Avon By The Sea & The Figura Sisters - Creative Edits

If you know me....you'll know that I love to put a little twist on many of my edits. I always do the classic color edit but when I really love a photo I can't help but give it some kind of twist in Photoshop.

Below are edits I did last night of the Figura Sisters from our beach shoot near Spring Lake & Avon By The Sea, NJ. To see more from their shoot click HERE.

I look at the photo and try to imagine what "emotion" I'd like to evoke with the photo. Sometimes it's a simple B&W conversion with the levels tweaked on the darker side, sometimes it's an action where I lower the opacity so it's not as intense and other times it's a texture applied - just because I like to be "different." LOL! These edits are not everyone's cup of tea but I love them. It's my way of being creative even though I'm "on the job."

In the examples below you'll see quite a few of the Pioneer Woman's Vintage action applied to quite a few of these (I didn't leave the action exactly as it finished...I lowered the opacity on it.). I felt it worked with a lot of these. Maybe it's because they reminded me a of a jean company advertisement from a magazine...and the softened antique look worked really well.

(click to view LARGER....much better that way!)

The same antiqu action as above, lowered opacity, and then B&W conversion over it.







I love a great texture. You can really do so much with them. It's not for everyone....but it's definitely for ME!



I really like the tones on this one! It's an action that I stop a 1/4 of the way through and then I undo a few more steps to get this coloring. I also burned the sky to make it more dramatic. My kind of sky.....



Sisters will be sisters. I love this conversion...I burned the sky a bit here as well.



The antique action again but this time I barely lowered the opacity.



Another texture!




Simple B&W conversion...



And another texture!

Family Portraits at Farrington Manor

When I photographed the "S. Family" Communion party I was given the opportunity to take some of the families outside on the beautiful grounds of the Farrington Manor and do family/children's portraits.

Even though the families had under five minutes each - I think I was able to capture their personalities in the selection of photos that I provided them.

To see all of the blog posts for the "S. Family's" Communion party click HERE.

Here are some favorites of each of the families:

(click to view LARGER)

The Sweetest

Sweetest edit of the day..."L" and "N" from the "S. Family" Communion party.


To see all of the blog posts for the "S. Family's" Communion party click HERE.

The Portraits

"M" I just wanted to thank you for all of your kind words!

Finally! Some of the family portraits from the "S. Family" Communion party at Farrington Manor in East Brunswick.

I thought I'd post this just for fun...to show how cold it was that day but how brave everyone was to tough it out to get the shots!

To see all of the blog posts for the "S. Family's" Communion party click HERE.

(click photos to view larger)

You'd never know it was cold and damp feeling outside on this day!



I love how this looks in this brown tinted version:




Love this close up with "N" and Dad:



How beautiful are these two ladies! I did 3 versions of this but decided to show the antique version on the blog. I love the soft look of it:



As usual...more to come!

Through the Generations

Sorry all! I've been so busy lately that I haven't had much time to post and that's very unlike me! I don't like to end my night without a post and I've been slacking.

Guess this working 2 jobs can catch up to you (and life certainly gets in the way as well!)

This is a photo of N. and her grandmother from the from the "S. Family" Communion Party that I edited tonight. I thought I would share it. I didn't like the background so I replaced it in Photoshop. I thought the photo was so cute!

To see all of the blog posts for the "S. Family's" Communion party click HERE.




And a random sample of other adorable faces of the day: