I heart faces - Fix It Friday

Jenna entered this photo originally for the Constructive Feedback spot at I heart faces. She wrote that she thought the photo was a little bright and needed to be toned down a bit and she wished that the colors were more vibrant. She also felt like the photo might have been overexposed.

Here is her original photo:

Here is my first fix - a color:



Here's what I did:

- I ran it through the community edition of Noiseware to reduce some of the grainyness/noise that came with the original photo as it was shot with a high ISO setting of 800.
- I opened it in Adobe Camera Raw and adjusted some of the exposure, recovery and blacks. I also bumped the clarity a little.
- In PSE4, I did a curves bump by pulling the center straight up. I then did a layer mask and only applied it to the man on the ground.
- I then did a levels and squeezed the sliders in on both ends and then moved the center slider over to the left till I got the contrast and look I wanted.
- I then did a Hue/Saturation layer and bumped up th blues and the yellows individually.
- I did a futher Hue/Saturdation layer and reduced the red and only applied it to his face using a layer mask.
- I then did a edge sharpening using an action that I got on Clickin Moms.
- Finally I added a vignette using an MCP action (a freebie!)

Here are a couple more plays with this picture. The first is running PW's Old West:


and lastly PW's seventies (which I adore!):


Check out what others did with this photo at I Heart Faces.