MARCH 2019 CHALLENGE | IMPERFECT PHOTOS

[Ellasspace]

Hello everyone, Ella here... and I am so excited to be hosting my first challenges here at TDP! This challenge is the Imperfect Photos Challenge!

This challenge is all about just that -- those photos we love, despite the fact that they have turned out less-than-perfect. Sometimes they are too blurry... too dark... or they have distracting backgrounds... or even worse, maybe even photo-bombed by a perfect stranger... you get the idea.

For this challenge, instead of tossing those memories out because the photo wasn't perfect... let's clean them up and use them anyway! For instance, HERE is a blog post with ideas on how to scrap with those imperfect photos that we still really love.

This next photo was one of my favorite photos... taken on a beautiful summer day last year when my granddaughter, Everly, stayed with me for couple weeks. OF COURSE it was the only photo to not turn out correctly that day; something in the lighting caused the whole image to have a green tint. For this challenge, I decided to fix it so I could use it anyway. I love the option to turn photos to black and white (or sepia), as that often cleans them up... so I am choosing to go black and white. I’m extremely OCD about photos being pleasing to the eye on my layouts, so this challenge was exciting for me!

Here is a look at my photo before I "fixed" it...



...and here is my cleaned-up image, added to a scrapbook page...



[ for this example, I used Midsummer Day by creashens ]

Isn't that fun?

Additionally... I encourage you not to be afraid to take the "fix" even further, and possibly try something completely different/new to you... as shown in the following example, created by my fellow TDP creative team member Christelle...



In her example, above, she has "corrected" her less-than-perfect photos by creating a pop-art look. Isn't it great? If you love this look, but have no clue how to do it in your photo editing software.. tune in to The Digital Press blog this coming Tuesday, March 5th, and she's written up a tutorial!



Here are the rules/requirements:

• Your creation must be a new project (digital or hybrid) that includes at least 1 imperfect photo you have fixed and also include the imperfect photo as it looked before you changed it as I have to show the difference you have made.
• You must use 100% TDP products, and your layout or project must be loaded into the gallery no later than 11:59 pm ET on March 31, 2019.
• Once you've loaded your project image in the CHALLENGE GALLERY, please leave a comment in this thread and link us back to your project in the gallery.
• Once you've posted your project here in this thread ... copy the URL to that post and add it to the MARCH 2019 TRACKING THREAD.
• Have fun!

.

[KingsQueen82]

Here's my page! I love this photo of my youngest and me, not because it's a great photo -- she's not even looking - but there are so few photos of us together. My husband was deployed and my oldest daughter was too young to use a camera so this one is a rarity! It's blurry but I turned it sepia tone so it has more of a vintage (and thereby acceptably bad quality? lol) feel to it!

[Ellasspace]

Here's my page! I love this photo of my youngest and me, not because it's a great photo -- she's not even looking - but there are so few photos of us together. My husband was deployed and my oldest daughter was too young to use a camera so this one is a rarity! It's blurry but I turned it sepia tone so it has more of a vintage (and thereby acceptably bad quality? lol) feel to it!

Beautifully done Cassie, I love your layout! Thank you for playing along!

[caliten]

I'm one of those people who likes to scrap vacations chronologically, but I will put off making pages (yes, I make a page/layout plan before I start) if the photos aren't great. This was one of those .... I knew that I wanted a page about driving north (and the road signs that actually had huge arrows pointing up, and the words TO THE NORTH ..... that, of course, I didn't get a photo of), but my only photos (there are three) were taken from the middle of the back seat of our rental vehicle while hurtling down the road. Of there, three, here's the one I chose:



I used a photo editing plug-in for Photoshop CS called AlienSkin. I first adjusted the highlights (making them brighter), then made a copy and applied a black and white filter. I selectively masked the brightened color photo to show only the road sign, and then clipped two photos to a 3x4" mat, and adjusted the photo size to trim out as much of the interior of the car as I could. Then, I covered a distracting part of the photo with a cluster, and tried to add other interesting details so that the viewer's eye doesn't linger on the less-than-stellar photo.

[Ellasspace]

I'm one of those people who likes to scrap vacations chronologically, but I will put off making pages (yes, I make a page/layout plan before I start) if the photos aren't great. This was one of those .... I knew that I wanted a page about driving north (and the road signs that actually had huge arrows pointing up, and the words TO THE NORTH ..... that, of course, I didn't get a photo of), but my only photos (there are three) were taken from the middle of the back seat of our rental vehicle while hurtling down the road. Of there, three, here's the one I chose:



I used a photo editing plug-in for Photoshop CS called AlienSkin. I first adjusted the highlights (making them brighter), then made a copy and applied a black and white filter. I selectively masked the brightened color photo to show only the road sign, and then clipped two photos to a 3x4" mat, and adjusted the photo size to trim out as much of the interior of the car as I could. Then, I covered a distracting part of the photo with a cluster, and tried to add other interesting details so that the viewer's eye doesn't linger on the less-than-stellar photo.

Awesome job Carrie this turned out fabulous!!

[tiffany scraps]

I didn't like the way the flash made Dakota's skin tones look nor did I like the blurred hand because he moved it when I snapped the pic. I solved the problems by converting to b&w and by cropping the hand out of the image in my page.



http://forums.thedigitalpress.co/gal...ol-boy&cat=502

[Ellasspace]

I didn't like the way the flash made Dakota's skin tones look nor did I like the blurred hand because he moved it when I snapped the pic. I solved the problems by converting to b&w and by cropping the hand out of the image in my page.

Adorable photo I love what you did with your photo and layout Tiffany! Thank you for playing along!

[nanascrapper]

TDP March 2019 Imperfect Photo
I started with this photo which I had scanned from a negative. I had to resolve the orange colour, by desaturating it and then played around with lighting levels. Then I had to do something about the white circular blemish. I did this by using the Clone tool and lots of patience. I used the spot healing brush for the blemish on my mum's face and cropped out the imperfection on the left hand side. This is a rare photo of my mother holding my sister 1965 so this challenge gave me the impetus to photoshop it finally!

[corrin]

wow, what a brillant improvement! I can imagine the time and patience that must have taken to "fix" the blemishes in your original picture, well done! And the page you have scrapped with it is lovely, sweet and with a vintage feel - so pretty!

[Ellasspace]

TDP March 2019 Imperfect Photo
I started with this photo which I had scanned from a negative. I had to resolve the orange colour, by desaturating it and then played around with lighting levels. Then I had to do something about the white circular blemish. I did this by using the Clone tool and lots of patience. I used the spot healing brush for the blemish on my mum's face and cropped out the imperfection on the left hand side. This is a rare photo of my mother holding my sister 1965 so this challenge gave me the impetus to photoshop it finally!

Fabulous job restoring a family photo! I love what you did with the layout too! Well done, thank you for playing along.

[Dragonhome]

This is me at age 4 1/2 months with my oldest sister on the front stairs of the house I grew up in.

I always wanted to scrap these pictures, but they were too dark and trying to lighten them changed the colors too much. This challenge made me realize that I could turn them to B&W and lighten them and it worked out great.


One I concerted the picture to B&W, I was able to lighten it so you could see more detail. These pictures were originally slides that my brother has recently begun scanning. Other than himself, I am the only one that that will have a complete copy of all the slides so I can use them in my scrapbooks (he said I can share the scrapbook pages, but not the scans).

[Ellasspace]

You did an amazing job with them thank you for sharing the original photo!

[Ellasspace]

This is me at age 4 1/2 months with my oldest sister on the front stairs of the house I grew up in.

I always wanted to scrap these pictures, but they were too dark and trying to lighten them changed the colors too much. This challenge made me realize that I could turn them to B&W and lighten them and it worked out great.

Awesome memories saved, can you post one of the original photos to show the difference you have made. Thank you for joining in your layout is lovely!

[Ga_L]

here's the original photo


and my page :


thank you for the challenge

[Ellasspace]

Awesome job cropping and focusing on the subject in your layout Gaelle, beautiful black and white work too. Thank you for joining in!

[Ga_L]

thank you

[sylvia]

here's my original photo



my page ...

[Ellasspace]

Beautiful job with this challenge Sylvia!