It's Dare!

A little page to share today featuring goodies from the August Studio Calico kit - lots of yummy bits as always this month all nestled on my favourite Kraft card! I also love the Kraft coloured Hambley journalling stickers!

The picture on this one features Martha who seems to be daring me to let her off into the water... she's quite well behaved most of the time, but she is prone to either legging it off to get fellow walkers as wet as possible or even worse, plonking herself in the middle of a lake, pond or way out in the sea and refusing to come out! It's been known for me to have to resort to wading out after her! Ah.... the joys of Newfie ownership!

We don't need no education...

There's a new challenge over at A True Friend - and this time it's all about our pets' education. My page is all about how despite me teaching Martha all sorts of 'important' stuff.... the things I think she would consider to be the most important are the things she learnt from her big sister Lola! Click on the image to check out my journalling...

My page is mostly using some of the Gorgeous 'Rose Moka' papers and stickers, along with some BasicGrey buttons, Doodlebug Trims and Flocking, AC Thickers, and some of the fab Love Elsie - Daisy embellishments.

The girls have come up with some gorgeous pages and there is even a prize for one lucky winner up for grabs!

Snuggly bug!

Even when she's all wet and slobbery... how could you resist a great big Newfie cuddle??

Snuggly bug!

Even when she's all wet and slobbery... how could you resist a great big Newfie cuddle??

Ahhhhh!

Spotted this almost unnaturally orange teeny, weeny baby calf following his mummy along a New Forest road yesterday - he really was this colour and WAY smaller than a Newfie!

So while I'm taking pictures out of the car window - (it's never wise to get between a calf and her mummy!) this pair rocked up for a nosey at Martha through the car window!

Excitement over we headed to the girls fave watering hole for a quick dip! Ahhhhh!

Ahhhhh!

Spotted this almost unnaturally orange teeny, weeny baby calf following his mummy along a New Forest road yesterday - he really was this colour and WAY smaller than a Newfie!

So while I'm taking pictures out of the car window - (it's never wise to get between a calf and her mummy!) this pair rocked up for a nosey at Martha through the car window!

Excitement over we headed to the girls fave watering hole for a quick dip! Ahhhhh!

Phast Photoshop....

I like to ideally get my photos right in camera, but sometimes situations with high levels of contrast (like a dark dog on a sunny day in a reflective or light environment like a pond) it can be tricky to get correct exposure of the light and the dark areas...

The focus of this picture (if you excuse the pun!) is Martha and to get good exposure of her, and to retain her facial detail etc, it meant over-exposing the background. I'm more than willing to use photoshop to enhance my pictures, but sometimes I don't have the time or inclination to use levels, curves etc. etc. to get a great result... however the good news is that Photoshop Elements has a few clever little tricks up it's sleeves.

I'm going to show you how to use the Shadows and Highlights tool to get a uber-fast quick fix. The defaults in the tool however are shockingly bad! They give a wholy unnatural look so you'll have to use those scary sliders!

(You can click on all these pics to get a closer look at the steps you need to take!)

So first i've done a small crop just to make the composition a bit more pleasing to my eye.

Next go to 'Enhance' on the toolbar followed by 'Adjust Lighting' and then 'Shadows and Highlights'

As I said the default that the tool suggests is ghastly! I don't want any lightening of the darker regions... I've already exposed correctly for these thanks very much Mr Adobe! It's the highlights we want to tame a tad!

So instead move the 'Lighten Shadows' slider back over to the left to 0%, then move the 'Darken Highlights' slider to the right.. you'll need to use your judgement on this one... but don't go crazy or you'll get an unnatural look. I've gone to 33% on this one.

And that's it... a subtle but effective tweak in a couple of minutes! This tool won't extract detail from totally blown out areas, but it can pull some warmth and detail from some overexposed bits!

Hope this might be useful to someone!