Black -n- White Portraits

Here are a few of my recent B/W conversions.

I Heart Faces - Texture

This week at "i heart faces" the theme is "texture." I love adding texture to my photos and this photo is one of my favorites! I know the frame is not filled with the little girl's face, but with the eye lashes so perfectly sharp, I feel the face is the center of the photo.


Texture is Paul Grand's, "Inverted Scratches."


Join the fun and see other photos at the "i heart faces" website!

Fix it Friday - On the Swing

This is "Fix-it Friday" over at "i heart faces" This is the time when they offer a photo for anyone to edit and see what they come up with. I had several different takes on this.

Here is the Original:

Fix-It Friday #41, originally uploaded by I Heart Faces.

And then my first edit which consisted of: Crop, Attic Vintage action by Rita at CoffeeShop Photography, Inverted Scratches Texture by Pareeerica.




Then I went for a motion effect with a Crop, a slight S-curve, and a rendered zoom blur:




Next I did a grunge, textured look with a crop, S-curve, SkeletalMess's Tone Texture 9, Wall Texture by Bartis, and slight Desaturation:




Finally, I did a high contrast with a crop, BW Gradient Map, Warm Grey Color Overlay, the original set over the top in "color" mode set to 55% opacity, and finally a slight overlay vignette:





Be sure and check out other people's works on the "i heart faces" website!

Sisters

Johnathan's Sweater

From the Archives

Sometimes I just get the urge to go back and rescue some of my older photos. Here is one I took about four years ago and just recently dusted it off with Johnna's Memories of Sunshine Action from Rita.

I Heart Family! - Three Generations

This is "We are Family" week over at "i ♥ faces." There are three generations here from a wonderful family!

Check out more photos at their website!

Best Face!

    This week at i heart faces the theme is "Best Faces" within the past month.

     This was Johnathan's first snow and I'm not sure he knew what to think about it!

Texture by Jerry at ShadowHouse Creations






Check out more great faces at the "i heart faces" webpage!

Flickr Friday - Black and White

      I love good Black and White photos but there is so much more to a truly great B/W portrait than just hitting the "Desaturate" button! Beyond the obvious subject matter, orientation, and general composition, a good B/W has great contrasts, range, and lighting along with a host of other complexities.

     Here are a few of my favorite Black and White from other artists on Flickr; each one exemplifying excellent artistic quality.

Pout. - Day 7, originally uploaded by Eileen Bruce.

An Ancient Mariner, originally uploaded by Franco Ferri Mala.

by RuthieMae Photography

Freckle boy, originally uploaded by gunnisal.

Schoolgirl, originally uploaded by gunnisal.

Will You Play Ball with Me?, originally uploaded by dphock.

      All photos Copyright to their respective owners.  All rights reserved.  Used by Permission.

     Please note that I do not necessarily endorse these photographers or their other photos.  I have found these portraits alone to be of highest quality and so have posted them here.

Fix-It Friday - Birthday Photo

This is "Fix-it Friday" over at "i ♥ faces."   This is the time when they upload a photo and allow others to make their edits to the original. I decided to go with a somewhat vintage look with a slight texture. Rollover my photo to see the original.

Fix-It Friday #40, originally uploaded by I ♥ Faces.

For this edit I cloned out a few bright areas and camera flare spots.
I then applied CoffeeShop's "Attic Vintage" Action and adjusted layer opacity etc...
    This includes
         A bright yellow to dark purple gradient map layer in color blend mode.
         A dark blue and brown rendered cloud layer in exclusion mode at 25% opacity.
         A copy of the image with the edges burned in for a vignette effect.
    Also added, Pareeerica's "Scratched Caramel" Texture.
Flattened the image and saved as jpg!

For other edits of this photo please visit "i ♥ faces"!

New Beginnings

      With the New Year comes thoughts of new beginnings; such as this little four-week-old that I had the opportunity to photograph.

---------------

Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, there is a woman giving birth to a child. She must be found and stopped."

- Sam Levenson

I Heart Faces

We are coming up on the first anniversary of a great photo blog "i ♥ faces" and so I put together a couple photos for them!

Check out more great portraits on their blog!

I am submitting these photos into the I Heart Faces logo photo contest. By entering, I am granting I Heart Faces LLC permission to consider my photo for use in the marketing and promotion of their website.