Extraction Time

Happy Friday!  We've had a great week here.  The kids are officially out of school.  The weather has been perfect.  I got a new computer and Jeff was able to move all of my files (including ACDSee and all of the tags) to the new computer which was HUGE in my world.  I'm so lucky that he is amazing with computers.....and taking care of me :).

I thought today I would talk a little bit about extractions.  If you have followed any of my work, you know extractions often play a big role in what I do.  I thought I would share a page that I created earlier this week.  My daughter choreographed a dance with some friends to her new favorite band's "One Direction" smash hit "What Makes You Beautiful".  I love the song and so does Quinn which I think is so funny.  At any rate, the dance ended with Ellie doing the splits.  She was so excited for this part.  She was doing one last practice the other day before school.  She was in the grass and I was taking pictures.  She did her splits and I told her "I need this to be an extraction".  She immediately got up and headed to the driveway.  I had a good laugh over the fact that my kids know what an extraction is and what they need to do.  I guess it is one of the downfalls of having a mom obsessed with Photoshop but she was excited for me to take the shot.

  

People might wonder why I use extractions so much and this is a perfect example.  I use extractions to create something more interesting.  The shot of her on the driveway is cute but let's face it....it isn't all that exciting.  I like to focus on the subject and find ways of figuring out how I can make that image come alive.  I also think it immediately catches the viewers attention because it is out of the ordinary.  I could have just put this photo in a frame, cropped it close and called it done.  If I had done that, it really wouldn't have done this photo justice so instead I created the page below...a page with a fun background that takes this average photo to another level. 

I did this page while Ellie was at school that day.  It took my 45 minutes.  I had it up when Ellie came home from school and the minute she saw it, she said "Wow Mom....I love that".  Ellie totally gets what I do.  She is very creative and loves to be involved as I'm creating.  It is a fun thing to share with her.

All prodcuts are from Designer Digitals.

Next time you have a photo in which the background does not excite you, think of an extraction.  What can you create to enhance that photo and really make it pop.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!