So with that being said, it’s been sunny a lot these past few weeks and I didn’t get many of my April goals accomplished. FAIL! But May is a new month and I won’t allow myself to get discouraged. There’s gonna be alot of roll over goals, but that’s ok. Maybe I’ll just have to throw in a goal or two involving being out in the sunshine more.

-Spend more time outdoors in the sun ; )

- Shoot twice in United.

- Paint the stripes in Chloe’s room (yep, a rollover goal for sure!)

- Vacuum, bucket and mop my floors ,and dust. (another rollover)

-Shoot Amy and Mark’s wedding and not throw up from nerves.

- Purchase the 70-200mm 2.8L IS…OH YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Have a fabulous time capturing and celebrating Andrea and Adam becoming Mr. & Mrs. Swisher! May 29^th!!!

- Take pictures of someone just for fun. Any takers?

- Drink more Vitamin Water. Man that stuff is GOOD! And I’m told it’s good for you.

-Play my guitar! Bring it home and actually get it out of the case and play. I did this last month pretty consistently, and loved playing. I loved how my fingertips started peeling from the calluses. I want to get back into that again.

- Go to a movie. In a theater. Maybe even on a Friday. Look out!

- Wear more colors. Someone told me I wear too much black and gray. So I’ll try branching out this month.

- Make more playlists on my Ipod.

- Did I say something already about enjoying sunshine? Well, either way, enjoy the SUN!

Here’s a sneak peek of the shoot from this morning. Alex is such a beautiful girl! I can’t wait for you guys to see more from this shoot!

Happy May!

Ashleigh Schwindt Photography will now be offering a Photobooth for weddings, events, parties, etc etc! I am SO excited about this! This is a great add on to a reception, and a fun creative way for you and your wedding guests to remember the day. BUT, it’s not just for weddings! It’s a great activity for any get together!

Pamela so graciously let me photograph her for some practice. We’re still trying to work out minor details here and there. My basement isn’t very tall or wide, so we had to make due with what we had for practicing purposes. We still have shadowing and height issues to conquer, but it’s FUN practice!

Even for a trial run, wow, doesn’t Pam look absolutely beautiful?! I have the best time whenever I’m with this girl. She’s a good sport and will pose anyway I tell her. You just gotta love her!!

You can look at these though, and think…  ‘Ashleigh, these aren’t very “crazybooth-ish”. This just looks more like a studio session.’   Yes, you’re right. Two thumbs up for the versatility of the CrazyBooth. Photobooth, and portable Studio. Two birds with one stone! Aww, yeah!!! The possibilities are endless!!!

So Take #1. Look for Takes #2-4 SOON SOON SOON!!!

So…ever wonder how to have a black and white picture, with one object in color? Like a BW face with blue eyes? Or a BW person with pink shoes? Or a BW tree with orange leaves? Get the picture?? Well I will show you how I do it using Photoshop. I can pretty much guarantee that there are easier, better, and faster ways of doing this. I still have to look stuff up sometimes, so it’d def a case of the blind leading the blind. I’ll throw in some Totally Rad Actions to make it legit :)

Here’s the ‘Before and After’ of the picture I’ll be using.

My TRA Recipe is:

Pro Retouch 60% and Eyebump 50%

Warm It Up Kris: 100%

Oh Snap: 75%

Select O Pop on eyes and lips: 60%

Boutwell Magic Glasses: 50%

Bitchin’ B&W: 100%

Rusty Cage: 100% with the Warm Up layer turned off and the Rusty Light layer at 50%

Select O Pop: 60% on hair and eyes again, 100% on flower

Boutwell Magic Glasses: 50%

After you have your picture the way you want it, group all the layers together except for the background layer, which would be your original picture. To group the layers together, select what layers you want grouped, go to the Layers Tab at the top of page, and click “Group Layers”. Easy, right? Even easier, would be to select the layers and hit Control G. Gotta love shortcuts!

After this, you should only have two layers in your layer palette.  Layer 0 and Group 1. Layer 0 is the original and Group 1 is all the layers and actions you just made, grouped into one folder. While Group 1 is selected, you’re going to have to create a layer mask for it. That’s the little button at the bottom of your layers palette that looks like a box with a circle in it. It’s the 5th in from the right, third in from the left. After you click that box, a white box next to your Group 1 folder appears. Yay! You did it! You made a layer mask!

Now go and get your paintbrush, make your opacity 100%, and make sure the black is showing in your colors palette. (When working with layer masks, just think of it this way, black paintbrush takes AWAY from the layer, and white ADD to it) Then, you just paint over what you want to NOT be black and white. For this picture, I just wanted the flower in her hair to be in color. So I painted over the entire flower, making sure to be extra careful to detail around her hair. You’ll probably want to zoom in and adjust your paint brush size to one that can get in each petal corner smoothly.

And then you should have done it! That’s all there is to it. So basically, get your picture the way you want it, group it, create a layer mask and paint over what you want to show in color with the Black paint brush.

BTW,  this picture is of Courtney, gorgeous! Wanna see more of her and her little sis? Click here!

Enjoy! Happy Hump Day everybody! 

This family is full of love! No worries, more love coming your way soon!

Spending time with other photographers, I quickly realized I shoot for post. I can frame a picture fine, even get the lighting right. And yes, my ‘eye’ plays a major role in how/when/where/what I point my camera at. But when I take a pictures, and say maybe the exposure isn’t right, the shadows are horrible, it’s just a bad picture, I always play with it in Lightroom first before deleting it. I know maybe if I could just fix this tiny thing in LR, then I could put this effect on it, to make it look like this or that. Even blurry pictures sometimes are salvageable to me. There’s lots of glooowy effects you can throw on top of them to make it look like it was on purpose. I observed the other photographers, making sure all their settings where right before shooting, while I was there, click, click, click, click. Maybe I need to take a page from the pros books, and maybe they need to take a page from mine.

I just know I enjoy taking pictures, ALOT. And I love editing them to give them that extra artsy SNAP.

I drove up to Renfrew Park, trying to talk myself OUT of telling myself I have absolutely nothing to teach these people, I need to ATTEND a workshop instead of teach it, and throwing out all options of “why I couldn’t make it today”.

Turns out, everyone there was really cool, and super nice. The weather and the lighting was…AHHH-o-lific. It was a pretty sweet morning.  I couldn’t have done it without my none-is-more-beautiful model Sara, of course. I think she was as nervous as I was, which selfishly made me feel a little better, but we kept shooting each other looks that screamed, ‘it’s just you and me here’, and ‘we OWN this workshop!’

But I got through it. I don’t know what anyone ELSE walked away with, but I left with fun memories and new friends.

Thank you Antiem Photographic Society for having me, and I’m looking forward to more get togethers in the future!

Sara and I and all our little ones, made our way down to Charles Town, WV for Anna’s first photo shoot at the Carriage Inn Bed and Breakfast. Wow, what a beautiful place and a perfect backdrop for pictures. The Inn is absolutely gorgeous and I would highly recommend going there, if you’re looking at getting away from a few days. Donn and Marie are wonderful hosts, and the place really is stunning and full of history.  Check out their website! 

Anna was such a trooper, and AWAKE for most of our shoot. I was sooo surprised and THRILLED she stayed with us so long. We had to cut our time short, because with 5 kids around, well that’s just to be expected. I’m already looking forward to the next time we get together though, it can’t come soon enough!

I really love you Anna. Welcome to the family.

Comment away, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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April Zimmerman: This is one I wish I would have taken with my DSLR. It’s a cute picture, but could have used a better white balance, sharpness, and exposure.

Jenny Boxler Shifler: This one was not difficult at all. One, this girl is adorable! Two, the picture was huge, and I had alot to work with. All it needed was a little flare.

 Jenny Edsall Shifler: This one was kinda hard. I didn’t know what to do with it, so I practiced CLONE STAMP!

Jodi Zeis: This one wasn’t too difficult either. Since they had just gone swimming, I threw some Pool Party in there, to warm it up a bit.

John Nozzi: I did get stuck on this one for awhile. I couldn’t find anything that made it POP like I wanted. So I did an over processed effect on it. Just for kicks.

Josh Rockwell: This one took my breath away when I opened it in the email. Woah. I just tried to highlight what I thought it needed and make it dark to bring out the reality of it.

 Kristy Fry: This one was kinda tough. There were some spotty areas that needed darkened or lightened.

 Krystal Skelley: This was beautiful. So I tried to do something  a little new to me and unexpected. The words are all definitions of beauty.

Megan Bowman: For this one, I just had to find a way to switch the light sources in post. Turn down the sun on the trees and turn it up in the people.

 Randall Gates: Gorgeous! Just warmed it up, and made it more in your face.

 Robin Beatty: Another gorgeous one! I popped what I wanted and defined the details as much as I could.

 Taylor Brenize: This one was fun. I bet you don’t notice the trees anymore.

 Tucker Hibert: This one didn’t actually need anything done to it. I just tried to lighten the trees. Wish I had the Raw version of this!