Blueprint: The Girl Wants a Date…

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When I visited Atlanta, my hometown, around New Years, I had a blast taking photos of my nieces and nephew. I also had the opportunity to take a some photos of my sister, who is 26. She is 12 years younger than me… so you do the math. We were having so much fun, and I kept hearing about her best friend Jen, who is trying to meet the “man of her dreams.”

I offered to photograph her for fun.  She came over and we had very little good light left as the sun was starting to go down.  I had to work fast. My goal was to come out with a few photos she could use on dating services. I have a 100% success rate with pictures for dating photos. I should add that the “one” and “only” person I did this for prior married the person she met on JDate.com with the photo I shot and edited.

Anyway, here’s Jen.  The 1st shot is straight out of camera, the second is edited in color, the third converted to black and white.

Details on the edit and which MCP Photoshop actions were used:

  1. I started by running Crackle from the Quickie Collection.
  2. Next I ran the Color Burst action from the Complete Workflow Set. I kept all layers at the default opacity.
  3. I noticed that her skin was too pinkish (a result of too much blue/not enough yellow. So I used the Magic See-Saw action from the Bag of Tricks action set. I used yellow up/blue down. The teeth got too yellow, so I masked them back.
  4. I wanted to enhance the eyes, so I ran the Eye Doctor action.  I used the Catchlight layer and Sharp as a Tack.
  5. Lastly I wanted to lightly smooth her skin.  Her skin was already really nice so I used Magic Powder from the Magic Skin action set at 40% opacity.
  6. The steps above achieved the color edit. For most black and white images, I fully edit in color.  Then I use Vanilla Ice Cream from the Quickie Collection on top. That is exactly what I did here as well.  I love the simplicity of the black and white here.

jenv-600x413 Blueprint: The Girl Wants a Date... Blueprints Photoshop Actions Photoshop Tips

Here are a few other photos we took in the shoot.

atlanta-85bw Blueprint: The Girl Wants a Date... Blueprints Photoshop Actions Photoshop Tips

atlanta-80 Blueprint: The Girl Wants a Date... Blueprints Photoshop Actions Photoshop Tips

atlanta-84bw Blueprint: The Girl Wants a Date... Blueprints Photoshop Actions Photoshop Tips

atlanta-88 Blueprint: The Girl Wants a Date... Blueprints Photoshop Actions Photoshop Tips

atlanta-93 Blueprint: The Girl Wants a Date... Blueprints Photoshop Actions Photoshop Tips

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  1. meg manion silliker on March 13, 2009 at 3:41 pm

    it’s gorgeous!!

  2. Ashley on March 13, 2009 at 3:44 pm

    Love the colors! Thanks for posting this!

  3. JoAnne Bacon on March 13, 2009 at 3:49 pm

    This is amazing! I so wish I had the $$$ to buy ALL of your actions!

  4. Nelly Soares on March 13, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    Wow, love it ! thanks for sharing.

  5. Hillary on March 13, 2009 at 3:55 pm

    WOW!! I’m ditto-ing JoAnne….LoVe your actions!!!! I’m saving $!!!! 😀

  6. Niccole Carol on March 13, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    I think I am going to be needing the All In The Details action set. This picture is amazing. thank you so much for sharing.

  7. Catherine on March 13, 2009 at 4:06 pm

    BEAUTIFUL!!! So crisp and clear + colorful!

  8. Candace Sheets on March 13, 2009 at 4:06 pm

    Love it and love the short and sweet explanation too. Is it the color explosition that kind of “defogged” it?

  9. Sarah on March 13, 2009 at 4:08 pm

    Wow, amazing transformations. Absolutely beautiful!!

  10. Tina Harden on March 13, 2009 at 4:38 pm

    Very Cool! I love the BluePrints rebranding too.

  11. Michele on March 13, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    As you may remember from the color class the other day, I LOVE color, so this is fabulous.But…..everytime you do this, I see I need more actions!

  12. Ashley on March 13, 2009 at 6:07 pm

    I am really excited for Blue Prints! This is originally what drew me to your site– I don’t think 1 a week is enough! I hope to further learn and grow from your techniques. The photo is beautiful. I really like the bright, crisp, clean line of the photo.

  13. Malia on March 13, 2009 at 6:32 pm

    Wow! What beautiful vibrant colors!

  14. Ginna on March 13, 2009 at 6:45 pm

    I think this turned out very cool. Very dramatic for sure, and the color is intense without being out of control. Nice!

  15. Diane Stewart on March 13, 2009 at 6:54 pm

    This is beautiful, even if I had the money for the actions, I would be clueless how to use them all together like you did to get such a terrific result! Wow.

  16. Kathy on March 13, 2009 at 7:48 pm

    Quite nice – really ‘wakes up’ the photoLooking forward to your blueprint entries – thanks!

  17. Nicole Haley on March 13, 2009 at 8:03 pm

    Beautiful image – the colors are stunning. Thank you for sharing your BLUEPRINT!

  18. Janet on March 13, 2009 at 8:13 pm

    Beautiful…love these posts, but they are going to end up costing me lots of $$$. I want all of your actions!

  19. Leslie Perry on March 13, 2009 at 8:42 pm

    Wow!! This photo looks amazing!! I love your Blueprint idea–and can’t wait to see how to make such beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing. I LOVE your blog!

  20. Carla Campbell on March 13, 2009 at 8:50 pm

    Amazing! Beautiful color!

  21. Jackie on March 13, 2009 at 8:55 pm

    Absolutely gorgeous!!

  22. admin on March 13, 2009 at 9:03 pm

    Diane – the idea behind the “blueprint” is for those who have them to see exactly what I do and try that “blueprint” on a similar photo to see what results they get…

  23. Michele Riddle on March 13, 2009 at 9:05 pm

    Nice! I love it. The picture draws you in.

  24. Johanna on March 13, 2009 at 9:13 pm

    Love these & great name change. OK, here’s my question: It didn’t look like you had enough color in the original image to pull out all that blue in the sky, so what did you do? Also, I have the Complete Workflow, but I don’t have the Quickie Collection (yet!). Can you explain what, exactly is Crackle for/what it does for the image/when would you use it, etc.? Thanks Jodi!

  25. Tiffany on March 13, 2009 at 9:18 pm

    WOW! What a difference! Great work! It’s GORGEOUS!

  26. Jenny Carroll on March 13, 2009 at 9:19 pm

    beautiful! love.it.

  27. admin on March 13, 2009 at 9:20 pm

    Johanna – Color Explosion pulled out color – then touch of darkness deepened it. Crackle makes the photo have that almost three dimensional look. I use it any time a photo is well exposed or close anyway – and it looks flat.My kids saw this before and after – they pointed to the before and said – “I thought you were a good photographer – but actually you are just good on the computer – the 1st one is boring. The second is cool…”Love how kids can give the honest truth. Thing is my focus was good, exposure fairly good – a tad under so the whites did not blow. But those things matter most. If you have good light and get your focus down, you can work it in PS. If not, PS can only do a little for you.Make sense?Jodi

  28. Sarah on March 13, 2009 at 9:41 pm

    Holy Moly! Love it!!! I love your actions, but I only have the skin set… I’m thinking I need to invest in some more!

  29. Cindy Lee on March 13, 2009 at 9:51 pm

    Simply more of your fabulousness!!!

  30. Deene Souza on March 13, 2009 at 10:03 pm

    It doesn’t even look like the same photo. you are amazing. I love my MCP actions!

  31. Jennifer on March 13, 2009 at 10:53 pm

    Awesome, as always!

  32. Heather on March 13, 2009 at 10:57 pm

    I just love the before and after’s you show. I would love to win more actions. Thanks!!

  33. Bree on March 13, 2009 at 11:18 pm

    Holy crap! I LOVE it! Both the picture and the blueprint idea. It’s absolutley fantastic!

  34. Shannon on March 13, 2009 at 11:35 pm

    love it! I live in Phoenix, and love to see what amazing you work with the sometimes all brownish desert. I love your blog!

  35. Tori on March 13, 2009 at 11:39 pm

    love love love your site!!!

  36. Brittney Hale on March 14, 2009 at 1:51 am

    This is HOT!!! Just wondering if you use those actions at 100% or did you adjust? Keep rocken out post like these, they are great!

  37. Mallika on March 14, 2009 at 4:38 am

    amazing! i love the richness in color. the pose is brilliant. thanks for sharing your steps!

  38. Nicki on March 14, 2009 at 12:51 pm

    What a difference! I love it. I love a colorful photo with a dark background. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

  39. Heather Owens on March 14, 2009 at 2:33 pm

    I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your before and afters with instructions!

  40. Teri Fitzgerald on March 14, 2009 at 2:42 pm

    Amazing difference! 🙂 The edited photo looks so much sharper than the original… My personal preference would be not to leave so much light around the couple… it almost looks like there is a glow around their bodies from the ankle to the elbow. Nonetheless, I love it!

  41. Kristy Jo on March 14, 2009 at 9:00 pm

    The colors pop! This photo looks wonderful!!!

  42. Tiffany on March 14, 2009 at 9:35 pm

    I absolutly love the colors they are so bright and vibrant! Thank you for sharing

  43. Amy Locurto on March 15, 2009 at 5:19 pm

    This is great! Amazing before and after!

  44. Tina Smith Photography on March 15, 2009 at 9:30 pm

    Beautiful shot. I love the dramatic colors you managed to acheive. Your actions are amazing!

  45. Phoenix on March 19, 2009 at 9:50 am

    Yep, Phoenix is really cool for such purposes.And great work! 🙂

  46. Thea Coughlin on May 27, 2009 at 3:10 pm

    Lovely-just absolutely lovely. I have many of your actions and I use them almost exclusively. You rock!

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