Archive for the ‘Tutorial’ Category

picking up where we left off…

For today.  The EDITING part..

part two:  PROCESSING

REPAIR

First things first, Duplicate your image!

Never ever work on your source file.  Its too easy to forget what your doing and accidently save over your original. YIKES. 

You’ll also be tempted to resize down to a smaller image to work on, dont.  Its best to do any editing on a full size image, so that your program has as much original information as possible to render with.  Sizing down takes away pixels, thus takes away info.

Now, by looking at this photo at 100% we see the coloring is off, the tone is off, and its grainy because the light was too low.

Fixing the color is simple enough…

There are a billion methods to fix tone and color.  I love the CURVES setting for adjusting the contrast and tone.

next is the miracle cure.  Using the clone tool (or even the heal tool) to clean up “flaws”.  For this pic I cloned off all my flyway hair!  And also cloned of some of the smudges from the mirror.

Getting the grain off the photo usually takes some work.  But if you are going to size down quite a bit using the despeckle is a quick fix.

CROPPING

Once we have all our alterations done, we can now crop.   Creatively cropping can take a blah picture to WOW.  There are several methods to deciding where to crop.  I don’t usually use any of those though and go with what looks good to me.  The only problem I get from winging it is if I decide to have the pic printed, so You  might want to keep print size/shape in mind when cropping.

EFFECTS

Now that all the works done, you can add any special effects you want.  For this photo I played with the exposure until I got some skin color I liked. LOL!

Setting will differ for every single photo, but here are the ones I used for this tutorial.

RESIZE

Lastly is just to resize your image…  I size my FOR WEB images at 800 width.

the end.

If you have questions or need help be sure to leave me a comment below.

ps.
Yes I know this picture isnt EXACTLY as the one I posted the other day.  Thats just because I didn’t remember the Exact settings I used when I did the EXPOSURE adjustment.

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So lots of emails/messages/pm’s about these photos of me.  Too many asking “how” to not answer. 

This post is going to walk you thru HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH YOURSELF, and then I will do another post on HOW TO FIX THE PHOTOS YOU TOOK OF YOURSELF.  lol!!!!

So, for today.  The important part.

part one:  TAKING THE PHOTO

LOCATION:

Where are you going to shoot it?  You’re going to need a mirror and also some fairly decent light.  The bathroom is the natural choice.  Who’s bathroom doesn’t have a mirror in it?  Now for the lighting, It needs to be fairly decent.  Doesn’t have to be amazing, we can fix lighting issues, but it does need to be decent.  This is because you are NOT going to be able to use the flash.

PREP:

for the background…
I’m assuming you, too, are going to use the bathroom.  Take a look and see what is directly across from the mirror.  Is it the shower?  In both my bathrooms upstairs it is, and you don’t want some crazy patterned shower curtain as your background.   This is EASY to fix tho!  Just throw a white sheet over the shower curtain bar.  If it wont stay up there just clip it on the corners with some hair clips or safety pins.   Now I’m telling you to go white for a reason.  I know I know, photographers everywhere just cringed a little.  Its ok.  We want all the focus to be on you not the paisley parade going on behind you. 

for the model…
uhh, yeah, that would be YOU…  LOL!
Wear something light colored.  Yeah yeah, those photographers are hyperventilating now.  LOL…
Listen, we want the focus on YOU not you’re shirt.  You wear some bright ass orange shirt and where do you think the eye is going to go in that pic?  So wear something neutral.  My tank top above is white with tiny leaves on it.  A little color is ok, just nothing dramatic. 

Now, I am NOT going to tell you how to cut/color your hair or do your makeup.  Im sorry, I am not girly girl and have no business what so ever trying to even ACT like I know anything about it,  but I am going to link you to someone who can!    kandee the makeup artist.  She has TONS of videos on her channel on applying make up, cutting your own hair (and here) etc.   She uses a lot of “name brand” high dollar makeup, which I don’t have, but if you would like me to show you what makeup I use (and used in the photos) just comment below and I will.

So, get yourself perty and lets take some photos!

THE PHOTOGRAPHY:

Make sure to turn your camera flash OFF.  Otherwise you are going to end up with a bunch of photos of a camera flash reflecting in a mirror.  the end. LOL… 

If you don’t want the camera in the picture, you can hold it down to your side and aim at the mirror or put it on a tripod beside you and point it at the mirror.  If you want the camera IN the shot then you can hold it in places to hide what you think could use some hiding.  (beauty marks, big boobs, little boobs, or in my case a double chin. ) 

One important tip I can give you is remember to look AT THE CAMERA in the mirror not at yourself.   I took a ton of pics.  Like 30 all together I think.  A lot of them I hated because I looked like I was looking off into space.  Those were the ones I was actually looking at ME in the mirror not the camera.  So try to make yourself look at the camera in the mirror when you are clicking the button.

the other important thing is to experiment with angles.  See how this one of catty-cornered.  It adds some interest and depth to the photo.  So take some straight on, and some NOT so straight on playing with the position of the concealer, errr, I mean camera, too.  Take lots of pics!  Its a digital camera so what’s the harm.  Surely you will get at least ONE you really like!

For me, I leaned against the wall  to thin out my arms.  Squished in my arms to fix the cleavage.  I had breast reduction surgery a few years back so I have really crooked boobs.  My surgeon sucked.  BUT holding the arms in tight hid that I have crooked boobs. *I wonder if people will stare at me if I walk around like that all the time? hmmm….*   And hid my double chin with the camera. 

THE END:

No, not quite.  Chances are you’re photo’s are going to need some post processing.  See, mine looked like THIS straight off the camera.  Yellow, grainy, and you can see the light switches and all that…

So the second part of this tutorial is going to be over how to fix the photos you just took.  I will post it in a few days, to give you time to take your photos etc. 

Now go photograph yourself! 
Happy snapping!
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man I cant believe today is Friday.  Where in the WORLD did this week go?!  One more week of school *sigh*,

The last few days have been kind of crazy.  Both kids are having tons of end of the year field trips.  I seriously think I have sent over $50 for field trips this week.  Parks, skating, movies, bowling…  School sure has changed since I was a kid.  Really I think instead of running around spending tons of my money the entire last week of school, why don’t they just call it today.  KWIM?  Save money for me, save money for the school, its a win win.  And the crosswalk lady agrees with me.

Sis has been having a hard time getting everything TO school this week. So today was another day of running back up there to drop something off.  On the way out I noticed the crosswalk lady.  She used to be the CWL over at the kids’ old school!   She was our CWL for 6 yrs?  Long time.  She recognized me too. WOW!  Anyway, since it was the end of her shift we stood there and talked for a few minutes.  She agrees with me, this last week of school this year is a waste of everyone’s money.  Sure it’s fun for the kids but really?  Come on.  I mean if Im going to spend $50 in fun stuff it could be FAMILY fun stuff.  kwim?

About DSO

Don’t forget the DSO CU Collab Bag is still on sale.  Grab it up now before everything inside goes regular price.

http://tinyurl.com/MayCollabDSO

And I thought I would let you see what was my part!
Its just a mish-mash bag of assorted schtuff.
High quality, 300 ppi, photo’d and extracted by moi.
Quality checked and OK for Commercial Use.

and be sure to hit DSO tomorrow.  Something BIG is coming and its for ONE DAY ONLY!

back in business…

My friend, Jen Reed, is back to digi designing after about a 2 year hiatus from the digital world.  She even returned to her old stomping ground -  ScrapDish .  This makes me happy.    

When I saw her new kit in her newsletter, I kind of begged to play with it.  The perks of friendship and all.  hehehe…

Fresh Start
Regular Price:   $5.99
Price:   $3.99
SAVE 33%

It comes with:
13 papers, an alpha, and 35 coordinating elements

I had full intentions of playing with it this weekend, but since I couldn’t sleep last night I went ahead and whipped it out. LOL! 

Here is what I got:

Didn’t it turn out cute?  The 21 again tag is not attached to the card base, it comes off

and on the back I put the calendar chart thats in the kit… 
I was thinking you could mark the date, and then put a sentiment, note, or write something funny.

Making this card was super easy since everything I needed was pretty much THERE, I just had to print and cut out.

I sized the background paper at 4.25 x 5.75, then popped on the alpha.  Then printed that + one of the arrows, the calendar, and I used one of the tags from the alpha set and made it say 40 instead of 4.

Then I just stuck it all together. 

The back of the background, I left solid white with just some of the Distressing ink showing on the edges, I thought I could stamp some lines and write a letter, or stick a photo or something.

Oh, I inked the edges of the card background with Distress Ink – Old Paper.  And it was a perfect match.   The tag I distressed the edges with my Paper Distressing Tool and then inked with Distress Vintage Photo.  Added some real ribbon, and an eyelet from my Making Memories toolkit.

and the RECIPE

I was getting ready to toss out an empty bottle of A1 and noticed this recipe on there.  A recipe, ON A BOTTLE!  WHO KNEW?!  Anyway, sounds yummo.   Haven’t tried it yet but sharing anyways.  Enjoy.

TEXAS STYLE BURGERS
recipe from A1

Prep Time: 10 min
Total Time: 28 min
Makes: 6 servings

• 1-1/2 lb. ground beef
• 1/2 cup A.1. Original Steak Sauce, divided
• 1/3 cup chopped onions
• 1/3 cup drained canned chopped green chiles
• 6 hamburger buns
• 1/2 cup guacamole
• 3/4 cup KRAFT Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• 1 large tomato, chopped

MIX meat, 1/4 cup steak sauce, onions and chiles; shape into 6 (1/2-inch-thick) patties.
GRILL 11 to 13 min. or until burgers are done (160°F), turning occasionally and brushing with remaining steak sauce.
SERVE in buns topped with remaining ingredients.

Nutrition (per serving)
Calories 440   Total fat 23g   Saturated fat 9g   Cholesterol 85mg   Sodium 830mg   Carbohydrate 30g   Dietary fiber 3g   Sugars 8g   Protein 28g   Vitamin A 10%DV   Vitamin C 40%DV   Calcium 15%DV   Iron 20%DV