father’s day gift idea

I was absolutely shocked by the response I received when I half-heartedly posted this “kid art” donation idea.  Here are just a few of the sites that featured it … and to be honest, I stopped keeping track after a while:

simplesong
little.lovely
Next Door To Magic
urlesque
Alice Diana Boboc
You’ll Move Mountains

Many thanks to all of you … especially Suann, as I’m pretty sure she was the one that got the blogo-ball rolling! ;)

Anyway … I ended up receiving a couple of requests asking to buy the letters and also to use them in a fundraiser.  The only problem was … I didn’t feel right giving out images with other kids and didn’t want to deal with getting all the parents consent, etc. … so I decided to do new images … but this time with my own kids.

But … between schedules and the weather {I needed to take these outside, whereas the other images were taken in a gymnasium}, I just haven’t been able to take them.

Well … with my gift needs closing in on me … I couldn’t wait anymore!  I got the kids outside and we finally did it!

Crazy.  Pure craziness trying to get these images!  A little different than working with the smaller, more bendable children!  And I even had to pull the teen in for one of the images …

Overall, I’m super pleased and I think CJ’s going to love his Father’s Day gift!

WE  LOVE  YOU  DADDY!

And now for a behind the scenes look!!  Let’s just say I was thanking God that I had me some Photoshop skillz in my bag when it came to editing these images!

I took them around 5:00 pm … it was still light outside and for some reason, the images didn’t look this dark when reviewing them in-camera.

This is our letter “J” … straight out of camera {SOOC}.  And yes … it wasn’t until I pulled it up to edit, that I noticed we’d took the photo as a backwards J!


And here it is after cropping and editing.

Even after editing, some of the letters still have a bluish-cast background and there’s some serious shadowing in a few of them … but again, given my models, meltdowns, nearing dinnertime and patience rapidly depleting … I’m calling the project a success!

I was able to get the whole alphabet, including an exclamation point.

Here’s an outline to my editing {in case you’re geeky like that}:

  1. bring image into Photoshop  {CS4}
  2. under the adjustments panel, select brightness/contrast
  3. brighten to taste :: contrast to taste
  4. flatten layers
  5. use totally rad “Warm it up, Kris!” {opacity to taste}
  6. flatten layers
  7. sharpen
  8. run portraiture
  9. use totally rad “Yin/Yang” to taste
  10. flatten layers
  11. clone & patch tools where needed
  12. and then with this image only, I had to “flip image horizontal” so our letter wasn’t backwards

You likey? ;)

:: subscribe to {tsj} photography ::

255 Comments

  1. christine June 7, 2010 at 6:40 am

    that’s wonderful!!! your husband may be the happiest dad on earth getting this awe gift! loving it!<3 <3 <3

    Reply
  2. Brigitte Short June 7, 2010 at 9:29 am

    WOW! That is priceless. Amazing idea. I’m sure CJ is going to LOVE that.

    Reply
  3. Amy June 7, 2010 at 10:15 am

    Wow. You are a genius.

    Reply
  4. Heather June 7, 2010 at 1:09 pm

    so cute!!!! love, love, love it!!! and between your photo talents, you photoshop talents and those gorgeous kids you made, this project was sure to be awesome! he’ll love it!!

    Reply
  5. Kate June 7, 2010 at 1:50 pm

    This is fabulous!!!! What an awesome gift!!!

    Reply
  6. Carrie Hasson June 7, 2010 at 4:04 pm

    AMAZING! You’re so creative, Dad is gonna SO love this!

    Reply
  7. katherinemarie June 7, 2010 at 11:07 pm

    I don’t think you can get a MORE PERFECT and SPECIAL gift. Seriously SWEET!!!!!!! I’ve got to do one of these someday!

    Reply
  8. Amy June 7, 2010 at 11:41 pm

    Oh I love this! Not sure I could swing all the photoshop. . .but might have to try a version of this with my girls. How fun!

    Reply
  9. Lindsey June 8, 2010 at 12:16 am

    Amazing! I love, love, love this idea!

    Reply
  10. carina June 8, 2010 at 5:17 am

    So cool, Tracie! What an great gift. :)

    Reply
  11. Nikki June 8, 2010 at 10:03 pm

    What a great idea… might steal this idea :)

    Reply
  12. trisha June 8, 2010 at 10:58 pm

    first, i’m a little behind on anything involving the internet… second, i assume curt doesn’t read your blog, hopefully :) what a simply perfect gift for him, you have great ideas ALWAYS.. lastly, it looks like the “bebe” is sleeping!!!

    Reply
  13. karen June 9, 2010 at 11:33 pm

    this rocks. this completely rocks. that’s all i can say!

    Reply
  14. bear June 18, 2012 at 10:13 am

    This is really cute,great job.keep up the good work

    Reply
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