Hello there, Stefanie here giving you some slight photo editing tips. I have to be honest that often when I see photos of myself, I feel they don’t represent the me I see in my mind’s eye. So I tweak the photos a little and then feel that I am putting my best foot forward.

This image is the straight out of the camera version of the photo.

I have photoshop elements 12 and run the auto levels and auto contrast adjustments. (Enhance – auto levels, enhance auto contrast)

This makes the colours pop and the image sharper, more like my eyes saw the colours.

Then I run an action I have by Charmbox Studio’s called  Make 2% thinner. I think the same effect can be achieved by nudging the vertical sides of the photo inwards slightly so that the proportions of the photo change. I feel that my face could do with a few pounds less while my daughter is fine the way she is, so I only edits photos that include me like this.

I hate the dark circles under my eyes, they show through even with foundation on, so I add an additional layer above my photo. Use a soft edged round brush and the colour picker tool to choose a colour from under my eye, next to the dark area and brush over the image.

The colour seems too dark, but after brushing it on, I decrease the opacity so that the character lines still show through, but some of the darkness is removed. The edits I do are not perfect, I would be more careful and intentional if I wanted to get the photo printed in a large size, but as a small image on a layout, these rough tweaks will be fine.

With adjusted opacity to 53% it still looks natural, but you really need to play around with it until you are happy.

Next I do the same thing on a second new layer, with a white soft edged brush at about 21% and just lighten and brighten my teeth slightly.

Lastly I use the oval marquee tool to highlight our eyes and with the marching ants selected around each iris at a time I do an enhance- auto sharpen which just brings out the colours slightly and makes them appear more vibrant. This would be the image that I would use on a scrapbook layout or to give my Mother as a printed out 4×6 photo.

I hope that these slight edits give you suggestions on how to improve the way you look in your photos too, so that you are happy that the photo reflects the you that shines from inside.

I am no photographer and these are not professional tips, you could always study photo editing videos online that suit your style and photo editing software.