If anyone is bored and needs something to do...
 

... could you advise me on what to do with these photos? I've been playing around with some actions but whatever I try seems harsh and fake looking :thumbdown:

I took these photos spur of the moment as we were running out the door and I know the lighting sucks, but I wanted some photos of her in this outfit while she was all "done up" because she usually is such a tomboy and I don't get dressy photos very often :D

If you could give me some tips on what to actually play with or recommend some actions that would work well I would appreciate it. I never know if I should sharpen a photo first or work on the tone first or the lighting first, etc. I want to learn to edit my photos better and for the most part I do okay, but I'm having issues with these!

Thank you!

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...4/P3230013.jpg
http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...4/P3230012.jpg
http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...4/P3230011.jpg

I love these photos! They feel so vintage to me with that skirt so I did some quick lightening and popping then added a vintage filter to play up that feel :)

https://img.skitch.com/20120425-1w5n...ui9rqtg46a.jpg

P.S. this is just a screenshot, so the quality is low comparatively :)

I played around.....I used actions, but not sure if I can share the name...*giggles*.....

http://i46.tinypic.com/37afc.jpg

http://i47.tinypic.com/f230jm.jpg

http://i48.tinypic.com/2zxz5ua.jpg

http://i47.tinypic.com/14jm4xj.jpg

Your daughter looks so lovely in that blue skirt!! You were right to take pictures. :)

I thought I'd just brighten them up for you. It's a few adjustments... levels, curves, and a color overlay.I have an action that I made myself to do this to my dark photos quickly... it's basically a "lighten up" action. I'm in CS5 and if you are in photoshop I would be happy to tell you the settings so you can repeat it. :) One of the images was a tiny bit blurry, so I did a high pass filter to sharpen it up. Gorgeous pics!!! I was almost tempted to scrap them!

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...k/P3230013.jpg
http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...k/P3230012.jpg
http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...k/P3230011.jpg

Thanks for all the input ladies :) I really like them all, now I can play around and see about achieving some of them.

Brooke, I use PSE 9 so probably what you did won't work in PSE. I do have quite a few M4H actions and some others but I haven't really learned how to "tweak" them yet.

Do you flatten your image after each action and before you use another action or do you run them all on top of each other then flatten one time? Does it make a difference? Should I sharpen last or first?

Thanks again!