My 2.5 year old goes to preschool every morning and I get to spend every afternoon with him.  I love it.  And then I complain about not having enough time to work. I will get so excited to pick him up only to get bored an hour after playing.  It's the standard tug-of-war within our mom-hearts.  

This particular afternoon we had been in the backyard playing for hours....we did it all.  He refused to go inside.  I got bored.  So what to do?  Goof off with my camera.  Bingo!  My brain is entertained again!  

I wanted to try to get a real life-throw-leaves-in-the-air-qintessential-fall-photo.

We made a pile and I snapped away.  
Fail
Fail
Fail.  What do you do when you don't get the shot?  Photoshop those leaves in, baby.  

For those things we can't change, the baby cried in every picture, it rained, I do the best I can to still deliver you a gorgeous image.  But for not getting the right silly little leaves picture, or you had an untimely pimple,  Photoshop to the rescue.

Heres how.

Below.....great throwing arms in the air!  But where did the leaves go?  (Angry emoji here)

Leaves!!!  But you're running away! (Angry face emoji)

It goes on like this for ten more photos.  I'll spare you.
Call it quits and work on it later....so here it's later.
First.  The image is dull.  Lets look at the final product and before we get to the leaves lets notice the changes to exposure, temperature, white balance, and contrast. 

Everyone's different....for me I edit in Lightroom first.  When I want to get creative I go into photoshop.
Once I adjust the image to my liking to Photoshop we go.
First.....use a simple overlay.  Plunk those leaves on top of the image, move them around, and adjust them as necessary.  
​
The blurry overlay and the leaves overlay

Then I grabbed some of the leaves from the image where he's running away and moved them onto the "hands up" image to blend the colors and make it look more real.
Simple as that my friends. 
​
Here we are again:  Before and after!

Obviously in photoshop you can get really creative and change the background from the ugly fence or add in a light flare.  But these are for me, in our backyard, and this is what it looks like so I kept it.

Here's a light flare example.  Very instagram-y.  Remember that friends.....it takes a lot of work to fake perfection ;)

Last year I knew I wanted to do fun Christmas minis and the cookies and milk theme was just the ticket.  Let's be real - the kids need something to do/play with while taking pictures to guarantee those big beautiful smiles.  Cookies and milk was a must. 

Spilling milk all over my set isn't a huge concern if its one kid...but time slot after time slot all day long....gross.  

So last year I played around with resin.  The milk container exploded.  I know.  Struck by terror at the thought of exploding glass on your children I quickly moved on.

My creative brother to the rescue.  Candle wax.  Brilliant!!!  Purchase white candle.  Chop up.  Melt in double boiler.  Pour into milk cups.  Insert white straw.  Boom.  Non-spillable fake milk.  Genius. 

​And Ben and Pen are back again for Promo Photos!  I just LOVE them this year.  

The link is live!  They book fast!  Copy/paste to book!  https://instant-scheduling.com/sch.php?kn=2730993&typId=60653&step=2