133 a hair tutorial

I consider my hair routine to be pretty straightforward so this is probably going to be old news to most of you, but I've gotten a few requests lately so here it is! Hopefully it's at least a little helpful for those who asked.

First start with clean, dry hair.

Then you'll need your product of course. These are the two I use almost daily {when I don't, it means my hair is on top of my head, takin' a day off from little hands} but I'm loyal to only one of them. To me, hairspray is hairspray is hairspray. Dry shampoo on the other hand {in my experience} can go really wrong or really right. I've tried several name brands out there, but I just keep coming back to Suave. It smells amazing, leaves your hair with crazy volume and texture and makes your hairstyle last for days. Also, I use the keratin version because my hair has a tendency to be frizztastic in its natural state, but the regular version is really great too.

Spray your roots with the dry shampoo.

Then rub your hands through to absorb.

Pull the top half of your hair back so that you can have easier access to the lower portion of your hair. Gather a strand and loosely wrap it around the curling iron {I use a 3/4 inch barrel}, leaving the end of the strand out of the iron.

Release the curling iron and pull on the strand to prevent too tight of a ringlet

and it'll look something like this

Continue the curling on the remaining lower portion of your hair and then finger comb it all together.

It should leave you with a soft wave

Take the remainder of your hair down and continue the curling process

When you get to the face framing pieces just put a slight bend in them, as opposed to a full curl.

Again, finger comb through the curls and lightly spray the ends with your favorite hairspray

And you're done! All together, it takes me about 10 minutes and with the use of dry shampoo, I can get it to last about three days.

Here's to happy hair!

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107 Let's watch the man in the yellow coat ride by, shall we?

Shoes: Thrifted, Pants: Target, Sweater: Target, Belt: Gap, Button Up: F21, Necklace: In Honor of Design
Fantastic.

ALSO I finally got the belt and scarf tutorial up! Cheers friends and happy Wednesday!

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96 round two

And yet again, I amaze myself with how long I can make these. Gracious, how annoying.

P.S. Don't forget to enter the giveaway!

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82 your questions answered: photography and post processing

What kind of camera do you use? I have a Canon 5D Mark II

What kind of lenses do you use? I use a Canon EF 85mm 1:1.8 lens and a Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 lens

How did you learn photography? I first learned photography through a black and white film class my sophomore year of college. With film as my starting point, I found photography to be more difficult for me because I didn't have the immediate gratification of a digital to see if I was capturing the photos correctly. So I purchased a starter Nikon D40 through a friend and kind of self-taught after that. After a couple months of experimentation and trial and error, I got the hang of it. There's still so much I want to learn though! Oh, I love it. 

When do you take your pictures? How do you find the time? We take them as soon as we get home from work around 5 or 6pm. And we don't have a lot of time, so the shoot typically lasts 2-3 minutes.

Who takes your pictures? My honeybuns. That man's got some raw talent.

How do you get that golden/glowy effect on your pictures? The post processing I do on my photos is all done through Photoshop. It's my favorite part. :) A tutorial on how to get a real goldish / Polaroid look is at the bottom of this post. 

I have a regular point/shoot camera. What are some good tips for getting great pictures anyways? 

-Use great lighting! Like I said, we usually take my outfit pics around 5:00 or 6:00pm when the sun is lower in the sky. That gives you softer, golden lighting and will showcase your clothing significantly better than the harsher lighting the comes around the middle of the day.
- Do not take a picture with your subject in the direct center of the frame. For example, try shooting a close-up of someone's face, cropped off to the right of their cheekbone and placed in the right side of the frame. This type of cropping make the picture more visually interesting and appealing.
- Use the rule of thirds. Always try to compose your shots with this in mind. By using {roughly} a small, medium and large object/negative space in your composition, the viewer's eye will always have somewhere to look and travel to throughout the picture.

What camera would you recommend for someone just starting out in photography? The Canon Rebel or the Nikon D40 are great starter cameras. I started out with a Nikon D40 and learned so much about the basics of photography just by trial and error. Both are excellent cameras for just diving into photography with because they're easy to use and pretty basic when it comes to learning aperture, shutter speed, etc.

Moving on...

Here we go...
1. Open your image in Photoshop. Duplicate it once. Select the duplicate image on your layer palette and set the blending mode to Soft Light.
2. Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. Choose a really dark blue. I use #070144. Set this Fill Layer to Exclusion.
3. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. Slide the black slider to the right a little bit to increase the intensity of the coloring.
4. Add another Color Fill layer. Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. Choose a light orange. I use #de9b82. Set this Color Fill Layer to Soft Light with opacity of 75%.  
5. Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. Choose a light pink. I used #fed1eb. Then, set this Fill Layer to Soft Light with 50% opacity. 
6. Add another Color Fill Layer. Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. Select a dark blue. Again, I use #070144. Set this Color Fill Layer to Exclusion, opacity 100%.
7. Duplicate your original image. And bring this duplicate layer on top of all the layers. Set it to Soft Light. 
And that's it! Whew! Sorry if that confuses the heck out of you...hope it helps at least a little!
Good luck! 

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