions put them down there in the comments or send me and e-mail at Lovingmemoriesphotos@yahoo.com

Thanks everyone! Love y'all! 

Amanda

Tutorial Tuesday - Light Flare & Light Rays

Can I just say I love todays Tutorial Tuesday! 

Sorry it's so late in the night. I can't lie - I spent the day at the beach. 

It's my second home. :) 

Todays tutorial tuesday is courtesy of Phlearn - seriously awesome site you should check it out! 

Hate is a strong word, but I am going to use it here. I hate just adding those cheesy sun flares in photoshop. I mean like seriously don't like it. They look so fake! So todays tutorial is how to add a realistic sun flare & light rays! 

Love it! 

Here is what I got:

 Ain't that neat!

Here is what it looked like before:

 

I love the before, but the flare and rays just add a dreamy factor! GAH! Love!

It's super easy to follow. Make sure to watch the video and listen well the guy goes kinda fast, but it's totally worth it.

Check it out here:  How to Add Light Flare & Light Rays


Good Luck and Have fun! If you have any questions let me know by e-mail or in the comments! Thanks guys!

Love, Amanda

Tutorial Tuesday Shame

I am a sad sad person today. **hangs head** I didn't even do tutorial tuesday! ugh...im sorry! In my defense I have been chasing around what feels like a hundred 3 - 4 year olds at vacation bible school for the last 2 days. 

No joke, I come home feeling like I have been ran over multiple times with a mack truck! lol! Which makes me sad too because I repeat over and over to myself - I need to go to the gym.The first day me and my 4 year old took a 4 hour nap. 

It was needed...lol

But, I feel amazing because I get to work with the little munchkins and teach them all about my main man! :)

3 more days to go and then our church Jubilee this weekend! Everyone is invited! Check it out - Freedom Life Church

I hope I make it that far! lol! 

Anyhow, sorry about today! Is there any questions or requests for next week?

Send me a message at Lovingmemoriesphotos@yahoo.com 

or just leave a comment below! 

Thanks! Love y'all! 

Tutorial Tuesday - Layer Masks!

So for today's tutorial tuesday lets talk about Layer Masks! 

Still a wee bit easy but it's some of the basics, and just as important and can be confusing to some! 

What is a layer mask in photoshop? A layer mask allows you to control a layer's level of transparency. That's it! 

Sounds simple right? Well it's a little more complicated than that. You might be thinking that you can just adjust the opacity of the actual layer - right?

Well, lets say you're trying to brighten your subjects face and just her face. So you do a quick curves adjustment and then lower the opacity. What does that do? It lowers the brightness over the entire image! So what do you do when you want to just brighten the face? 

You use a layer mask!

Here's an example - With this image I want to lighten her up but keep my background darker.

She is already pretty light, but for example purposes I am going to make a slight curves adjustment.

 But, you see that my background has also become brighter. This is where the layer mask comes in. You will see the white rectangle circled in red...this is your layer mask. 

Now all we have to do is paint on that layer mask to remove the bright background! By clicking on the layer mask to make sure it's selected we are going to select a soft round brush and then select black as our foreground and white as our background colors . So: 

1: Click layer mask - to make sure it's selected

2: Select a soft round brush

3: Select black as your foreground color

Tips: 1) Above your colors in the tools panel you will see a teeny tiny black and white color pallete, if you click that it will easily change your colors to black and white. 

2) By hitting the "X" key you can change between your foreground and background color - go ahead and play with it! :)

Now all that is left to do is paint!

 IMPORTANT! 

Always remember on a white layer mask BLACK -erases and WHITE - replaces!

 ( we'll get to black layer masks in a minute) 

Paint whatever you want to take away! Mess up? Switch back to white and replace it! Very easy, and the best thing is its non destructive and easily fixed! No more undo trails.

Tips: 1) You can change the size of your brush by pressing the [ and ] keys! [ makes it smaller and ] makes it larger. 

Now, how do you know you got it all? Easily! Press the "ALT" key and click on your layer mask. You will get something that looks like this. 

Yes, it looks crazy but there is a point to my madness I promise! Do you see the white corner in the top right, the white oval in the bottom right, and even by the shoulder on the right? That's where I missed painting. So, I can now take my brush and paint in where I missed! So now it should look like this: 

Now to get back to the original simply press the ALT key and click the mask again! 

And your done! :) 

Now we talked about a black mask briefly too. This is simply the layer mask inverted. This starts out with your adjustment completely hidden. To reveal the changes that you have made all you have to do is paint with White! But this time we want the lightening to show up, so instead of painting the background we are going to paint our subject - which is what we are changing. It's just the opposite! Easy right! 

 Paint over your subject and/or what you are wanting to adjust

 Check to see if you missed anything!

 Make any fixes and press ALT and click the layer mask to go back to the original. 

And you are all done! 

Layer Masks can be used for pretty much everything! Adjustments all have a layer mask!

See! 

Look at all those beautiful layer masks! 

Now, to add your own layer mask to something! Easy peasy! 

See that tiny little rectangle with the white circle in it? Click that and you have added your own layer mask! 

You can not add a layer mask to your background layer, well because I said so. It's your background layer - you don't wanna mess that up! So in this example I duplicated my background layer by pressing CTRL J and then added my layer mask. 

Now I can do whatever I want to a copy of my background and then remove changes I have made. Lets get a little ridiculous...say I want to color her hair blue (way ridiculous!) 

So I paint all over the image in blue, then click on my layer mask and with black as my foreground color I painted all the blue away except for on her hair! 

Sometimes if I am painting on a layer mask and it's only a small area I am making an adjustment to I will invert the mask to lessen the need for so much painting. To do this I simply click on the layer mask and hit CTRL I  and now your mask is inverted! 

The possibilities are endless! From painting hair blue, making it just a little more perfect, adding in fun things, to making composites - (that's another tutorial tuesday)

Have fun with it, play and remember - 

On a white layer mask:

1) Black - Erases

2) White- replaces

On A black layer mask:

1) Black - Erases

2) White - Shows what you've done/ your adjustments made

Play with the opacity of your brushes too, say you want just a little bit of brightness on her face but a lot on her arm adjust the opacity of your brush! 

Play, Play, Play! And you'll want to bookmark this for later tutorials! 

Any questions? Please do not hesitate to ask!

Intro to Tutorial Tuesday - Some Basics

So, im pretty excited about finally getting around to doing tutorial tuesdays. Finally! I learned everything I know (plus some college) thanks to playing. I got a 100% in all my courses for photoshop because I had already been "playing" for quite some time. But, you know it's required for the degree and all that fun stuff. And I got pretty certificates that will never get framed from it too! 

Just to let you know, I won't be doing any tutorials in Lightroom or Elements. But, if you have questions in those programs feel free to ask! 

I will try to not get to crazy with them either. Note, I said try! :)

Sometimes when I have been editing a while my ADD brain needs a break. So I pull up a tutorial, or I just get some random idea and start to play around with it. Some of my best work comes from that! So, test yourself! See what you can do! 

Some of the techniques can be pretty awesome and all of them can be used elsewhere! I find myself sometimes doing one where the person has 5 million steps to do one thing and I go "umm, you could just do this and make it 10 times easier." and then I say "holy crap I learned something!" lol

Anyhow! Todays tutorial is just getting back to some basics. Maybe some tricks/buttons you didn't know about. Make your workflow just a little bit faster. 

And you may say, Amanda that only saves me about 20 seconds. Well, after editing 4  pictures saving that 20 seconds is a now a minute...and then 8, 2 minutes and you get the idea. So, without further ado: The first Tutorial Tuesday!

Tutorial Tuesday - Some Basic Tips

I found this little gem for you guys to learn some new (maybe not) tricks of Photoshop. Maybe some hidden buttons you didn't know existed. I know they ALL have helped me!

Check it out here:  20 Handy Photoshop Tips for Faster Workflow

I will never forget when I learned in school about the space bar to move a selection. I was so excited! All that time I had been redoing it! lol!

Did you know if your using the circle marquee tool that if you hold down the SHIFT key it makes a perfectly round circle, not an oval? Now you do! 

I could probably write a 10 page blog post with different tricks, but I won't bore you. There are more Tutorial Tuesdays to come! :)

Have fun with it, hope you learn something new and if you have anything to add do so in the comments!

Forgot to add this too: You won't ever have to buy anything with any tutorials. It will all be free.

Thanks guys! Amanda

Baby C...and all her cuteness!

So, I don't know how I forgot to blog this...I could use the excuse totally busy, didn't have time..whatever. But, to be totally honest - it's called momnesia. With 2 bambinos playing baseball, sick relatives, and blah blah blah it just got forgotten! Sorry fans! :)

Anyhow! Check out Baby C! Aint she cute! And just to let y'all know, babies are not always so easy! This lil lady took 2 times to get done. First time, lil madam was not a happy camper. But, that's ok, Ms. Amanda doesn't mind, the cuteness makes up for it! And I was able to give Momma a break for a little while! Makes me want another one (sike!) 

I know mommy and daddy are very proud to have this new bundle of joy! 

She surely is an angel...thanks to Melissa ( friend) for getting her the angel wings! 

She is just to adorable! I could just pinch her cheeks all day! 

Thanks Amanda and Matt for sharing your cutie patootie with me! :)