Photography Blography

New Template for the New Year

2012-01-15T11:51:00.000-08:00

Over the course of the last month or so I've been digging out some of our old family photos and snapshots to use in personalized calendars, and while doing so I ran across a bunch of those photo envelopes that used to come with your photos and negatives from the various photo-print shops. Some print shops use generic type envelopes, while some of the larger ones had their own logos and designs branded onto the envelopes. Most of you over the age of 30 or 40 will remember these - there were hundreds of styles and designs and some of those were marvelous graphic designs.

What came to mind as I sorted was the possibility of creating one of these for handing out some of my own prints, so I put a few of them aside to look at later. These are not the sort of thing you'd likely want to mass produce unless you happen to provide photo prints from other people's digital files. In that case, you'd most likely already have a bulk-supplier where you can get these. But for those of us who produce proof prints or small prints from our own files, these branded photo envelopes can add a nice touch and provide something a little different to clients.

This completed envelope uses a few pictures from a couple's wedding on the front, with floral borders in orange and red (that matched their fall wedding colours). On the large back flap is a larger version of my business card. This example has the "front" with a white background, and while I'd normally print the background envelope as one solid colour, I've made the back and back flap black here, so you can see how you can adjust the folds to fit your needs.

The template itself is simple and basic - but be sure to remove the text and "fold" lines before you print your finalized photo envelope. Start off with a sample layout of your own, run a draft print on paper, cut and fold the envelope to see where you want to adjust the fold lines. The larger flaps are designed to fold back and forth like an accordian, which allows the portion of the envelope that holds the photos to expand to hold more photos than a single-fold tab would. If you don't intend to use these for larger numbers of photos, you can cut those larger tabs down to a single-fold tab. Once you are satisfied with your "envelope", run your print on 11 /x 17" paper - preferably a heavy-weight, smooth grained paper, or if you want a very heavy envelope, use photo print paper.

If you aren't planning to customize the envelope for an individual event or couple, you can take your final layout and design on a card or disc to a print-house and order the envelopes in bulk.

To download the template (only available as a .png file) use this link.

2012 Vertical Calendar Template

2011-12-11T07:52:00.001-08:00

As we move towards the Christmas holiday season, and the end of 2011, I've got just one more calendar template for you folks. Looking through the calendars I posted for 2012, I couldn't find a vertical one, which I almost always produce so here is a vertical calendar template for 2012 (see the calendar section for more 2012 calendar templates). It is a very basic calendar with 12 months, and the header slots for the days of the week come in a variety of colours. I have these set up on separate layers in the .psd file (one layer for each colour), or for those of you who just want a transparent template to lay over a photo (or multiple photos) or background of your choice, you can download the .zip or the .rar file, which contains one template with each of the colour bands. (See the bottom of the page for download links.)

The text on all these files is black, but you can use these on a dark background by simply inverting the template (in photoshop, you can do that using "image/adjustments/invert" from the menu, on the template layer only). Keep in mind when you invert the template, you may find the colour bands a different shade too. As well, you can use the layer styles and add a drop-shadow of white if using the black text on a dark background, which will make the text readable on a dark background without inverting the template.

For those of you just looking for printable calendars for 2012, there are two calendars at the bottom of the page which you can download and print yourself - whether at home, or at a photo shop-kiosk, or whether you order them online. Please remember, while you have permission to print these for yourself, you don't have permission to upload them at any sales site (such as Zazzle or Etsy or any similar place), nor are you allowed to sell the printed calendars (except for the amount they cost you to print - please do not remove my copyright notice from the printables). This is for the "printables" calendars only (ie: The Heart Fractal and Damask Fractals).

Any calendar you create using your own images or designs using the basic templates can be sold wherever you like (you can't sell the template only, you must add your own designs).

This will most likely be one of my lasts posts for 2011. As Christmas draws closer, I find myself falling further behind with preparations - namely baking the mass lot of cookies I do every year. Each year I find it harder to get moving and start the baking. Once I get it started, I'm okay, but right now...I really need to get started.

If I don't post again before Christmas, I hope you all have a wonderful, happy and safe Christmas, and my wishes for a prosperous and Happy New Year!

DOWNLOADS

2012 Vertical Calendar Template in PSD format (for photoshop)

2012 Vertical Calendar Templates in PNG form - ZIP File

2012 Vertical Calendar Templates in PNG form - RAR File

2012 Printable Calendar in JPG Format - "The Heart of it All" - Fractal

2012 Printable Calendar in JPG Formal - "Damask Fractals

New 3-Year Folding Calendar Template: 2012 to 2014

2011-10-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a new 3-year folding calendar template for use in photoshop or other similar editing programs. This calendar is not available in .psd format, but is available as a .png with a transparent background, making it easy for you to place your own image(s) under the template.

The top of the calendar has a basic "waved" shape and wide black outlines. The shaped top can be used to imprint your own business/company name, or any other text you'd like. It is designed to print 17" wide by 11" high (so print on 11X17 paper), but can easily be resized in your editing program to fit an 11 X 8.5 page or card stock.

This calendar also runs for three years, beginning with 2012 (so, we're getting ready for next year with this one) and running to 2014. When you print the calendar itself, you can trim way the the excess white areas to create the shaped top: note that the gray area is meant to be used to join the two outside edges of the calendar after you fold it along the appropriate divisions (use glue, or two-sided tape).

If you plan to use these as mail-outs or hand-outs for promoting your business or website, you should leave them flat after trimming away the unwanted white areas, and use the double-sided tape option rather than glue.

You can download the full-sized png file from this link: 3-Year Fancy Edged Folding Calendar (2012 to 2014)

Here's a sample folding calendar created using this template, showing a wavy text across the top for two websites. Although this calendar has a summer scene, I've created the same calendar using one scene from each season, but you could use three individual photos behind the three different years if you want.

If you want to download this completed calendar to print for yourself, use this link: 3-Yr. Printable Folding Calendar of Smith's Bay/Invermara, in Orillia.

That's the newest calendar for this year. Be sure to check the "Calendars" section on our site (in the menu above) for other 2012 Calendar Templates for Photoshop.

2012 Calendar for Kids

2011-08-29T05:13:00.000-07:00

Well, after a bit of a summer break, we're back with a new calendar. This isn't exactly a "template" like I normally produce, this one is just a printable 2012 calendar page designed specifically for kids - the younger kids in your life.

This calendar has been designed to print at 30 X 36 inches (poster-sized), and in black and white. It contains a variety of graphics for kids to colour, so when you print one, you might need to buy some markers or coloured pencils to go along with it. At this large size, it can give the younger set something fun to do on a rainy day, and gives them the opportunity to have a calendar with their own choice of colours, and you can even add their name to the page before you print it by opening it in your image editing program and adding new text.

If you have younger kids who are computer-savvy, you can let them colour it in any paint program that accepts .jpg files (which is most of them). You can find a listing of free and open source paint programs from this link.

DOWNLOAD the full .jpg file here and have it printed wherever you like. Of course it's possible to resize it and print it yourself, but I have a feeling that an 8 X 10 print simply won't amuse the kids the same as a giant poster would.

You can download this 2012 Printable Kids Calendar from this link.

NOTE TO CHROME USERS: For some reason the Chrome browser doesn't always want to display the full size image when you click the link above. The image IS there, so to download it, right click the link for the .jpg file download and just save it to your computer.

2012 Pocket Calendar Template

2011-07-18T02:59:00.000-07:00

I'm moving along slowly towards updating all of the 2011 Calendars for 2012. The current template being offered today is for the 2012 Pocket Calendar. This template does not contain the holidays on the back (the 2011 pocket calendar had the holidays), but instead carries a small 2013 calendar (full year) on the back, with a place on the front to use one of your own photos.

For those who want to edit the calendar, the main title (top left on the inside) and the business name reference (top right on the inside), as well as the names of the months and the copyright notice (bottom right, inside) are editable text areas in photoshop.

The calendar comes in two pieces - a .psd file for the inside calendar template and one for the outside. For those who simply want to print a pocket calendar, it is also available in a printable .jpg file. Please use the download links BELOW the samples to download the full size template files, or the full size printable files.

DOWNLOAD THE 2012 POCKET CALENDAR TEMPLATE FOR PHOTOSHOP (OUTSIDE) IN psd FORMAT HERE.

DOWNLOAD THE 2012 PRINTABLE POCKET CALENDAR (outside - as shown above) IN jpg FORMAT HERE.

DOWNLOAD THE 2012 POCKET CALENDAR TEMPLATE FOR PHOTOSHOP (INSIDE) IN psd FORMAT HERE.

DOWNLOAD THE 2012 PRINTABLE POCKET CALENDAR (INSIDE - as shown above) IN jpg FORMAT HERE.

I guess that's a pretty short post for this time, but it's all you really need, right? Hope you all have a great week.

2012 Calendar Template 16 Months + 2013

2011-07-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

Back again after a week or so of preparing another new calendar template in .psd format (for Photoshop). This new calendar incorporates the last four months of 2011 (Sept-Dec), all of 2012, and a smaller reference calendar at the bottom for 2013. This large one-page calendar (prints 30 X 36 and smaller) should suit most needs: the addition of the last four months of 2011 will make it useful for school planning throughout the semesters from Sept. 2011 to June 2012.

The .psd file for the calendar is organized in folders - one for 2011, one for 2012, and 2013. Within each folder are one-layer templates for each month. This, unfortunately, makes the text non-editable but makes it much easier to change the layout of the calendar by simply dragging the month grid (including dates and days) into position where you want it. Below each month are two layers for the colour - one layer for the colour-stripe (behind the days of the week), and one layer for the dates. Each year has a different colour, which you can turn off or on, or change the colour if you like by filling the colour boxes with your choice of colour. You can adjust the transparency level of each colour to suit your liking. Or, you can replace the colour boxes with one of your own images if you'd rather do that.

As well, the .psd file contains a folder for Decorative Elements (two can be seen on the examples shown here on my blog) - there are four different offerings for Decorative Elements which you can use or discard, as you like. And you'll find the file also has the "guides" visible when you open it. It is a somewhat complex and fairly large file, so downloading it may take some time.

For those who don't have photoshop and can't make use of the .psd file there are two transparent .png files available for download instead. One is the calendar template with no colour backgrounds, and the other is the calendar with the colour backgrounds.

DOWNLOADS

And, for anybody who doesn't want to fiddle with their own calendar inserting backgrounds or making changes, you can download this printable calendar for your own use (use THIS LINK to download the file, do not click the image to download because the image is just a sample size).

With any luck, that should keep most of you busy for the next little while!

2012 Calendar Template

2011-06-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

Note: Download links for all formats at the end of the article.

Okay, I know we're starting a little early in the year with this, but it seems that sometimes there just isn't enough time to get everything done towards the end of the year. If any of you are like me, you have good intentions of starting early to create your calendars, but end up looking for a template at the last minute. Yep, that's me, so this year (for once) I've followed through with my plans to get my calendar template ready a little earlier than normal. This is a basic template - available as a .psd file for photoshop, or as a .png file with a transparent background.

The photoshop .psd file has each month in its own folder, and customizable sections include the large 2012 text for the year, the dates for each month and the month names. The day names are part of the template, but if you want to change them to your own text, you can either erase the days of the week and put in your own, or use a white PS brush and "white them out" so you have a blank grid to add your own text. This .psd file has no images included - it just contains the basic template and dates so you can "do your own thing".

If you don't have photoshop, or don't want to change the text, you can download the transparent calendar template in .png format instead. It has everything on one transparent file so you can decide what background you want to use. This example shows it on a plain white background - you'll note that the text is black. If you want to use a dark background you simply invert the layer containing the template, which will change the black text and lines to white (in photoshop, that can be found under "image", then "adjustments", then "invert").

If you don't really want to do either of those things, there are also two (well 3 actually) printable calendars you can download and print yourself. The first is a dark calendar with a fractal background and the second one comes in two versions - waterlily light, and waterlily dark.

Please note that if you try to download the sample picture from my blog, all you'll get is the sample size (small, for web use). If you want a file big enough to print, you need to download it from the link below the picture.

DOWNLOAD THE 2012 CALENDAR TEMPLATE FOR PHOTOSHOP IN .psd FORMAT HERE.

DOWNLOAD THE 2012 CALENDAR TEMPLATE WITH TRANSPARENT BACKGROUND HERE.

DOWNLOAD THE ABOVE PRINTABLE 2012 CALENDAR (FRACTALS) FROM THIS LINK.

DOWNLOAD THE ABOVE PRINTABLE 2012 CALENDAR (WATERLILY LIGHT) FROM THIS LINK.

DOWNLOAD THE ABOVE PRINTABLE 2012 CALENDAR (WATERLILY DARK) FROM THIS LINK.

That's pretty much it for the time being. As the new few months go by I'll be adding other calendar templates for 2012 so be sure to check back!

More Photo Frames

2011-06-01T05:42:00.000-07:00

I've managed to put together a new batch of photo frames for all you frame nuts. Most of these frames come from the late 1960s into the early 1980s (and one from the early 1990s), so they aren't really all that old even though some of them look a little grungy. The oldest one is the faux wood frame, with the floral fabric frame running a close second. These fabric frames were very popular in the mid-1970s, and you could find instructions just about anywhere for making them yourself. The oval frame is the newest of the bunch, and I have this one available in three colours (blue, mauve and pink). All of these frames are in png format with transparent backgrounds. I haven't offered .psd files for these and probably won't any longer - mostly because .psd files are very large and take forever to upload, and not every editing program will accept a .psd file. Nearly every editing program that supports transparency and layers will accept a .png file, and those that don't accept a .png will simply convert it into a .jpg, so the .png is a lot more versatile.

One thing I'd like to point out to visitors - I notice a lot of visitors trying to download the sample frames. These samples are very small sizes, just meant to be displayed on my blog to show you an example of what the frame looks like - they aren't meant for downloading.

If you want to download any of these frames in their full size with the transparent backgrounds, you need to use the download links BELOW the picture - not by clicking on the picture.

Download the Vintage Brown Faux Wood Frame shown above.

Download the Brown Floral Fabric Frame shown above.

Download the Octagonal Wood Frame shown above.

Download the MAUVE Oval Frame shown above

Download the BLUE Oval Frame shown above

Download the PINK Oval Frame shown above

Canadian Photographers - Please Take a Stand

2011-05-16T14:38:00.000-07:00

Today while reading one of my favourite tech-news sites (TechDirt.com) I came across a story about proposed levies and tariffs on digital media. Canadians will of course remember the taxes on blank media like CDs or VHS tapes, and you may or may not have been aware of the Copyright's Board last attempt to institute similar fees on iPods and even on ISPs.

Whether you remember of not, the Copyright Board is back trying to hawk a bill that will see fees (tariffs and levies...of course they aren't "taxes" right?) added to the sale of CF and SD cards, just in case someone wants to use them to store audio files.

In general, these are not things I write about in my photography blog, but today, I firmly believe it is time for visual artists to take a stand. Every tax or tariff added to media used in the photography industry sees our already reduced earnings reduced even more.

I am one of the most "non-political" people I know. I have little interest in following politics except in a general way, but I (like many other Canadians) have had enough. More than enough. On rare occasions I will write to my member of parliament, or to a local representative, and so today I have taken up my pen (well my keyboard actually) and written a resentful letter to Gilles McDougall (Secretary General, Ottawa) and given him the great benefit of my feelings about this.

Why should I have to pay a tax intended to support musicians, on a product whose primary use is the photography industry, not the music industry? Just because some one or two or a dozen people may choose to use those cards to store their music files on - this is not a supportable reason. Not in my books.

So, for all of you Canadian photographers (whether hobbyists, or professional or amateur) please, take the time to write Mr. McDougall with your feelings on being taxed (yet again) under the guise of a tariff to protect artists. The only artists this is intended to protect or support are musicians, and it is (according to the information provided) certainly not going to protect photographers or visual artists in any way.

Time to fight back.

Gilles McDougall - pdf on the proposed bill and contact information here.

A copy of my letter - if you are not inclined to actually write your own, please...feel free to copy mine and sign your own name.:

Dear Sirs:

As a photographer and a member of the Canadian public - I have had just about enough tax on items such as this. These taxes affect my livelihood.

What purpose would these levies serve, except perhaps to mark the users of such cards as possible thieves and pirates? Shall we slink out of the stores with our items in plain paper bags, just in case someone might think we are using our cards for illicit purposes?

I am tired of being considered a possible thief, when these items are of prime importance to my work.

Since you expect to collect earnings in the protection of artist copyrights, will I receive some of these benefits? After all, I am an artist. If so, how? Rather than taking money out of my small earnings as a photographer, it would be pleasant to see money refunded to me. I would appreciate knowing how the collection and disbursement of these funds will benefit me, as an artist.

Having read your PDF, of course I note there is NO provision for visual artists. Thank you, but I absolutely refuse to support this. You are intending to apply a fee to a product used in the photography industry - where is our share of these fees?

According to your PDF, this is for the proposed sale of "blank audio media in Canada". Compact Flash and SD cards are used primarily for photography and digital visual media, so please help me understand how this ever became an issue under the proposed bill for audio media? And further explain why I should pay additional fees of MY form of media storage in order to protect musicians? I refuse. Point blank.

Do I oppose this proposed bill - you betcha, with every ounce of my being. Enough is more than enough. We do not need, nor do we want this since the chances of it even being remotely effective or helpful to photographers and digital artists hasn't got a snowball's chance in you-know-where. Oh, of course. I forgot, we as artists do not count.

J. Gracey Stinson
Orillia, Ontario
and still Canada, hopefully

Orillia Travel - Slices of Life
Photography of Grace, the artistry of life

Photoshop Quick Mask

2011-03-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

Making a curves adjustment using Photoshop's "Quick Mask" function can help you even out the lighting in your photos. We've all had those images where the foreground is bright and the background is dark, or the background is nice and bright, while the subject (or foreground) is too dark. Using an overall curves or levels adjustment means that you are adjusting the brightness and tone over the entire image, not just the parts that are too dark.

For those of you who aren't sure how to make these corrections to .jpg images using the channels functions, an easy way to adjust a portion of your image is to use the Quick Mask in Photoshop to mask of the area you don't want to change.

Let's run through this very quick adjustment procedure. I wasn't able to find exactly the type of image I wanted but we'll use this one. The background on this snapshot is one that I'd really like to be white, not beige (which is the wall colour).

If I use the curves adjustment in photoshop, I can make it whiter, if I try to make it completely white it will also make everything else really bright too. To avoid making everything in my image really white I want to protect certain areas of the photo from being adjusted. In this case, I wanted to protect the metal hood and light bulb because those areas are mid-to-light tones. Without masking off the areas I need to protect, this is what I get.

To enter the Quick Mask Mode, click the little button that looks like a square with a circle in.

Select a hard paint brush of a size appropriate for masking off your area - smaller areas need a smaller brush. Begin painting the section you want to keep "as is". You'll notice the "mask" is pink or red. Even though you are "painting" directly on the image, this isn't an actual "paint" layer.

While in the Quick Mask mode, you can also switch to the eraser if you've gone over the edge, or painted on something you shouldn't have. Once you've got the "mask" completed you're ready to release it.

Click once again on the Quick Mask Button. You'll notice that the selection area is not the area you masked off, but the balance of the image. That's because the painted area is "protected" and won't be changed when we use the curves adjustment - it will adjust all the areas inside the selection.

Now I'm going to adjust the curves so my background is white - the results are that while the background has been pushed up to white, the subject we've "protected" (here the silver metal and light bulb) is still it's original colour. The black is still black even though I didn't mask it off, and that's mostly because I adjusted the midtones and whites when using the curves.

Using the Quick Mask Mode you can also brighten areas in shadow, while leaving the background in it's original brightness, such as in the image below. These are the same image (one is just reversed). You'll notice the image on the left shows the face in shadow, while the image on the right has been brightened almost to the level of the background tone, yet the background colour is the same in both images. Lightening the background would have blown it out to almost white, rather than it's natural colour.

This is achieved simply - use the quick mask and paint the face and hair. When you release the mask for the selection, you'll want to invert that selection so the area selected for protection would be the background, rather than the shadowed face. When you use the curves or levels to lighten the face and hair, it won't lighten the background. To invert the selection, once you release the mask choose "select" from your menu, then choose "inverse" or "invert" before you begin making the changes to your image.

A 3-Year Folding Calendar Template for 2011, 2012 and 2013

2011-02-22T06:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a new calendar template for photoshop (in psd format) that I've been working on. A little late, I know, but this calendar contains three years from 2011 right through to the end of 2013. Each part of the calendar can be edited in photoshop as everything on the template is still in it's text format - that means you can change the text styles and colours, and you can move things around a little (like changing the spacing for instance). This calendar template is designed to print on an 8.5" X 11" cardstock or heavy photo paper, and then gets folded into a triangular, three dimensional stand-up calendar.

(NOTE: the instruction images can be viewed larger size by clicking the image)

If you download the psd file to use in photoshop you'll find that all the separate layers have been grouped into folders in the layers palette. When you open the file you'll see a folder for 2011, 2012 and 2013, with a white background layer with fold lines, and a transparent layer. You can choose whether or not you want to print out the fold lines on your completed calendar or whether you just want a plain background.

If you open the 2011 folder you'll see a text layer for the date of the year (2011), and twelve folders (one for each month), with a thirteenth folder for the day headings (M, T, W, T, F, S). When you open one of the month folders you'll see layers for the name of the month (text layer) and then layers for each week (text layers) with the dates on them.

This organizing of folders within folders means you open only the sections you need open to work on, keeping the confusion to a minimum. This calendar template has so many layers having them all open at one time would make editing very confusing for most folks. As well, you can move an entire year from one part of the calendar to another simply by dragging the entire thing. Cick on the folder for 2011 - then click on the visible text on the image area, and drag it - you'll see that it moves everything together as a single image (even though it's text). That means if you want to put 2011 in the middle slot with the other two years on the outer sections you can do that very quickly. You can also delete a section if you want, and just put your own image in it.

The calendar has space at the bottom for your business or any other text you wish to include in your calendar. Because the layers are transparent, you can put images on your calendar - one large image that stretches across all three years, or three individual images (one for each year) under the text. However you want to set it up.

Once it's completed, you'll use a ruler and scribe along the fold lines to make the folding easier and the actual edges neater. It doesn't have to be a "scribe" - use anything that's got a sharp point like one side of a pair of scissors, or an ice-pick or an awl and run it along the fold line. Don't put too much pressure on it; you don't want to cut right through it, you just want to inscribe it a little.

Use double-sided tape along the larger folding edge (the wider gray area). Fold the calendar so the images and text are facing outwards. Pull the facing off the two sided tape, fold under the small gray edge and stick it to the tape on the wider edge. The result is a triangular stand-up calendar. I designed this to fit ordinary card stock or photo paper (8.5 X 11), but if you have access to larger pager (8.5 X 14) you can increase the width of the template in photoshop, giving you a wider text area for each year.

I also have this calendar in png format with a transparent background - this does not contain the fold lines, but because it is transparent you can place your own backgrounds on this. This was mostly created for those who don't use photoshop but who do have editing programs that support layers. As well, for those who don't have programs that support layers or transparency, there is a calendar template in .jpg format with the white background and fold lines. Make sure you download the right version for your program.

3-Year Folding Calendar Template in PSD Format for Photoshop

3-Year Folding Calendar Template in PNG Format

3-Year Folding Calendar Template in JPG Format

We typically receive calendars of this nature in the mail from various companies every year, so now...I'm about to send out a bunch of my own! I hope you can find a use for this too.

Vintage PNG Frames for Photoshop - Round 2

2011-02-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

As promised, we've got some more vintage photo frames that you can use in either Adobe Photoshop (or PhotoShop Elements), or other similar editing programs like GimpShop, PaintShop Pro, PaintShop Pro Photo, FotoFiltre Studio, etc. etc. etc. (basically any program that supports transparent images will allow you to use these templates).

This particular set of frames range from 1930 to 1975: it's rather interesting to see the progression of style and textures used on the frames, and the various decorations surrounding the frame opening. The oldest one from 1930 has a rather unusual shape for the image opening, and is somewhat unique - this is the first frame I've seen like this one. It contained a baby photo of my mother.

Frame 33/1940s

Frame 32/1975

The frame from 1975 is the most recent of the bunch, and the plainest. It contained one of our wedding photos. Not having time to hire a photographer, my dad took the photos for our wedding, and there are very few of them, but one was enlarged and set into this frame.

Two of them are from the 1940s. You'll note that these both have a similar art deco styling around the edges of the photos - these two frames might have been from the late 1930s (old stock perhaps?) but the photos in them were from the 1940s. One of my aunt (who married into our family) when she was a young woman (perhaps a teenager judging from the photo), and another of a different aunt, dressed for the wedding of her eldest sister (that's how I was able to date the photo in that frame).

Frame 35/1950s

Frame 36/1940s

The last of the frames has a quilted-liked texture with blue edging around an oblong opening: somewhat more simple than the oldest ones, with a cleaner look. The photo in this frame was from the late 1950s, so I'm guessing the framing was from sometime in the 50s too.

Looking at these older family photos has been really interesting - in the past, I've seen some of these photos but never really paid much attention to the framing from used by different studios. Not only are these far more decorative than most of the ones used today, but they are much heavier and very textured. All of these also have different texturing from each other, and different designs within the textured areas; some have stamped or pressed edges with what was once silver-tone or gold-tone, but over the years these have aged to a less-shiny surface.

Frame 37/1930

The images above are the samples, used with modern photos. You can download the full sized frames in png format below.

Vintage Photo Frame #32

Vintage Photo Frame #33

Vintage Photo Frame #35

Vintage Photo Frame #36

Vintage Photo Frame #37

Vintage Calendar Frame & Templates for Photo Frames

2011-01-24T09:22:00.000-08:00

Well, here's a few more goodies for the template, frame and calendar fans. First up, a simple calendar template, uniquely vintage because...well the framing is vintage.

This is a scanned photo frame - the kind that fold over and cover the picture, like a small booklet. Turning the frame on it's side so the blank cover is on the bottom gives you room to add a yearly calendar. Which is what I did.

Although the calendar is for 2011, it has been given the same vintage feel as the original vintage photo frame. This template is in png format rather than psd, so to use it simply open your image in photoshop, then open the png and place it over your image, keeping in mind that since the entire calendar frame is going to be larger than your image size you may need to add some canvas to your image background.

Along with the calendar template, here are a few film slide frames - once again my dad's hobbies have provided me with some cool imagery. These too are contained on one large png (with transparent background), so you can copy whichever frame you want to use into your image file and adjust it to fit. There are four of these - the "ektachrome" marked frame is the same as the plain frame, the plain one simply being the "back" of the other. Please keep in mind that a couple of these contain trademarks, so if you intend to use them for any other purpose than personal use, you'll need to either remove the trade marks (clone them out) or you'll need to seek permission for the use from the trademark owners.

Okies...the final stuff for today are two vintage photo frames in png format - one is the same frame used above for the calendar (without the calendar) and the other is a very similar frame design. The designs on these frames are from the 1930s and early 1940s, as were the original photos contained in these folding frames.

If you print these frames on artist's rag paper, you get an "old time" feel from these and will be able to use the fold-over section. If you don't want the added section, simply crop it away at the fold and use just the frame portion. Print the slide frames on heavier card stock if you want a more authentic feel for the frames (print a front & back, cutting away the center sections) and insert your photo between the two pieces.

There are more of these frames coming...but everything takes time, so until our next post I hope you can find a use for these. As always, the links to download these are below (all in png format with transparent backgrounds).

Download the CALENDAR FRAME TEMPLATE FOR 2011 from here.

Download the FOUR FILM SLIDE FRAMES from here.

Download the two VINTAGE PHOTO FRAMES here: Vintage Photo Frame #30 and Vintage Photo Frame #31

4 Vintage Photo Frames in PNG Format

2011-01-18T03:34:00.000-08:00

Today we've moved away from the calendar templates to offer you a set of four vintage photo frames that have been isolated and saved with transparent backgrounds as .png files. The .png format makes it easy for users of any graphic or photo editing program to use since the .png format is accepted by many different programs. If your editing program supports transparency and layers, then you should be able to use these.

To use them, open your own photo in your editing program and use that as your background layer. Open one of the frames and copy it into your current image file as the second layer. Use your transform or edit tool to resize the frame to fit your photo.

All four of these have been gathered from old photos my father took. The ages range from circa 1920s to 1960, and come complete with whatever bends, folds, wrinkles and stains that were on them when scanned. These files range in size from roughly 5" X 7" to 8" X 14" - you'll note that old photos come in a bunch of sizes and shapes that are no longer seen in most photo processing; some from the early 1970s were square with rounded corners, older ones from the 1950s were square or oblong with crenelated edges, even older ones were a mix of sizes and shapes, many with slightly rounded edges.

What gives vintage photo frames character are their various stains, folds and creases and some even have interesting textures.

Because my dad was an avid photographer, I have quite a large supply of old photos to select edges from, so as we head through this year, you'll find more collections being added every so often, and most of these will be in the PNG format with transparent backgrounds.

I hope some of you will find a use for these. Please note the images on the left are small samples on a black background, NOT the files to download. The four files can be download here:

Vintage Photo Frames 1 - in RAR format

Vintage Photo Frames 1 - in ZIP form

2011 Pocket Calendar Templates

2011-01-15T09:48:00.000-08:00

As you can tell, I'm still trying to catch up with my 2011 Calendar Templates. The two templates I've got for you today are for smaller pocket calendars - one is a folding calendar, and one is a simple "front and back" one page calendar designed to print on 4" X 6" card stock or 2-sided photo stock.

The first is basically a remake of the folding pocket calendar template from last year: for this year, the calendar is just a white background with black dates. There are two colour banners at the top which you can remove by turning off visibility on the layer, or change the colour of by selecting the shape/colour and filling it with a colour of your choice using the bucket tool. There are two parts to this template - the inside (with the calendars and text) and the outside. The outside has an updated holiday list (to reflect dates for 2011) on the back, and a place to put your own image on the front.

You can download the two parts here in zipped files format:

2011 Pocket Calendar Template in .zip file format or in .rar file format.

As well as the above .psd files, this calendar template is available to be downloaded in a ready to print .jpg format with flowered banner if you just need a simple calendar.

2011 Pocket Calendar Printable - the inside with calendars, and the outside with holidays and design.

The second 2011 Pocket Calendar Template in .psd form is a single page with dates/months on one side and a spot on the reverse side to put your own image and business information. The framing can be removed by turning off the visibility of the layer, and you can remove the text in the same manner, leaving only an image covering the whole of that side if you so desire. You'll note on the calendar side that you can edit and change the text for the months and the "2011".

Download this one-page template in 2 .psd files: the front with image and text, and the back calendar side.

New 2011 Calendar Templates for Photoshop can be found on these related posts:

More 2011 Calendar Templates

2011 Photoshop Calendar Template

Monthly 2011 Calendar Template

2011 Calendar Template for Photoshop

MOST OF OUR TEMPLATES CAN ALSO BE DOWNLOADED FROM FREE-3D-TEXTURES.COM (see the templates section)

Even More Calendar Templates

2011-01-10T06:15:00.000-08:00

Here's another free calendar template for those calendar fanatics out there. This one is a little different - it doesn't contain any dates - these are blank calendar grids, two on a page. The page layout is setup to print 17" wide by 11" high with two blank calendar grids to create your own "2-Per Page" calendars (later this month I'll be uploading a file using this layout that does have dates.)

These blanks grids allow the user to create their own calendar templates every year, using this master grid file. In the full .psd file you'll find text layers for the days of the week (you can change font style and colours in this template) and four calendar frames (the wider outside lines on the calendar grids) in Black, Blue, Green and Red. These are all on separate layers so you can choose what you use where. And the background is transparent, so you can use a background file under the white calendar grids - either a photo, artwork, abstract or a solid colour. How you design your calendar is up to you.

Although the two calendars are on one background, you can delete either of the calendar grids by using the square selection tool, outlining the one you want to delete, and then selecting "edit, and delete" from the photoshop menu bar. Once you've deleted one of them, you can replace it with anything you want, including images. In the sample I created, I made an advertising calendar for a Bed and Breakfast showing the events happening during the month. You can create any sort of promotional calendar using only one of the grids.

For those of you who aren't using photoshop, there are some blank calendar grids in .png format so you can still create your own. If your graphics editing program supports layers, you can add images under the calendar grids, as well as add your own text above.

For parents with kids, printing these blank calendar templates on paper and letting your kids fill them out with crayon, marker or coloured pencils gets your kids involved, and is a great way to teach kids about the months and days, and special holidays that your family celebrates.

NOTE: the seamless green and gray background used in the last example is available from Free-3D-Textures.com on Page 15 of the Abstract Textures Section

The complete .psd file is available for download from this link:

Blank Calendar Grids.psd

The individual .png files can be downloaded here:

Blank Calendar Grids in Red.png

Blank Calendar Grids in Blue.png

Blank Calendar Grids in Green.png

Blank Calendar Grids in Gray.png

Blank Calendar Grids in Black.png

New 2011 Calendar Templates for Photoshop can be found on these related posts:

A Pair of 2011 Pocket Calendar Templates

2011 Photoshop Calendar Template

Monthly 2011 Calendar Template

2011 Calendar Template for Photoshop

MOST OF OUR TEMPLATES CAN ALSO BE DOWNLOADED FROM FREE-3D-TEXTURES.COM (see the templates section)

2011 Monthly Calendar Template for Photoshop

2010-11-14T07:54:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late getting this calendar template out to you, but it's probably not too late, particularly if you print your own. This new calendar template is different than my previous 2011 Yearly Calendar Template, or my Forever Calendar Template. This one is monthly, with one page for each month and the last page of the calendar having a one year 2012 preview calendar, making for a total of 13 templates. I didn't include a template for a cover page, but the calendar is designed to print at 11 X 17 inches (a pretty standard paper size) and to be bound at the top (extra room at the top of template allows you to have it bound) so you shouldn't have any problems designing your own cover page if you size your image document to 11 X 17 inches. IF anyone really, desperately wants me to design a cover page, feel free to contact me.

This calendar is also not as flexible as the Yearly Calendar - the calendar portion of each month is part of the background, but the text for the month and year can be edited to your own choice of font and colour. The photo-frame templates are black and each psd file (one for each month) comes with a choice of three photo-frames. You can change the colour of the photo-framing by selecting the black using the "magic wand" in Photoshop CS (these are probably compatible with any CS version of Adobe Photoshop) and using the bucket fill to fill the seletion with the colour of your choice.

As well, the 2012 yearly calendar intended for the last page of the calendar has the same options as the months for changing text or framing colour.

At the moment, the templates are only available as .psd files, and are compressed into either .zip archive or a .rar archive, so you will need to have an "unzipping" program on your computer (like winzip, or a similar alternative).

I'll be working this week towards preparing these templates as .png files for those who aren't able to open .psd files, so check back later in the week if you need the templates but don't have Adobe Photoshop. Almost any reasonably modern imaging program will support the .png format. The fonts used in the templates are "Modern No. 20" and "Parma Petit SC Italic" - if you don't have either of these fonts installed on your computer you will need to choose one of the fonts available to you.

Download the 13 Calendar Templates in .zip file here.

Download the 13 Calendar Templates in .rar file here.

Samples

New 2011 Calendar Templates for Photoshop can be found on these related posts:

More 2011 Calendar Templates

A Pair of 2011 Pocket Calendar Templates

2011 Photoshop Calendar Template

2011 Calendar Template for Photoshop

MOST OF OUR TEMPLATES CAN ALSO BE DOWNLOADED FROM FREE-3D-TEXTURES.COM (see the templates section)

Photoshop CS5 In Review

2010-10-25T04:42:00.000-07:00

This past week I finally caved in and upgraded my trusty Photoshop CS3 to the CS5 version, and immediately wished I hadn't wasted the $200 on the upgrade. From a personal standpoint, it was not worth the upgrade cost - not for my uses, although there will be many people for whom the ugrade is beneficial.

In particular people who also do a lot of 3D work will like that it has elements incorporated that allow them to use it to edit and even render some 3D projects. For a photographer, I'm not all that sure that CS5 is necessary. I have found perhaps one inclusion that I'll use, however, I've also discovered some things missing from CS5 that I used to use on a fairly regular basis.

In particular under the "automate" functions there is no longer the ability to create a contact sheet (proof sheets) for photographers, nor is there the ability to automatically create a "picture package" for printing, nor is the web photo gallery function available. Also missing is "export layers to file" and "export paths to illustrator". The "export layers to file" function is under scripting, so it should be simple enough to copy and install the script to make it work in CS5. I suppose what I find annoying is that I have to copy all these things into my new version.

The good news is that you can get these functions back by copying their folders from your older version of Photoshop into the same location in Photoshop CS, so if you copy the web photo gallery folder into the "automate" folder in CS5, you'll be able to use it again. The same goes for the picture package and the contact sheet. I loaded these into CS5 and tried them all - and they work just fine, thank you very much. I can only guess that they've removed them from CS5 because they incorporated them into Lightroom, but not having Lightroom, I don't know for sure.

There are some things in CS5 that I don't like - for instance the new brush selection. I think once I've spent some time using them I'll be a little happier with them, but at first glance into the brushes one might think "where's my brushes?" That's because the new brushes are simpler - round soft or round hard, shaped brushes for painting and design, and not much else.

With the new brush selection you pick soft or hard, and set the size of brush you want using the slider. That's slightly annoying to someone whose used to selecting a 300 pixel soft round brush quickly. The good thing about the brushes is that once you've selected your brush and set it's parameter you can save this brush with a click to your brush file. And of course, you can copy all of your old brushes into the brush folder of CS5.

In CS5 I'm having issues with the brush display when using a brush - rather than seeing the round outline of the brush I'm using, I can only see half of it. That doesn't happen for all brush sizes, but once I move the pixel size of the brush over 50 pixels, that's what happens. This makes it very difficult to work with and this is the one aspect I truly hate about the brushes. CS5 uses some openGL for display, and indicates you might have display issues since it uses more memory, and recommends changes to avoid that - I followed their recommendations and I'm still having display issues (and yes, I'm pretty sure I have enough memory for this).

The other thing I dislike a whole lot is the clone stamp - this does some funky stuff now. When you select the portion of image you want to copy FROM and hover over the spot you want to copy TO, it shows you what you're cloning (from). It's more than a little weird right now. It also seems to retain the copied sections so the next time you select the clone brush, you'd see in it's "preview" your previous clone selection. It's going to take some getting used to.

I also don't like what happens when you open an image. In Photoshop CS3 when I open an image into CS, the image window can be maximized to fit the workspace area of Photoshop. In CS5, whenever I try to do that, the image window opens full screen, completely covering the tools and menu in Photoshop. I continually find myself opening the image, then grabbing the window edge and dragging it open to space I want it to fill. I have changed the workspace and tried different options, but haven't had any luck in getting it to open the way I want.

Image open full in Photoshop CS3

Image open full in Photoshop CS5

There are a couple of my older plug-ins that don't want to work in CS5 (notably "Genuine Fractals PrintPro") which means another upgrade if I want to use them in CS5. The one thing that's really nice is that CS5 installs to it's own folder in the Adobe program files folder, so I can still open and use Photoshop CS3 (which I've already found myself doing), so for now, until I'm somewhat happier with CS5, I'll be using CS3 when I need to upsize an image for print.

Oh...and the one thing I thought I'd use in CS5? That would be the new "HDR Toning" - it's not bad. I had already purchased something that does this just fine for previous versions of Photoshop, but CS5 has it incorporated into the Image Adjustments menu. It has some pre-sets you can use, but the custom adjustments allow you to use (faux) HDR tone-mapping on a single image and get a "cartoon" type image, or photorealistic image, or fantasy style.

HDR Toning in Photoshop CS5

To be fair to Adobe...I am somewhat resistant to change, and I haven't really spent enough time with CS5 yet to be comfortable with it, but I suppose the whole idea for me is that an update shouldn't require a user to practically have to start over learning how to use the software. It just shouldn't. CS5 has a new look on the interface, which might throw some of the dinosaurs (like me) at first...I didn't like it at all, but much of the stuff is in the same place as the older version.

What I'd recommend for anyone who hasn't upgraded yet to CS5 is not to purchase the upgrade straight-off. Download and use the trial version for as long as it allows, and then decide whether the cost of the upgrade is worth spending for your particular use. For me...so far, I don't think it was. I wish I could get my money back.

Photoshop Calendar Template for 2011 in PSD Format

2010-10-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

This set of 12 Calendar Templates (2011) for Photoshop will offer you a variety of options for change within the .psd file and is designed to print at 11" wide by 8.5" high. There are 12 individual calendar backgrounds (one for each month of 2011), and three sets of colour borders and texts: gray, navy and black. This template also includes holidays for the US and Canada, each on a separate text layer so you can pick and choose which holidays you want on your calendar.

The text for the Month/Yr and the Days of the Week has been rasterized into normal layers, so even if you don't have the fonts that were used for these, you can still use the text. The fonts used for these were "David" (a basic neat font); Cigno (a script style font); and Chocolate Box (a fancy-ish type of font).

The text layers for the holidays have not been rasterized, however the font used here is "small fonts", which most computers have on them, and is in red. Since the text layers are still in their original format you can change the text colour or even the font style if you want.

This set also has a blank layer below all the calendar stuff, so if you want to create an art calendar with this you can insert your image behind the calendar layer, and reduce the opacity level of the calendar layer so you can see some of the image.

As well, there are 3 "sidebar" sections (gray, navy, black) where you can set smaller images if you don't want to use a large image in the background. And, along with the sidebar sections you'll find a notes section with the title and blank lines, so if you don't want to use images, you can add lines to your calendar for adding handwritten notes after it's printed.

With all these options, you can also mix and match the colour themes to suit your own taste, or you can create your own colour choices and add your own text instead of using the text layers included with the .psd file.

Although getting all the layers in place for each of the three different colour themes took some time, creating each month's calendar is as simple as turning on the layers for the features you want, flattening the file and saving it as a .jpg.

As well as offering the free download for the master .psd file, there is a complete calendar (12 months) for 2011 in the Gray Theme, complete with both US and Canadian Holidays (available in a .zip or .rar file for download).

While it's just a touch late, it is still 2010 (for another day) and printing 12 sheets wouldn't take all that long!

I hope you find this .psd useful for the coming year - Happy New Year and may the next year be filled with peace, health, joy and blessings for all of you.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE MASTER .PSD FILE FROM HERE: 2011 Art Calendar Master Template

Download the Gray Theme Complete Calendar for 2011 in .jpg format:

.zip file .rar file

New 2011 Calendar Templates for Photoshop can be found on these related posts:

More 2011 Calendar Templates

A Pair of 2011 Pocket Calendar Templates

2011 Photoshop Calendar Template

Monthly 2011 Calendar Template

2011 Calendar Template for Photoshop

MOST OF OUR TEMPLATES CAN ALSO BE DOWNLOADED FROM FREE-3D-TEXTURES.COM (see the templates section)

Exposure and Value

2010-09-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

Most of us who've been in photography for a while have at some point been exposed to the "Sunny 16" rule. This rule generally allows the use of ISO 100 at 1/100th and f16 on a sunny day, and of course, this rule has been existence since the days of film.

The standard settings for ISO on a bright sunny day in the outdoors is usually 100 or lower - depending entirely of course on how low your camera will actually go. For instance, on my old Nikon D70, the lowest rating is ISO 200, which was essentially the equivalent of ISO 100 on other brands (back then). Outdoors on an overcast day, you might bump your ISO to 200 or 250, but the general rule was to use the lowest ISO possible. This instruction came from my exposure to microstock photography, where there was almost no tolerance for noise in submitted images.

But in the world of portrait and wedding photography, small amounts of noise are not such a huge issue. For the most part, family portraits, head shots, wedding photos are going to be printed in standard sizes, and most likely not going to be made into huge posters, so small amounts of noise are less of an issue than for stock imaging and will not likely show in the final prints.

S = Shutter Priority « A = Aperture Priority

Shutter Priority: The photographer sets the shutter speed, and the camera selects the most appropriate f-stop.
Aperture Priority: The photographer sets the aperture f-stop), and the camera selects the most appropriate shutter speed.

When using either of these settings, the photographer only gets to select two of the three camera settings - provided your camera isn't set for auto ISO, you can select your ISO, as well as either the shutter speed (in s setting) OR the f-stop (in a setting). You will not be able to set both shutter speed and aperture while in this mode - you'll need to move back into Manual to select both.

There are both pros and cons to using these settings. If you aren't comfortable yet with full manual settings, then this might something you'd consider, although you will lose a certain amount of control over the resulting image and it's lighting.

What I wasn't familiar with, was the options for changing the ISO to make changes in these settings. Yes, I'm well aware of how ISO works with f-stop and shutter speed, but I work almost entirely in manual settings, and surprisingly enough, using these semi-automatic settings create a different balance between these.

Another photographer mentioned using an ISO of 1200 outside in the daylight and I have to admit, I nearly flipped. Because my experience is mostly with manual settings, I couldn't imagine needing an ISO of 1200 outdoors in the sun - outdoors my ISO is nearly always 100 or lower. That's normal. I don't know another photographer who would use an ISO of 1200 outdoors on a nice sunny day. Then the photographer mentioned using Aperture priority. And when I later thought about it - about how ISO, shutter speed and aperture work together, I understand why that would work.

The idea with photography is to get enough light to the sensor to create an image that is properly lit. If the camera is set for Aperture Priority and you've selected an f-stop of f11, and the camera selects a shutter speed of 1/40 based on the lighting, the only way to change the shutter speed without selecting fully manual settings is to change the ISO. If you use a higher ISO, you can get the camera to select a shutter speed of 1/100 or 1/160 so you can handhold the camera and avoid the blur you might get at 1/40 if you aren't too steady and don't have a tripod. This seems like a roundabout way of doing things - you might as well use manual. But, for photographers who have to make settings changes in a hurry, it's a workable solution (probably not one I'd use, but it does work). Below you'll see some example images - sorry I took these sitting at my desk, with no tripod. The long exposure times resulted in blur, but you can see from settings on each one the results. The camera was set for Aperture Priority, with a f-stop of f11 and the starting point for the ISO was 400. Before each photo, the only change made was to the ISO rating, if you check each photo's settings, you'll note the change in the shutter speed as selected by the camera. The last in this series was an outdoor photo (overcast).

When I shoot a wedding, I almost always have had 2 cameras - one often set for outdoors, and one for indoors, making it easy to transition from inside to outside without having to retest the lighting a reset the manual settings. For those starting out with only one camera, I suppose I can see the benefit of using the Aperture Priority setting (though it still makes me shudder) because the only transition needed would be to alter the ISO settings, making quick work of the camera adjustments. The drawback of course, is that you lose some of the artistic license you have with manual settings, but on the upside, you'll probably be able to move pretty quickly from one setting to another, even though you might not have a lot of experience, you'll have some confidence that the images you produce can be properly exposed.

Exposure Valuation

There are other settings on a digital camera that can adjust the value of the light exposure without changing the shutter speed and aperture, and those are the exposure value settings. When using the flash, if you adjust the exposure value on the camera, you'll find you get different results using the same ISO, F-stop and Shutter speed settings.

If you've never made use of the EV settings on your camera, you might want to take some time to experiment with them and make note of the results. It can come in handy in a pinch if you need more light or less light in a hurry, without fiddling with your settings.

You'll note the results in these very quick snapshot samples below - no particular care was taken in the setup here. The photos were handled in a very "point and shoot" snapshot manner, but it pretty clearly shows the effect of the exposure value adjustments. The EV adjustments were the only settings changed after starting with a high ISO (1250) for shooting in low light.

The one thing you'll want to watch is the noise level - in general, you aren't going to be using an ISO of 1250, and if you need to, many cameras could generate a high level of noise. Make sure to check the noise in your sample photos.

More Free Photoshop Frames

2010-09-02T12:31:00.000-07:00

Today we don't have a tutorial, but a couple of new photoshop psd templates for free photoshop frames. The first frame is black and white - white leaves and branches on a black background with white matte, and holds three photos. The overall size of the frame is designed to print at 11" X 17". You can adjust the size of the frame in photoshop before you insert your own photos, so you can print this frame with photos at any size you need it to be. As well as the frames you see listed on this page, you can find other designs on our Photoshop Frames & Templates page on our website listed below. All of these are free to use with your own projects.

This frame is available in .psd format for photoshop - you can download this template from this page on Free-3d-Textures.com, or in .png format for any photo editing program that supports transparency. If you have a photo editing program that won't support the .psd file, but does support layers and transparency use this .png file instead. If you need a .jpg file, please feel free to contact me and I'll email you the file in .jpg format without transparency.

You can download this .png frame by clicking this link.

This next frame is designed for larger poster-style images, and can be used with only one image under the framework, or you can insert five individual images. As well, this frame comes with a series of corner embellishments that can be turned on or off in photoshop. Each set of corner embellishments is on their own labeled layer in the photoshop .psd file.

Above is the basic frame - black with white matte edges which can be turned off in photoshop by hiding the layer style "stroke". At the bottom is room for adding text if you are creating a poster. This example shows three images rather than five - one in the middle spans all three spaces, with one image in each of the top and bottom spaces.

Below are examples of the corner embellishments included in the .psd file. You can use the frame as shown above, or add one of the embellishments shown below by turning on the visibility of it's layer.

Above: City Scapes Embellishments (nor corner designs, but interesting just the same).

Above: Foral Corners

Above: Swirl Corners

Above: Web Corners

Above: Art Deco Corners 1

Above: Art Deco Corners 2

Download the .psd template for photoshop with all the above embellishments from here.

The basic frame with no corner embellishments is also available as a .png file - download it from here.

Embossed Glass Tutorial

2010-08-23T04:53:00.000-07:00

This tutorial is based on one by Alli, and is published on the Tazzone so to get her tutorial and instructions, you can visit the page where it is posted.

My tutorial gives slightly different methods (a little simpler for my beginners) and the results are not exactly the same, but the original idea from the tutorial on the Tazzone was the starting point for this one.

Open an image of a glass, or window or bottle. If you don't have one, you can get one from the morguefile to use for this.

Open your image and duplicate the background layer.

Now select a custom shape from the photoshop shapes tools. The custom shape tool can be found in the tool palette and is designated by a little 'blob' shape. If your tool palette doesn't show this shape, you can find it under the rectangle shape; hold down the small black arrow next to the rectangle shape and the tool box with open with other options.

I use white as the shape colour and a filled shape style. On the shape layer, you may have a layer style effect for "stroke" - turn this off, we don't want the outline.

The next step will be to "rasterize" the shape layer. Right click on the shape layer and select "rasterize layer". This turns the shape layer into a normal transparent layer above the background.

Now set the blending method to soft light for this layer. The next step is to add a bevel to the shape. Select a bevel style - here I used outer bevel and set the contour style to "cove deep". I also reduced the white of the highlight mode on the bevel adjustments to 0% and the shadow mode to 58%.

When you are happy with the shape layer, drag the background copy over the shape layer. For the dark blue bottles, I set the blend mode of the shape layer to "darken" and adjusted the opacity to 70%. You can select your own opacity level to suit your image and taste. Once you've got a look that pleases you, flatten the layers and save your image.

The final results don't look too bad!

Here is a lighter glass image created using the same steps listed above - a glass of beer with the opacity of the final blending layer set to an opacity of 80%.

An even simpler method of applying effects to plain glass uses the "glass on glass" overlay. This is pretty simple, but you need a few things to use it. Namely, you'll need a variety of images of frosted glass types, so be on the lookout for windows with different glasses in the them, and photograph the glass when you run across some.

One of my hobbies is stained glass, and I have a crate full of different glass types. Glue-chip is one of the most useful glasses for using as an overlay - basically, it's a frosted textured glass, so it can be used for texture overlays. If you aren't sure what glue-chip is, it looks like the one below. Glue-chip comes with somewhat less design (single) and with more heavily frosted design (double glue-chip) - the sample below is a double glue-chip.

Using a photo of a sheet of glue-chip glass, I laid it over the beer glass above and used the soft light method to blend it with the beer glass layer.

That's it folks - a pretty simple one this time, but it can give your glasses some pretty interesting effects.

Black Photoshop Frames - Simple Elegance

2010-08-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

5-Photo Frame, also avail. in Black

I've had a request for a simple black photo frame with multiple spaces in it, so that's what we've got for this week. I've created three different frames with four, five, and six photo spaces for this request. The 5-photo frame has both a black frame and a white frame in the photoshop file, so if you opt to download the .psd file, you'll have a two-in-one file that will allow you to frame your photos with black or white. The remaining two files (the 4-photo and 6-photo) have black frames, with a white matte layer. Again, in the photoshop file you can opt to turn off the white matte layer if you don't want the matte, and in all of the .psd files you can choose to turn off the drop shadow as well. (Links to download pages at end of post)

Although I've created these files for use in photoshop, I realize that not everyone uses photoshop so the files are also available as .png files with transparency for the photo placements. Unfortunately, with the .png files, you won't have as much flexibility for changing the frames as you would with the .psd.

To use the .psd file, open it in photoshop. Each layer is labeled - the black frame, the white matte layer, and empty layers so you know where to place the photos. To place the photos, open your photo into photoshop, use the menu and choose "select", then choose "all" to select the photo. Next, select "edit", and then "copy". Minimize your photo, and maximize the frame template. Click on one of the photo layers, and select "edit" from the menu, and then "paste". To fit your photo to the space you want it in, select "edit", then "free transform" and use the "scale" option to fit your photo under the appropriate spot in the frame. Continue this until your frame is full, then flatten and save and you're ready to print.

Using the .png file is much the same - while you do not need photoshop to use it, you will need an editing program that is capable of handling layers. Open the .png in your program, and duplicate that layer so you have two layers. Move down to the bottom layer (or background), and then begin placing your photos - one on each new layer under the frame.

To download the files for these free photoshop frame templates, please visit the Frames & Templates page on Free-3d-Textures.com. (Please remember that .png files tend to be quite large and can be slow to download)

To download the .png files, you'll need to go to the .png section on Free-3d-Textures.com

Create a Worn Photo Look with Water Overlays

2010-07-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

A simple mix of water splash and human faces can create an unusual collage style for some of your older photos. These mixes can create something quite unique and because this is fairly simple to achieve, almost anyone can do this using this simple tutorial for photo-collage.

Open the image you want to use - here, I've used an image converted into black and white, but you can leave your images in colour, convert them to black and white or use an image toned with any colour you choose. The base image you use can be in any style you like - you'll just need to be sure the image you use to overlay the base image is a good blend in terms of colour.

I found a photo of water splashing up behind a boat (in fact, I took a bunch just to use for this - later this week most of these will be available on Free-3D-Textures.com in the Stock photo & water textures sections if you need some to use).

Next, I cropped out the parts of the water splash that I wanted to use. Then copied that to a new layer on top of the photo. To do that, with the water image active, choose "select", then "all" from the menu in photoshop. Then, select "edit" and "copy" from the menu. Minimize the water image and make the people photo the active one. Now, select "edit" and "paste" from the menu to paste the water image onto the background (people) photo.

Depending on which method you selected as the layer blending mode, you'll get different results. The method you select will depend on the background photo you've chosen.

The blending method for this photo was "multipy". You'll notice there is still some blue showing in mine - that's because I decided not convert the water photo to black and white, but you can convert it and get different results.

To get this smoother, ink-stained effect with texture, the water splash (layer 1) layer is set to multiply. A second watersplash layer is added on top of it (layer 2) and then: select edit, transform, flip horizontal, blending mode overlay, with advanced blending styles. The advanced layer styles should have a deep knockout and adjust the amount until you get a look you like. To add the texture, select the layer styles palette (double click on the blue part of the layer label to open the layer styles, select the texture option and choose a texture pattern to cover the photo with. When happy with the result, flatten the layer and adjust the curves.

To get this "damaged photo from a slide" look, I converted the watersplash photo to brown and used the layer blending mode "color burn".

2011 Calendar Template for Photoshop

2010-07-19T14:12:00.000-07:00

Update: You can find our 2011 MONTHLY Calendar Template on a later post, here.

Whew! Well I've been working away trying to get my calendar template for 2011 finished. This year's (well, technically it's next year's but it's released now so you can make your own for gifts at Christmas) template is a fairly plain, but business-like design. You can use it to promote your own business, or remove the business references and use it with family photos for cool gifts.

This calendar is designed to print at 20" X 36" (300dpi) so if you want to print it smaller, just reduce the size in your editing program.

I have this file available in Adobe Photoshop PSD format (created in PS3) and it's a big one. This calendar is totally customizable, you can customize the coloured boxes behind the month headers, move the numbers around and/or make them smaller, change the headings and text, and you may in fact end up with a change of text.

The text font I used for this file is titled "Cambria Math", which I didn't realize wasn't available freely - it's apparently a purchased font, or it came with one of my programs. If you don't have this font on your computer, when you open the PSD in photoshop, it will replace the font with one you have. If you don't like what it uses, you can change that because all the text layers are separate. I have also included in this release a .png format that is only customizable to the extent that because it has a transparent background, you can place images under months and dates. The .png file is only suitable for anyone who has a program that will handle layers and transparency. If you open the .png file in a program that doesn't have this capability, it will simply open it onto a coloured background, and you can save it as a .jpg file.

The template does not have holidays on it. Because I have an international readership, there would be way too many holidays to include in the file, but you can find a listing of National Holidays by country on Wikipedia.

Spent a little time doing a sample customization using the PSD file so you can see just how different you can make your own calendar using this template. I placed my calendar on a black background, changed the way the text at the top of the calendar reads, and added some of my own abstract fractal backgrounds to each of the months. The result is very different from the basic sample calendar you see above. Anyone who wants the full size of this sample (.jpg) can grab it at the end of the article - there'll be a link to download the large .jpg file.

By the way - almost all of the fractals used in this sample image will be available for free download later this week over on Free-3D-Textures.com in the Abstract Texture section (just in case anyone wants to use some of them).

Okay, are you ready for the template links? Please remember this is quit a large file if you are downloading the PSD format - it could take a rather long time on slower connections.

The easiest way to download these larger files is to right click on the link, and select "save as".

2011 Calendar Template - Customizable PSD Format

2011 Calendar - PNG Format with Transparent Background

2011 Calendar - Black with Abstract Fractal Backgrounds (full size)

Please remember - these are copyright designs. You may use them to create your own calendars and have them printed, but you may not upload my designs or templates to other websites for redistribution, nor may you sell any of the templates or my completed designs.

New 2011 Calendar Templates for Photoshop can be found on these related posts:

More 2011 Calendar Templates

A Pair of 2011 Pocket Calendar Templates

2011 Photoshop Calendar Template

Monthly 2011 Calendar Template

MOST OF OUR TEMPLATES CAN ALSO BE DOWNLOADED FROM FREE-3D-TEXTURES.COM (see the templates section)

Super Simple Curves Adjustment & Some Free Photo Frames

2010-07-04T07:28:00.000-07:00

I'm trying something a little different here today, though I'm not entirely sure I like it. Perhaps when I get a little more adept with the software for creating it, the results will be better.

The "tutorial" is in a flash movie file, which might be better for those who learn by sight, as opposed to written instruction. In it's smaller size, the text boxes won't be as readable as they are in it's normal format.

To view the file (movie) in it's original size, you can right click on the following link: Super Simple Curves Adjustment

This is probably one of the quickest adjustments you can make using the curves function in Photoshop. It is probably quicker to complete than it is to watch the tutorial, and while it may not work for every image, for beginners who just want to boost the colour and add some punch to an image, this is often all the image needs.

This tutorial began with the darker image below, and in three clicks finished up with the second image - that's all that was done to create that bit of colour punch you see.

Maybe next time, I'll try an actual video :)

For any of you who use the free Photo Frames, there's some new ones to be had over on Free-3D-Textures.com this week too...well, they've been up for about a week, but I forgot to mention it.

You can grab these frames on the Frames and Edges page.

Promotion, Prints & Posters

2010-06-09T05:27:00.000-07:00

In the last few weeks I've been doing a little research into promotional products and printing - mainly because there are many hundreds of places a photographer or artist can order prints, but some of those places have poor quality, and some are simply scam sites.

So how does one decide the best places to print their product?

The simplest way is to order a sample if the print site in question offers samples. If not, order a "sample" on your own by ordering a small print, card, or poster. In businesses, these orders can be written off on your taxes as a business expense.

One of the best ways without ordering samples is to ask other photographer's where they get their prints, and what places they've tried.

My own preference for prints of good quality would be the sales sites I use - Redbubble, ImageKind, and The Untapped Source, though the prices for prints from these sites are not inexpensive I know (from experience) that I can trust their print quality, and that they stand behind and support their products.

In "real life" I trust a local shop for photography prints - Cavalcade Colour Labs "Foto Source" . Their product far outweighs the results from places like Walmart, and so far I've found that they also stand behind their products. These days I seldom need to order regular photography prints. My wide-carriage Epson printer handles most of my needs just fine, thank you very much. It was an excellent investment, and if I had the space, I'd consider moving up to their larger printer.

The one I have is capable of printing on large art-papers, photographic papers and on canvas and for the moment, suits my office space just fine.

For larger art prints and canvas I use another local place - Tiffin's Creative Center . They have the hugo-mongo Epson printer that fills a small room all by itself, and produces excellent quality imaging, though they don't use as wide a range of art papers as I can get at ImageKind. They do, however, print on canvas which is an excellent choice for artists, or for digital artworks.

But in doing my recent research I ran across a few print-types that some of you might find useful, or at the very least interesting. Some of these have generated interest for me, and I'm beginning to look at some of my own work in a different light.

Poster Jack - a Canadian company that offers "peel'n'stick posters. This opens up the door to a whole new batch of opportunity. These posters are somewhat like those repositionable peel and stick wall decals people buy to decorate kids' rooms - often disney characters. The posters can be removed from the wall simply by peeling it away, and it's supposed to leave no backing on the wall, and can be "restuck" wherever you like. The come in a variety of sizes from 8 X 10 to huge.

When I discovered these people the wheels in my mind started going round and round - I could think of dozens of uses for this, in particular, self-mounting these posters onto wallboards, but they'd also be a terrific way to display posters in your office or studio. Printed large enough they'd make great backdrops for photography - stick the one you want on the wall, position your subject in front of it, do your portraits and take it down when you're done. Instant photo studio.

That of course wouldn't be inexpensive, but it would allow for those who don't actually have a studio to create a "photo-op" spot anywhere within their home that they have a blank wall large enough to do the trick.

Multicolor Signs - While I am not enamoured of their website design, this place offers poster printing with finishes for indoor or outdoor use, as well as things like vehicle wraps and metal sign printing. I am not certain about their other services since I can get some of them locally, but having posters printed for outdoor use is something that would interest me. Our town has a host of outdoor events over the course of the summer, and being able to display work that is protected from the elements at a show or outdoor event could be rather useful.

Marcor Media - The service offered by this Toronto company is quite exciting. Yes, I know this can probably be found elsewhere, but Toronto is located fairly close to home, and I could easily take a trip to view the product before I order one. They print your photo or art on metal - copper, steel, aluminum and brushed metals, and they use a high definition print process for photographic prints. It looks like this would be worth the trip to see. While not inexpensive, I would be willing to fork out the dough if I like the results. Marcor offers other printing options, but the metal printing (see their video on the site) is the reason they are in this listing.

Green Printer - The name is exactly what this service provides. Printers that use eco-friendly papers and inks, and whose processes and products are for those who have an environmental conscience. They have a wide range of products from greeting cards, booklets, postcards and businesscards to notepads, bookmarks and envelopes. For those who want to promote their business with products like give-away bookmarks or notepads, this is a good choice. The prices are reasonable enough for recyclable products, so greeting cards and post cards purchased in bulk can be used as sales items. These folks are probably worth a look if you are interested in products for your business and sales, as well as environmental protection.

These last three places are really listed as promotional sites - places where you can purchase promotional products at reasonable prices. Pens top the list of promotional items for most businesses - they are inexpensive when bought in bulk lots, and everybody needs and uses pens. Lots of people even collect them, so it's a useful promotional tool for a pretty small cost. Other products are carried by all of these sites as well - some different items you might not have considered - like paper or recycled plastic shopping bags, a large variety of keychains, and even wrist bands.

The Cup Store - Yep, cups. Not mugs, cups. Disposable plastic, paper or foam cups with your business logo or name on them. Okay, so you might be thinking "why would I want those?" These of course are not for everybody, however, if you provide photography services at weddings, outdoor events like family reunions, races, triathlons or other similar activities, these could be sort of handy. Even if you don't provide services of that type, do you show or sell your work at indoor/outdoor shows? Many photographers pay for space at trade-type shows. The investment of a purchased watercooler and a couple of large bottles of water and cups with your logo might leave a memorable imprint on a hot day to a thirsty visitor. Not inexpensive, these cups are meant for larger concerns, but spending a little on advertising can be a useful tool for even a smaller business. This one is here simply for the uniqueness of it's product - you can almost guarantee there won't be a lot of photographer's in your area with their own branded cups!

Amsterdam Products - Promotional products from pens to lapel pins and just about everything in between. If you can't find an item that can be put to work as useful advertisement for your business at this place, then something is wrong. They have a large number of offerings including office supplies, and locations in Canada and the US, as well as some eco-friendly products. Some items are relatively inexpensive, like pens and keychains, and others more pricey. Keep in mind sites like this one expect buyers to purchase in bulk, so to get a keychain embossed with your business logo or name for 49 cents each, you may need to buy 500 or 1000. Some products can be purchased in lots of 50, or 250 (a number of the pens have these options). Higher priced items can be purchased in smaller amounts. I liked the vast array of items on this site.

4Imprint Canada - This company carries promotional products similar to Amsterdam Products above, and has offerings from pens, clips, flashlights, keychains, paper shopping bags to plastic water bottles, golf balls and other outdoor products, including sunglasses. They carry a line of home products like coasters, as well as business products, like office supplies, and some travel items like duffel bags. If you want something larger and different, have a look here.

Okay, that's it for today. For some of you, it might not be particularly helpful since it isn't a tutorial, but in my wanderings I found these few places of interest - particularly the Canadian ones, so I thought I'd share my thoughts.

I'm not sure when I'll have another tutorial - I still have nearly a month of family work to deal with, but I'll try in the next few weeks to post up something in the way of a tutorial.

Making A Mother's Day Card

2010-04-22T07:16:00.000-07:00

There are many print on demand sites (POD) where you can have your own greeting cards printed, and there's nothing like sending a special card to a special someone. Many POD sites allow you to order one or two cards at a time, rather than having to order large quantities.
Some of the places to get your cards uploaded and printed are Zazzle (okay cards), Redbubble (the best quality I've found, though the cards are an odd size), ImageKind (okay cards, not my first choice), CafePress (haven't ordered their cards), Moo.com, and Greeting Card Universe (usually my first choice for good quality affordable cards). There may be others, but these are the ones I've either tried or researched.

Today, I'm going to run you through making and uploading a card on Greeting Card Universe. You'll need to sign up for a free account when you are ready to upload your first card.

GCU's standard card size is 2100 pixels by 1500 pixels. They do have a template you can download, but you don't really need one. Just keep a couple of things in mind - the print may cut off a little bit at the edges, so if you use borders and text, be sure to keep them 1/4" from the edge of the card design or make your borders wide enough that if any is cut off, it isn't going to affect the overall design.

Open the image you want to use for your card, and do any processing to the actual image. I've decided to use a picture of the Forsythia in my back yard while it was in bloom. Since it flowers in early spring (sometimes while there is still snow) it's a good choice for a Mother's Day card.

Once my processing is done, I'll need to resize and crop my image to fit the 2100 X 1500 pixel size for GCU. This card is a vertical design, so the width is 1500 pixels and the height is 2100 pixels. I've decided I'll add a border of yellow, just a little lighter than the yellow of the flowers.

There are any number of ways you can do this - if you don't want to use a drop shadow, you can simply increase the canvas size by the number of pixels you want for the border. Select image, then canvas size. Choose your colour, increase the current pixel size shown in the canvas size area by 100 pixels on both the width and height and it will give you 50 pixels top and bottom (a total of 100) and 50 pixels on the left and right side, creating a frame around the outside of the image. Now you have to resize your image to 2100 X 1500 because after adding this type of border your image is going to be 2200 X 1600.

I tend to use a new layer, fill it with the colour I want using the bucket tool, and then select the colour. With the colour selection active, I use the "select" option from the menu, then choose modify, and then contract. I contract the selection by the number of pixels I want left (in other words, the outside edge,) so I'd contract it by 50 pixels. Then I choose the "cut" or delete option (right click, delete). This cuts away the center section of the colour, leaving you with an even border all the way around.

Now that I have my border edges, I'll need to decide if I want to leave them plain, add a drop shadow, or any other designs using some special photoshop brush. Now that my basic design is completed, I need to add the text. For this card, I'll simply put "Happy Mother's Day to My Wife". Now that I have my finished design, all that's left to do is upload it to Greeting card Universe.

For those applying for new accounts, your first card upload is always accepted. After that, cards wait in a queue to be reviewed before being put into your gallery. If you aren't intending to sell the cards online, you can opt to have them placed in your private gallery, where you can order them yourself. There is no review for private gallery cards.

Go here and sign up for a free account at GCU. You'll have options that you can use to setup a card shop if you want to sell them online. For now, we're just going to upload this new card. You can play with your shop settings later on if you want to create a sales gallery.

On your administrative page you'll see a list something like this one:

Go down the list and select "Create a Card". You'll be taken to a page like this where you can upload your image to create your first card. Click the browse button and select your newly created card front from your computer and click the "upload images" button. Your uploaded card design will appear below the upload box, in Section 3. To create the finished card, click the card or the select option.

On this page you'll add a card title, keywords to help your card be found in a search, select a category, choose options for matte or glossy finish, and put in any notes you want listed with the card. You will also be required to click the box to agree that you own the rights to the image, or that you have obtained the rights to use it for your card. Once you've selected everything, click the next button at the bottom, which will take you to the page where you can add your inside text. Click the link that says "click here to edit inside text, and you'll get a text box to add your text, select the colour of the text, and choose a font.

When you've finished adding a verse, choosing colours and font, click save and you'll see a preview of how it will look inside the card. Click next and you'll see your card in the manage cards section. The first one should appear in your "shop front" pretty quickly. Others you upload afterward will show as pending until the card is reviewed.

This is my completed card which I've just uploaded to my GCU account. Once they've reviewed my card and deemed it as appropriate (in the right category, etc.) it will appear in my shop front, ready for others to purchase.

Make A Simple Silhouette in Photoshop

2010-04-08T08:02:00.000-07:00

Silhouettes can be used for many different projects and are easy to create in photoshop from a photo. To start, open your photo and crop it to the area that contains the object or person you want in your silhouette.

Now use the quick mask and paint the area you want to make into a silhouette. Use a hard brush of an appropriate size for your image, and take extra care around the edges and details to make sure you've got neat edges. Use your eraser and brush and work carefully until the area is covered.

Release the quick mask, invert the selection (click the mask button, choose select from the menu, choose inverse) and copy the selection to a new layer (choose edit from the menu, choose copy, then choose edit again, and select paste). Turn off the visibility of your background layer so your selected area shows up on a transparent background.

Now you simply make it black. Select "image" from the menu, then select "levels" and pull all of the sliders to the right. If you have bits and pieces of colors such as red, white, yellow and blue still showing, desaturate (image, adjustments, desaturate) and run it through the levels function again. If you still have areas that aren't black and should be, touch them up with your brush.

At this stage I would take a small soft eraser, zoom in on the silhouette and smooth out any rough areas. Now, delete your background layer and save your silhouette as a .png file. If you'd rather save it as a .jpg, fill the transparent area with a colour of your choice using the bucket tool, then select "layer" and flatten and save it as a .jpg instead.

My finished silhouette has been turned into a Mother's Day card with the addition of a marbled background, some flowers and a bow, and some text on the front (the inside reads "you're the best Mom ever! We love you Mom) - using a silhouette instead of the photo makes the card less specific and personal. This card can be given by any young brother and sister to their mom on Mother's Day.

In a few days, when this card is released it will be available to purchase and send directly from the Greeting Card Universe website. You'll find it in my shop here: Fine Art Cards

Painting A Photo

2010-04-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

This is rather a long tutorial that will show you the basic way to take a photo into a digital "painting" if you are not an artist. It's a slow process, but you can follow as many or as few of the steps along the way as you are comfortable with. You can also add things to the painting technique once you've become familiar with the method - you can add your own steps or special processes along the way to make the results uniquely yours.

What I'm going to show you here are the basic steps to beginning your painting. In finalizing your photo-illustration or digital painting, you will provide the finishing steps yourself. You'll see my painting at the end of the process, but some of my own final steps will not be included.

The reason for this isn't "secretive" so much as it is "personal". I don't want my own work to look exactly like someone else's, and nobody else is going to want their work to look exactly like mine.

Those of you who are artists with painting and drawing skills aren't likely to need or want this tutorial since you already possess the skills to make a painting without a photo, but beginners who only want to make a special image for a family member or friends will find this helpful. The only tools you'll really need are photoshop, or a graphics program with similar functionality.

Ready to start?

Select your image an open it into photoshop. Here's mine. A photo of one of my daughter's - I'm planning to make a Mother's Day card with this one. The first thing you'll want to do is crop it to the area you want to retain, and think about any changes you might want to make along the way - such as hair or eye colour, the addition of makeup or clothing changes, or a different background. In creating a painting over the photo, you can change things as you go.

Most likely I will make a background change - probably something simple, like a painted backdrop that photographer's use. The first step I need to take to change the background is to do a rough isolation of the image portion I want to paint over.

To do this I'll use the quick mask. The quick mask will allow you to paint over the parts of the image you want to copy. Click this icon in the toolbar (usually located near the bottom of the tool bar), select a brush size and paint over the parts you want to move to a new layer. When I'm doing a rough isolation, I usually like to work with a large brush (300 pixels or larger for large areas, 100 pixels for smaller areas) and I find the "hard" brush (in your brush options, select the hardness slider and move it to the right to take your brush from soft to hard) gives better results. Once you've covered the area to be copied your image should look something like this one, with a red "mask" - notice the way this shows in your layer palette - instead of the normal "blue" active layer, you see a gray masked layer.

If you turn the quick mask off (click on the quick mask button in the toolbar) you'll see the selection outline (moving dotted line) that outlines your entire image and everything EXCEPT the area you've painted. That's because the area you painted is "masked off" - sort of like if you've covered an area on your wall with painters tape. What we actually want is to access the area we masked off - we want that area to be our selection. To do that, simply choose the "select" option from your menu, then select the "inverse" option. Now you'll see the area you masked off is the selected area. Now you can choose "edit", then "copy", then select "edit" and "paste" to paste it to a new layer.

Now I'm going to select my background - I tend to do this before I begin painting, but you can wait until the painting portion is finished if that's what you prefer. I've chosen one of my standard backgrounds - pretty tones that I find complementary to women's skin. Copy your new background to a layer in between your original photo and your isolated portion. You'll probably find there are areas along the edges of your isolated layer that you don't want - you can clean these up by erasing the extra bits if you like, but since you are going to recreate this layer in painting, you don't really need to do that. If you decide to use this layer as PART OF your painting, then you may want to.

At this stage, if you haven't been labelling your layers, make sure you label each layer appropriately so you know which layers are which. Label each new layer as you create it.

Now you begin the painting portion. You have two options. If you are skilled enough, you can paint every section by hand (using a mouse, or if you have a tablet, then your pen and tablet). If you aren't, then you can create each section of the painting by using the quck mask technique given above. Because this tutorial is for beginners, we'll use the quick mask method. Click on the quick mask button and paint over your first section. My first section will be the skin. This area will need to be a little more precise than your first masked section. Once the masking is complete, click the mask button again to get the selection area, choose "select", then "inverse", then choose "edit" then "copy", then "edit", then "paste". Your masked skin layer is now copied to it's own layer.

Duplicate this layer. Working on the duplicate skin layer, select the magic wand. Set it's tolerance to 100 or higher, and make sure the contiguous option is NOT selected. Select the skin on this duplicate layer with the magic wand. Now select the colour picker from the tool bar and click on an area in your skin to select an "all over" skin color. Select the paint bucket tool from the tool bar and make sure it is set to foreground, normal mode, opacity 100, tolerance about 50. Now click inside the selection area. This will fill your selection with the "paint" colour you have chosen. Because normal human skin is usually not the exact same color you may have to click a couple of times to fully fill the areas you want filled. Some areas, like lips and eyes don't need to be filled with skin colour. What you should have is something that looks like this. The colour is flat, without detail.

If you are skilled enough, you can add details with your brush, if you are not an artist or not ready to try this step, then you can blend this skin colour paint with your "real" skin layer below by using the blending modes and opacity to get something you like. We're going to try and add details ourselves. On a separate layer, you can add your eyelashes and eyebrows. Paint them in with a fine brush and vary the colour of hairs slightly. On another separate layer paint shadows and details using slightly darker shades and tones of the skin colour you've chosen.Once you have the details roughly brushed in, use the gaussian blur filter to blend them into your painted skin.

Now I'm ready to begin
the hair. I'll tell you right now - I am not good with hair. I usually work with multiple colours over a number of layers. My first layer is a light reddish brown, and I've chosen some watercolour brushes to work with. My hair is usually a rough colouring, then blended and reduced in opacity to reveal the original hair, which I usually keep in the underlayers to give some detail of individual hair, and to give it some definition. This project had three separate layers of colour for the hair, which were blended together (layer, merge down) as one.

Once this is completed roughly, then it's time to adjust the layer opacities as well as the layer blending modes. I can't really tell you what to select in this stage - it's entirely up to your own eye - your likes and dislikes. Once you have all the layers blended you can flatten and save your painting.

This can be the final stage if you are happy with your results. I usually take mine into Corel Paint and continue the work in there - particularly on the hair and blending. I find Corel Paint has better tools for blending paint and better brushes for paint strokes. If you don't have corel paint, you can use the filters in photoshop. This is the final image from photoshop, without having had the benefit of any additional painting and blending in Corel Paint.

And this is my completed image after having worked on it in Corel Paint - adding more detail, blending and brush strokes.

Pop-Out Framing

2010-03-31T13:42:00.000-07:00

Make your photos pop-out of the framing a little with this little frame trick. This is simply done by by isolating the subject area that you want to set outside of (or on top of ) the area of the frame you want it. In this example, the lower portion of the teddy and dish are sitting "above" the lower portion of the frame. Are you ready to begin?

Step 1 is to create a new document with a transparent background of the size you'll need for your image..

Choose your background. In my image, I chose a solid background of the same colour the original image was. I also added a smaller framed version of the teddy bear as part of the background.

This is done by copying your image (open the image to copy, choose select all, choose "edit" and then "copy" - minimize the image, and maximize your new background, select edit and paste) and pasting it to a layer above your background. You can resize this image by selecting "edit" and "free transform", and then "scale". Hold down the shift key, grab one of the corner nodes and resize this to fit in your background. (Note: if you need free frames and photos to practice with, visit Free-3D-Textures.com and grab what you need for free)

Copy your frame to a layer above this little image using the same method as above and sizing your frame to fit the small image.

Minimize the new image with this small picture and maximize your original image. Select all, edit, copy, minimize and then maximize your new image. Now select edit paste to paste this layer just above your background. Size it to fit within the area you want to frame.

Now open your frame again, and copy and paste it (see method above) to just above the layer you just added. Size it to fit your image using the edit/free transform function.

Select the portion you want to isolate from the image and isolate the part you want to pop outside of the frame. In the case of my image it was part of the teddy's leg and the bottom portion of the candy dish. I used the quick mask to do this, but you can use any isolation method that you find comfortable.

To isolate using the quick mask, select the quick mask, paint over the portion you want to move outside the frame. Turn off the quick mask and you'll see a selection. This selection will be everything except what you want to copy. Select the "select" option from the menu, and then choose "inverse". This will select the portion you "painted" in the quick mask. Now select "edit" and "copy", and then select "edit" and "paste". This will copy the selected part to a new layer.

Now that you have the "pop out" part on a new layer, you want to duplicate the layer if you want a shadow. What you'll have is two layers of the small portion. Move to the bottom of the two layers, and using the levels (image, adjustment, levels) move the sliders all the way to the right, making the image black. Pull this below or to the side of the layer above so you can see as much shadow as you want visible.

Use the blur tool (filter, blur, gaussian blur) and blur this shadow layer. Reduce the opacity of the shadow layer to suit your own taste.

That's pretty much the final step. Once you are satisfied with the image, save it as a .psd file in case you want to make future edits, then flatten it, and save it as a .jpg.

News Flash

2010-03-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

BLOGGER IMAGES DISAPPEAR IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE!

Blogger's image storage seems to have gone for a poop - all my blogs are missing all the images from the Picasa Web Albums - including blog headers and profile pics.

Hopefully blogger can restore these - the thought of having to reupload hundreds of pictures for the tutorials and the image files for all my other blogs is giving me nightmares...and a gigantic headache.

Google seems to have a ton of issues lately, from deleting blogs for being spam that aren't spam and don't resemble spam, to creating a gigantic mistake with the release of Buzz, to their phones that don't appear to work so well, to suddenly having all the images in the Picasa Web Albums disappear.

What's next? Should we run a contest or Poll and see who wins?

What Is A PNG File Anyway?

2010-03-22T14:24:00.000-07:00

...and what can I do with it? Ah, well that's a question that quite a few people wonder. A PNG file is a graphic file format that has similarities to both the popular .jpg format and the older .gif format. It can be the same as a .jpg and you can use the same way as you use a .jpg file. It has has the ability to save a file with transparency, like the .gif file, but PNG (or .png) handles photographs very well and allows a wider colour gamut than .gif does. That's the basic and simple explanation, but if you want to know more about the .png format you can find the technical stuff here.

I don't save straight forward photographs as .png files, because for web use, the .jpg is perfectly fine. But, if you do collages or image compilations (creating one image using many elements from others) then the PNG file can be very useful if saved on a transparent background.

Here's one example. We've got this picture of a tree branch with leaves and green berries on it, but we want to add something to it. Like maybe a garden snail - a giant snail.

In photoshop we open the image of the branch as our background. Now we open the snail picture which is a .png file, saved with a transparent background.

With the snail as your active image choose "select all" from your menu. Then choose "edit", then "copy". Now minimize the snail picture and click on the background image (in our case the branches). Now select "edit" again, and then "paste". This will paste the snail onto a new layer in your background.

Once it's there you'll see it's just the snail - no backgrounds to remove. Move the snail around until it's in a spot you like, or make it smaller if you want a more realistic representation. Once you're satisfied with it's placement, flatten your image and it's ready to go.

No fiddling, no erasing or isolating necessary.

The .png file format using transparency is particularly useful for saving things like photo frames. The transparency then makes it easy to place this frame over any photo, the same way as we inserted the snail above.

But where does the .png come from? There are a few places on the internet where you can find free files in the .png format with transparency, but not too many. Right now, it doesn't seem to be a popular file format, but in my books, it should be much more popular than it is. Large numbers of people use the photoshop native file format (.psd) for saving isolated objects with transparency, and while this is an excellent thing to do if you are using your own saved files, not all versions of photoshop may be able to use .psd files from newer versions, and of course, not everyone uses photoshop.

There are other graphic and photo editing programs out there that support layers and transparency, but may not support the .psd format. However, many of these other programs will be able to use the .png files, making them useful for a wider range of people. PNG files can also be used in some 3D-modelling programs, while they can't use the photoshop files.

Because of that, some of my files that are isolated objects or individual elements are saved in both the .psd format (for my own use) and the .png format for others to use. The PNG format is not as large in terms of file size (the image size can be the same in both a .psd file or a .png file, but the .png file size will be smaller), making it easier to upload and host on a web server, and faster to download for those using them.

You can make your own .png files if you know how to isolate something from a photograph or graphic (see the tutorials on how to do that). Open the file you want that has an object you want to isolate. Using the pen tool, create a new path, isolate the object, load the path as a selection and copy it to a new layer. Delete the background and you'll see the object on a new layer with a transparent background. Save this file as a .png and you're ready to roll anytime you need this object in another image it's ready to go.

All in all, this is a relatively versatile file format which is currently under used.

Stormy Night Tutorial for Photoshop

2010-03-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...sort of

Make a broken down shed or abandoned house into a spooky image with this simple trick in photoshop.

Start by selecing an image to "spookify" and do your image editing first - add things or remove things you don't want. Now make a duplicate layer (right click on the background image in the palette and select "duplicate layer".

Using either the Levels or curves function (image, adjustment, levels or curves) darken your image to a gloomy tone. You can either use your colour image, or use a black and white conversion filter or simply desaturate if you want a monotone. In the sample image I added a child, since this was just a picture of an old shed door, and a misty ghost-like head on the right side.

To start the spooky feeling, create a new layer and while on the new empty layer select "filter, render, and clouds" (make sure your background and foreground colours are set to black and white in the colour boxes in your tool menu). You'll have a funny black and white layer here. Now, select edit, free transform. Reshape the cloud layer by dragging the nodes up or down (vertical) or horizontally to give you the feeling of misty clouds. In my example image, I decided to have the mistiness rising up from the ground. When you are satisfied with the shape, select enter. Select screen as your layer blending mode.

Now use a large, soft eraser brush to erase the mist from any areas you don't want, and to soften the squared edge along the top or bottom. Now select filter, blur, and gaussian blur. Blur the cloud layer until you are satisfied with the way it looks.

How much of this mistiness you keep is up to you - or you can omit this layer and step altogether if you don't want a mist.

Now create another new layer above the clouds and fill it with white using your paint bucket tool. Select filter, then noise, and ad noise. Set it for 120%, and select gaussian, and monochrome from the options in the ad noise box. Select enter. Note that how much noise you ad is up to you - you can use less, or you can use more

To turn this into rain we need to use the blur filter again, this time select filter, blur, motion and select your settings - set the angle of rain to match the other elements in your image, if you have any. Set your percentage of blur to anywhere to give the look of pouring rain - this figure can vary depending on what you want and how much noise you used.

Now you will need to adjust the levels on this layer. The goal here is to make the rain white, and the background black, so adjust your levels to give you as close to a black background as you can get, with white streaks running through it. Now set your layer blending mode to screen. And you're done.

I've added a layer of lightening to mine, but it isn't necessary if you don't have it and don't want to draw any.

Simple Website Header Tutorial

2010-03-13T08:32:00.000-08:00

Start by opening a new file of the size you require for your banner. For this tutorial we are going to use a standard width of 800 pixels. That's because there are still users with screen sizes at 800 pixels. You'll need to find out the size of your website header to create a suitable size. How high you set the pixels at is going to depend on the space you have to place your header in - in many applications you can set the height at your own choice and the website will adjust the header the space to fit. You'll have to know a little about your website or blog to decide on the height.

On this blog (the standard blogger template called Minima), the header is 650 pixels in width and I have set my image size at 648 pixels. That's because if you set it for 650, it covers the right edge of the frame. You can set the height and almost any size for the Minima header, and it will automatically adjust, so you can have a taller header than the one I am using.

The first thing we need is an idea. What is your website about? Gardening, biking, sewing, photography, fashion - whatever it is, your website header will be what identifies your site branding. You'll notice that all the headers on my different sites have a very similar design style - the header alone becomes identifiable as a site belonging to me. Those blogs and websites are "branded" with my style and logo, even though their names are different.

Once you've come up with an idea, then you need to decide on images. Naturally, this tutorial is about using images in your header, though website headers don't have to contain images. You'll also need to decide on a colour scheme - if you plan to use both a blog and a website, your colour schemes should be the same. This blog, one photo blog, my personal blog and my business website are all the same colour scheme - black and white with touches of yellow. A texture blog using a similar header is white and black, and the website it links to is also white and black. Keeping the same feel throughout your sites and blogs immediately gives visitors who travel through your sites the feeling that these are by the same person - that's branding. When someone can tell a blog is yours by it's header design and colour scheme then you've succeded in branding your business. This same style and feeling should be carried through to your business cards, letterheads, invoices, contracts, etc.

Here I've created by website header at 800 pixels wide by 450 pixels high. That's a little high for my taste, but may be too short for others. What sizes you use really depend on your own personal taste and design style, the space allowed for the header, and the page design.

My (fictitious) business is Motor-My-Cycle - restoring, buying and selling motorcycles. So I want a header that's got something about motorcycles. I've got my images chosen and my color scheme - black, blue, white and silver.

Open your first image, and size it to fit the height of your header - crop away the parts you don't want to use. Then choose "select all", then select edit and copy. Now minimize that image. Click on your blank (new) image and paste the first image into it (edit, paste). Don't worry about where it lands at the moment, unless this is the only image you plan to use.

Continue opening the images, sizing, cropping and copying them into the new image until you've got all you want. If your header is relatively small, you won't likely want too many. These images basically create the background for your text.

Once they are all loaded into the new image on their own layers, you can close all the other images. Now you being sorting out the arrangement and placement for your images. This is going to be a matter of taste, but in order to learn these simple methods, just follow the tutorial. You can rearrange your images once you've got the hang of it.

I've decided rather than having my pictures straight up and down and square I'm going to angle them for interest. To do that, make sure you have the layer active that you want to rotate (click on the layer). Now select "edit" and then "free transform". Grab one of the corner nodes and rotate your image to an angle you like. Hit "enter" to save the rotation. Move your image into the space you want it.

Simply continue transforming images - using either rotate or skew or distort - any of the transforms will work. Saving them as you find what you like. Here in this one, I've simply rotated the second image on the same angle as the first, and left the third image as it is. I've already decided I'm going to cut off some of the bottom because I found the 450 pixels too high for my liking, so I'm careful to make sure the parts of the images I want to keep are above the area I plan to cut.

If you want parts of your image transparent, make sure you are on the correct layer and use your eraser to remove the parts you don't want.

Play with your layout, turning, rotating, moving things until you've got something you like. Once you've got there, you'll be ready to add the text.

I've decided to reserve a large portion of this header for text, and that I want to a frame work to separate the images from the text. I've added a new layer where I'm going to create this frame.

I want the frame to be a silvery colour, so I've chosen a light gray to start with. On the empty layer, use your square selection and create a rectangle of the width and height for one section of your frame.

The one you see here is going to be a dividing line between text and images. Fill your selection with the colour you've chosen for your frame. Continue framing the header by selecting the other edges the same way, and filling them with your colour.

Here you can see my frame in place and ready to be embellished or styled.

I've decided I want part of the black motorcycle out over the frame, so I've copied part of the tire (draw a selection around the area you want to copy) and pasted it over the frame layer.

Now I've added the "bevel and emboss" style to layer with the frame on it. This one uses the inner bevel style, and I've selected "down" - you'll notice it seems to make the images pop off the page a little.

The last step is to add my text. Choose a font style that suits you and your business. For instance, it isn't a good choice to choose an elegrant script for my text on this image - unless of coursee the owner of the business is a woman, and she opts to do that to give this branding a feminine feeling. Try to choose somethat suits both the business and the person.

Okay, I've got my text in place, and I'm ready to save it. First, save your file as a layered .psd file. This allows you to make changes and adjustments later. Once you've saved the .psd file you can flatten the layers and save it as a .jpg to upload to your website or blog.

New Template & Photo Frames

2010-03-08T06:35:00.000-08:00

I've been working on setting up a couple of new sections on our Free-3D-Textures site; I mentioned this in a previous post that contained the tutorial for using the free photoshop edges (if you missed the tutorial, you can find it here.

It just seemed a lot simpler to set up individual sections for the edges & frames, and one for the template files than having to search through various tutorials to find the downloads for those files.

Now, we've got a section started for Photo Edges & Frames, and one for Photoshop Templates.

The Edges & Frames section has some new photo frames uploaded for you - these are in .png format with transparent backgrounds. At the current time, I think we have nine free photo frames ready to use - all of them designed to print at 8 X 10, or 8.5 X 11. Most can be up-sized a little without losing too much quality and of course all of them can be downsized to fit your photograph.

The templates page mostly contains the 2010 calendar templates, including the forever calendar and the folding pocket calendar. More will be added as I get time. You'll also find two templates for seed packets - one is the wedding seed packet from one of our previous tutorials, and one is a new design - a garden seed packet. This sample one includes the nasturtiums images, design and texts, but because they are on photoshop layers it's going to pretty simple to replace these with your own text and designs.

Hopefully you'll find these new sections will save you some time when you are looking for a specific file from one of our tutorials.

Creating a Text Logo in Photoshop

2010-03-07T06:55:00.000-08:00

One of the recent requests I received was how to create a text logo in photoshop. This tutorial will show you how to create a text logo on a transparent background and saved as a .png file to preserve it's transparency.

Saving your logo on a transparent background opens it up for all kinds of uses, from image logos and watermarks to t-shirts and hats. In order to make a multi-purpose logo you need a good design idea to begin with - this doesn't have to be just text, it can include both text and image or graphics. Then you have to make the original file large enough to be suitable for print.

Anyone working in logo design would normally design their logo in Adobe Illustrator, creating what's called an eps file. This is a file type that is not based on the same technology as the .jpg files we create in photoshop. Photoshop files are based on pixels. Because we are dealing with beginners here, we are going to be working in photoshop (besides, although I do have Illustrator, I'm not very good with it).

You'll be creating a design that you can print at 8 X 10 inches. Since it isn't very likely you'll be putting this design on a billboard (at least not right away), this size is more than suitable for marking your printable posters, or for using on your business cards, letterheads, invoices and contracts, and can still be printed large enough for a tee or hoodie. And on top of that, this one design can be used as your website header, or part of your website header and your custom watermark.

An "all-in-one", good-for-everything (almost) image or logo that represents you or your business, or both.

The most difficult thing you'll be doing in this tutorial is typing text and arranging it into a suitable placement. Make sure you select font styles and text layouts that are unique, or that blend well together to create a look that is all your own - after all, you don't want your logo to look just like someone else's - you want it to represent you and your own style.

You can download the tutorial in .pdf format from this link. PLEASE REMEMBER: the tutorial is locked to prevent hotlinking from other sites. If you want to share this tutorial, please just link to this page. The unlock password for this tutorial is: notheft

Using Photo Edges & Frames in Photoshop

2010-03-01T08:26:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick and easy way to add some fun framing to your digital photos using photoshop and these free photo edge designs.

Give your image a faded edge look using one of the blurred designs, or give it an old-time framed look. There are currently 8 new edge designs uploaded on Free-3D-Textures.

Oh, did I forget to mention we're adding a couple of new sections over the next month or two. One will contain photo edges in .jpg format and photo frames in .png format, and the other will contain template files for things like the various calendars and other projects we have on this blog. Having the files available on their own download page will make it a lot easier to find the one you want.

Here's what one of these photo edge files looks like. These are black and white for a reason. Wherever you see the black will be transparent, and whatever is white is the design that will appear on your image. These are pretty simple to use. You copy the file to a new layer above your image. Select "screen" as the blending method, and voila - a photo edge or frame. These have been around for quite a while...they were pretty popular back when I was first learning photoshop, but I haven't actually seen any for quite some time. These 8 files are brand new - with designs suitable for a variety of home uses. These can be used to frame a greeting card design, or for use in preparing images for collage. You can resize these frames over your image by selecting the "edit" option from your photoshop menu, then select "free transform" option and drag the frame to fit your image.

Depending on the image used as the background, some of these will create interesting effects if you use other blending methods. Have a look at this one which used the "difference" blending method.

Because the frames are white, you can also make some colour adjustments using the layer styles and colour channels. This one shows the frame as yellow by changing the colour channels (to see the settings, click the small images to open the larger size). Or, if you're in the mood to add some texture, use the texture option in the layer style.

Just because these are designed to work as white finishes doesn't mean they have to stay that way. Have a little fun experimenting with ways to use these frames.

I almost forgot! To download all 8 photo edges in full size go to the Photo Edges page on Free-3D-Textures.com.

Back to Photoshop Basics

2010-02-25T07:19:00.000-08:00

We're taking the blog back to photoshop basics for beginners. This post, while something of a tutorial, is really more of a really quick trip through the controls in photoshop's raw converter plugin.

If you have a newer version of photoshop you can download the free plugin for raw conversion from their site. There are a variety of camera formats supported, but you must be careful which version of the plugin you download. The most recent version on the site is Camera Raw 5.6 for Photoshop CS4. Some versions work only with some versions of photoshop. And some older versions of the plugin may not open your version of camera raw files, so you do need to read the documentation for what you are downloading.

CS2 and older doesn't support newer cameras. I discovered that when I bought my Nikon D700. My first shoot with the camera was all in raw, only to discover the PS CS2 with it's raw converter wouldn't open those files. Downloading the newer converter plugin didn't work either, because it wasn't designed to work in CS2. Downloading and updating to CS3 didn't work either, since my operating system was Win2000Pro - I also had to upgrade to Win XP. I couldn't do that without entirely wiping out the current computer system and starting with a hard formatted disc drive. I couldn't afford to do that - I had a lot of old programs I still use, and some that wouldn't work on WinXP.

So my solution was to have a new computer system built for me at a cost of $2,000, including a full copy of Windows XP Pro. Then another $200 to upgrade to Photoshop CS3. So my camera purchase ($2000+) wound up costing me more than double the original price.

That's a warning - don't install an updated raw plugin to photoshop uless you know everything is going be supported.

If you've bought a new camera and have an older photoshop version, try the software that came with your camera. Most manufacturers provide software that will open their own raw files.

These instructions are for Photoshop CS3 since that's what I use. I suppose one of these days I'll have to update to CS4 and have a look at the new raw converter, but for now, what I've got suits my purpose.

When you open your raw file in photoshop you'll be presented with a separate screen from the raw converter, with it's own set of controls for adjusting your image.

From Raw Converter Edits

On the right are a series of controls that will allow you to adjust a number of things from the white balance to the exposure. Across the top of the control panel are a series of little buttons or icons, that when clicked will take you to other sections of the converter - controls for adjusting the light and dark portions of your images, very much like the native curves function in photoshop; settings to allow you to sharpen your image, and to remove chromatic abberations (affectionately known as purple fringe, but is often seen as red or blue); as well you'll find controls for hue and saturation showing all the colours, allowing you to adjust the saturation of individual colours, and their intensity; if your lens has a tendency to vignette the corners (where the outer edges or corners look darker than the rest of the image) you can also make adjustments to this, you can calibrate your camera colours, and save settings from one image in a series so you can use the same settings on the balance of the images.

In many cases, once processed from the raw converter images may not need anything further. This of course depends on what you intend for the image use, but straight forward portraits or stock objects shot on white backgrounds are likely to need nothing more.

The main panel gives you some control over the white balance - in the drop down box are options like "as shot", or "auto", or "sun, shade, cloudy" and a few others like tungsten and fluorescent. Selecting one of the options can change the look of the overall tone of your image.

Below that the temperature and tint controls also allow you to change whether the image looks warm or cool.

The exposure slider allows you to correct your exposure if you were a little off. Keep in mind when you do this, if you underexposed the shot by too much when you shot it, you are most likely going to create some noise by adjusting the exposure. How much will depend on the camera make & model and it's censor type.

The recovery slider will allow you to reduce the exposure in areas that are over exposed, but like the exposure slider these controls should be used carefully.

Fill light works a little like the fill light on a flash unit - sometimes helping you to get more even lighting between background and foreground, but it also reduces the contrast.

The slider for blacks darkens or lightens the blacks in the image, either creating more contrast (darkening blacks) or less contrast (lightening) blacks. Most of the balance of the controls work on the overall image, much the same as any similar control in an image editor.

I seldom use many of the controls on the main panel, preferring to gain a little more control by using the other sections available.

When you click the little icon on the top row that looks like a chart it will take you to the Tone Curve control panel. Here you have a lot more control. You can lighten the lights, tone down or brighten the highlights, darken or lighten the darks and shadows, all individually. This is usually a better option than using the exposure slider on the main panel. You have control over how the tones work together in your images. When you adjust these sliders you'll see the curve line on the chart change, and the histogram at the top will also change. The image is still open in the left hand side of the pane, so you'll see the effects of this on your image as you work.

Back at the top of the converter now, click on the little icon that looks like a triangle. This opens the panel where you can adjust the sharpness, and reduce the noise in your image (if there is any). I generally have the sharpening set to very low or OFF in my cameras, preferring to sharpen the image myself when it needs it. I seldom use this panel in the converter, preferring adobe's own sharpening functions for the little I use it, and using Neat Image for noise control where necessary. For home users, Neat Image has a free version. I recommend you try it - if you plan to use it for commercial purposes, then purchase the Pro + version as this comes with a plugin for photoshop.

Remember that these adjustments can just as easily be changed back to the original settings. When you open your raw image into photoshop, you would save it either as a .tiff, .psd or .dng file if you want to keep the 16-bit format, or as a .jpg if you switch to 8-bit, so you can try the sharpening and noise reduction in the raw converter on your own and decide whether or not it provides enough for your purposes.

The next icon (looks like squiggly lines) brings up the HSL/Grayscale dialogue box. This box has three sections - the first one it opens on is the "Hue" option. This controls the over hue of the image. I seldom adjust this, but it can be useful if you want the image to be more blue or more green - you can adjust each of these colour sliders independently. When you click on the saturation tab an almost identical box will show, but this controls the saturation of each of those colours in your image. You can increase the saturation of yellows, oranges and reds in an autumn image, for instance, without changing the saturation of the greens and blues. Or you can decrease the saturation of yellows in grass that's too bright, without affecting the other colours in an image. This is another of the adjustment boxes I use most often. Clicking on the luminance tab brings another identical box, but this one allows you to adjust how light or how dark each of the colours is. You can darken the reds to almost burgundy without affecting how bright your yellows are. You can darken the blues if your sky is slightly over exposed. This too is a useful tool for me.

The option you'll see in this section is at the top - there is a little box that allows you to convert the image to grayscale. But it's much more than just converting to grayscale. The lightness and darkness of each of the colours can be adjusted in grayscale, allowing you to select whether the blues are light or dark. So in the black and white version you can add drama to a sky full of clouds by darkening the blue tones, or make the entire sky white by lightening them.

If you follow the link here you'll get a picasa album with larger versions of these images - this also shows the other sections of the HSL/Grayscale box - just page through the album to see the other sections.

The next section is where you can remove vignetting from the corners of your images, or control the fringe (chromatic abberations) on your images. If you look at an image up close that has areas of high contrast - for instance between the sky and a series of tree tops you might notice an acqua or red line around the edges of the trees. In some cases this line may show as purple, or blue too. You can reduce this effect by using the controls in this section. When the fringing is minor in nature, you can usually remove it altogether.

The vignetting has two controls - one to select where the vignetting centers and one to decrease the vignetting, but for those who like to add vignettes to an image, you can also do that here. Playing around with center slider will show you fairly quickly what it does.

The balance of the two panels you'll find are the camera calibration panel - I don't use this, so you'll have to explore it on your own. And the panel where you can save and name your settings, and it is fairly self-explanatory.

Below you'll see the image from the first photo adjusted and processed completely in the raw converter. All that remains now is to print it. No further editing is really necessary.

From Raw Converter Edits

The final photo shows the above image converted to grayscale and adjusted in the raw converter - also ready to go with no more processing.

From Raw Converter Edits

A Wedding Favor Template

2010-02-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks back I wrote on do-it-yourself wedding favors for brides on a budget, and how photography can be used to assist the couple.

In that article I mentioned a "green" alternative to the standard wedding favor - a seed packet for seeds you have either purchased in bulk or harvested yourself. Back when I wrote that, I had intended to include a template for a seed packet, but time constraints prevented me from creating one. (See the end of the article for the psd template link.)
I finally managed to finish the seed packet template so I'm uploading the .pdf file for those of you who might want to use it. In the template you'll find the seed packet pattern, along with a new photo frame I created for the front, as well as a cover image. The cover image should be replaced with one of your own, and you can opt to not use the frame at all simply by turning of it's visibility. The text used in this template is "formal script" but you can select any text you prefer. Each section of text is on it's own layer within the psd file, so you can move, change or delete it.

It's fairly simple to use and of course now that you have the package template you could use any of your own images to create the front. If you really need to slash the budget and have lots of time, then print your own on heavier quality presentation paper. If you have less time and more money, once you have your design completed, save it as a .jpg file and take to a nearby printer and ask them to print as many as you need.

You can download the free Wedding Seed Packet from this link.

It's a short post today, but hopefully a useful one.

Wedding Blogs & Photographers – Do They Go Together?

2010-02-02T05:20:00.001-08:00

This of course depends on what the question means. Many wedding photographers will use a blog for exposure, and for sharing tips and other articles. But that’s not what we mean when we say “Wedding Blog”.

In this case, it’s a blog for a bride and groom to allow their friends and family to keep up with their wedding plans. Lots of couples do this today. Some use free wedding websites, some use free blogs, and some might even be lucky enough to have a Wedding Planner who provides such a service.
But a photographer who provides a free wedding blog is probably going to be a pretty rare occurrence. Mostly because, well photographers are photographers and not usually web designers.
With the world of free blogs out there just waiting to be created (see the end of the article for a list of free blog spaces) a small home-based wedding photography business can easily opt to provide a free wedding blog for their clients. Keep in mind, in these articles we are dealing with very small “on the side” businesses and lower-budget weddings and if the only difference between the couple choosing your business over the closest competitor’s business is the fact that you’ve got the ability to offer them a wedding blog set-up, then for some of you, it might make sense to delve into this.
In fact the only thing it should cost you is the time to set it up, and if you handle your wedding blog service right, it won’t take much of that.
Two free blog services that make this an easy proposition are Blogger.com and Wordpress.com. Since blogger allows you to edit the html and CSS and create custom blog templates, it would probably get my vote over the free wordpress blogs. Wordpress has some nice options and functions, but you are limited in how much change you can make and have no access to make template changes.
Another benefit to blogger is that you can pretty much use any template that was designed for blogger, and if you run a search for “free wedding templates for blogger” you can find quite a lot of nice templates all ready to upload, such as this ivory wedding template.
Initially, creating your first basic blog layout and setup designed primarily for weddings is going to take you some time – depending on how much editing you want to do, it could take you from half an hour to a couple of days, but once you’ve got a site design that you like, that will be the basic set up for every free blog you set up. You simply will change the image designs for the header, and the blog names whenever you set up a new free blog for a couple. That should take you anywhere from a few minutes to 20 minutes.
Below is a sample site I set up in about half an hour (the picture will take you to the site to see the page set ups)

There are a couple of ways you can set this up – either all under one umbrella using a single account you create specifically for that purpose or setting up a separate account for each couple.
A blogger account for instance would allow you to set up hundreds of blogs in one place. For each individual blog, you can determine who has access to edit that blog, and you send the couple an “invitation” to author the blog. Once they accept, they become an admin or author, depending on how you set it up. They only have access to the blog they receive the invitation for, not for any of the other blogs under your umbrella. This method would make it simple for you to keep track of the one’s you’ve set up, and allows you to create multiple blogs in advance, simply changing the names at a later date when a blog is assigned to a couple.
The other method is simply to open a gmail account (free) for the couple – in this case we’ll use John and Jane. So the gmail account you open might be johnandjaneswedding @ gmail . com. Then you can open a blogger account using that email, and set up a blog using the template design you created. Then you turn the email address and password, along with the log in information over to the couple, who carries it on from there.
Both Blogger and Wordpress offer the opportunity for the couple to purchase a domain name, and point that at their free blog, so if the couple decides to buy the domain name john and janes wedding . com, the free blog can easily be converted to their domain with a minimum of fuss.
Creating a blog on blogger using an blogger account created for the couple also gives them access to Picasa Web Albums. All the images uploaded to the blog are stored there. This means that you could place additional wedding-related images – your own selection of “stock images” you create for this purpose, thereby giving your couple options to change images or add other images to their blog. Picasa also provides free slideshows, easily inserted into the blog.
In either case, one of the things you will require are simple instructions on how to edit the blogs and log into their accounts. This is something you can do either by writing your own simple instructions, or giving the couple the address of Blogger’s help center. My own inclination would be write instructions that even a non-web person could follow and keep photocopies to hand out.
Once you have turned the blog over to the couple, your responsibility for it should end. From there on out, the couple maintains the blog on their own – blogger is very easy to learn, which much help available, so even “newbies” to web blogging shouldn’t have any problem using it.
Some things to keep in mind – the couple may already have started their own blog or website, or might want something more than a blog. In that case you can keep a list of free wedding websites to point them to, instead. And of course, this makes it much simpler for you.
To be prepared for this, simply keep a list of wedding websites that offer both a free website, and/or the ability to update to a premium website. There are many such sites available as you can see by this list, which took me less than five minutes to find:
Momentville
Wedding Announcer
Wedding Space
Big Day Page
Our Bride Space
Wedding Project
If you do weddings as a sideline to supplement your income, and you are a photographer who deals often with couples whose budget is very limited, this might be an option that is worth thinking about.
Free Blog Spaces

Technorati Tags: wedding preparations,wedding photography,photographers,web and blog designs,free stuff for bride and groom,boost your wedding photography business

Photographing Wedding Customs & Traditions

2010-01-26T06:46:00.001-08:00

Have you noticed that the world today is becoming a much smaller place? We’ve become a world of mixed and blended cultures where today, the couple choose to marry each other out of love, with less consideration for cultures or race. When a marriage involves two different cultures, the wedding will often have elements of both family’s traditions, which will make it important for the photographer to understand the ceremony and what will take place.
And, if the photographer hasn’t taken the time to prepare for this, it might make for a wedding whose special traditions might not make it to the wedding album.
Since the photographer’s job is record the wedding day, he or she needs to take the time to ensure the couple has given forth any special events of the day, particularly if the photographer is dealing with family’s from a different culture, or if the marrying couple are from two different cultures.
Since the importance of symbolic rituals are different in each family and to each bride and groom it simply makes sense to ask the couple about the wedding ceremony and the parts of it that are particularly important to them in terms of photography. Many modern couples may not have symbolic traditions, while others will have a number of them.
When I was a girl, all the brides of my generation, in my mother’s family walked down the aisle with an old penny in their shoe – a throwback to ‘a silver sixpence in her shoe’. It was a large canadian penny (rather than a silver sixpence) from the 1800s. My father had a collection of these that he had dug up in his yard when he just a just a boy. My mother and her sisters had the traditional sixpence.
The saying or old tradition that went with this is one I’m sure half the world has heard:
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a silver sixpence in her shoe.
If your couple has an emotional attachment to some special family wedding tradition, take time to capture some of that for their wedding the album. While usually not “must haves”, photographing the “silver sixpence” in the brides shoe as she’s about to put her foot into it, will have significance, not only to the bride, but to her family.
When I was married, the something old were my grandmother’s pearls. “Something old” represented the bride’s family (traditionally) – not that they were all old, but that they were the ties to her single life. In some families, the borrowed item may be a handkerchief borrowed from a grandmother or mother.
Something new was my wedding dress, as it is for many brides, but it can be anything new . Since some brides will wear a family wedding dress the bridge might choose something else, such as a special pair of earrings to be something new.
My “something borrowed” was my headpiece – a princess crown (not a tiara, but a full crown) belonging to a married cousin some years older than me. Something borrowed was traditionally meant to be borrowed from a happily married woman…symbolic of a happily married life, the borrowed item was thought to bring happiness from the established marriage into the new bride’s married life.
Something blue is most often the garter, but in modern times the garter comes in many colours, so something blue can be almost anything the bride chooses. That was meant to symbolize loyalty (as in “true blue”) and faithfulness.
As the photographer, it’s up to you to discuss any special inclusions in their wedding package – mainly because these are often parts of the ceremony that are taken for granted by the couple and their family – they might not even think to mention the special importance these traditions have in their ceremony. It’s a simple matter to include a section in your checklist for “special traditions and customs”, making it easy to remember to discuss this section with your couple.
Photo Credits:
wedding dress – Hickey Family Foto
teddy bear – Dave @ morgueFile

Technorati Tags: wedding,customs,traditions,ceremony,photographraphy,tips,photography blography,j. gracey stinson

The Wedding Dress – From Two Perspectives

2010-01-13T11:15:00.001-08:00

Some of you may think it’s a little strange that I’ve chosen to write about a subject that isn’t typically considered a photography subject. If I changed the title to “Exposure Tips for Wedding Photography” some of you who have photographed brides and grooms would probably understand what’s coming immediately.
It’s simple. The wedding dress is white (usually), the grooms attire is black (usually). Which do you expose for? If you expose for the black suit/tux, the dress will probably be overexposed, and if you expose for the dress, the suit will be a black blob with no details. Seasoned digital photographers will already have some idea that you need to expose for the mid-range, as opposed to light or dark spectrum.
How to? If you have a light meter (unlikely for most beginners) you can use that, but most digital cameras have an exposure meter you can put to use.
If you have a specific aperture setting that you like to work with (say F11 or F8), set your camera to the A mode (or whichever mode represents aperture priority on your camera). Focus on the bride’s dress (whitest area) and note the settings that your camera automatically selected for the shutter speed (write it down, or remember it). Then meter the black suit the groom is wearing in the same way. Choose a shutter speed that falls between the two, somewhere close to the middle. Reset your camera to manual using your metered F-stop (F11 or F8 or whatever you used) and set the shutter speed. Take a shot of the couple and check your histogram to make sure the white values are acceptable. Turn on your view screen (what, you shoot with it on? waste of battery unless you absolutely have to check every shot). and zoom in on the bride’s dress and the groom’s attire on the screen. If you can see details in both, you’re ready to go. If not, adjust the shutter speed and try again.
Okay, yes…that takes time and effort. There are some other things you can do. You can use the settings that come on most newer cameras for HDR shots, allowing you to shoot three to five (or more) images with different exposure settings (auto exposure bracketing). The simplest is to set the normal or middle range setting that you would have selected, and then set an exposure for 1.5 to 2 stops under that exposure, and 1.5 to 2 stops above that exposure. These three images can be combined using HDR technology to create a properly exposed photo, but the most flexible option would use 5. (How to Use HDR Settings on Your Camera – and - HDR How-To)
So far, we’ve focused on the dress and tux, and the contrast between the two, but other things to keep in mind when choosing your optimal settings are the skin colour of your subjects – while the attire is important, none of that will matter much if your subjects themselves are over or under exposed. Exposing with middle range will probably give you the most satisfactory results, and will still allow you to adjust the levels and contrasts if you’ve shot in raw.
If you’ve been asked to shoot a wedding and you just aren’t a “wedding photographer” then start practicing. Now. Before the wedding day.
No, you don’t need a wedding dress. Anything white with a little texture (damask table cloth, napkins, white lace) and anything black (a strip of black satin, a strip of black velvet, and a strip of black suiting) are all you need to practice on your own. Practice on sunny days, on overcast days, indoors, outdoors, with natural lighting and with flash. For most of us, practice is the only thing that makes the difference between a successful shot, and a less than satisfactory one. Make it a point to practice a little – every day. Ten minutes is all you need. Before long, you’ll know the best exposures to select for the wedding day shoot – no matter what the conditions.
Traditionally, in Canada and the US the wedding dress is white or ivory, but many of today’s brides are anything but traditional. Add to that the multi-cultural mix that has been brewing over the last ten to twenty years, and if you aren’t prepared you might find yourself unprepared for the wedding day. Today, the wedding dress can be pink, or flowered, feathered or beaded and runs the gamut from startlingly pure white to red or black, or combinations of colour.
The same can be said for the groom’s attire. While Black or dark gray has been the traditional colour, guys are asserting their own style preferences and you may find yourself faced with a groom in a white tux or suit, or in gold brocade (yep…no fooling).
Be sure you avoid an unpleasant surprise – ask your couple in advance about their attire. If the bride is reluctant to say in front of the groom, then talk to them separately, but do take the time to talk about their wedding finery during your meetings.
As always, be prepared for anything and everything, and there won’t be many surprises you can’t handle come the wedding day.
A Special Note to Brides on Budgets – Yes, You Can
Even on a really tight budget you can have a gorgeous wedding dress. Just not a brand new one. Those of you on a budget are likely shuddering at the $5,000 cost of your dress and headpiece. Even a $1,500 dress can be out of reach.
But how about $20? Or $40, $50, $60…maybe $100? Oh, yes. I am serious. Currently in my home there are three wedding dresses (not including my own 34 year old dress) whose total cost (all 3) was $110.00
One dress is decidedly sweet and simple – a 1960s era chiffon and lace – short train (but it has a train), simple styling and at a cost of $20 was perfect for a “trash the dress” shoot. So far, I haven’t been able to bring myself to allow it to be ruined.
The next dress is an off-the-shoulder with removable sleeves – satin, lace, pearls and crystals with a long train, drop-waist styling and a full “I’m a princess” kind of skirt. Simply beautiful on a bride. This one came with a crystal and pearl headpiece, at a grand total of $50.00 (worn once – bought at a garage sale.) Nobody would have guessed this dress (whose original price was over $2,000) was not a first-timer.
The third dress is beautifully simple with ivory tones, embroidered bodice, and full slightly pleated skirt. A lovely peau-de-soie and taffeta with a long embroidered train and clean lines, a few pearls mixed with some of the embroidery (also worn only once). This was purchased (yes, at a garage sale already having been cleaned) for $40. Sorry, no pictures available since it was bought for my daughter’s wedding…which hasn’t happened yet.
A dress we’ve no longer got, but acquired at an auction at Goodwill was a 1950s full lace dress with southern-belle skirt and came in at $60.00, and was accompanied by an antique Juliet-cap (this was fabulous) with attached fully-embroidered cathedral length veil for $80 (bought at an antique shop). The bride was stunning and elegant in this attire and no one guessed that it wasn’t the dress’ first trip down the aisle.
You want more? Look in mom’s closet, or grandma’s closet. Perhaps the dress style isn’t exactly right, or the fit, but a good seamstress can turn that dress into a one-of-a-kind bridal creation designed just for you, and usually at a reasonable cost.
When it comes to the dress, even though you might be limited by your budget, you don’t have to be limited. With creativity you can have a gorgeous dress that makes you feel like princess for a day at a price you can afford.
Photo Credits:
Red & Gold Wedding Dress: Yessenia @ morgueFile
Red Wedding Dress: Hamper @ morgueFile
Wedding Dress Back with Brown Insert: Hickey Family Foto

Technorati Tags: wedding photography,wedding dresses,budget wedding,tuxedo,proper exposure,HDR

Tutorial Reminder

2010-01-08T08:35:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder to readers that all the photoshop tutorials are now being released over on Free-3D-Textures.com in the tutorials section. The tutorials are split up into two different categories - Photoshop Tutorials, and Photography Tutorials. Each section has an index page with the tutorials listed, and links directly to the tutorials from those pages.

Also on the site you'll find a bunch of free textures in a variety of categories for use in your own photo-editing and collage projects, or in 3D and Game rendering software. We've also got sections containing a lot of free .png files; some free graphics; a load of free stock or blog photos; some free Photoshop Texture Brushes; and a listing of free and open source software (with links to the sites to download the software. Oh yeah - there's also free photo frames to use in Photoshop, free Photoshop Edges and a variety of free templates - mostly calendar templates, but some others as well.

The tutorial and templates for the Folding 1-Year Calendar can be found in PS Tutorials section on Free-3D-Textures.com.

Cut the Cost – Personalized Wedding Favors

2010-01-07T09:24:00.001-08:00

Unique Ideas for Unique Couples and Photographers
In keeping with our last article for low-budget weddings, today’s will give you some interesting ideas for low cost wedding favors aimed at the do-it-yourselfer, and those planning small weddings.
Today, a lot of couples opt to forgo the wedding favors in an effort to keep things simple, and keep costs down. Those looking for low-cost wedding favors in smaller numbers can find ways to create a favor that is unique to them.
Favors can also include photos, and this is where your wedding photographer can help. Many couples will use engagement photos, but most small-business photographers will be willing to work with you to provide other unique photos, prior to your wedding. If you think this is an option for your wedding day, then be sure you negotiate this when you discuss the photography contract with your photographer.
Photos such as parts of the wedding dress or headpiece, the couple’s rings, the bride’s shoes, the invitation and any number of other similar still-life type photos can be used, either along with the engagement photo, or instead of one.
First is the “tag” or card attached to the favor. Small cards with the couple’s name and wedding date: these can be ordered from bridal catalogues or online shops in bulk. But if you are looking for something different, try the “MiniCards” from Moo.com. These are roughly an inch by two and three-quarter inches, printed on both sides and come at a cost of $19.95 US for 100 cards.
With the minicards from moo, you aren’t limited to using one image for back of the cards – you can use as many different images as you like, while retaining the same details on the front. The cards are good quality, and once you receive them you can use a special hole-punch of your own choosing (these can be had at dollar shops). Buy one with a heart-shaped hole cutter, or other shapes to suite your style.
Favors can be simple, like these wedding bubbles. You can get these in basic bottles with no decorations, or like these you see here, in bottles with doves on top, bottles shaped like wedding cakes, or even bottles shaped like a wine bottle. Labels with your details can be printed and placed on these, or tiny photos if you prefer. All of the ones pictured here came 4 in a package for $1.00.
These white chocolate roses on sticks were made by hand. Bulk stores sell chocolate discs in a variety of colors, as well as having the candy molds to create your own edible favor. These were inserted into small bags using the colors chosen for the wedding.
Dollar shops also sell packs of net or mesh, pre-cut into rounds suitable for those wanting to use more traditional favors – mints, sugared almonds or some other form of sweet. Buy your candy in bulk shops, wrap them in your mesh, tie with your choice of ribbon and attach your Moo card.
For those not so traditional couples, there are many other things you can use – seed packets personalized with your photo and wedding details (yes, containing seed, of course) make a wonderful favor that is also…useful, and environmentally friendly (green). Easy to do, and many seed types can also be purchased in bulk.
Small printed yearly calendars with your details and photo are also different and unusual, as well as useful. Small enough to fit in a pocket, handbag or wallet, your friends and family will carry these for the year to come.

(Note: the above calendar will be available as a template with tutorial over on Free-3D-Textures.com by this coming weekend, so if you want to try these make sure you check the photoshop tutorials section for the calendar template)
One last unique item for today (though I’m sure many of you can come up with your own ideas) that combines photography and wedding favors is one we used at my daughter’s wedding.
Since it was an outdoor wedding (no tent) in July, we planned ahead for a hot day. We took cardstock (this comes in packages and can be had in a variety of colors besides white) and cut out hearts (all the same size) – two for each fan. Using an exacto knife or other similar cutter, cut an opening in one of the cardstock hearts – square, oval, round, or heart-shaped. Behind this opening, glue a photo of the couple. You can glue lace or other edging at the edge, and add a stick or handle to hold it with. Spray painted tongue depressors work well for this, but there are other options for more elegant weddings. Glue the second heart to the back of the first, with the tongue depressor or handle between the two. Pretty, useful in the situation, and inexpensive.
This wedding had about 90 guests and given the fan’s design, we expected only the women would want them. We made more fans than the number of women we expected and had the ushers hand them out to the women on their arrival.
The day was very warm, and we were lucky to have made the extras because a lot of men took one as well. We were very surprised to find that people found these a unique and welcome addition to the wedding day. These were not intended as the favors, but for those planning an outdoor wedding these might be a good choice instead of a traditional favor.

Technorati Tags: wedding favors,unique weddings,wedding photography,folding pocket calendar,templates,gracey

The Low-Budget Wedding

2009-12-31T05:10:00.001-08:00

On the whole, the words “low-budget” and “wedding” are not words you’ll see used together. We often see wedding budgets soaring from $5,000 to $100,000. My mind boggles at the thought of forking out $100,000, or even $30,000 for a single day in your life.
For most, the wedding is supposed to be a “once-in-a-lifetime” event, but in today’s world the statistics show that this is often not the case. Sometimes, the second wedding is a larger more costly affair than the first was.
If the bride and groom and their parents have been preparing for the wedding day for a number of years, or if they are financially able to pull off a huge a costly wedding, then it is very likely in the hands of an efficient wedding planner, and all that is needed of the photographer is to show up and provide the services contracted for.
There are many reasons a couple might choose a low-budget affair, from lack of funds to just wanting to keep things simple. Not every couple wants to go into their married life with a huge loan to pay-off, and not every couple has parents whose financial situation can cover the cost of large and expensive wedding. And then you have those couples who just want to begin their life together, even if the wedding is a “day in the park”.
So how does the small-business photographer work with these couples? That of course depends on the willingness of the photographer to provide more for less.
Large photographic studios often cannot provide enough services to low-budget weddings: not necessarily because they don’t want to, but because of the expenses involved in running these studios. Store leases, utilities, insurance, equipment costs and employee wages (among other things) are all figured into the studio’s rates. In their case, it’s a matter of running an efficient business that can pay the bills at the end of the month.
Those of us who work from home offices & studios have less expense in terms of rents and utilities, and often don’t have employee costs. Though we do need to consider equipment, office , insurance and travel costs, these tend to be less since they are a percentage of the overall costs of running the home. This makes it easier to to work within budget constraints
Some advice for the couple looking for a photographer – in the case of photography, “you get what you pay for” isn’t always true. A lower cost home-based photographer can provide work as good, and as professional as the expensive studio. Not all expensive wedding photographers provide excellent work, either. High price is no guarantee for high-quality.
In terms of wedding photography, the importance of doing your homework cannot be stressed enough. Overall, what you want is a photographer who is willing to work with you and your budget, and whose final results are pleasing.
You should study samples of work from different photographers or studios in your area. Even if you can’t afford a large studio photographer for your wedding day, you should visit at least one. Most will have work on display, and you’ll be able to get some idea of the styles and quality of work they provide, as well as obtaining package or hourly costs.
Look for a couple of lower-cost wedding or portrait photographers in your area and make an appointment to discuss costs and services, and ask to see sample work. It costs nothing but your time to make an appointment and will give you the opportunity to meet personally with the photographer. This is one advantage of using a small-home photographer – you know who you’ll get showing up on the wedding day. You’ll have a chance to work with your photographer in advance of the wedding day.
In deciding on the photographer for your wedding day – cost should not be the deciding factor unless all other things are equal. In other words, if you visit 3 low-cost photographers and each provides excellent quality work, and you feel comfortable with each one in terms of “can I work with this person”, then you may consider opting for the lowest cost photographer on your list, and still feel confident you’ll be happy with the results.
Like almost everything today, there are wedding photographers out there for every situation and every budget. Explore your options ahead of time and do comparison shopping and you’ll find the right photographer for you.

Wedding Cards from Photography or Art

2009-12-03T03:24:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting sideline the wedding photographer can use to earn a little extra money, or to give their couple some custom thank you cards or invitations.

Using your photography or artwork, you can create custom designed cards with very little work and list them for sale, or order them for your couple - or they can order and send them directly from the site.

Where? The site I use is Greeting Card Universe. It's free to join the site and create a shop. You earn commissions from every card sold from your shop, but even better are the options for ordering your own creations. Shop owners get a discount when ordering their own cards, and you also earn a smaller commission on your own orders, plus when ordering in bulk, you get an additional discount.
Customers can order your cards as well (if you make them public - you have the option for private card galleries, making this a perfect place to send your custom card creations for your bride and groom), and also get discounts on bulk orders. The other thing that makes this a very useful spot for couples to order their cards is that they can select their own custom text for the inside of the card, and they can list names and addresses, and have Greeting Card Universe mail the cards directly to the recipients. Everything is done online, making this an easy-use option for sending invitations or thank you cards.

Creating special invitations that make use of holiday weddings, such as "Our Christmas Wedding" or "A Valentine Wedding" or any such holiday wedding can add a personalized touch that isn't readily available in many other places. Other wedding related cards that aren't often seen in shops are those special thank you cards to the Pastor or Official, or even to the photographer who did a great job. If you need a card for the fantastic caterer, you can get one of those too. There's even things like a special card for the bride, from her dad on her wedding day.

This would also be a useful resource for wedding planners if the bride and groom are in a time crunch. Pre-designed cards are available already in many shops at Greeting Card Universe, so selecting one and filling in the invitation details and providing a list of addresses makes this a huge time-saver. Cards can be mailed out as quickly as the next day.

Very popular in the US are cards that invite the members of the bridal party - "Be My Bridesmaid", "Be Our Groomsman", Maid of Honour, Flower Girls & Ringbearer invitations - these are some of the cards that sell most often out of my shop. For me, being a Canadian, it seems rather odd because we haven't seen much of this type of card here. But, since Greeting Card Universe is open to international sales it makes sense to create cards in categories that are popular. You can even create your wedding cards in multiple languages for different cultures.

Of course, you can create all different types of cards for a variety of occasions, but creating a shop specifically geared to weddings could be a good resource for couples and wedding planners, and bring a nice steady income to the photographer who makes use of this.

Personalized thank you card from the bride and groom with one of their wedding pictures on the front - the perfect end to the perfect wedding!

Another Special Calendar

2009-11-23T09:34:00.000-08:00

Last year one of the things I used for a business promotional tool were pocket planners. I'm not sure why they refer to them as "pocket" because they're definitely too big for most pockets, but you'll find many women carry these in purses or handbags, and men and women use them in briefcases.

You can buy fancy ones for a lot of money, but you can also buy inexpensive two-year planners in this size at most dollar shops - sometimes for as little as 2/$1.00. These make an excellent tool for low cost advertising, and make a useful gift for a bride-to-be. You can easily personalize these with an engagement photo of your couple, put your business information on the back of the calendar, and tuck a business card inside. When your couple come to pick up their engagement photos, give them one of these with their photo on the cover to use for tracking their wedding plans.

Simple to make, and inexpensive - but these personalized calendars will provide exposure for your photography business for two years.

The work is a little "finnicky" and if you've got a large wedding photography business then you might want to consider having your own printed, but if you are a small business operator or just getting started, you can do these at home.

Buy the planners/calendars that come with a removable clear plastic cover - there is usually a photo or design printed on the cardboard cover of the calendar, but we'll be covering this up. Open the booklet part flat and measure the length and height. This is the size you'll want your photo to be printed at, with perhaps an extra 1/16" of an inch around all 4 sides for trimming.

Select a good photo of the couple from your engagement shots and print it to size, cropping if necessary. Remember when selecting your photo that half will be the front (the right side of the photo), and half the back (the left side of the photo). In your photo editor, create a new layer and make a selection to place your advertising text in. Fill the selection with whatever works best for your photo - I found white to be the best for most of mine. Now using the text tool, type out whatever information you want to include. The name of the couple if you like, the date and place of the photo, your copyright and business details such as the business name, address, phone number, website and/or email. Flatten the layers.

If you are printing your own at home, you must have an excellent photo printer, and good quality print paper - heavy print stock in a semi-gloss or matte finish usually works best.

Print the copy with your advertising on it. Lay the opened planner over your photo and cut around it with an exacto knife, leaving a slightly larger edge on the photo. Remember that when the book is closed it's thickness will require these extra edges in order to cover up the entire planner cover.

Try a fitting - slip your photo into the plastic cover that you removed. If it fits properly, then slide the planner's front and back cover flaps back into the plastic. Close it to ensure your photo covers all the other edges. If you need to, you can trim the edges of the planner itself.

Now slip one of your business cards under the plastic flap inside the planner and you've created an excellent advertising tool for very little cost. One that is also a useful and practical tool for the bride and groom.

Bridal Planning Calendar Template for Photoshop

2009-11-15T07:36:00.000-08:00

Here's a template for a 1-page calendar that you can use to create a unique and useful gift for the bride to be. This calendar template is designed so you can use it over and over again, regardless of the year. Each set of calendar numbers can be moved every year as necessary because every single number is on it's own layer.

That means if you are really determined, you can also change the font style, size, colour and placement of every number, as well as that of the months and the year header.

To make this useful for our bride, we can customize it with her name, and the date of the wedding, as well as any dates already known (bridal showers, meetings with the wedding planner, etc.).

You can use a single background image, like the one shown with the yellow bridal rose, or you can put individual images behind each calendar month. There's a lot of customizing options with this particular calendar - more than most of the others I've made.

The bride can use this along with her wedding planner to set out the time frame for the various arrangements for the wedding: she can track the dates things need to be done by, set dates for shopping for the dress and her bridal attendants dresses, shoes, meetings with the officiant, the venue, dj, photographer and just about everything. This large (18 X 24) one year calendar makes it easy for her to see at a glance what needs to be done, and when.

Wedding planners and photographers might also find this a useful tool for tracking their own appointments.

The Forever Calendar template for 2010 (and every year after that) can be downloaded free from Free-3d-Textures.com

New 2011 Calendar Templates for Photoshop can be found on these related posts:

More 2011 Calendar Templates

A Pair of 2011 Pocket Calendar Templates

2011 Photoshop Calendar Template

Monthly 2011 Calendar Template

2011 Calendar Template for Photoshop

MOST OF OUR TEMPLATES CAN ALSO BE DOWNLOADED FROM FREE-3D-TEXTURES.COM (see the templates section)

New Stuff!

2009-11-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

New stuff on a new site...I've spent the last little while working on my new site (which is why the tutorials have slowed down a little bit), and we're nearly done!

The new site is made up of products and articles from three (well, actually 4) different blogs I write. Rather than spread everything around, now it's on one larger site.

Besides the articles and photoshop & photography tutorials, you'll find free photoshop brushes (mostly texture brushes, but a few graphic brushes), free textures for 3D and backgrounds, free stock photos (that section not complete yet, but we're working on it...there will be 500 or so free photos to start with) for use in blogs, as artist references, in other projects like collage work, etc. Along with that are a few graphic files, and some png files (mostly created for use in games and collage, but still good for blogs).

Coming up in the new site will also be some additional calendar templates (none yet except the previous ones from this blog) and a few other goodies...and yes, they are still all free.

This current blog will get updated, but as you can see, less frequently and will carry mostly articles related to weddings and wedding photography for beginners. That's really why this blog started in the first place...to help beginners get a start in photography.

So, feel free to visit the new site because photoshop and regular photography tutorials will be updated mostly over there.

Thanks to all of you for visiting...because without you folks (readers and visitors), there'd be no reason for a bigger, better site. Bless you all.

Come visit us at Free-3D-Textures.com (and don't let the name fool you...there's lots more than textures)

Wedding Photographer Meets BrideZilla

2009-11-01T09:01:00.000-08:00

Every experienced wedding photographer will have a pretty good understanding of the term "bridezilla", and probably some wedding planners too. So how do you handle the bridezilla when you've got one?

The first thing to remember is that most women don't set out be bridezilla, almost as many have no idea that they are being a bridezilla when it happens. It's a hard thing to be on the receiving end, but it can be equally hard to be on the giving end when you are feeling stressed and pulled from all sides.

Couples plan their wedding with one thing in mind; that this will be a "once in a lifetime" event, and they want it to be "perfect". Nobody plans their wedding thinking that if this one doesn't work out, they can do it again. So not only do they sweat the details and the costs, but the details become the stuff their nightmares are made of. For months before the wedding the bride and groom (and often their families) are walking a tight-rope, carrying stress that builds up a little at a time until there's no shoulder left to carry it on, and seldom dissipates until the ceremony is over and the festivities begin.

As tough as this can be for the wedding photographer, it helps if you can see it from a distance. While you might sometimes be in the way of some of the arrows and daggers, you probably aren't "the" target, most likely you are just there when it happens.

That doesn't mean you have to ignore it, but if you are prepared for it then understanding the reasons behind it make it less stressful for you deal with. If you are the type of person who can ignore the snipes and get on with the job, then "good deal", because you'll probably do okay as a wedding photographer. If you aren't, then plan for the occasion in advance.

How? The simplest way is to make sure all parties know well in advance what your responsibilities are, and what you will and won't do during the wedding day. Shortly before the wedding day (2 or 3 days at the most), a quick phone call to go over the details with the couple is helpful. At this time, you can make sure they haven't had a schedule change, and they are clear on your role for the day. You can ask if they have questions, require anything additional from you, and then confirm that you are well-prepared for their event.

Be clear. Be clear if there are things you aren't prepared to do on the wedding day - additional photos not part of the contract might be something you just don't want to undertake. Some photographer's are really flexible and easy-going when it comes to things like this, and some just aren't. Avoid any wedding day tantrums by ensuring your couple know ahead of time where you stand.

Keep your cool. If things start "going south" on the wedding day, keep your cool and your professionalism. Do your job in a professional manner, because sometimes projecting a professional attitude is all it takes to put things back on a comfortable level.

Step outside your role carefully. If it seems like the thing to do - calming an upset bride, or cajoling a spitting bridesmaid can take no more than a kind word or a kleenex, and in the end can make your job a lot easier. Don't make an issue of it, but do what feels right for your bride.

No matter what the day brings and how prepared you are, there are occurrences that you can't and shouldn't step into. It takes some experience to know when to stay out, and when to offer a hand. If you aren't sure, then don't do it. If the bride and groom are acquaintances, friends, or family members, then you'll have some idea of whether or not stepping forward and offering help outside your role is right or wrong.

What not to do - don't step into someone else's shoes. Let the other helpers do their jobs.

Every wedding is different, just as every bride is different. There will be those who breeze through the day with the sweetness of an angel, and those whose headpieces should consist of devil's horns, but underneath, they are just women looking for that perfect beginning.

Lastly...try not to take the bridezilla personally...and make some lovely music with your fantastic wedding day photos. After all, don't they say that music calms the savage beast?

Credits: wedding rings on money courtesy of "Penywise" @ morguefile

Updating the Alt Text Tutorial

2009-10-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

June 15th, 2011 - ANOTHER UPDATE TO THE ALT TEXT!

It seems that each time blogger tries to make something better - like the dashboard and image uploading functions, they change something else. The newer blogger interfaces and image uploaders will create a problem now if you don't place your alt text for images in the exact spot it should be in. I discovered by accident that if I placed my Alt Text tags anywhere else in the image codes, my images would disappear when I switched back to the "Compose" view.

Below is an image code from this week (June 2011) - in this example you'll see the alt text code I've added marked in white text. It must be placed directly before the "img border" code, and you must add all of the code for the alt text tags yourself (ie: img alt="the description of your image"). Blogger's code currently doesn't give you this - at least not in any of my recent images.

I don't know why blogger can't get this simple thing right. Why can't they give us a place to add the alt text during the upload function? Most other blog platforms already have this. Blogger is way behind in providing user functionality when it comes to images and video uploads.

They also aren't so great at complying with current web standards, and the move to html5 might make them fall behind even worse than they are.

Currently, blogger also doesn't comply with Section 508 Standards (accessibility) and things that have been deprecated a long time ago, are still being used in blogger - such as "bold" instead of "strong".

---------------END OF UPDATE-----------------

A while back I wrote an article on how to use ALT TEXT tags for your images on blogger. Recently I've received a couple of comments about the updated blogger dashboard - the new dashboard uses a different method for image uploads, and the empty "alt text" tags are no longer showing in the html portion of the image uploads.

One such question:

Lindsey said...: I don't know how it's possible, but in html mode, my images don't have the alt section in order to add text! What do you suggest?

How it's possible is probably because you are using the new dashboard, as opposed to the old style one. There are two ways to get around this - add the alt text tags yourself into the html of the image code yourself, or switch back to the old method. You can switch back to the old method by accessing your "settings" tab, and scrolling down the page to "global settings" - there should be a radio button to select the old or new dashboard.

Putting the required code into your new image code isn't that tough though. Simply click the edit html tab on your dashboard and find the code for your image.

Your image code will have two parts - the first one will look something like the following code, so simply insert the code alt="" as indicated in the sample below:

A Photographer's Wedding Kit

2009-10-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

Most photographer's have a "kit" that they use whenever they go out to shoot - things mostly related to photography equipment: cameras, lenses, filters, extra camera batteries, a flash unit, lens hoods, cleaners, a tripod or monopod and other related things. None of this would be new the photographer.

For those who don't normally "do weddings", it's a good idea to have another kind of kit - the wedding kit.

Some of the things I've discovered that come in handy when you are shooting someone's big day aren't related to photography equipment at all, but are just as essential at times. Even one of these things than can turn you into "hero of the day".

Sunglasses: essential for shooting the wedding party outdoors on a sunny day. You need lots of sunglasses. Buy them at a dollar shop, and buy all the same kind - a dozen or more. Almost every recent wedding party we've done & seen has used sunglasses for a couple of the shots...but in a few, not everyone had their sunglasses with them. Besides that, when the couple wants shots in the full sun you'll get a lot of scrunched up faces without them. And anyways, they look cool (if you get the right kind).

Face powder and lipsticks: Yes, I know brides and bridesmaids all have their faces already done up very nicely, but the fact is on a warm day you'll get some whose faces are so shiny you'll have a tough time avoiding bright spots on their faces even without a flash. Three shades of facepowder (light, medium, dark) and three small (samples if you can get them) lipsticks in different shades come in handy for photo-shoot touch ups.

Small bottle of clear nailpolish: for a lot of uses, but mostly to stop stocking runs.

Wipes: handwipes in small packets. These are pretty much self-explanatory and very useful for wiping chocolate or dirt off children's faces before the photos.

Tide Pen or Small container of Powdered Oxyclean: also very handy and is generally put to use at almost every wedding. Accidents happen, so if you're prepared with an instant fix, the couple will remember you for life.

Pantyhose: packet of 3 pairs should do it, and a single packet of white ones. And for women, that one will be self-explanatory too. Stockings are generally not very hardy and it's easy to get a run or tear. The bride will thank you if she needs to make use of them.

Corsage pins and Safety Pins: put a few of each into a small container to add to your kit. There's gazillions of uses for these and a corsage pin won't come amiss if the Groom's boutineer needs extra support.

Sewing Kit: head to the dollar store and pick up a small sewing kit. These come with a few colours of thread (white, black, red, navy and yellow), a tiny pair of (useless) scissors, a few needles and a needle threader. Some have a few small buttons in them. If the one you get doesn't, buy a small card of shirt buttons. Also, discard the flaky scissors and buy a small pair of folding scissors that will actually cut something, like thread. You can usually get them at the dollar shop too. And yes, you can probably imagine the uses this will be put to.

A Small First Aid Kit : everyone should have one of these in their cars, but not everyone does. Put together some bandaids, a small bottle of saline (comes in a squeeze bottle) for cleaning, a small tube of antibiotic ointment, some aspirin/advil/tylenol, a couple of packets of alkaselter or tums, a packet of tic-tacs (not medical, but handy), and if you can your hands on an epi-pen that would be great too.

Tape: duct tape and scotch tape, for all kinds of things.

I suppose if you wanted to, you could put tons of things into a kit like this, and as you get experience with weddings you'll find yourself adding things to your kit you would never have thought of...until you needed it.

I can hear a lot of you thinking..."but this is not the job of the photographer, is it?" Generally, no it's not. But the photographer's job is to produce beautiful pictures of the wedding day, and no matter how great your pictures are, if the bride has a blob of dirt on her dress, or her maid of honour has a shiny face, or the groom's missing a couple of buttons, the bride is not going to be a happy camper when she looks at her photos. It's not your fault any of that happened, but if it takes nothing more than being prepared to keep the day joyful, your photos are going to be the best thing the couple ever saw.

Whether you do a kit or not is up to you of course, but remember that word of mouth advertising is far more effective than any other advertising campaign you can dream up. Wouldn't you love the bride to tell her friends how great you were, or that you're the best photographer in the world because you were prepared for everything?

Anyway, that's some thoughts and tips from a photographer who really doesn't want to do weddings, but will when pushed.

Credits:

First Aid Kit: wallyir @ morguefile

Wedding Photography & Photographers

2009-10-25T04:20:00.000-07:00

Over the last few months you'll probably remember the 3 part tutorial series I did on wedding photography for the non-professional.

If so, you'll probably remember that I harped a lot on the importance of getting things in writing. There was a reason for that - and today's little tale illustrates that very well (names changed, but the story is true, and a person we know).

Jane and John got married almost a year ago and hired someone to take their wedding photos (probably not a professional from the sounds of it - likely a family friend or someone they know). Like most people, you figure if you know someone you don't need these contracts and signed agreements. So, they paid their photographer for the service they expected to get.

Here it is, almost a year later and we discover this poor couple who will soon be celebrating their first wedding anniversary have yet to see a single photograph...not even a proof.

My recommendation is head for small claims court. I can't think of a photographer I know who would take a year to produce even the proofs.

This is such a perfect illustration of how the contract or agreement can help - in this case it would certainly have helped the couple. It might not help them get their photos (particularly if they didn't turn out), but it would put the facts on the table at small claims court in writing. And that would count a lot more than "he said-she said".

So once again...do the contract or agreement. It doesn't matter if it's formally worded or just a page from a notebook, as long as it describes the what's and wherefore's of the services and cost and what each party should expect. Goodness...it takes a few moments to complete and will provide both the photographer and the couple with a modicum of security.

You can download a simple sample contract from here (password to open is notheft) - remember to put your own name or your small business name in the right place, and adjust the contract the suit your needs. This is a very "simple" and more casual type of agreement, so it might not suit you if you run a pro business, but it's good for starters and contains a simple receipt as well.

Though it mentions a model release, I haven't included one. You will find a sample (you may need to amend it) here from NYIP online.

Exposure Calculation

2009-09-29T05:09:00.001-07:00

Some time back (a few years) I found a website with a terrific exposure calculator on it. BobShotS had this nifty exposure calculator where you could set your lighting conditions and f- stop or shutter speed and get the corresponding measurement for good exposure. It was a really good tool to get new dslr users some starting points for understanding exposure without overwhelming them with the details.

I had made a "cheat sheet" using some of the variables from that calculator and carried it around with me in my bag until I had gathered enough data to create my own and my daughter had asked me about it the other day.

I went looking for BobShotS Exposure Calculator this morning, but sadly it was gone from the internet sometime last year...in fact his whole site disappeared. Bummer. I looked him up on the internet archives and there's a page with the calculator, but with all the files off line it doesn't work anymore. So I set out on a mission to find some others. And there aren't too many out there that were as good as this one. If I could find the guy, I'd consider asking him to sell me his files for it so I could help other beginners.

I did find a few, so I'll link them here (below) for you. There are plenty of printable ones, but I've found that the online ones (though you can't take them with you) seem to give the beginner a better understanding of how exposure works, as opposed to looking at printed charts. I think it's probably because they are interactive and you get to select certain settings that you might be familiar with or use all the time.

Before I list them, today's "tutorial" isn't downloadable, it's simply this article with a few additional instructions and explanations.

These calculators aren't exact, and they aren't really meant to be. They are meant to be a starting point for your own calculations - they give you a place to begin. The only way to really learn is to do some work for yourself.

Everyone has heard of the "sunny 16 rule", but what exactly is "sunny"? A day where the sun is shining right? But sunlight is different under different conditions and in different locations. Early morning sun isn't as strong or bright or even the same colour as bright noon hour sun, nor is late afternoon sun as bright as noon hour sun. Sunlight out on the water (in a boat) is likely to be brighter than sunlight in the middle of the city, or out in an open field. The reasons of course are the reflective qualities of the surroundings. Sunlight in early winter months where there is no snow on the ground will be different than sunlight in the middle of the summer, or sunlight shining on the white snow too. The sun is at different angles - further away in the winter, closer in summer. All these variables make using a single rule for "sunny days" the wrong thing to do.

The right thing to do is take all those settings that you've calculated from online calculators or printed charts and go out on shooting expeditions and collect your own data. Do some seasonal comparisons. Take your "sunny 16" generic settings and go out into a big open field and take a shot using those. Check it in your lcd display. Now change your f-stop up or down and take another. Do that for at least 3 or 4 different stops below the suggested setting and 3 or 4 above. Now go into the city or an area where there are some tall obstructions (like buildings, houses, skycrapers. etc.) and do the same thing. When you get a chance, go do the water one too. You don't have to be on the water in a boat - if you have a lake or beach near you, that will work too.

Do that for all the settings until you have a nice little book of settings.

Yes, it's a lot of work. And will take a lot of time. Chances are though, that after the first few outtings you'll have developed a much better understanding of how exposure calculation works, and not only will you not likely "need" the cheat sheets or calculators anymore, you won't even need to finish the entire exercise. You'll have learned how to judge the light around your for proper exposure.

After all, photography isn't something you learn in a week, or a month or a year. It's a lifetime of learning and adapting, so spending a few months gathering experience like this will stand you in good stead for the rest of your life. It establishes an experimental process that you can put to use in a lot of different ways in your photographic career.

Yes, I know, I know - that's what light meters are for right? Sure, but not everybody can afford a light meter and beginners aren't likely to even understand a light meter (and remember, these tutorials are written with the beginning dslr user in mind). And we all know that the camera can meter the available light for exposure but let me ask you this. How many times have you set the camera on auto or "P" (programmed-auto) mode and gotten a bad exposure? Uh huh. Probably enough times to make learning how to shoot with manual exposure settings worthwhile.

There's nothing wrong with using auto modes in a pinch or in continuously changing conditions - when things happen quickly you don't always have the time to reset all the manual settings on your camera. But when you learn how to control the exposure, you open up a wide range of possibilities for yourself.

The other thing to keep in mind is your own shooting habits and abilities. Just because someone says you should be able to get a sharp shot using an exposure of 1/60 doesn't mean you are going to be able to. Especially if you aren't carrying around a tripod. You need to know the settings that work best for your own physical abilties. Of course, the advent of lenses and cameras with image stabilizers gives you a lot more leeway, but even with those, knowing where you limites lie can stand you in good stead.

Oh, I guess you are all wondering where the calculators are, right? Okay. First up is an exposure calculator from Calculators.org. Out of the ones I found, this one is the closest in functionality to the one that was on BobShotS Photography. The second similar one has been provided free online by DesignMentor Training. If you happen to be a student of theirs, you can even download it.

This next one is not so much an exposure calculator as it is a visual representation of how f-stop and shutter speed work together and affect exposure. It's known as the "sim-cam" and it's been around a while. It's pretty limited in options, but immediately seeing the result on a picture of the differences in settings can be very helpful to beginners. It's been provided by Photonhead.

But before you all go running off to make your own cheat sheets. there's just a couple of other things. There's one fellow on the net who has a downloadable program for exposure calculations - Jon Sachs very kindly has this free download for you, along with a few others you might find of interest.

Then there's an astrological exposure calculator available here at Covington Innovations.

Photoshop Quick Tip#5 - Funky Text

2009-09-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

Funky up your website headers or greeting card text with these simple layer style techniques for text using photoshop. No special filters are required, just a willingness to have fun and experiment with different texts and layer styles. This simple tutorial has more images showing layer style settings than written instructions, making it easy for almost anyone to follow.

Instructions for the first two samples include the colour codes so you can reproduce them easily, and all the samples use the name of the font as the sample text. If you want to obtain the fonts, there's a list of free resources at the end of the tutorial, including the sites where these fonts can be found. It also includes a site link for free contours to give you some other contour options in your layer styles. And, of course if you are handy with a mouse or happen to have a tablet, writing your own text and applying the layer styles can give you a one-of-a-kind text.

Fun, simple and incredibly useful for anyone creating website headers, greeting cards, posters and other images using text.

The password to unlock the tutorial is getthisfromgracey , and you can download the full pdf from this link

Shooting On White Using Natural Light

2009-09-18T05:50:00.000-07:00

Today's little tutorial will get you started shooting isolated objects on a white background using nothing more than natural light coming in a window and a sheet of white posterboard. The trick with this is to shoot using a high ISO and fairly exact camera settings. Adjustments in photoshop later on can cause excessive noise, so you need to experiment a little with your lighting and your settings. And one little tip - make sure your windows are clean, inside and out, and remove the screen if you can. Spots on the window can sometimes result in shadow spots on your background.

Other important factors for shooting objects on white in natural light are a camera whose sensor produces little noise - this may not work for most point and shoot cameras because they tend to generate more noise than dslr's. That doesn't mean it won't work, just that you might have more noise issues and that you'll really have to spend some time finding the optimal settings for your camera - and, you'll need to find your optimal shooting times. If your camera is a "point and shoot" type, it will need to have manual control settings in order for you to use this method, and it should be able to shoot in raw. It's possible to do this in .jpg, but you'll have to ensure your photo requires no adjustments to the lighting later.

My optimal shooting times are early afternoon. The light coming in my window is more evenly distributed, softer and brighter than any other time of day.

If you are a beginner at this type of photography, I think you'll find this exercise useful in learning how to make appropriate adjustments for different lighting.

The full tutorial along with sample images and their settings can be downloaded HERE.

As always, the pdf REQUIRES A PASSWORD TO OPEN. The password is notheft.