New Website Design

It was time for an update. My website was getting out of control with information and too many pages. It’s now nice and clean, clear and simple. I would love to hear your feedback, let me know what you think about the new site and the new look of the blog.

Photo Book Memories

Levels Adjustment Video Photoshop

Levels Adjustment

You may already know the basics of the levels adjustment tool, but in this video, Geoff Riggs will show you a neat little trick you may not have known. Using this method you’ll be able to very quickly and effectively adjust the brightness and contrast of your image in a very intuitive manner.

Turn your images into a cartoon video

Posterizing Images

Turning your images into illustrations isn’t as difficult as you might think. In this video tutorial, you’ll learn how to make your images look cartoonish in just one simple step.

What do you do with these tutorials?

Many of you have written to me and posted comments about how much you love the videos. Thank you for the feedback! I would like to know what you do with this new found knowledge! I would love to see the actual work. If you don’t have it online, send me a screenshot and I’ll put a gallery together. If you do have it online, send me a link. You can leave a comment here or in the post containing the video of a technique you used. I can’t wait to see your stuff!

Water Drops Photoshop Tutorial Video

Water Drops

In this tutorial, you will learn how to add water droplets to your pics by using the Elliptical Marquee Tool and adding layer styles. Learn how to use blending options while working with layers to get a realistic water drop.

Picto Sketch Photoshop Tutorial Video

PictoSketch

In this tutorial, you will learn how to take a digital photo and convert it into a realistic sketched drawing. You will learn how to give the effect of a hand drawn picture by using filters and layers.

Grunge Text Video Tutorial

Grunge Text Effect

Sometimes it takes a creative mixture of ideas to put together a good effect in Photoshop. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to tweak a photograph for use inside your text in order to make a really cool grunge text effect.

How to Turn Your Paper Scrapbooks Into Digital Files

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This technique works for anything that is too large to scan or won’t scan well - art work, memorabilia, kids stuff, etc.

Equipment

1. a tripod
2. a digital camera (preferably 7+ megapixels)
3. a solid color background that is larger than what you are photographing (white chip board or white cardboard works great)

The Set Up

A cloudy day works best. Find a nice large area on the floor in front of a large window where there is lots of diffused light pouring. If the sun is shining, watch the shadows and you might want to wait until it’s overcast. Place your background on the floor and position your tripod and camera to look down upon the background. Make sure there are no shadows from your tripod landing on your background. You want the camera looking straight down, no angles. You will most likely see the tripod legs in the camera - that’s OK.

You want your camera set to take the highest quality photos. If you can shoot in RAW format, use it.

Get the Shot

Place your scrapbook page or artwork on the background, zoom the camera in and focus. Use the self-timer for each shot - this is critical. If you don’t use the self timer, your photos will be blurry! Do not use the flash - make sure you turn it off. Make sure you can see the background around the page or artwork so you don’t cut anything out in the photo. Repeat with each page.

Preparing the Image

1. If you shoot RAW images, open in Photoshop Camera Raw and make any adjustments for color, lighting, etc. Open you image in Photoshop. You will notice that your image is not square with nice perfect 90 degree angles and in fact, has camera distortion.
2. Pull out guides for 2 sides, you pick the 2 adjacent sides that look the straightest. Place the guides close or on the edges of your subject.
3. Draw a selection box around the entire subject, making sure you get the whole subject and don’t cut any parts off and don’t get too close to the outside edges of the photo.
4. Go to Edit, Transform, Distort. You will see control handles in the corners. Adjust the control handles until your page is square and the edges are straight.
5. Copy your image to a new layer and remove your background.
6. Crop the image to just the edges or how you want it to print. Remember that for full bleed (no white edges) the final print will be trimmed about 1/8″, so don’t crop too tightly here.
7. Adjust your image size. Go to Image, Image Size and type in one size, choose either width or height and be consistent with each image. Make sure the resample image box is not checked. For 12 x 12 scrapbook pages, keep the image 12 x 12 or smaller.
8. Save a copy as a high quality jpg and an original in case you need to make any more changes.
9. Repeat with each image.

Wrapping it all Up

Consistency is key. You want the lighting consistent, do this all in one sitting. This will help with keeping colors consistent.  You want the file size consistent, make each final jpg the same size. If you are struggling with the final output sizes, consider adding a white border or a colored border to match your image. Your files will not be 300 ppi. It’s OK. You want 150 ppi or higher and they don’t all have to be the same ppi, just the same dimensions in inches - not pixels. The final resolution will be dependent upon your camera. Prints under 150 ppi are acceptable but not preferable.

If you have questions or anything is not clear, leave a comment.

What Happened to the Posts?

I have been ignoring my blog! I know you guys are out there, waiting for more great videos and I’ve been too busy to pay attention. I’m sorry I’ve been out of touch. Would you like to see something weekly, maybe a freebie or special quick-tip? I’m going to post a few videos to keep you busy. Leave me a comment if you have an idea of what you would like every week and I’ll keep the videos coming!