Kiss n' Tell: Tiger Eyes

Ok, so this image was taken several years ago (lots of trips down memory lane lately).  To date it's been one of my favorite images of my eldest daughter.

When I first started this photog journey, the only processing I had access to was Picnik.  Picnik is now closed, joined with Google+, and while it was a great and fun way to start learning how to play with my images, it's somewhat neanderthalistic (spell check says this isn't a word, but most certainly think it is) in it's final product.

Here is the original processed version of the image.  I must admit, I still like the amber eyes.

I thought it would be fun to play with it on PSE9 and see what I could come up with.  While I didn't accomplish those exact eyes, I did get something pretty cool that seems a little bit more realistic and not so faky fake.

Here's the original image, SOOC...

Here's the clean edit... I fixed the lighting (brightened up the right side a little) and warmed up the image.

Next I decided to play with her eyes.  I used my selection tool (circular) to select both pupils, copied and pasted them as a new layer and then played with the layer selection (linear burn I believe was what I ended up choosing).  I decreased the opacity to about 95% so you could see the detail in her eyes better.

  

I wasn't totally satisfied and wanted to bump it a little bit more.  I chose to use Paint the Moon's action, Deep Pop and included the vintage layer.  It adds a softer feel and deepens the greens to a nice bluer tone with out graying Hannah's face.

I still wanted to make that color stand out more so I increased the vibrancy a bit.

So, here's the comparison....

Hope you got a kick out of my lil secret ;)

Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young—

a place near Your altar, LORD Almighty, my King and my God.   ♥   Psalm 84:3