Before and After - Creating Mood Part II

Happy Pre Halloweeen

Many photographers discuss the concept of pre visualization. Personally I think the concept is great and the execution is difficult.
Ok, you are out in a field and see two dead trees on a sunny hot August day, do you say to yourself, "These trees would be perfect to process for an October Halloween scene!" Most likely not. However today when I am going through my catalog of images I liked and haven't processed yet, I did think just that. Not pre visualization in the field but perhaps pre visualization prior to processing.
Now to execute the idea. What mood does Halloween represent to me? Orange and black came to mind, and so did spooky - the trees were dead. So, as I often do, I opened the image in Snapseed and started to apply my magic. With Snapseed I was able to capture the golden orange and black look. Next I wanted the Old Photo Pro frame. Then I re opened it in Snapseed to saturate the orange once again. However the trees now needed some more definition so I used FX PhotoStudio to help achieve it and then using Image Blender I added a small amount of the effect.
In conclusion, as the image presented itself, I moved onto the next app that I knew would give me the look I wanted to accomplish. I believe that you can have a wonderful visual in your head, but if you don't know what is possible and you don't know what tools you have to make it possible, you will never achieve your goal. So practice, play, discover and explore.

Before

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Jessie for Halloween

Jessie, Toy Story

My daughters have always known how to have fun! We have had some crazy times together. Once we dresses up like Hillbillies and walked through Hollywood, along the Hollywood Walk of Fame and near Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Another time we styled our hair crazy with shopping bags and helium balloons, then went out to dinner to a salad bar restaurant for Mother's Day. 

This morning my oldest, Suzanne, dressed up as Jessie from Toy Story for work. We had fun this morning getting her ready and braiding her hair. I took a quick shot before she left for an important one on one meeting with a VP at Expedia.
My job was having fun processing the image. I used Perfect Photo for sharpening and Posterize. Next Blender for a few layers. Then using Filterstorm to brush and blend in areas. The favorite part of processing this image was using Filterstorm's Color filter to change the mustard yellow to a bright yellow and adding the stars in fx PhotoStudio. The frame is from PhotoToaster.

Crazy hairstyle! Crazy girls!

So many great memories!

The Hillbillies

Enjoy all the Halloween Festivities, be smart and safe!

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If you would like to learn how to capture and process iPhone images beyond a basic snapshot take an Online iPhoneography Course with Teri Lou. Two courses are available iPhoneography 101 and iCreativity. Click on the direct links in the upper left hand column of this blog for information, pricing and schedule.