Yellow Pools To Her Fluffy Soul

I always look forward to Thursday, to the editing portion of the week. I enjoy it, and I love seeing what others have done with their photos.

BUT before we get into that, I want to ask you to go Daisuke's Story, and read it. I'll let you know right now that it's a little bit of a long read, but critically important. Daisuke is a friend with whom I attended college years and years ago. He currently lives in Iwaki, Japan where most of the earthquakes and nuclear reactor meltdowns are occurring.

Japan is a wealthy and prosperous country, but the devastation has wreaked havoc with their resources and ability to rescue the thousands upon thousands from the cold, starvation, injury and the rampant spread of disease which follows such disasters. Time is of the essence, and only additional help can keep our helpers moving and rescuing over there. They're not all strangers; they are friends.

So please, either before or after checking out my awesome edits, go and read his story.

AND for EACH of those who leave a comment or commit to a donation to help out with the rescue efforts, I will pledge a dollar IN ADDITION TO WHAT I'VE ALREADY PLEDGED. That's right, a dollar for EACH comment, over and above what I've already done. (Please don't tell my husband about this either. What he doesn't know won't hurt him.) ;)

No, it doesn't sound like much, but what if I get 500 comments? It's unlikely, but I can't take the risk of pledging more than I can afford. At the bottom of his story are links to check out how to donate to help, most of them asking for $5 or $10 amounts. Every little bit helps.

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Now, on to the edits!

sooc:

edit:

I have to admit, this wasn't my favorite shot, but the edit turned out better than I thought. I cropped out the ugly red box in the background, and did subtle things to the light through levels adjustments and sharpening to selected areas through the high pass filter and unsharp mask.

sooc:

I had some trouble with this, and did a couple of edits to compare, mainly due to the angle. It was a fun angle, but the more I looked at it and played with it, the more confused I got. I ended up cropping quite a bit off to correct the angle, and then boosted levels and sharpness. That's all.

sooc:

edit:

This one was a fairly easy judgement call: crop out the ugly leg of the tripod and boost levels and sharpness.

sooc:

edit:

As was this one.

Even at midnight, after following the Japan story online for two days straight (in between the activities of daily living, I mean).

And THEN for fun, I went back and added back in some of the haze, as per Ashley's tips this week, effectively undoing what I did before. Except for the first: that needed every bit of help it could get!

Awesome.

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Taken with my Canon Rebel XSi, and edited with PS Elements.