I’m going a little crazy today with the mosaics. I’ve found a great way to do them and I want to tell you how.

But first here’s another Las Vegas mosaic. As much fun as it was to wander around and look at beautiful hotels and eat good food, the reason we went was to attend a reunion of great fighter pilots and navigators. There were people we hadn’t seen in a long time and many that I’ve heard of over the years but just had the honor of meeting last week. It was sentimental and fun at the same time.

This one has more faces in it because this one will be entered into the iHeartfaces collage contest.

So here’s an easy and free way to do this…I learned it from Mary at Little Red House.

First you should get yourself a Flickr account. It’s free up to a certain number of photos. I have a free account and it’s a huge source of great photography and photography resources.

Then go to Mosaic Maker at Big Huge Labs. You can choose your layout, the number of columns and background colors. It’s a hoot, I’ve been there all night playing with it and watching Dancing with the Stars at the same time.

p.s. I like Pamela Anderson and I never thought I would. Moving on…

Once you have your layout and colors set, click on the blank thumbnails to upload your photos. After you hit the Create button on the bottom you can always go back and edit your mosaic if you aren’t happy with it. When you are done, click Save at the top and you can download the photo to your computer.

There you go! Easy! Thank you Mary!

There is also a free collage on Jodi’s site. I’ve used that a couple of times. All photos were edited with Jodi’s Bag of Tricks prior to putting the mosaic together. After the mosaic was together, I used the Pool Party action (my favorite) from TRA’s action set.

So happy mosaic making!

It rained yesterday…

The textures are from Shadow House Creations. I don’t know the man but he’s a genius. These textures were applied to a gorgeous photo and I ran outside to find a subject that would work with them. I think it works just fine.

Here’s the SOOC. I know…I know…I have to clean my sensor again.

“That’s cool.” – with a cock of my head. And…

“How do they do that?”

And then I would think,

“That’s gotta be a lot of work.” 

“In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight.^“The two main sources of HDR imagery are computer renderings and merging of multiple photographs, which in turn are known as low dynamic range (LDR) (also called standard dynamic range (SDR)) photographs.”

So says Wikipedia. Upon reading the definition, I came away with not much more understanding than before. However, my eye can now spot an HDR photo very readily even if I don’t know what the blazes Wikipedia is talking about.

For a few months now, my buddy Bob over at Dream Tomorrow, Live Today… has posted several photos in HDR which I like very much. Then Damien Franco over at Your Photo Tips posted an article about photographers around the internet and this artist’s (sterk1) HDR rendering caught my eye.

However, the master of HDR to me is John Maslowski at Sirius2 Photography. You should go over there. He’s the granddaddy of HDR photography and does beautiful work. His work falls into the takes-your-breath-away category. And he’s from Pennsylvania from my old stompin’ grounds.

Though I don’t know what that has to do with anything.

These above artists are all men and that made me think that perhaps this type of photography appeals to men more than it does to women, but then of course that would be stereotypical.

Though I like HDR photography I feel that sometimes it can be “overdone” and take on a cartoonish factor. I was also intimidated by what I thought would be an incredible amount of work and I frankly don’t have that much time. So after some thought, a little bit of free time and gentle nudging by Bob, I decided to check out Topaz Adjust. Lo and behold, they have a 30-day free trial so it really was painless.

You can create HDR photos using Photoshop. You will need Filter>Automate>Merge to HDR. I experimented with this because I have this horrible habit of trying to take apart things to see how they work. However, I found that it really was work just to figure out how to use it. I think you have to have several similar photos shot in different lighting in order to really edit this way. And they have to be the same size. I didn’t explore further but don’t let my laziness stop you!

Instead of doing it the “hard” way, I just fell in love in with Topaz Adjust.

Topaz Adjust is a photoshop filter, not a photoshop action. The difference is…

Filters go here.

Actions go here.

You can thank me later for the technical explanation.

Here’s a “before” SOOC.

And I don’t yet have a subtle touch but I love how it transforms a photo.

The photo above uses the High HDR setting(?) of the filter. It’s too much but oh it’s so cool.

Here’s another version I like better.

I brought this one into photoshop then smoothed the graining using TRA’s Smooth-O-Matic action to get rid of some of the graining. I wish I had used a different camera setting so that I didn’t blow out the Starbucks sign written in Chinese. This is a good lesson on how editing will never replace a good photographer. I’ll get there one day.

Hint: This is just my personal preference but though I’ve seen some really pretty landscapes that use HDR, I like HDR as applied to architecture (buildings, etc) the best. 

So there you go…a not-so-short HDR explanation.

Check out Bob’s site tomorrow…I think he’s going to post an HDR photo right Bob?

And I’ll tell you another thing. When my 30-day Topaz Adjust trial runs out, I’m going to buy it:)

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.