Making good pictures better...

I thought this picture that Amy took was absolutely adorable! As soon as I saw it, Paige really stood out to me. Nothing against Brynne and their new dog Tenny, but I just thought sweet Paige's little pure white outfit coupled with the tall green grass was too perfect.

Unfortunately, it's almost 1am here in Saipan so I'm off to bed, but, hopefully, I'll be back to describe how I edited this photo tomorrow/soon.

Which do you prefer?

Selective Color

Most of us have changed the hue/saturation of a picture, but have you ever wished you could edit just one color in your photo?

Swimming with dolphins last year in Bali was an incredible experience, but it was sad to see the murky yellowish pool water they were kept in so I decided to re-create the memory a bit by adjusting the water color to a cleaner, more refreshing hue.

Here's another awesome step-by-step tutorial courtesy of the very talented Amanda Taylor.

Pop Art!

This is actually really fun to do if you ever want to try it. And if you do try it, I'd love to see what you come up with! Unfortunately, I didn't have the best photos to start with, but, hopefully, you can create something much better with a higher quality photo. (I did this for Youth Conference last year)

Again, I'm going to save myself the time of coming up with a tutorial when there's a perfectly good one already out there> Melissa Clifton - Pop Art inspired by Lichtenstein

A touch of color...

I like to use this effect on photos that have fun dramatic colors.

Ok, so I LOVE this first picture of Eric in the man-pyramid. I couldn't help but bring extra attention to those little red shorts. (Don't worry, I plan to scrapbook the full-color shot too...it would be a shame to let that beautiful blue sky go to waste.)

I think, rather than try and explain the method myself, I'll just re-direct you to a couple of sites that explain it far better than I can...
Taylormade Designs
Digital Photography Schools

Not like I needed to draw any extra attention to their bright red hair, but I couldn't resist!

As a sidenote, there are actually several ways to accomplish this effect. In fact, I did it 2 different ways just in this post, and neither of them are the same methods used in the tutorial links provided. For the Ty and Tiff shot, I put a layer mask on the BW layer and just erased the areas where I wanted the color to show through. (Layer masks are probably the best option because they allow you to correct your mistakes...Maybe I'll do a later tutorial demonstrating what I mean). And for the pyramid shot, I started with the mask (demonstrated above), but ended up going back to the old-fashioned polygonal lasso tool. It took longer, but I needed it to be more precise (and I was having a hard time coloring (erasing) inside the lines. I would say 9x out of 10, however, that the mask is the better, more forgiving option.

Text paths

Text paths allow you to give your designs and journaling a fun, tailored look, and it's a piece of cake to do.

Be sure to use the "justify" paragraph style to really define the shape. You'll also have to adjust the font size and leading (*leading is the space between lines) in order to fit your content just right.

A lot easier than you thought, right? And you can do this with any basic shape you want (not just circles).

And always remember - when in doubt, right click!

Basic text tools

Layers Palette

It's important to understand the layers palette. It can either be a big help or a big headache.

The Basics:

• You can only edit one layer at a time - the active (selected) layer.
  
• You can drag layers up and down the list.
  
• Remember – create a new layer for each step so you can go back and edit the layers individually.
  
• Delete layers: Drag-&-drop the layer to the trash can at the bottom.
  
• Create new layers: Click the double squares icon to the left of the trash bin. (or CTRL-SHIFT-N)
  
• Duplicate layers: Drag-&-drop the layer you'd like to duplicate on top of the double squares icon (or CTRL-J)
  
• Hide layers: deselect the eye icon to the left of the layer
  

Suggestions:

• Name your layers: If you're working on a complex project with several layers, it helps to name your layers for easy distinction ("lime circle" v. the default "Shape 1 copy 2")
  
• Grouping also helps when working on a complex project. For example, say those 3 circles above are part of a poster project with 50+ layers, you can condense the layer palette by selecting & grouping the associated layers into one group/file (CTRL+G)

so it looks like this (above), instead of this >

Quick Keys (for PC users)

New Canvas:	CTRL-N
Open Image:	CTRL-O
Save Image:	CTRL-S
Close Image:	CTRL-W
Undo:	CTRL-ALT-Z
Redo:	CTRL-SHIFT-Z
Cut:	CTRL-X
Copy:	CTRL-C
Paste:	CTRL-V
Zoom In/Out:	CTRL + or CTRL -
Constrain Proportions:	SHIFT
Paint in straight lines:	SHIFT
Accept crop:	Enter or double click
Accept transform:	Enter or double click
Duplicate layer:	CTRL-J
Group layers:	CTRL-G
Ungroup:	CTRL-SHIFT-G
Select Inverse:	CTRL-SHIFT-I

* Hold SHIFT to add to and ALT to subtract area from selection

The tools

photoshopsupport.com

Obviously, giving these tools a name doesn't necessarily explain what they're for or how to use them, but it's not a bad reference. Sometimes we forget about all of the many options hiding under that little carrot drop-down option. Although, keep in mind that you can always mouse-over the tool while in PS for a reminder.

Over the next few weeks, we'll see if we can explain the uses for some of the more common tools.

Getting started

For those of you using PS for digital scrapbooking, the book dimensions are usually 12x12 or 11x8.5. From a design perspective, I prefer the latter, but if you take a ton of photos (like me), go big. Plus, you'll find a lot more resources out there for the 12x12 album (templates, papers, etc.)