You can fix a plain picture

Many of the pictures we take are just plain. The lighting may be bad or there might be a distracting background. Even these pictures can be fixed by trying some fun techniques. Here is a photo taken of my beautiful niece. I didn't take this picture, but noticed how sweet her little face looked when perusing through my sister in laws pictures. I decided to play around with Adobe Photoshop which is how I am slowly learning this program. Don't be intimidated by Photoshop, it's an amazing program. I am only beginning to learn some of the ins and outs of PS4!

Before:

First, I cropped the picture in closer around her sweet face. I use many of The Pioneer Womans actions (which she offers two sets in a free download on her Photography page). I lightened the picture, used bring out the eyes and used "sharpen this" around her eyes and face. Finally I used poster edges to give this picture a funky painting look.