Creating My Own Autumn Tones...

It's been a while since I've had a chance to get back into my year long photography group/class Beyond Beyond with Kim Klassen.  I'm actually a few weeks behind, but decided to play with this week's lesson ideas (I'll get caught up on the others soon, I hope).

Working in Lightroom, I've taken a couple of images that I shot in the summer and following some of Kim's tips, I've played around to create an autumn feel to them.

Before

After

Before

After

I was able to add a nice, warm glow to the images, and yet, nothing beats the wonderful fall colours I captured in these images, which I took last fall while up at the cottage.  With the incredible forecast for the next week or so, I sure wish I was up there and not down here in the city!

It's always a good idea to look up when you're surrounded by beautifully colourful trees.  The contrast of those magnificent leaves against a bright blue sky is not to be missed!

Colours of Spring

Today in Beyond Beyond or 2B as we refer to it, Kim taught us another, easier way to create colour palettes in Photoshop Elements.  I love creating these from my photos, and sometimes use them for inspiration in my fibre art or art journalling.

Raw image right out of the camera

I know I've told you this before, but I also love Lightroom 4!  It opens up so many incredible possibilities.  I've learned how to create my own presets, so that I can apply several steps of an edit to an endless number of photos.  Again thanks to Kim and 2B, I was able to create a preset today that would warm up an image and give it a bit of a hazy, dreamy effect.  The best part is that because I've created a preset for it, I can now apply that same effect the other images with literally just one click!

There are so many wonderful things that can be done when you combine the best of both of these programs.

Dust-free Chalkboard Sign

I've been seeing a lot of chalkboard signs with vintage looking lettering lately and always being up on the very latest, Kim has been noticing this too.  She did a walk through in Beyond Beyond of a technique from Fontaholic's site on how to make your font look like chalk.  So I just had to play with the idea and a great quote I've been waiting to use...

Vicariously Visiting Ace Hotel in Palm Springs...

Have I ever mentioned how much fun it is to play with photos and digitally alter them?  Today's image is a compilation of an image that Kim gave us to play with in Beyond Beyond (the chairs sit outside the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs) and a photo of me when I was a little girl.  I've never been to California, but a girl can play!

Linking up with Beyond Beyond, Our World Tuesday, Texture Tuesday, Sweet Shot Tuesday