Fix-it Friday

I loved the photo for today’s Fix-it Friday over at I ♥ Faces and thought I would try out some of the editing techniques I have been learning.  The subject is adorable with her braids and bows, and really all I felt it needed was some sharpening and a slight bit of brightening.
Here’s the original:

I opened the photo in PSE 8 and first created a duplicate layer.  To make the photo a bit sharper, I used the High Pass filter at 1.4 pixels which highlights the edges in the photo while leaving the skin and background soft.  I changed the blending mode to Hard Light.  Pleased with that result, I flattened the image.  Then I decided to try a black and white conversion.  This is the sharpened photo using Urban/Snapshots conversion.
 
Oh, those eyes!  I have a soft spot for brown eyes.  My youngest son’s eyes are deep brown like this, too.  They melt me every time.  So I started thinking it would be fun to add a quote about a child’s eyes.  I just created a text box, typed in the quote, and flattened the image again.  Then I cropped it just a bit.  Here’s my final edit:

That was fun!  I finally feel like I’m getting a handle on Elements.  It’s really gratifying to take a good photo and make it great.