Tyler Senior Photos Part Two

Photos speak to me. 

I know that sounds stupid but-

Wait, wait! 

I did that post already : )

How do I edit photos?

Greatly. Extravagantly. 

And with ACTIONS.

If you know even a smidge about photoshop, then you know about actions. They are a set of "CLICKS TO MAKE YOUR PHOTO LOOK COOLER"

assembled into an "action." It's like getting a grab bag at the Hello Kitty Store. 

A bunch of cool stuff packed neatly into one container. 

This is so you don't have to push the same buttons again, and again, and again. 

See my watermark?

That's the MELANIE SEGALLA on each photo.

I just push a button and it appears! Like MAGIC! 

I've even given it a super awesome name.

It's the "Melanie Watermark" action.

You take a photo,

You do a few little adjustments (skin, teeth, eyes, sharpen) on your own

and then comes the aforementioned DOLLOP. 

You push a button. And the action magic happens.

Yes, its not that simple. 

But that's a start. 

(Later I'll talk about layers and painting and opacity and fill and....etc. all part of the action fun.)

I'm going to give you a present. 

A PRESENT. 

Well, its a regift, as I didn't exactly "buy" it myself,

but it is invaluable! 

You buy actions. I lust after them. 

I want ALIEN SKIN and TOTALLY RAD PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS and 

HOLY FREAK THE HOLY GRAIL, THE SKIN PLUGIN

and MCP ACTIONS

and....and....and.....

But, since they are FREAKING EXPENSIVE

(some photographers get together and buy them and share them so when I tap into that I will die of excitement, but that hasn't happened yet ; )

I use these two sites that are insanely great for FREE ACTIONS. 

Here's one. The one(s) I use most.

(For Photoshop Elements)

PIONEER WOMAN ACTION SET ONE AND TWO

And for the fancy schmancy photoshop (this is the one I use)

PIONEER WOMAN ACTION SET ONE AND TWO FOR FANCY PHOTOSHOP

and this blog has a lot, a lot, of free photoshop actions, which she even explains how she made! 

I use the BRIGHT EYES action in almost every photo : )

THE COFFEE SHOP BLOG FREE ACTIONS

The thing about Photoshop is you use it with a light hand. Conversely, I use a 'light hand' all over the photo. But I just change a little bit in each part. I don't think there's anything wrong with helping a photo live up to its full potential : ) Below, I will tell you which pioneer woman action I used on each photo.

Fresh and Colorful, Boost, Bright Eyes, Define and Sharpen, a hint of Lovely and Ethereal.

Pioneer Woman (PW) black and white is one of my favorite black and white actions ever. I used it AFTER the above photo was edited and done. This is an action that needs toggling on levels. Something I will explain in a later post : )

P&W Black and White. Just a crazy photo : ) I personally love it : )

After this photo was edited and done, seventies taken down to 50%. (Only 50 percent of the seventies action was used.)

I love this action! After this photo was edited and done, a heavy dollop of Old West! This action needs a certain kind of photo, so I only use it every once in a while.

Need I tell you? P&W black and white : )

Regular editing. Eyes (Bright Eyes) skin, Boost, Define and Sharpen, a touch of Lovely and Ethereal.

PW Black and White, a generous helping of Define and Sharpen applied to certain parts of the photo.

Ditto for this one as above.

After edited and done, A half order of seventies again : )

This is an example of using layers. I MUST explain this later. Pioneer woman's action 'Sunshine' applied to a photo that already had a little bit of sunshine and I just wanted to boost up the flare. Using layers, I applied a tiny bit of the sunshine action to the right side of the photo only. Layers are fabulous. Ok, for serious, post next week on layers.

Ah, the road. I love the road. It calls to me, its dangerousness is enticing : ) PW black and white.

Edited and done with a generous generous serving of seventies action.

PW Black and White.

Ditto, cropped.

Seventies again. Seventies action is another one that has a certain "feel" to it. When I 'feel' that 'feeling', seventies action never lets me down : )

Very light dusting of PW black and white.

Boost, eyes and skin touched up, heavy sharpness on the clothes, boost again, a medium helping of lovely and ethereal. Also, the Quick edge burn action (which makes the edges darker)

In the top three favorite of these photos I took. Those eyes! Deep and dark and beautiful. PW Black and White.

This photo uses one of my absolute ABSOLUTE favorite photoshop actions that I use ALL THE TIME. Here is the link. Free again of course : ) Inverted Mary The key with this action is to only use it on a separate layer, not the background. (Watch for my layers post for reals) It takes away some of the color of the skin, lightens the skin, and darkens the dark parts. Time and time again it has made a photo "pop" for me.

I use Lovely and Ethereal a lot, but for Tyler, it didn't seem quite right. It's soft and pretty, not something I was going for in Tyler's senior photos. But on a hunch, I used it here, and I love it. I think it is the perfect balance between the edgy look I was going for, and a lovely portrait of a really awesome kid. 

So there are the rest of my photos of Tyler! It was so much fun. I am very grateful for the chance to do a senior shoot, and I hope I get to do another one soon! I hope these links will help you get a photo, dig into photoshop with a gigantic shovel, and wow yourself. 

Ok, get used to it but here it is again.

I LOVE PHOTOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Twins I never Had

 Long ago in a land far far away 

(The mountains seem VERY FAR from the desert)

I was a small child. 

I wanted to grow up and become a mom.

But not just a mom.

A MOM OF SEPTUPLETS!

Around the time the McCaughey family produced seven babies, I, with the happy blindness of youth looked past the seven screaming infants and 900 bottles lining the counter and the 600 daily diaper changes and the Mt. Everest of laundry and 2 hours of sleep a night and the nomoneynomoneynomoney situation and thought....

Now that looks really fun!

I hope I get to do that!

Yes as a matter of fact I did eat paint chips as a child, 

why do you ask?

When I was in my teens, I looked back fondly at my youth, shook my head and laughed. Septuplets. What a dork. 

I'll be fine with quints when the time comes. 

When I got married, I just knew triplets were around the corner. I knew Heavenly Father would grant my wish to birth a litter. 

When I had Kurt, I reveled in my sweet firstborn, and looked fondly forward to my next pregnancy which would of course be twins. Surely Heavenly Father could not deny me one extra baby. 

I mean, I pay tithing, right?

I proceeded to have four singletons, and then my friend Angel realized my dream

and had herself some twins. 

And they are GORGEOUS!!!!

And sweet and squishy and pink and perfect, and

here's the best part of all.

They're HERS!!!!!

And not mine. : )

Just kidding. 

But for serious, I now...finally....see that having twins is more work than building the Salt Lake Temple. 

But I got to take pictures of them. : ) 

And I fully intend to feed those babies once a week : )

(Don't knock it, it takes a while : )

Have I put enough smiley faces on this post yet?

: )

And Liam, their older brother who loves them more than any other being has loved any other soul in this world. 

I can't say this too many times.

I LOVE YOU ANGEL AND LIAM AND ELSIE AND EMMY!!!

Sweetest. Boy. Ever.

I still want twins. : )

Tyler's Senior Essence : )

 Photos speak to me. 

I know that sounds stupid, but it's true. 

On the tv show Bones (which I love, except when it gets sappy because you can't really put perfect bodies, perfect makeup, perfect teeth and perfect David Boreanaz in the same room with sappy and not have an itch to change the channel)

The BONES speak to Bones. The photos speak to me. 

When I am editing, I do not see the people go all Harry Potter on me and start moving and talking, no worries that this is a crazy blog. 

They have a feel to them. 

I can't even pinpoint or find a word for their feel. They just feel.

 Like, why does yellow go with purple?

No seriously, why. 

I'm totally serious. Why?

It just does. 

Or as Joe Dirt's Dad would say, "How exactly is a rainbow made? How exactly does the sun set? 

How exactly does the posi-trac rear end on a Plymouth work?

It just does."

(That's such a an awesome movie. 
You don't even know how many times a day I say,

"Life's a Garden, Dig it". 
Or, "Keep on keeping on!" And, "Don't church it up son.")

Anyways. 

I've read a few places that when you are editing you have to be careful so you don't settle in to making every photo look the same. I don't think I have that problem, because every photo speaks to me differently. A photo evokes an emotion, a memory, and heaven freaking knows how many different kinds of those there are. I take the pictures using my super special (and pretty basic) CAMERA SKILLS. Exposure...sharpness....depth of field....ISO.....working the shadows or eliminating them.....etc. 

And then I go home.

And the magic begins. For me. 

I have no idea what its doing to anyone else.

Although it would be nice if if the people I am taking pictures for like the photos. That's definitely in there as a goal.

So first I do basic things, making all those necessary touch ups....and then I add a little dollop of something. Something that matches what this photo is telling me. 

And that's all I know about how to describe it. 

Which is vague and I'm sorry. 

I just mean, certain colors or actions or effects, highlighting, low lighting, all these things work together to create this photo that is matching what I saw through the lens and lifts off the screen into my brain. 

The end. 

Now to the actual reason I am posting right now. 

Meet Tyler!

And his mom : )

We went out to the desert to take some photos of Tyler getting ready to leave High School behind in the dust. 

(Literally. Its windy out here.)

It was, as always, one of the funnest shoots ever!

Jeanette (Tyler's mom) is so so nice. It's always nice to do a shoot with happy smiling people. And while Tyler requested a more serious kind of a look represented here, his smile is pretty great too. 

So, here ya go! 

And thank you Tyler and Jeannette : )

Happy graduation!!!

My sister Elise loved this photo. Like, "GQ ALERT!"

I'm into the symbolism here. The END of school : )

And chairs are just cool. : )

Accidental Edit Alert! I love it! Thank goodness for accidental edits. They teach me more than youtube sometimes.

Another thing about photo shoots is I always have a favorite. And they're usually not the obvious one. I'm not sure if this is obvious or not, but this one is my favorite. I have three boys, maybe that's why, but here is Tyler. Here he is grown up, tattooed, girlfriended, about to graduate, ready to go off into the world, and here he is with his mom. And that last sentence is why this is my favorite. I'm a big fan of boys and their moms. : )

Joe and I and the kids went on a nature walk on Sunday with Grandpa Segalla. I lived in the mountains from the time I was 9 to the time I was 21. For 13 years I took it for granted that I lived amongst tall green trees and gorgeous forests and sweet smelling air and amazingness. As an annoying preteen, and then a punk teenager, and then a notices nothing but her man newlywed, I failed to fully appreciate the woods, for these same 13 years. I thought they were beautiful of course, but I just absorbed them as normal. Then, because life does not like to be ignored, I moved to the desert. Now, the desert is wonderful. The people I go to church with are my family, the air is always clean and sweet, sunshine nearly every day, sky everywhere, house with a lotta land. But.

I don't know if you've heard but there's no forest in the desert. 

Fortunately, Joe's parents love the mountains like I should have all those 13 years. So they are still there, and we get to visit them. 

We went on a nature walk just when the sun was getting ready to sunset itself, and the glory began. I slowpoked myself up and down the road so I could snap, snap, snap. 

The woods are such a testimony to the existence of God. There is perfection in every little detail. There is beauty in every tiny thing you see. It's almost too much to take in. 

So, here are a few things that stopped me in my tracks, and yelled at me for not noticing them before, and then they laughed at me because I now live in the desert. 

I don't think I'll ever leave the desert though, the desert has its own beauty, and were I to go back to the mountains, the smells and the sights and the trees, they would not be appreciated as much as they are when I get to go visit them. 

Was that a run on sentence or what? 

My next post will have people in them. My family, in the woods. Perfection times two. 

Like the tree bark, I've gotten a little sappy. : )

 Jessica. Mark. Lucas. 

Perfection. 

I love my sister, and her husband and my nephew SO MUCH!!!! 

Sunset pictures are the best time for backlighting, and the sun even throws in an un-sun dappled face for free! 

I want to take this same picture in the exact same place and the exact same positions every year for the next 40 years : )

Pretty much my favorite photo I've ever taken.

It was very hard to have Jessica as an older sister growing up....beauty wise. She was Grace Kelly and I was the spitting image of Punky Brewster. She's as sweet as she is gorgeous though, I love her.