What an eye...

I recently got an email announcing a live event by Kelby Training spotlighting a day with Jay Maisel. I wasn't sure what it was about and I didn't watch it. I'm lucky though because I have a subscription to Kelby Training so I was able to watch it after the fact.

In one of the sessions Jay tells Scott Kelby that of a slide show of about 360 images only 3 where changed. By changed he means cropped. They continue to talk about getting picture right in the camera and limiting the editing or cropping after the fact. Scott has a had time with this and later in this session Scott says "Jay I don't know if you realize it but I use a program called Adobe Photoshop and Jay responds "I've heard of it".

Check out some of Jay's work at http://www.jaymaisel.com/recent-work/

Until my next post,
Diane

A cool Photoshop Plug-In

I read a LOT of blogs from fellow crafters, sometimes too many. When I find something that gives me the Ahaa moment I realize it is worth the time I spend. A fellow paper crafter had a post about this cool Photoshop plug-in called Kaleidoscope. I wasn't able to get it to work with the 64 bit version of Photoshop CS4 but it does work just fine with the 32 bit version.

So what can you do with a few ordinary photos? Here's one of a daffodil.

Here's the same photo with the effect where it looks like I took an aerial shot of a field of flowers.

Here's a photo of the Wright Brothers monument in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Here's the same photo with the effect but I used different settings than I did with the flower.

Finally, here's a photo of my kitty BC who by the way is doing very well. If you remember (and even if you don't) he was VERY sick around the Christmas holidays in 2009. He was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Disease and is on prescription food and 1/2 tablet of Prednisone every three days. His last blood test in October was good and hopefully his next one in April will be the same.

Here's the first version of Kaleidoscope but it is a bit creepy with all those heads.

I did the effect again and came up with something a bit different that you'd never guess started out as a cat.

If you have Photoshop or Photoshop elements give it a try. Warning it is a bit addictive.

Until my next post,
Diane

Rainy Day Photoshop Action

One great thing about Photoshop is that you can change the look and feel of your photos. In this case the day I went to visit Tuckahoe Plantation it was overcast but certainly NOT raining. But through the magic of photoshop and free actions that you can download from this site (and others) is that you can change the weather.

Here's what it really looked like:

Here's what it looks like with a bit of faux rain drops on the lens:

How about a bit of condensation too:

Have fun making a rainy day.

Until my next post,
Diane

The Yorktown Onion

According to the York County Historical Committee the Yorktown onion is "not native to this area". It is an odd flower and seems to grow in a very small section of old Yorktown near the Coleman Bridge. The prime viewing time is late May to early June. I happened to get a bee on one when I went out this year to snap a few photos.

I tried a Vintage Photo Effect tutorial from NAPP. Which one do you like, the more true to life or the old washed out look?

Until my next post,

Diane

You Rock Card

I wish I had thought this up but I didn't. I have to give credit to Corey Barker of Photoshop User magazine for providing this tutorial in the Apr/May 2010 issue. I'm part of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and get their magazine and all the other benefits that go along with membership. The magazine had the tutorial and this was just perfect for a nephew that plays guitar. Corey provided the images in the members only section and an extended video to add a few other bells and whistles to the printed tutorial. I did the tutorial then printed the document to fit a card. I added a blue frame that I punched with a Fiskars punch and added a portion of a sentiment that says "You Rock". Hope my nephew likes it.

Until my next post,
Diane

Free Online Class to learn about Wacom Tablets

Do you use Photoshop or other photo editing software and have issues using the mouse in small close areas? If so then this class is for you. Creative Techs Training is offering a free live online class on the use of Wacom Tablet tomorrow, Wednesday, December 9th.

Until my next post,
Diane

What about you?

Last fall I took a course called Communication Design at the local community college which was a fancy name for Advertising. We had mock clients and a real one too (see the post about the winter concert). For this project we were to target a specific type dog to a person in a certain age group. I picked the "older" generation (since I was the oldest student in the class). My ad focused on a older but still active dog named Ranger that was looking for a partner just like him. I used Photoshop and masked Ranger out of the original picture into one with a background that looks like the personal ads (actually it is the real estate tabloid). I downloaded the SPCA logo and color picked the blue to use it on the top of the ad. The ad Ranger is looking at says "Widowed active 60's female looking for similar aged male partner. Likes to take long walks on the beach, jog in the park and go for Sunday drives to the country. Happy to sit by the fireplace on cold rainy/snowy days." Classmates, the instructor and Rangers owner all loved it. Ranger is on a sabbatical from the neighborhood since his owner is now deployed to Afghanistan. Hopefully he'll be back in about 10 months with that old worn out tennis ball in his mouth.

Until my next post,

Diane

Who loves you baby

Do any of you remember the show with Telly Savalas called Kojak? He was a NY cop that used to chew on lollipops. His catch phrase was "who loves ya baby". I was thinking about that when I made this card. The card back and envelopes were another Micheal's bargain bin find from K&Co. I got six cards and envelopes with some rub-ons for $1. What a deal! I used Spellbinders dies in my Cuttlebug to cut the green scalloped oval and a Fiskars shape cutter to cut the cream colored oval. I used scalloped scissors to cut the two rectangles. The owl stamp is from Inkadinkao and the phrase is from Stamps on Fire.

The scanning is a bit harsh on the image. I did my normal adjustments in Photoshop but it still is a bit off. Remember-- act surprised if you get it in the mail.

Until my next post,

Diane

Another Sheetload card

Here's I card I made in advance based on the Sheetload template for August 2007. I sent the card to my Stamper's Corner ATC of the Month partner. I posted the ATC (Bugs) on the 1st of Feb. If you guessed the stamp is another of my Studio G $1 stamps you'd be correct.

This card was tough for me to adjust in Photoshop. I scanned it but couldn't get the correct lighting or color. I deleted all that and took a photo instead and then got better results. They always look MUCH better in person though.

Until my next post,

Diane

Scanning

I'm pretty good at remembering to scan every ATC and card I make. I name them by the recipient and then the reason. For the card I made yesterday I named it "MomThinkingOfYouJan09". I keep the cards in one folder and the ATC's in another and my mini books in a third. I'm a bit type "A" about my organization but I have to say that I rarely can't find something. I take photos of the larger projects that can't fit on the flatbed scanner. The scanning produces a decent photo but the color is off. I have the luxury of having the full version of Photoshop so I make my adjustments using that software. I compare the scan to the original and usually adjust the image by going to "Image-adjustments-color balance". I know every monitor is different but if it looks good on mine that's the best I can do and hope I've captured a good image for all of you out there. I save my images as a .jpg unless I'm doing layered Photoshop work then I save it as a .psd which is a Photoshop document. My camera doesn't shoot in the .raw mode so those images are saved as a .jpg as well unless doing serious Photoshop work. I do reduce the file size of my camera work since you all don't need to see a 5 megapixel photo. If you have some sort of image processing software play with the settings a bit and you'll probably be happy with the results you can come up with. It is just digits and if you don't like what you do don't save the changes. Until my next post, Diane