Photographing

With baby Nate's arrival, I've been experimenting with a new technique to make my photos appear softer.  He is so pink and smooth and my camera can not seem to capture that image.  So here's the recipe:  Open photo and duplicate.

Turn off top layer and adjust levels on bottom layer to give a good contrast.  Each photo varies.

Turn on top layer and apply Glausian Blur at 25% reducing opacity between 30-40%.  Erase, at 100% the eyes and mouth.  You may want to erase other areas at a lesser opacity to bring out a little more detail.  Merge the two layers.

Set the color chips to black and white. Go to Filter>Distort>Diffuse Glow and make adjustments according to your preferences.  To make the layout pictured below, I cut out the upper right corner of the photo and applied a mask from Brandy Murry's Junk in the Trunk.  I've discovered that this technique works well on Grandmother's wrinkles (but keep that a secret!).

Now he looks like Grandma's eyes really see him.  (Getting a shot with his knee in just the right place was a challenge!)

I grouped all of the elements and merged them together.  I then applied this technique to the cluster as well to give the entire page a more gentle appearance.  The products used are Brandy Murry's Love, Honor and Cherish, Cloudscape Paper, Scattered Gold Embellishments, Bees Knees, Swirls and Pearls2, and Persian Lace Paper.