A lot of people don't realize that this pose is actually done with a composite.  A composite is when you take 2 or more photos and combine them in photoshop or another editing program.  I honestly believe this is the safest way to have this shot done.  You shouldn't balance a 10 day old on their arms just like you wouldn't balance a 2 year old on a high wire.  NOT SAFE.

As always, if you don't feel comfortable or confident achieving the pose, don't do it.  This pose is not for everyone, and that's ok. 

The first step is to take 2 photos.  The first one, I get baby in position and while I hold onto their arms, mom or dad (I usually ask dad to help because his hands are larger and he usually can get a better grip) holds their head.  As soon as baby settles, I will remove my hand and dad will hold baby's head up so there is little to no pressure of baby's head on his/her wrists and arms.  After I take that shot, I will have dad put his other hand where my hand used to be and hold baby's arms.  Dad will then remove his hand from baby's head and I will take another shot.  These are the two shots I got:

Once you have them open in your editing program (I use Photoshop Cs4), I merge the 2 photos.  I usually like to grab the one where dad is hold baby's arms and drag it onto the one where he is holding baby's head.  I lower the opacity of the top layer to about 50% and line them up as evenly as possible.  Now, when I line them up, I'm not lining up the whole picture.  I'm only going to use about 10-20% of the top photo just to form the rest of baby's head in the second photo.  I hope that makes sense!  And if not, hopefully you can see what I mean in the next few steps  ;)

Once I have them lined up, I return the top photo to it's original opacity and create a layer mask.  I then selected my brush tool and for this photo, I set the size to about 500 and you want the opacity set to 100.  Now, if my layer mask is all black, I'm going to choose the color white to paint over it and if my layer mask is white, I'm going to choose the color black to paint over it.  I like to set my layer mask to black and paint with white so that I'm painting ON the photo I want.  If it was opposite, I would be painting OFF the photo I don't want.  Still with me?

In this next photo, you can see where I have painted ON the photo on top  :)

Now that I have completely painted on the photo I want and everything looks pretty good, I can flatten my image.  However, you can see in the photo below, that because my photos did not line up EXACTLY, I have a few areas I need to clone out.

And here it is all finished!

Now you're free to process your photo how you would normally do it!  I created the image below by using actions from Florabella, Keri Meyers, and Purely Studio.

Have a great weekend everyone! And don't forget to sign up for our newsletter!

It's time for another Feature Friday!!  Today, we are featuring photographer Tasha York from Shawnee Oklahoma!

Thanks so much for sharing Tasha!  And I'm glad you like the music!  ;)



It's time again for another weekend recipe!

Today, I will show you how to take this photo from this:



To this:

So, very simple, light, and airy  :)

Photoshop Cs4 (may work in other versions of photoshop)

First, my white balance was a little off and I've got some funky colors going on in the background.  To fix that, I used my lasso tool to select the background (there are many different ways to do this, I just pick whatever's easiest for me).  I then created a hue/saturation adjustment layer and brought down the cyan, blue, and yellow sliders.

I then brightened up the whole picture by duplicating the layer and setting it to screen at a very low opacity (like 15%).  I then followed the steps from my skin smoothing tutorial to even out her skin a little bit.  Don't over do this part because you don't want your subject to look like a porcelain doll.

I then ran Classic Color from Florabella's Classic Workflow set.  I use this action at a very low opacity (like 25%) to add just a bit of pop to the photo.  Then I run my favorite action, Milk, from Florabella's Luxe II action set.  I ungroup the layers and adjust each one as so:  warm haze (15%), turn off cool haze, turn off more haze, pure milk (5%), tone (10%), contrast (10%),  lighten (10%).  Now of course all of these numbers depend on what photo you are working on and what kind of look you are going for.  In this photo, I was going for light, soft, and creamy, but not too much.  Don't be afraid to mess around with your settings.

I also last minute cloned out the teddy bear poking up (and I didn't do a very good job, because I just noticed it before I was about to post this!  lol).

and wa-la!

Feel free to share links in the comment section below if you try out this recipe!  ;)

Harper, Harper, Harper.  I just love her name and can't stop saying it!  Little Harper was born 5 weeks early and only weighed 4lbs 12oz when she was born (so yeah, I'm not just throwing around the word little, she was tiny!)


But with that tiny little package is one gorgeous little girl!  I mean, can you not see her features?  And at only 12 days old!  You work it girl  ;)

(beautiful bonnet by Pipers Posies)

I also offer these adorable accordion mini albums!  I may be a little obsessed with them, but how could you not be?  They are perfect for gifts to grandparents, little brag books to put in your purse, or even a little display in baby's room!  :)

I just sent out my very first Monthly Newsletter!  Every month I will be sending out a newsletter filled with news on upcoming events, specials, tips & tricks, etc.  Want in on it?  It's not too late to sign up!  I will be re-sending the March Newsletter again next week!  Each newsletter will be sent on the 1st of every month.

Have you ever seen a baby with such suave hair?  He looks like a little dude already and he was only 10 days old!