Accidental Inverse, A Tutorial

One day, I was doing what I do every chance I get…play with Photoshop Elements.

I took this photo of a leaf in a mud puddle a couple of weeks ago, thinking that I could possibly do something with it later on. When I opened it up, it jsut looked like a leaf in a mud puddle. Go figure.

I was bored with it, so I went to open up another photo to play with. That’s CTRL O in a PC. And instead of hitting the O, I hit the I. This will invert the colors to the opposite color on the RGB color scale. It’s an awful explanation I know. Anyway, I inadvertently got a cool blue leaf with the reflection of the trees in the the mud turning to an icy winter blue.

The like the photo on the left more, but for some reason I didn’t post it. After inverted the color, I did an Auto Sharpen, Auto Contrast and Auto Color Correction.

So cool, so to speak.

I put a texture on it, and rounded the corners. Here’s a link to the texture I used. I feel badly that I don’t remember where I got it. It was free so I’ll have to go back and research it so I can give that person their due.

I kinda like it. This is what can happen when a not-so-great photographer meets Photoshop Elements.

Chasing Sunflare, A Tutorial

focal length: 23 mm
shutter speed: 1/250
aperture: f/25
ISO: 200
flash: not fired

Last weekend was the girl’s second meet of the year and we settled down to it like old pros. Or at least she did. I continued to wonder what a lead change was.

“Did you see that flying lead change?”

Sure I did.

focal length: 23 mm
shutter speed: 1/250
aperture: f/25
ISO: 200
flash: not fired

And I was looking for great shots of my little girl and her little teammates. I read a tutorial in iHeartfaces about sunflare and I was determined to find some. Unfortuntely, the day’s events were slightly overwhelming for me. I was tasked to also keep score for the team. I couldn’t remember anything in the tutorial except for this, have your kit lens and a narrow aperture (a big number on your aperture setting).

focal length: 23 mm
shutter speed: 1/50
aperture: f/25
ISO: 200
flash: not fired

But it was still dark so I slowed the shutter speed. Little Alexandra came in to help the girl tack up Chocolate. I love her little braids.

focal length: 23 mm
shutter speed: 1/25
aperture: f/25
ISO: 200
flash: not fired

I slowed the shutter speed even more. It’s better. Notice I should have changed my ISO but she was going to be done any second.

focal length: 23 mm
shutter speed: 1/8
aperture: f/22
ISO: 200
flash: not fired

I had just enough time to fiddle with it one more time. Slower shutter speed still, quick adjustment on the aperture. And there’s Little Alexandra again. She’s so little and so cute.

focal length: 18 mm
shutter speed: 1/8
aperture: f/22
ISO: 200
flash: not fired

A little more fumbling and the sun started to go away.

focal length: 18 mm
shutter speed: 1/8
aperture: f/22
ISO: 200
flash: not fired

By the time Little Madison came to help, the sun was gone. I guess I could have helped also.

focal length: 18 mm
shutter speed: 1/8
aperture: f/22
ISO: 200
flash: not fired

I could have done something with the ISO. I always forget the ISO! But tacking up Chocolate took just minutes and I would have missed it if I hadn’t been there with my camera.

All of these photos are straight out of camera (SOOC).

Hugs all around.

The Sun Really Wasn’t Setting ~ A PSE Tutorial

I posted the edited version of the photo below yesterday. I just happened to be taking screen shots while I was doing it. Believe me?

This tutorial was done on Photoshop Elements 6.

I shot this photo early in the morning. I had my camera on auto mode and lo and behold, it’s a little overexposed. I liked the composition overall, and hey! you can see me standing on the bridge.

When fall descends upon us and the leaves turn a kaleidoscope of orange and gold, my mind turns to nesting. I nest by cooking, watching football and writing tutorials. I’m a simple girl.

I’m also a Photoshop Elements girl. It’s cheap and powerful relative to many other editing software out there. It’s just my humble opinion. If all you want to do is a little bit of editing, this program is for you. Since my computer crash, I have not readjusted my workflow so the default with all the apples are still there.

Anyway, the first things I do are, Enhance>Auto Smart Fix, Auto Contrast, Auto Enhance, etc. Easy.

 

Then I added a layer Brightness/Contrast layer and a Hue/Saturation layer and adjusted according to my eye.

I flattened the image. Then I decided that it needed a beautiful golden color. Go to Layer>New Fill Layer>Color.

Choose a nice golden color with your color picker. It will come up automatically once you do the step above.

Go to your layer palette and choose Color.

I finally zoomed in. Sorry about that. Got your glasses on?

Then I played with the opacity. I zoomed it down to 41%, a nice round number:)

I then followed my tutorial on how to do a edge burn that I wrote last January. Click here  for it. I really had not written a thorough tutorial since then. I better do them now, while the weather is bad.

It looks quite a lot different than the original and I think, better than the SOOC.

I also nest by decorating. I’m pulling out the first of our Christmas decoration tomorrow. I’m already in the mood.

Lightroom Beta Version

I’m a Photoshop baby and am very comfortable with it now that I’ve been using it a couple of years. But there are a lot of other editing software out there and given the chance, I’ll try them all.

My photography friend Danny sent me a link to the beta version of Lightroom 3. Then Sarah Ji at Shutter Sisters posted some presets and my curiousity got the best of me.

I downloaded the beta version and set on a new adventure of sailing around the world. Frankly, I haven’t gotten very far. I was able to download the presets and import photos into Lightroom. I ran Sarah Ji’s presets on the photos above and that’s it. My adventure got as far as the beach! However, I will continue to learn to paddle as I go.

If you are just thinking about photography or even just simply try to make your photos look better, then try it.

I do however, find myself back in Photoshop and Elements because that’s familiar territory for me. I simply ran PW’s Boost action on this in Photoshop. If however, you are just beginning to play, this might be a good thing. And Lightroom is a couple of hundred dollars more than Elements…so the jury is still out. But this is my idea of fun.

Download Lightroom 3 Beta Version here. You should be ready to give constructive feedback to Adobe.
Get Sarah Ji’s Lightroom presets here.

And start sailing!

What’s Your Play? no. 70

Yeah! Another fall foliage shot to work with! There’s not enough of those at LifeSignatures!

This is the before photo by Laura at Dolcepics.

And here is my play.

Shortcuts are on a PC and photo editing application is Photoshop CS2.

What I did:

1) Made two duplicate layers. (Ctrl J two times)
2) Made changed one layer to Soft Light.
3) Made other layer to Screen, 75% (I think).
4) Merged layers.
5) Created fill/adjustment layer (click the little moon at the bottom of the layers palette).
6) Set layer to Hue/Saturation.
7) Set Hue = 0, Saturation = +5, Lightness = 0.
I now used a texture that Michelle of My Two Seasons linked to on iHeartfaces…
9) Place the texture on top of the image.
10) Set layer to Overlay (play with the opacity, I forgot my setting.)
11) Duplicate texture layer. (I’m going to place the texture on again.)
12) Set texture layer to Multiply. (Again, play with the opacity.)
13) It was grainy so I ran TRA’s Smoothomatic action.

Voila, I hope the steps were helpful at least in learning how to play with different adjustment layers. To me, they are the fastest way to edit photos besides using actions. Many times I’ll just “play” and won’t remember the steps. This is no exception so I urge you to try it for yourself. It’s fun!

It’s A Lunch Hour Tutorial & What’s Your Play?

I just had a garden salad for lunch and I washed it down with some water…with regard to my lunch hour, there’s nothing gourmet about it. However, an office-mate was making a lunch run…so I placed an order for a chocolate chip cookie.

As I wait for my cookie to arrive, I decided to play along with my bloggy friend Michelle’s tutorial on iHeartfaces today. Hopefully no one is looking for me:)

Michelle’s site was the one that prompted me to change my own template last summer. I had a difficult time getting it running but that’s not her fault and she certainly supported me, thank you Michelle! Okay, back to the tutorial.

Michelle created such a dreamy and wonderful look to her photo and I had to follow along. There were so many new techniques that I didn’t know and have wondered “How’d they do that?”

Here is the before photo…it’s nice as is but the whole point is to learn something new.

I followed each step and though I have a different version of Photoshop, I was able discern the little differences between the two versions.

Here is the finished product. It’s not exactly like Michelle’s but it’s close enough. It’s the look I am recently hooked on…the dreamy soft look. It’s the way I’ve been feeling lately.

But it’s not the season for soft and dreamy. Rather it’s the spooky, scary season. I don’t always like to be scared so it’s not my favorite time to year truth be known. However, I do try to play along as best I can so I don’t look like a party pooper.

So I decided to edit a photo with my other bloggy photographer friend, Laura at dolcepics. I thought perhaps I can use some of the same techniques to make something scary as well. As it turns out, Laura had the perfect play along photo this week.

This photo is an old building in Montreal. I loved Montreal. I joined the husband there for a week while he was on business. I didn’t want to leave…mais non! They speak nothing but French, it’s wonderful, like France in North America.

Anyway, the photo. I wanted to make this building a scary mansion.

Using just the Adjustment Layers on the layers palette shown on Michelle’s tutorial, I created this. Monstrosity? Anyway, it scares me. I didn’t put a texture on it though one would certainly have been appropriate. The building is a little light and I wanted to do an edge burn…but my cookie is here.

It crazy how the same techniques can create two very different feelings. I love this art called photography. Go to iHeartfaces to follow along yourself. It’s great fun!

Michelle also started a great new photo sharing site called OpenScrapbook. I’m a member, you should be too! And to get to Laura’s Plays, cliquez ici si vous plait.

Thank you ladies, you rock.

A Perfect Picture

Thank you iHeartfaces and Marshall from f/11 for helping me with this photo. Your advice was taken earnestly, I really wanted to save this photo!

Marshall was very gracious and generous with his time and he offered to fix the photo for me but I thought I’d be a trooper and try it myself first.

It went from this…

…to this.

I tried several black and white treatments, including the standard Image>Adjustments>Desaturate.  It was ordinary so I ran a couple of actions but decided on TRA’s Bitchin’ B&W. It’s not a nice word but it’s just a name.

Then I used levels to add contrast which I really like. I like a lot of contrast in black and whites. I lightened it, using curves. Then I ran TRA’s Burn Out action to add a vignette. I’m obviously very much in love with Mr. Boutwell. I reduced the opacity of that vignette layer quite a bit to about 40% I think. Oh, and I cropped it per Marshall’s advice.

It’s not perfect for someone else, I could have masked out my fly-away hair, I can see it sticking out from the back of my head. I could have run some kind of skin smoothing action. I would if I was a real photographer and for someone else’s photo. But I think it’s as perfect for me as it’s going to get. It’s going on my nightstand.

This is what I do on a Saturday morning. Now I actually have to do some housework.

Thank you so much Marshall…very nice of you to comment and help a frustrated photographer wanna-be.

PSE Tip – The Clone Tool And Apologies

This is Sandra who sings like an angel. An absolute angel. I know this is not the most flattering picture of her. It’s a good thing she doesn’t read my blog. I looked for another photo that may illustrate the cloning tool, but this one is the best I can find…sorry Sandra, oh right, you don’t read this blog.

So here’s Sandra again. Lets play I Spy. What’s the difference between the two pictures? Do you see it?

Right! Sandra’s pin is gone in the second picture. I used the cloning tool in Photoshop Elements (PSE) to make it disappear.

You can find the cloning in the tools section. It looks like a little stamp.

And here’s the fun part, hold down the ALT key and put the cursor somewhere that you want to “clone”. I put it somewhere on her scarf because I want to clone the scarf over the pin. Get it? Sort of? When you hold the ALT key down, it will change the cursor to that little cross target thing.

Then select a brush tool, select the width so that it’s manageable. Not too big, not too small.

Then click over what you wan to go away. In this case, it’s the mice. Keep clicking until the mice disappears. You may have to redo (Edit>Revert) a couple times to practice but it’s fun.

And you really do sing beautifully Sandra.

Before And After – Blue Ice

This little piece of ice has had my attention for a long time. I spent a couple of hours playing with the original image in order to make it look like this.

Here’s what it looked like before…this is the SOOC. It’s pretty but has no umph. I placed my camera on the icy ground to capture this small, innocuous piece of frozen H2O because I saw its potential.

I opened it up in Photoshop and I ran TRA2’s “Punch Out!!!” action on it.

It was getting there…but not quite enough of a punch for me. So I ran it again.

Now it’s getting there…now it’s looking cold. I was running out of time, so I ran PW’s “Sharpen and Define” action on it. When you are shooting ice, it should be as sharp as possible so you can get all the details that God puts there.

There it is, I then posted it, and called it a day.

But…I couldn’t help myself and revisited it again…during the second half of the Super Bowl.

I opened it up in Photoshop Elements just to see what would happen…just because.

I increased the contrast because you can’t have enough contrast with ice…it’s supposed to be cold.

Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Brightness/Contrast…It will open the above window. I just increased the brightness and contrast until it looked good to me. Every picture is different so use your eye.

Now I thought a little bit more color might help so Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Color Curves…That will open the window above.

I adjusted what looks like little volume control buttons to me. When I move the buttons left and right, it moves the point on the graph up or down. I made a little gentle S-curve until it satisfied my eye. You’ll see the picture deepen with color.

So there you go…it’s one way I amuse myself…

Before…

After…very cool, or rather very cold…

PSE Tip – Creative Kaitlin And Quick Edge Burn

Kaitlin is my good friend Lisa’s little girl. She’s also – like – this really creative chick. She is going to be a famous and successful artist, I have absolutely no doubt. She represents to me a promise of what could have been. I wish I studied something artistic in school, instead, I decided to get a degree in physics. Yes, physics. In any case, the blue hair is cool too.

I am working on a project for a friend and was creatively stuck…so while I was at my hometown last month and visiting Kaitlin’s mom and dad, I asked her to make me a header for my project. I saw her passion and her talent and I just knew…it was going to be WAAAAY better than what I could do. This is what she gave me, awesome. I changed it a little bit, to better represent what the project is about. Kaitlin knows this, I told her. Trust me, the original is great.

Kaitlin, in the “real” world when you are not working for yourself, your vision sometimes has to be amended for a client or boss. I hope you’ll like what I did to your original. I’ll show you at the end of this post.

I’m going to take Kaitlin and change her a little too, give her a little bit of a burn around the edges. I had to dissect some actions to figure out how…and it’s not the simpliest thing to do in PSE but it can really make put a punch in a photo.

First choose the rectangular marquee tool and select a portion of the photograph about an inch from the sides of the edges.

Notice that I hit control J to make a duplicate layer…just to keep the original image in case I mess up.

I then right click on the photo and that little box shows up. I didn’t zoom in again! A real graphic artist would have, I’m just a physics major. Anyway, choose “Select Inverse”. You’ll see that the outside of the image becomes selected.

Right click on the image again and select “Layer Via Copy”. You see another layer pop up with just the selected outer edge.

Under the layer drop down box, choose “Linear Burn”. I zoomed in! The angels are singing.

You’ll see the outer edge of your image turn darker. It’s kind of cool.

Now go to Filter>Distort>Spherize.

It will put the oval over the image. Don’t panic, it just looks funny, it’s ok.

Then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur.

Move the radius all the way to the right to 250.0 pixels.

There’s Kaitlin with an edge burn on her. It just sets off her blue hair so well.

You know Kaitlin, when your mom and I were in high school, I used to worry about your mom’s taste in music. When we were all listening to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, she was listening to Metallica or some other really hard rock band. But now, I’m the abnormal one and she’s the one saving lives every day as a nurse. I love your parents…I know you will make them proud.

And here’s what I did to your original piece of art. As you can see, it still is representative of your original. It’s a little blurry because I had the resolution wrong when I shrunk it for the web. Like I said, a real graphic artist would have done it correctly. I hope you approve.

Here’s a Kaitlin-girl original. This piece has won her acclaim and she is advancing to the Northeastern Pennsylvania Scholastic Competition. She’s won the right to take it to the national level as well. Way to go Kaitlin-girl! Make your momma proud.

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