Good to WOW Week 18–Mother’s Day Pt. 2

This was quite fun.  I only had time to work two of my photos today but I’m pretty pleased with the outcome.  First, my friend.

The original:

I love a good laugh.

Then the same picture with minor adjustments in ACR:

And lastly the same picture after applying a gradient map (the one that’s all purple and green if you’re interested), sharpened the eyes a bit and softened the skin tone with a layer of pink.  I love how sparkly her eyes are.

And then on to the photo I’ve named “Birdy Butt”.  The original:

The same photo with minor adjustments in ACR and a slight crop.

Then I picked a couple of gradient map colors at random.  The first couple didn’t work out no matter what blend mode I used (well, they might have if I was looking for something different).  Then I applied the orange one and my first thought was “Polaroid picture!”  So I cropped it square, added an action that rounded the corners and gave it a white frame and added a little noise.  Here’s the final birdy butt:

My only regret about participating in this photo challenge is not having more time to play after I find out what edits we’re doing.  Please comment and tell me what you think – oo, especially since I discovered yesterday that my photos look entirely different on someone else’s monitor.   I have no idea now what is too bright, too dark, colors off…  Will have to remedy that soon.  Thanks for stopping by!  Go to Ashley’s blog to check out more (if you’re not already coming here from there of course).