I ♥ Faces! Fix-It Friday

My second "fix-it friday" at I ♥ Faces!

Here is the original picture:

this is the text that accompanied the picture:
"This is my little boy whom I usually refer to as 'Wee Man' on my blog. We had just finished up at the beach and we were hot and dirty (thus the dirt and sand on his face and arms). We had been out in the bright sun and moved to inside the pavilion on the pier when I took this shot. Needless to say, I didn't alter my settings on my camera accordingly ... resulting in this completely under exposed photo. Shooting in manual is not for those of us with 'Mommy Brain'! LOL"

and here is my idea to "fix-it":

I used photoshop 7 and worked on a number of different layers. I adjusted the curves and tried to brighten it up and then used color balance to get rid of some of the red tones that came into the picture after brightening. I also copied just his head, flipped it horizontally and then did a layer mask on it and painted the skin tones from the lighter side of his face onto the darker side. I blurred the background a bit and did a sepia layer on it. Then added the text. I chose the word "trust" because that is the feeling that shines out when I look at this picture.

A little boy holding his daddy's hand as he walks
trustingly through the forest of legs in the semi-dark.

Be sure to check out the other entries at I ♥ Faces Fix-It Friday : http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com/ !!