Photoshoppin'

Yoohoo... Heidi....this one's for you!

I see lots and lots of pricey extras you can buy for your photo editing program (namely Photoshop in it's various formats.) Usually these are the form of actions: a set of pre-programmed steps that Photoshop will perform on your photos to glam them up.

Some of these are pretty pricey ($150 and up). Some are free, and really good. Usually though, I've found the techniques to achieve the effect of the action are so simple to learn that you'd be better off just to LEARN them!

Since there's no sewing going on today I thought I'd share a couple of tricks. We're going to do a popular look in photos right now...color pop and vignetting. You might also see a similar effect called "Lomo" (that's a whole other blog post that I'll just leave you to google for the sake of time.)

Ok, so we're going to take a photo from just "good" to "smashing artistic interpretation of good". Or, you know, thereabouts.

So, step 1: open up a photo and duplicate the Background layer (Right click, Duplicate in the layer's palette.) Always work from a duplicate of the background! That way if you totally hate it, your original image is safe. I also never save over my originals. I'm using a perfectly decent photo of Lu:


step 2: First let's punch up the color in this one. It's a bit washed out. To do this, we're going to play with the levels in this photograph (how dark are the darks and how light are the lights). In Paintshop Pro, you Right Click on your layer and choose New Adjustment Layer > Levels. Looks this:


step 3: In the Levels dialog box, move the input sliders on each side in a bit. You can play with these to get the perfect contrast for your photo.


and here's what we have now...don't worry. We're not done.


step 4: Now we're really going to get art-y and boost the saturation. This will really pop the colors of our photo. In Paintshop Pro, click on your duplicate layer and choose Adjust > Hue & Saturation> Hue/Saturation/Lightness from the menu:


step 5: We're going to leave the Hue at 0 and the Lightness at 0, but bump the saturation to 20. By all means play with these numbers as much as you like! Every photo is different. 20 is a good starting point though and you should see pretty saturated coloration now.


step 6: Now that we have a nice "color pop" to our photo, we're going to enhance that effect a bit by adding some vignetting. This is where the real "Lomo-effect" comes in! Add a new Layer above your Levels Layer. (Layer > New Raster Layer, or just click the little Layers button in the palette)

step 7: On this new, blank layer we're going to add a gradient fill with the Fill Bucket. Make sure you have the Fill Bucket tool selected and go to the topmost color in your Materials palette. Click on the color button and you will have 3 choices: solid, gradient, or pattern. We're going to choose the middle one: Gradient


step 8: Now we want to change our gradient to the spherical gradient. You'll have to click on the foreground swatch (the top one) to open the Gradient dialog box. Choose Black & White as your Gradient from the little dropdown arrow.


and choose the Sunburst gradient type. Before you click OK, check to make sure your Sunburst Gradient is Black on the edges with White in the center. If not, make sure the Invert is checked.



step 9: Fill the empty raster layer with this Sunburst Gradient. Don't Panic!! Yes, your picture is hidden, but only for a second.

step 10: Change this Layer's Blending Mode by clicking the down arrow next to "Normal" at the top of the Layer Palette. Down near the end of the list, choose "Overlay" as your blending mode. Yes, it's magic. :D


step 11: Wow, aren't you impressed with yourself now? As is, the picture should be pretty exciting now. But since it maybe a little "tooo" saturated and "toooo" vignette'd, we can change the Opacity of the Gradient Layer and the Saturation Layer as needed. Try to decrease either one (or both) to about 80-85%.

And Voila...here's our finished, color-popped, vignetted photo. Not too shabby, huh?


Final step...Once you're satisfied, Right Click and Merge > Merge All (Flatten). I recommend saving your photo with a new name so that you still have your original saved without all the fancy PSP footwork.

Now go! Play!

Friday?

Where did the week go?? Sheesh. Today I discovered my blogland friend Heidi has been sweet enough to award me with the You Make My Day Award!


Now, technically this is a bribe, pure and simple. :P But I love her blog & I love getting awards so I'm overlooking her sneaky ways. And...you might find some more digital goodies at the end of this post.

Also...I get to award this sweet bloggie award to 10 of my faves! It's hard to pick just 10. I can spend 2 solid hours perusing blogland these days! But here are some of my favorites:

1. Shannon: She does the most amazing smocked clothing for her little girl, is smart & funny & beautiful, a mother of 5 (!), AND she's a scifi geeky author-wannabe too. What's not to like?
2. Debbie: My bosom buddy. And when I say bosom, what I really mean is I always defer to her when it comes to a full bust alteration. :D
3. Lindsay: An amazing crochet designer. My hand cramps just looking at her pretties.
4. Angie: I'm jealous of her willpower and her little holiday place by the sea. But I sure do love to peek at her blog!
5. Katarina: Holy Cow is what you'll be saying after you see the amazing things coming out of Katarina's sewing room!
6. Heather: Pretty papery goodness. And some graphic yummy too.
7. Rachelle: A new blogger friend who also cracks me up. (Anyone see a theme here?) I can't wait to see her "Pink Abomination" when its finished! And blue!
8. Ree: Have about a month to sit down and read ALL of Ree's posts. She is HYSTERICAL and her blog novella "Black heels to Tractor Wheels" is a hoot!
9. Lil D: Who stitches, doodles & crafts right along with me. We're often thinking or doing the same type of project without planning it.
10. Mamafitz: Sew-er extradoinaire! & knitter too...Why don't I knit?

Whew. That's quite a list! Go forth & visit!

And for Heidi...who always makes my bloggie day, here are a matched set of cord buttons & shiny bling flowers. I made these with scans & photos of the real thing, then recolored, cropped where necessary, & added some sparkle. Perfect for your Photoshop or Paintshop Pro creative juices! All 6 are transparent PNGs, so just plop them down wherever on your graphics & photos & resize as needed!

For Heidi...

For one of my favorite bloggers, Everyday Cookies, who is learning to use Photoshop! Here are a couple of really easy to use digital frames. Both are .png files on a transparent background. Click on each preview below to take you to a full size image files Right click & save to your drive for use in your favorite photo editing program.

You can use these in a couple of different ways. They're black (and black goes with everything, dontcha know?!) so just adding them as a new layer on top of your existing photo is very nice. OR if you'd like them to be a custom color...load them as a custom mask.

This step differs by program, but in Paintshop Pro you go to Layers > Load Mask > Load Mask From Disk. Browse your computer for the frame and then voila! It's applied to your picture (actually deleting the frame image from your picture). Add a layer BEHIND your photo filled with whatever color you like, and the frame magically appears!

A mask actually "cuts holes" in your picture, so the layer underneath just peeks through. Easy peasy! I hope you enjoy these 2, and I have several other digital scrap goodies I'll try to share over the next few days.

Happy weekend!

Hello, stranger

Wow, it's been a whole week! Where have I been?? Softball season is winding down, which means we're chasing our tails trying to squeeze in all the makeup games we missed from the deluge of rain this month. We have lakes in OK that are 10 feet over normal levels!! Yes, FEET. So on this upcoming holiday weekend, I hope that you lake-goers in my area will be safe on the water!

I'm also brain dead (daily dose of teenage hormones via my teaching job will do that to ya) as we've only 9 days left of school. (yes, those ARE new smile lines forming from the broad grin stupidly accompanying the rest of my face.)

In digital scrappy photo savvy news...a couple of pretties for you today!







"Ooooh, awwwww."(Gratuitous emo'ing from blog readers. At least in theory.) Oh, and ignore the fact that I forgot to shadow a couple of em. Hey, you can't be that picky. They're free!

For Madeline...

Finally, on a somber note, meet Madeline McCann. A beautiful baby girl from Great Britain who vanished while on vaction in Portugal a few weeks ago. A few days after her disappearance, her parents were forced to mark the passing of her 4th birthday without her, which breaks my heart. This is every parent's worst nightmare.

You can read her story here. You'll notice she has a very distinguised eye pigment as well. Perhaps this will help someone spot her!

Please, please take a moment to pray for Madeline's safe return.

Totally Free. Like, totally.

You know what bugs me about digital art these days? Everyone's hung up on copyright. Yes, I completely understand about artist integrity and every person getting their due respect and accolades. Blah blah blahedy blah. But when you go to PURCHASE graphics for ebay template building (or web building or scrapbook making, etc etc) there's always a mile long Terms Of Use statement to plow through. And nine times out of ten, they all state...Not for Commercial use. Nu-uh. No way. No how. Period. Finito.

I even read one last week that went into explicit detail about all the ways you could NOT use her graphics, listing specifically you could not use them for websites, blogs, ebay auctions, templates OR for any other reason known to mankind where someone might actually SEE the graphic.

People. We're not ALL pirates! Furthermore, the good and decent people who want to buy your graphics to use on a webpage are actually PAYING you to do so! Now most times, there is also a commercial license. That is WAY more expensive than makes it worthwhile to purchase for a simple ebay auction template.


Sooo... Rather than comb through a billion TOU agreements, I got fed up and created my own. These 7 little "blings" were created in PSP X by me, using totally free tubes, photos, or scans. The jewels are in .png format to plop down on whatever you so choose. Auction template? Sure! Website?? You bet! Grab them below!

Red Flower Sequin
Hot Pink Flower Sequin
Yellow Flower Sequin
Orange Flower Sequin
Pink Pearl
White Pearl
Black Pearl

Oh, and one more...a Clear Crystal that I forgot to stick in the preview photo!

You: Wha... You mean they're free?

Always.

Digital Gifts are da'Bomb

In true geek-girl fashion, I bring you the gift of digi-frames. Ya, I was bored tonight. Many of you ebay & etsy, so feel free to snurch away!! :o)


If you have PSP X you should be able import the image file as a picture frame. Or, they're all .png files (on transparent background) so you can just overlay them on your photos too and resize to fit.

lurv my lurkers dontcha know!

Pink Gerber Frame

Daisy Frame

Scroll-y Grung-y Frame

Patriotic Frame

Filigree Frame

Grunge Floral Frame

Geek-out!
a.