So often people ogle over my camera thinking they could take better pictures with a better camera. Don’t tell but my camera isn’t a Nikon on Canon. Shhhhh.
What they don’t realize is how much post-processing plays into the making of a great finished product.

Take this weeks’ Fix It photo for example.

Cute kid. Check. Sharp focus. Check. Compostion. Oops. There is also a the shoulder of a brother or a friend who didn’t quite make the cut.

My first thought was to crop the photo vertically. Like this.

I proceeded to use auto level in GIMP which brightened the colors but left a weird green hue. I went ahead and bumped the slider for the red channel to 1.08. Much better. A little extra sparkle for the eyes and a slight vignette finished off the look. I liked it but wanted to stretch myself to see if I could make it work as a horizontal picture.

The subject is looking slightly right so I wented him in the left third of the picture. I couldn’t just crop it that way because I would lose too much of the shirt. I decided to expand the canvas on the right about 200 pixels. I cut out feathered pieces of the uncluttered background on the left, flipped them horizontally, and used them to fill in the space I needed on the right. A little smudging to hide the seams and VOILA!

I actually did the same color adjustment and eye touch up that I did in the vertical fix after I got the background right.

The background seemed a little plain so I through in a little bokeh. It’s just an overlay from a texture I found on Flickr.

So there you have it. Proof that post-editing is half (or more) of the battle. All my post-editing was done in GIMP which is free for anyone. So go ahead and try it for yourself.  Happy Editing!

This week’s photo was submitted by Christina from 3 Sweet P’s. She wrote: “This is a photo of my 2 year-old Parker. I am bothered by the harsh shadow on his face and the washed out colors of the photo. His eyes are a beautiful blue and you just can’t see that. I would love to see what you guys can come up with!”

Original Photo:

I opened the original file in my favorite free editing program, GIMP. 

The washed out spot on the left side was really too washed out to fix.  I opted to crop in a modern square-shape.  I used the clone tool to touch up the red spots on his face.  I changed the hue and saturation in his eyes to bring out the beautiful blue.  Then I used auto level to bring out the rest of the colors.  The color fix made his face a little ruddy so I used FX Foundry’s Red Skin Fix.  I liked the colors when I deleted the top-most layer left by the fix. 

Voila…harsh shadow eliminated and blue eyes pop!

Another fix I like that doesn’t really address the submitter’s original concerns was this…

I think the soft light makes the harsh light fit better.

Before:

After:

How to in GIMP:

1.  Use color picker tool and airbrush (fuzzy circle, size 8.00) to smooth out the ruddiness in the cheeks.
2.  Use color picker and smudge tool (fuzzy circle, size 5.00) to lessen the bruise under the left eye.
3.  Use Vintage-look plug in (Cyan 10,  Magenta 25, Yellow 42).
4.  Select Background layer.  Colors -> Levels.  Use auto level.
5.  Still in Background layer.  Brightness -10, Contrast +20.
6.  Merge layers.
7.  Create vignette. Select large oval.  Feather 500.  Invert selection.  Midtone levels to 0.35.

Anyway, here’s the original:

Here’s my fix  (it was a low resolution photo to begin with so changes were minor):

I used Gimp, a free photo editing tool. 

Here’s how to get the fix:

1.  Resize using a 3:2 ratio (which translates to 4×6 prints).
2.  Go to Colors -> Levels.  Use Auto levels.
3.  Duplicate layer.  Make sure it’s on top.
4.  Use Levels to make the photo darker so the washed out portion near Brent’s face is properly exposed.
5.  Add Layer Mask (full transparency, black).
6.  Use the Radial Gradient to isolate the fix.
7.  Merge the layers.
8.  Go to Select -> Rounded Rectangle.  I used a radius % of 80.
9.  Shrink the selection by 10 pixels.
10.  Feather the selection by 100 pixels.
11.  Invert the selection.
12.  Create a vignette by darkening the selection using Layers.

Happy Editing!

The past year I have learned tons about post-processing digital photos.  Because I’m a frugal broke gal, I’ve been using GIMP (a free, open-source, graphics editing program).  Although not as user-friendly as Lightroom or even Photoshop Elements, it’s very powerful for free software.Here’s an example of how I like to “fix-it” photos.

1. Open photo in GIMP.

2.  Crop using a 2:3 aspect ratio which is like 4×6.

3.  Use the clone tool to airbrush the white spot the falling snowflake created on her forehead.  (Opacity=50.5, Brush=fuzzy circle at size 3.00).

4. Go to Colors>Levels and use auto-level.

5. Up the Saturation 20.

6.  Use smart select to select as much of her irises as possible.  Feather 5.0.

7. Up the saturation overall and of the blue and cyan colors by 10 each.  Up the brightness and contrast of the eyes by 10 each

8. Unselect her eyes.

9.  Create an oval vignette by feathering 500 and moving the mid-tones level triangle to 0.20.

Before

After