Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Creating Dreamy Winter Portraits

 
On my bucket list for portraits I wanted to shoot
this winter was photographing ice skating.
 
Our friends Bill and Lisa create an ice rink in their back yard and
I was thrilled when it finally froze during this mild winter!
 
 
Their daughter Susie was a great model for me.
 
 
I was looking for a dreamy look...
 
 
But as you can see in this next photo...their yard was
a bit cluttered with a wire fence, boards around the edge of
the rink, and even some Christmas lights strung on the fence.

 
I started by cloning out the fence, boards and
Christmas lights to get this:
 
 
Because I was shooting a moving subject, I used a
deep depth of field (f8 aperature) while shooting to
keep her in focus.
 
As a result, the cluttery background was in clear focus too...
so in Photoshop (or you can use Elements.)
I blurred the background.
 
Learn how to do this HERE.
 
 
 
I love this next step.  I use
 
They are beautiful and transparent and so easy to use.
Kristy tells how in her blog.
 
For my skating photos, I used Champagne #4
because it's very white.  I actually applied it twice to make it
extra misty.
 
 
I love how the overlays give that misty, wintery,
dreamy look.
 
 
I also added some fake falling snow that you can
learn how to add on this earlier blog post.

 
Throw in an added touch with Kristy's Let it Snow overlays.
 
 
And, get this:
 
 
I transformed all the skating photos:
 
 
And, you can do the same with your winter photos.
 
Have a WINTER BLAST with this!
 
 
I posted this in:
 
 
 
 
Ni Hao Yall

14 comments:

The Artful Diva said...

Go, Susie, go! Great photos and I really am delighted with your processing!

EG CameraGirl said...

Love these photos. Wonderful how you've captured the action.

Pieces of Sunshine said...

Beautifully done (and edited). Your last is my favourite.

Pam ;) said...

The sweetest snow fairies I've ever seen.

NatureFootstep said...

great instructions. Love the end result. :) Will take a closer look at it.

Susan said...

Oh my!! These are all just gorgeous.

Love your edit!!

Nora at Island Rambles said...

I have been spending a lot of time here going through your blog from time to time and learning a lot of great tips...thanks for sharing all your knowledge.

Kristy LifenReflection said...

OMGoodness these are so DREAMY Jill!! You always amaze me!!

tiarastantrums said...

beautiful! so much fun!

Joanna said...

These are so pretty! What a great technique! Thanks for sharing! I learned something new today! :)

Madge Bloom said...

SO beautiful... and your technical editing made these skating portraits even more so! I'm so glad you came by to share on Weekly Top Shot #68!

Annie said...

That is AWESOME! Beautiful pics!!!!

gtyyup said...

Simply beautiful!! Thanks too for stoppin' by~

Ting liu said...
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