Free The Art of Pregnancy Photography by Jennifer George Page A

adjusted as follows: Grain = 0%, Brightness = 28%, Smear = 63%, and Color = 100%.
Next, she clicked on the Advanced setting in the upper-left corner of the palette. The Protect Highlights slider was set to 100%; the Protect Shadows slider was set to 47%. She hit OK to apply the filter effect.

    This screen shot shows the Basic palette for the Monday Morning filter and the settings used to create the final effect. Note that the orange highlight above the sliders indicates the range of values that will work best with the particular image.

    This screen shot shows the Advanced palette and the Protect Highlights and Protect Shadows values used to create this image.

    Here’s the final image, beautifully rendered by Nik’s Monday Morning filter.
3. Patricia then created a layer mask, exposing only the eyes. She chose the Erase mode, selected a suitable brush size in Photoshop’s Options bar, and set the tool’s opacity to 35% to bring back some of the sharpness in the eyes. Next, she used the same opacity setting but chose a larger brush size to bring back some sharpness in the face. Finally, she enlarged her brush and erased areas around the subjects’ heads to make those areas a little sharper.
    BORDER EFFECTS
    Compositing a pregnancy portrait with an image of an artistic border is a quick and easy way to change the mood and overall impact of an image. This is one of the easiest effects to achieve, and one of the most beautiful treatments. Here’s how it’s done:
     
First, we opened our beautiful natural-light maternity image in Photoshop.
Next, the stock border image (courtesy of Mercury Megaloudis, a prominent Australian photographer) was opened.

    To composite a portrait with an artistic border photo, first open both image files in Photoshop.

    A layer mask is created on the border image layer, and the portrait, which lies just below the border image, is revealed.
3. The border image was pulled on top of the pregnancy portrait and resized using the Edit>Transform function to ensure that it matched the dimensions of the pregnancy portrait.
4. The Eraser tool was used at several different opacity settings to blend the border into the image. The opacity from the outside of the border into the image was increased so that the border overlapping the image was almost completely erased.
    FANTASY IMAGES
    For expectant parents, a sonogram provides an exciting opportunity to “preview” the baby in the womb. Through the technological advances that digital imaging offers, photographers can now help clients to preserve the magical feeling that comes from catching a glimpse of the baby in the uterus. You can use the process outlined below to create a composite portrait that super-imposes an image of the baby onto the mother’s stomach, creating a fantasy portrait that’s highly desirable to your clients.

    Here is the final composite pregnancy portrait.

    Many new parents cherish composite photos. Creating them involves importing the newborn baby’s photo into Photoshop and working a little digital magic.
    Photographing the Belly . When photographing the mother’s belly, be sure to capture it at its widest point. Depending upon how the mother is carrying, this usually is from the front, but in the case of the twins, the best angle may be from the side. The lighting should illuminate the main portion of the belly but should not be so intense that detail is lost in the highlights.
    It is important to hold the texture of the skin, as this will add to the realistic feel of the image. Lighting from the side of the subject and using a lighting ratio of 3:1 or greater will help you sculpt the subject’s figure and enhance the feeling of dimension in the image.
    When creating an image to be used in a composite like this, take care that the mom’s hands and any props do not cut into the view of the tummy. This will facilitate compositing the images in Photoshop. There is one notable exception to this rule: it can be a good idea to