Sorry!

[selawela]

Didn't I say I was trying not to hog this thread up? Well, I'm sorry, but was so pleased with this...had to show it off. I am giving the "after" to my sister-in-law for Christmas...pic of her two puppers.
Before:
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1O8ibusGszydccBkPuIa99vc0Sxge11_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1O8ibusGszydccBkPuIa99vc0Sxge11)

After:
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1iVg1nYlakJcMQooha4CnujHeSulI0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1iVg1nYlakJcMQooha4CnujHeSulI0)

[Ellen]

Sela, that's some happy dogs!
one thing- the black lab seems to be having hat hair or something.

[JulieM]

Sela, great work on that! Your sister-in-law will love it. Keep your befores and afters coming. They are very motivating...

[msbrad]

Great job! I like seeing the befores and afters. I am always happy when I've had success in that dept.
m

[Joe M]

They look great Sela!

[NMarti]

Sela
Another beautiful image. Hey - hog away - I'm enjoying it! :D

[selawela]

Sela, that's some happy dogs!
one thing- the black lab seems to be having hat hair or something.

Thanks, everyone!

Ellen, the black lab, Zoe, does seem to have had a bad hair day in the photo. I can't figure out what the problem is with the hair. As you can seen, she was the one that I did not move in the photo, so I have no idea what the heck happened to the top of her head. Very odd! Maybe I should put a hat on her!:D

Thanks again, everyone, for compliments. I see that I may have to do some more adjustments here after checking it this morning.

Have a great day, everyone.

[photoshopsusieq]

You don't have to apologize for anything, Sela. We love seeing your work. Your SNL is going to love her present.

[Elemobe]

Sela, Great dogs, picture and effect. Thanks for showing this, has given me a few ideas for some of my dog photos where they are just too far apart.

[nkeevers]

Sela, they look great so you're justified in showing the "before" and "after"s off! They are certainly great looking dogs and you did a great job!

[Karin Sue]

I love before and afters.

While you might not want to put hats on for the christmas gift, I think using the picture with santa hats or birthday hats for a personalized card would be great.

[selawela]

Thanks again, ladies. Karin, it's funny you should mention the hats...their mom put
Santa hats on them and sent them out as Christmas cards a couple of years ago! They looked adorable. I just asked my husband if he had ever noticed that Zoe's head is pretty flat (the black lab.) He laughed! He always makes fun of our dog for having a bone head! Block head & bone head...funny!

[smiles]

Nice Job Sela! She will be pleased with her gift!:)

[swalkr]

Love your b & a. Gives me a lot of inspiration to see what you've done.

[selawela]

This little angel is so much fun to work with. Her mom sent me another picture to "fix." I did!

Before:
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/17jQIFs3VDY2F5ulT2gOQVl9ODr6zd1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=17jQIFs3VDY2F5ulT2gOQVl9ODr6zd1)

After:
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1Pjye8Io0hibLTD0REzHNEEzHKWrc_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Pjye8Io0hibLTD0REzHNEEzHKWrc)

[selawela]

Love your b & a. Gives me a lot of inspiration to see what you've done.

Thank you all so much!

[NMarti]

Sela
She is such a cutie! Nice job with that one too!

[selawela]

she is so much fun to work on. her eyes are just amazing!

thank so much.

[JulieM]

Sela, that is so lovely! What did you do to create the "after"?

[selawela]

Sela, that is so lovely! What did you do to create the "after"?

Thank you, Julie! I want to say it was a complex technique that I created full of difficult steps, but I CAN'T It was as simple as pie.

What I did first was use the clone stamp and healing brush to erase the bit of food on her face and the scratch under her eye. Then I burned a bit her eyelashes to emphazie them a bit, make them more pronounced and defined. Then I sharpened her eyes, after selecting them. I believe I merged all the layers and then I did a smart blur on her entire face. Then I went back with the eraser and erased the smart blur effect on her eyes and other areas that I wanted to define a bit...using different opacities and brush sizes.

Then I did an adjustment level and slid the very bottom slider all the way to the left to blacken the picture. Then with an airbrush I painted away with the color black the "black" on her face and erased accordingly. Of course, I'm constantly changing the opacity and the size of the brush as I paint away the "black." I have the best results with an airbrush.

Hope this makes sense. Thanks again!

[qcocoq]

It's phenomenal Sela. She's so lucky to have you as personal photo re-toucher!

[JulieM]

Sela, thanks for the instructions. It really is a fantastic portrait. What part of the procedure takes the away the tint and makes the face porcelain?

[selawela]

Julie, after using the healing brush and the clone stamp to take out the imperfections, and after merging all the layers, I applied a smart blur...then erased the eyes and other areas using different opacities to sharpen back the areas that I want to define, like the eyes, lips, nostrils, etc. (That's the part that creates the porcelain look.)

Then after that is when I remove some color in the photo...I think I just reduced the saturation, that's all. I just play around and sometimes I do stuff thinking that I should write it down, but I never do. However, this is pretty much exactly what I did to create this look. Good luck, and try it out and show us what you come up with!

[JulieM]

Thanks, Sela!