I’m a big fan of I Heart Faces, they have wonderful tutorials and are a great resource for photographers. They do a weekly Fix It Friday in which they supply a photo that needs some editing help. This week I decided to participate and put my own spin on the photo.

This is also a good example of what goes into custom photography (and why it costs so much – you don’t see Wal-Mart or Sears doing these things to your photos!). It takes a LONG time to master Photoshop, and if you’re hiring and paying for a custom photographer, make sure they know their stuff! I spend a huge amount of my time sitting at my computer after every session making each image perfect. You wouldn’t believe the details I look at in every shot and make sure everything’s super duper!

So, on to the photo. Here’s the before:

And the after:

Here’s some of what I did to the photo, all in Photoshop CS4:

1. Crop
2. Run an unsharp mask
3. Clone out the white door in the background
4. Used MCP’s Magic Color Finder Brush (Vivid) on everything but the skin
5. Used the spot healing brush very lightly on portions of his face
6. Ran TRA’s Oh Snap action at about 75% opacity
7. Burned the edges of the photo slightly
8. Re-sized and sharpened for web

Visit me on Facebook here!

Had a little more fun recently with my macro lens and wanted to share a few images! Hope you enjoy!

I got some use out of my macro lens yesterday. For those who aren’t familiar with macro photography, it’s essentially just taking super close-up photos with a special lens. My macro lens is rather new, and I looooove it!

I hope everyone had a LOT of love this Valentine’s Day!

After two straight weeks of LOTS of voting on my Facebook page, I’ve crowned the winner of my first annual Cutest Kid Contest!

Koen!!

I’m sure I don’t have to explain why he won… here is the photo his Mommy submitted for the contest, and I think the cuteness speaks for itself. 🙂

Koen, I can’t wait to meet you for your free photo session!! Congrats!

This past weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Lancaster, PA and staying right amongst the beautiful Amish farmland. The house we rented had horses running in the backyard. They were so beautiful!

The wide open fields and farms covered in snow were absolutely breathtaking. Granted, I froze my fingers off taking photos, but it was worth it!

And the covered bridges… all I can say is WOW. I spent a morning driving around finding the covered bridges and took many, many photos. This bridge was the longest and by far my favorite. I love the old, rustic look of it.

And lastly, just an interesting photo of a scooter belonging to an Amish person, left propped against a barn. Everywhere we went we saw people of all ages riding on these scooters.

Lancaster is a beautiful, beautiful place!

Being a child photographer, I know there are some incredibly cute kids out there — I’ve seen a lot!  Now, here is your chance to win a FREE full session with Melissa DeVoe Photography AND receive 3 free 8×10’s from your session! Your session can take place in the Raleigh/Durham/Cary area or in the Columbia, SC area.

To enter, just submit your favorite photo of your child under the age of 17 (a photo you took – not a professional photo) by Wednesday, January 19th. E-mail the photo to me at melissadevoephotography@gmail.com. You may submit one photo per child, or one photo of all your children together. Be sure to include your child’s name and age, along with your contact information.

After I’ve received all entries on January 19th, I’ll post the photos to a folder on my Facebook page. Once the pictures are all posted, voting will begin on Facebook. To increase your chances of winning, simply direct your friends and family to become a fan of Melissa DeVoe Photography and click “like” under your child’s photo. Whichever child receives the most votes (likes), will be the winner!

Voting will take place for two weeks, beginning January 19th and ending at midnight on February 2nd – plenty of time for all of your friends and family to place their votes. The winner will have until 8/31/2011 to use their FREE session and will receive a credit for 3 free 8×10’s from the session.

Can’t wait to see everyone’s entries! Go ahead and become a fan on Facebook by clicking here.

Do you have a portrait session coming up, and are you puzzled about what to wear? Well, I’m here to help. Your family’s outfits can make a huge impact on your photos, so it’s important to put some effort into choosing them.

I’ve put together a sample for you, keeping in mind that it’s still cold outside. One of the things I personally love to do is to pick two or three colors and build your outfits around those colors. You do NOT have to all wear the same exact shirts and pants… in fact, it’s better if you don’t. Use your imagination and find outfits that coordinate, but aren’t exact. And don’t be afraid to use accessories – nice jewelry, scarves and colorful shoes are perfect!

All styles are from Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Piperlime. Girl’s shoes are from Justice and girl’s scarf is by United Colors of Benetton. Please contact me if you have any questions about choosing outfits or would like information on a particular style shown above.

And be sure to “like” me on Facebook if you haven’t already!

Now that the rush of Christmas and my busy season has passed, I have an opportunity for some down time. Time to spend with my family, time to relax, and time to get my creative juices flowing again. I was delighted when I came across an opportunity to become inspired and look at things through my camera in a whole new way. An opportunity to really be creative and continue to grow in my photography.

Here’s how it works: each week a new hue and texture will be selected. It’s our project to go out and capture these things. Everyone is welcome to join in on the project, it’s been fun so far! I’m joining in a little late, so I’ll be playing catch-up for a few weeks.

To join in, visit Marta Locklear, and be sure to let me know you’ve joined so I can follow your journey.

Visit me on Facebook!

Be sure to visit me on Facebook!

After asking just about everyone I know, spending TONS of time tweaking and obsessing, I decided I was making things WAY more difficult than they needed to be with this logo-designing! Let’s see… I switched fonts about a dozen times, I interchanged flowers and even a (super-cute, but just not perfect) bird, moved the pictures from the front to the back to the middle of my name… it got out of hand. So I stopped obsessing and just went with my favorite!

And really, I’m so happy with this new logo. I love the colors (though I’ll probably change them when I crave some variety) and I love the dandelion! I’ve done a little updating to my blog to incorporate the new logo, though it’s really a work in progress (I want to find a new template). And my next step will be updating my website!

Hope everyone likes it as much as I do!