How to Edit in RAW

Taking pictures in RAW is one of the things I wish I had started doing sooner. After taking the suggestion from a fellow photographer, I started doing it...and I love it. I took a class on it and it helped me so much.


First, open Bridge. If you have Photoshop, you have Bridge. Open the picture. Press command (if you have a mac) then R to open in Raw.

I'll start with one of my daughter, Lylah.

Here she is, on Easter. This was taken in RAW. She is about to fall asleep on her Great-grandma's lap at the Easter Egg hunt. She is great grand kid #20! 

So this is a great picture, Right? Right? Well, we can make it so much better. Here's how. 

1. Command and then R. Click the dropper at the top. Find a nice grey, neutral spot on the picture and click it. Then, I always up the exposure. I like that look. Not everyone does, but I love it.

2. Up the contrast. A little. I like +33.

3. Lower clarity.  I like -7. Up Vibrance. (just a little)

4. If you have skin color issues (not you personally, the subject) then you can up the orange or red on the tab that has the tiny lines. Play with it until you feel comfortable with the image. Here is our image now.

Already looking better, right? 

Now it's time for our vignette. Not everyone is a fan. I like a little vignette.

Go to the tab that says fx. Click where it says Amount and LOWER the number. 

A slight vignette can be pretty great. 

now add your photoshop magic...

That's a whole other post!

Don't forget....Open the image in Photoshop and save as a jpg. 

I always wanted to. . . . .

...Have a cute blog!

Okay, not that this was an easy feat. Because, I'm not a patient enough person to learn something new...sometimes. It depends. But today was the day. And this took me a while. I am not going to be like the people at iKea that told Ryan and me that it would only take us an hour to assemble our dresser. Liars. You can read about that here.

So I give you..... Blog Makeover 2011.

Step 1: Background, the easiest step
Find the background you want at www.shabbyblogs.com or 
www.thecutestblogontheblock.com or
ourblogtemplates.com or 
hotbliggityblog.com
or some other cute site. 
There will be a code. This is called an HTML code. Go to your Dashboard on blogger, click Design, and under the Page Elements tab, click  Add a Gadget in the box. Go to Add HTML. Copy the code and there you go!

Step 2: Get a header, duh (Some people call them banners)
So this is always so cute on other people's blogs, but I never thought I could do it. Till I saw a video at:
http://shabbyblogs.com/
Go there and pick out a header, download it and watch this video. http://shabbyblogs.com/?page_id=9&id=314
Presto chang-o!  I am sure their are other headers you can find and do the video steps.  There are some more here: http://thecutestblogontheblock.com/free/free-backgrounds.html?section=3
Now that was the easy part. Step 1 and 2 are a piece of cake compared to Step 3. If Step 1 and Step 2 were a challenge, I suggest you take a small break, or wait a day. If it makes you crazy, I am sorry. Really.

Step 3: Cute fonts
While looking at www.shabbyblogs.com I saw a free fonts site and I was skeptical. But what I discovered was a whole new world. I have always loved cute fonts, but never knew quite how to do it.
First, go to this site: http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/
Get you some adorable fonts and pick a favorite. I suggest writing it down, cause you need to spell it right later. Then, go here and follow the instructions. Make sure you follow them WORD FOR WORD, or you might wind up tearing your hair out.
http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/tutorials/how-to-use-a-cute-font-for-your-blogger-post-titles.html
I messed up something and had to go back through the steps a few times to get it right. But I think it was worth it! So cute, right?

But if Step 3 scares you, it shouldn't, cause it wasn't THAT bad. Now, I can't really help you if you are stuck. I am not THAT good. It did make me feel like I was cast in The Social Network....writing code, etc. Ha! How do people do this for a living! But if you just do Steps 1 and 2, you still have a make-over! :)

Enjoy!!