Hello everyone!  Today I am going to talk about another photo trick I use constantly (especially since I am trying to shoot in manual these days..lol!)  I often will load all my pictures onto the computer and discover that some of my favorites are way too dark to be “useable”.  But fear not!  Really the more I learn the more I realize that as long as you have an image recorded somewhere it is fixable!

So lets get to it, shall we?  Here is my original picture:

First I go to Enhance>adjust lighting and select shadows and highlights.  Here is what that does:

Then I play with the color curves a bit.  To do this I go to Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Color Curves.   I have Photoshop Elements so the screenshot I am going to show is from that program.  I know big girl photoshop is a little more complicated and Mickey B talked about curves here if you need to read about it.  In PSE, I just select increase midtones. 

Now you want to duplicate the photo twice (control J) and then change one layer to screen and the top layer to soft light.  Adjust the opacity of the layers until you the photo looks right to you.   And of course if you have a prefered way to brighten your pics feel free to do it that way!!

Here is a close after all of these edits..notice something?  It looks really pixelated right?  This is called noise and happens when the picture is underexposed.

[IMG]http://i634.photobucket.com/albums/uu69/amandamsheehan/noisy_pic.png[/IMG]
So how can we fix this?  We need some kind of noise reducer.  I use Noiseware Community Edition which can be found here.  Just scroll all the way to the bottom and find the stand alone community edition.  I like it because it is free(always nice) and has many different options on how to reduce the noise in your photos.  It is outside of PSE so I have to save my image and reopen it in the Noiseware program.  If you want to pay you can have it installed directly in PSE or PS.  It is pretty magical.  (Unfortunately if you use a Mac this program is not free.  I have yet to find an easy free program out there for the Mac.  But if you know of one, please let me know in this thread!)
Here is the image after I ran the noiseware. (I like full supression the best)

All fixed!  Here are the two side by side to you can see the difference.

And here is my LO using Jenn Barrette’s Frolic (in full disclosure once I got the edited pic on my LO I noticed there was too much yellow so I adjusted the Hue/Saturation a bit too..):

And now for some inspiration from our CT!
Check out the difference on Canadianmommy’s photos!

And her awesome LO using Lakeside by WM Squared and Stolen Moments, and Elements Included V.3 by WM Squared..

Kimbytx brightened her photo and turned it black and white:

She used Brittish Designs I’m a Dreamer and I’m a Dreamer Revisited.

Scrapurple used LDrag Designs  to scrap this magical photo!

And finally Becca lightened and brightened her pic for the adorable LO using Bella Gypsy’s new At the Dropoff kit!

Here are the official rules:
You have until the end of the month to complete this challenge.

Please post your LO here in the forum and in the Saturday Special gallery here.

You will earn 1 point for your LO and a bonus point if you use a new release (within 7 days of release – be sure to mention this in the forum and in your credits).

You don’t have to use Scrap Matters products, but we love it when you do!

No double dipping, your LO must be unique to this challenge.

At the end I will pick a random LO as the winner to receive an extra bonus point.

So go dig up some photos you thought you couldn’t use and scrap ‘em!  I am so excited to see what everyone does with their photos!   See you in the forum!

-Amanda (panders77)

Hi everyone–Jet (Henriëtte) here.  Thank you all for sharing your most beautiful sunset pictures with us, I for one really enjoyed them!  It was soooo hard to select just one winner with so many gorgeous sunsets to choose from, it was a tough decision, but there can only be one winner and that winner is:

bcnatty with this stunning picture:

I love the composition, the silhouette and the sunlight on the water, just gorgeous!

Congrats bcnatty and thanks for playing!!! The $5 gift certificate will be send to you soon.
And now for this months challenge:

As always it is a challenge where no SCRAPPING at all is involved but just making pictures is the only requirement to play. Each month I will choose a subject for the picture;
this month it is: the wildlife in you back garden (or a bit further away)

These frogs live in a big pond a couple of villages away.  I love how the one frog’s cheeks are blown up like he is having chewing gum.

How to play:
- Make a picture that has something to do with the subject, you can be as creative as you want, just make sure it has a connection with the subject.
- Post your picture in the gallery and link it back to this forum post.
- You can submit as many pictures as you like!
- I will choose the winner at the end of the month and she/he will receive a $5 gift certificate to our fabulous shop!

Thanks for playing and keep those pictures coming!