I am happy to report SEVERAL of you have tried out Picasa~ with success! YAY!
How often do you upload photos onto your computer, only to see that your favorite one is TOTALLY dark? What happened? Did you try your hand at natural light and there just was not enough? Did your flash fail you? No matter what the cause, don’t hit ‘reject’ or ‘delete’ just yet- there may be hope!
Remember back in the old days when people used film? More specifically, black and white film? Black and white film has a charming grainy quality about it that makes pictures look quite fantastic. I am going to show you two 3-step editing processes (one for Picasa and one for Photoshop) that will transform those dark, unappealing digitals into juicy, grainy black and whites!
Here is the original. I snapped it with my Kodak point and shoot digital camera. Ava Dee was just too precious sleeping in her crib and I did not want to use the flash and risk prematurely waking her up.
Image may be NSFW.
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Follow these simple steps in Picasa:
1. Turn up the fill light.
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2. Convert the photo to filtered black and white.
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3. Increase the fill light until you have the desired look!
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Voila!!
Follow these simple steps in Photoshop (*Please note, I have purchased and installed MCP Actions-http://www.mcpactions.com/ and Totally Rad Actions http://www.totallyradactions.com/)
1. Hit Control M to change the curves. Drag the line upwards to lighten the picture.
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2. Run the action “Bitchin’ Black and White” (one of my two favorite BW actions).
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3. Run the action “MCP Extreme Fill Flash”.
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Are these photos going to be smooth and crisp looking? No way, but they will have character!
Thanks to Caitlin for sharing!
