He captured this moment of me and my sweet boy on the trampoline and I am forever grateful. On the left is his original image and on the right is the finished product as edited by me.

>> I am not afraid to say that YES I made myself a little thinner  <<

I’m a mama of two and I need all the help that precious Photoshop has to give ; )

First up, I removed all distractions: stickers and tags from the trampoline, random straw, zipper door, etc. To do that, I used the clone tool as well as the paintbrush tool (for instance I used the dropper tool to select the exact blue and then painted it over the tag nearest the camera, then also cloned a bit of “good area” over top of the tag…)

I lightened things up a bit (especially my face) and ran a TG Photography Simplicity Set action at a low opacity for a little pop. I did a color adjustment layer (I prefer my shadows toward the magenta side) and I also sharpened things up a bit and added some haze to accentuate the already pretty golden hour light.

Then I liquified myself. If you are not familiar with liquify, get familiar with it ; ) Your clients will thank you! We all need a little nip and tuck now and then. You know that pesky area that bulges out near the arm pits, above the bra? Well you guys may not have that problem, but some of us totally do and liquify will fix it right up. Flat hair? Liquify can give that a little boost, too. I may be super nice and make a vlog post demonstrating for you next week!

ADVANCE attendees… you will be learning all of this and will also be going home with video tutorials to help you accomplish every single portion! I can’t wait to meet you all next month. For information on ADVANCE <—click! There are 2 spots remaining!

So there you have it. Check back next week for more Touch-up Tuesday goodness!

XOXO
Madison

And to all the sweet, beautiful, strong, compassionate, patient, brilliant mothers out there:

The world is a softer, sweeter place because of you.

XOXO
Madison

So I have some awesome news. Not only is Sashy Pants letting me give away a watch to one of my lucky fans (for details on how to enter, visit the Facebook page on Thursday May 9) but they are also putting them in my shop for one week only at the insane price of $12.99* once the giveaway is over.

>> The quantity of each color is limited <<

I am so so so excited to be able to make this happen!

The giveaway will start tomorrow morning. For more info on how to purchase when the giveaway ends, WATCH this space. (Get it?)

Also, you can get 10% off your entire purchase at Sashy Pants with the code MVP10.

How exciting is this?!

XOXO
Madison

More important things.

(She eats dirt. We roll with it. Except sometimes we tell her to stop, just to see this face.)

I am so lucky to have a husband who, upon returning home from work to find a mountain of laundry and a hole in the backyard, has the following conversation with our babies:

Daddy: What happened back here?
Son: We dug a hole to China!
Daddy: ……Without me?!?!?!

“All good things are wild and free.” – Henry David Thoreau

I brightened things up, then used my dropper tool to grab a little yellow and painted some of it into the sky (at about 10%, so barely at all.) I stretched the background to get rid of the walkers as much as I could, then used the clone stamp to get rid of the remains.

That sounds weird. Hopefully if people google “how to get rid of remains” it does not bring them to my blog.

Moving forward!

I also used the dropper and paint tool to paint some of the “good” purple of her shirt over some of the “bad” (drooly) areas. The same technique (accompanied with cloning) also worked on her cheeks where there was some redness.

From there I cropped a little at a 4×6 ratio (kept the resolution blank so as not to disturb it) and did a color balance adjustment because I prefer my sun drenched images a bit more on the magenta side. All of these are such minor adjustments, but when you do them altogether, it makes a huge impact on your photo and where your eye is drawn.

Then I was left with a perfect SOOC image to play with! I added some pink and yellow haze, sharpened, color popped, and voila. The finished product.

Thanks for stopping by for Touch-up Tuesdays!!!

XOXO
Madison

While we were in the city we took the kiddos to the zoo, a baseball game, played some tennis, swam in the hotel pool, rode a horse-drawn carriage… ohmygosh, we had so much fun. I didn’t pull my camera out much because I wanted to be Mama and not Photographer, but I snagged a few photos at the zoo.

It was unexpectedly cold, so he wore a pajama shirt over his shirt. Also, his shoes are on the wrong feet. Ha!

OKC is an awesome city. I’m thankful it’s only 2 hours away so that we can escape every now and then and feel like we took a “real” vacation.

XOXO
Madison

Speaking of Anthro, I did a session inside the store the other day (they won’t let you do this if just you go in and ask — so don’t badger them!) And it was so much fun. I spent time with these two adorable fashion bloggers and they were totally up for everything, which is easy to love! ; ) Although it seems like almost a sin to post a non-color photo of the inside of Anthropologie, I have taken a liking to this black and white:

You can check out these ladies’ blog here. You may even find a recipe for a Bare Chested Margarita. You’re welcome.

XOXO
Madison

Photographers all over the world are using and loving Color Rush | Set 1 (to see tons and tons of gorgeous examples from said photographers… click here!)

And now it’s finally here! The release of Color Rush | Set 2!

(These examples are mostly shown at 100% opacity, so keep in mind that all of them can be adjusted lower for a more subtle look… I just like drama! This is them at full force ; )

My pride & joy from the set…. “Cat’s Meow”:

And here is a before/after by the fabulous TG Photography:

And these beauties by Anna-Vaughn Callahan Photography:

They are available for an introductory price that will knock your socks off…

Use code MVPCOLOR50 for 50% off both sets *and everything else in the store until Monday!

Each set comes with a video of me actually editing with the textures so that all mystery will be eliminated : ) They are compatible with all versions of Photoshop, including PSE.

I can’t wait to see what you do with these textures (PLEASE send me before and afters : )

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR HANDS ON THEM
(they are sent instantly)

XOXO
Madison

*discount code does not apply to the Advance workshop

All images are processed using my MVP Color Rush textures (set 1) and TG Photography’s Simplicity Set actions. Click here to see Before & Afters.

S & E…. I loovvved photographing your engagement session and had such a blast at your Session Premier! I can’t wait to see your art displayed at your gorgeous November wedding! I wish you all the love and happiness in the world.

XOXO
Madison

Next time I will do a legitimate video where you can see me, but the day got away from me (we’re remodeling and we had a playdate and the list goes on and on and on, I promise) so I did it this way and your eyes will thank you.

If this was helpful to you, make sure to subscribe to the MVP YouTube channel… there will be more coming!

XOXO
Madison