The Happiness Edition

A day after Valentine's Day... I wasn't super duper busy for VDay in the sense that I didn't go out on a date with Mr. Pipoy, but I did have quite a full day - working on some assignments, picking up the cake at the pastry shop, and attend to our pastry party here at home after dinner. I got quite a lot of pictures to edit (plus I had to share the netbook to my siblings), so my post for Texture Tuesdays, Touch Up Tuesdays, and Tones on Tuesdays was a bit late.

* please mouse over to see the SOOC shot *

This week is about "happiness." There are so many things that brings me happiness, but Valentine's Day this year is very special because for the first time in 31 years, I am "celebrating" it with boyfriend. I have had past relationships, but for some reason I am "single" during VDay! Anyway, with so many love in my heart - for my boyfriend, family, friends, and myself, I decided to share this image - Strawberry French Macarons, given to me by Bizu Patisserie... one of the most upscale and posh pastry shops in the Metro. This sweet treat also brings me happiness, because "eating French Macarons" is listed on my Bucket List.

Editing the image:

• Created a selection around the heart shaped macarons, feathered it, inverted selection, applied Gaussian Blur, and ran "Mute Colors" script - choosing "Desaturated Overlay" to make the slight pink tone pop a bit.
• Scaled image to 480x640.
• Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Sweettart" layer, set to Overlay at 40%.
• Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Waterstained Frame" layer, set to Multiply at 70%.
• Ran the National Geographic script, using the default settings.
• Ran the Manny Librodo Sharpening script, using my own preferred settings.
• Added watermark, flattened, and saved the image.

Hope your Valentine's Day celebration is filled with love and happiness!

The Simplicity Edition

I hoped to join Ashley and Branson's "Tutorial Tuesday" challenge last week, but I wasn't the handyman type that time so I wasn't able to join the Lightbox Tutorial. This week, since they featured a tutorial that can be done in Photoshop, I decided to join - it would great to use my PS-CS5 since I don't really get to use it as I am very much into GIMP.


This is my SOOC image - taken just this morning during my morning walk.


Following the steps to the tutorial gave me this result.


This image I'll link up to Kim's "Texture Tuesday," using two layers of the Simplicity texture - one set to normal at 50%, the other set to multiply at 60%. I also used the Ancient Warmth action, before adding my watermark.

Side by side images:


SOOC | Watercolor Edit | With Texture
I didn't have much choices of images to use for this post - colors of the images were washed out because the sun was shining so bright. If I get to see some colorful subjects (like the one used at the original tutorial), I will sure try this again.



ps - Big thanks to Emily of Scattered Horizons Photoblog for choosing my image from last week as one of the top 3 images for "Tones on Tuesday."

The Story Edition

Happy Tuesday, all! Today I realized there are so many wonderful photography challenges, and I am now listing all the memes/challenges I wanted to join, so I guess from here on out, I will be much active in posting here.

For this week's "Texture Tuesdays," the prompt revolves around "Story" and here's my choice of image to share:


I took this image this morning while doing my morning walk / jog. The grasses were quite far from where I was at, and zooming in, I was in awe at how my p&s camera was able to highlight grasses on the foreground while keeping anything else in soft focus. As I took more and more images, a jogger stopped and I thought his image somehow added drama to the overall image.

Walkers / joggers around Colinas Verdes have their own story to tell. Some would like to train for the marathon, others want to build resistance, others want to lose weight in preparation for something, some just go there to be with friends and stay away from home and chores. I don't know what's this man's story, but as long as all of us are doing something for our wellness, I guess that's what mattered the most.


I came up with a simple edit this week.

• Ran the Vintage script with 50% vignette,
• Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Confidence" texture set to Soft Light at 100%,
• Ran the Unsharp Mask
  
• Added name stamp, flattened, and saved the image.

The Open Edition

It was quite unfortunate that I wasn't able to finish the 12 Days of Textures party over at Kim Klassen's blog, but now that I have sorted out blogging priorities, it's time to add textures to certain images.

This week is an "Open" week, and I am sharing this picture:


The SOOC.

I took this at Plaza Ibarra (Timog, Quezon City) while waiting for the event to start. Plaza Ibarra is one of the great choices for a party venue, and since the venue was spacious, these vine also added drama to the venue. Looking up, I was amazed that the leaves looked like hearts, so I quickly aimed my camera to take a shot.

I was on auto mode when I took this (normally during events, I play safe by using the auto mode), and even if my camera's still considered a point-and-shoot, I am happy that my camera can create that blur in the background, making the subject stand out, even if I had to use the zoom.


Image with Texture.

To get to this edit, I...

• Ran the "Black and White Film" script, set to Agfa 200x.
• Ran the "Retinex" script, some settings changed according to my preference.
• Added some color to the image (slightly deep pink tone).
• Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Phoebe" texture, set to Screen at 85%.
• Added a layer of Kim Klassen's "Lilly" texture, set to Multiply at 100%.
• Ran the National Geographic script, settings changed according to my preference.
• Ran the Manny Librodo Sharpening script, settings changed according to my preference.
• Used the Burn tool set to Shadows at 10%.
• Added name stamp, flattened and saved the image.

Hope you liked the end result. :)