{photo} editing & Christmas Cards

This past weekend my hubby & I had such a great time at our friend Martha & Joemax's baby shower!  Blessed with a sweet, handsome & charming little boy, they're due with a little girl!  I'm over the moon excited for Martha!  Nothing is sweeter than a little baby girl!  


We had such a great time catching up with friends and dancing the night away!  Thanks guys for such a great time!  While at the party one of my girlfriends asked me if I could edit a photo for her, one she got on a photo shoot with a "professional."  I was immediately up for the challenge and since I had never really gotten to look at a professional's SOOC shots, I was excited to get to seen what shots a "professional" would get. 


Ok.  So, I got the photos.   Thank goodness this family is the most {adorable} family E-V-E-R and I don't think you could make them look bad if we put them in matching hotdog-on-a-stick uniforms!  Let's just say, the pictures I got made me feel like I'm done taking classes and my photography skills are way above par if this is what I have to compare them to.   Anyway, I wanted to share with you the before and after and what I did with the photo to get there.  




So...this is the {BEFORE}

The first thing I did was open the original file in LightRoom3.  Then I cropped in just a bit to take out some of the blacktop in front of their toes.  Next I took the head of the little girl and swapped it with another picture.  (The Mommy though her eyes were just a tad bit more open)  Then I ran a LightRoom preset from Willette called Kelly's Preset D3 {love, love her presets by the way}.  Next I whitened their teeth, smoothed skin tone, brightened their eyes...all in Lightroom3.  I'm so hooked on my new program.  If you don't have it, you can download it for a {free} 30 day trial here.  {Kelly's presets are a freebie too ~ joy!}  








Here's the final photo:  

Here's a sample of the Christmas Card I thought they would love:

Am I the only one who hasn't even begun to think of Christmas/Holiday Cards yet?  How about you?

September {2011} a month in photos

Rebecca over at Simple As That is having her A Month in Photos Party so today I'm posting my September Month in Photos.  

 1, 2 and 3) First day of School  4) San Diego Zoo 5) Coronado Island

Hope you have a great week!

{free} Halloween Photo Card

Getting down the Halloween decorations, talking with the kiddos about what Halloween costume they would like to don this year and rainy, windy, cold weather has really sparked the nostalgic mood in me!   I though I'd make you a little treat, from me to you, of course for {free}!  I hope you like the design.  Download the png file here.  Open it in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements (you may be able to use other programs, I'm just not familiar with those).  Add a "layer" under the single layer you have after opening the file.  This is the layer you'll drag your photo onto.  Then just size your photo to fit and save as a jpg.  This is a 5x7 card.  


I really hope you enjoy!  Oh, and if you like it, could you pretty please leave me a little note and maybe forward this post on to some of your friends?  

Happy Halloween to you from Me! 

Linked up here:

her first {TOMS}

Emme just got her first pair of TOMS and she is so thrilled. She's so excited that when she gets a pair, TOMS donates a pair to a child that has no shoes!  I just had to post a picture to show you the excitement on her face!  So cute, so adorable.  Melts my heart!

Also, her's a great source for {free} templates here.   Right now she has some adorable editable templates with frames and embellishments that I just wanted to share with you.  

Check out Pretty Presets her Lightroom & Photoshop presets too.  One of my favorites is {Fall in Love}!  

Here's one I used to send a little thank you to a friend on FB. 

Happy Tuesday!