Posts Tagged ‘how to’

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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Hey folks!

I have a new HOW TO for you guys.  I’ve been talking to tons of folks who either –don’t want to buy lots of craft products to make a card or  don’t want to pay  extra shipping on a card with lots of stuff on it. 

The solution is a ONE LAYER CARD.   

This is a very basic card, there are tons MORE you can do to dress them up like embossing, texturing, adding bling, etc…

(credits: Inks: SU!, Stamps: Gratuitous Graffiti and Birthday Wishes from INKADINKADOO)

So the video tutorial on how to do that is below.  First I need to ask your help!  You guys know Im not all decoratey girly girl, right?  I mean, I am all the time asking for your help on decorating and stuff.  So now I have another question.

I have no idea how I ended up looking at sectional sofas the other day but I did.  You know, one blog leads to another blog, leads to a site, leads to a sale, leads to a stupid wishlist!  LOL!!!   Ok, so I don’t know why I browsed but I did, it was probably that big flashing SALE sign, and now I want THIS.  

Now before you ooooo and ahhhh…  I have to tell you I already have a a sectional   Its like NEW condition still.  It was my Grans.  The problem I have with it, is that its HUGE.  Like as big as my living room huge!  See… takes up 2 entire walls.

My sectional goes nearly all the way to the wall there where Gran is sleeping.  Her legs are going over half a “hide-a-bed”.  the couch extends on to the left, the other half the hida-a-bed, and HUGE corner like loveseat piece that wraps to the left and then a recliner.  Its HUGE.

So my question is:  If you had a perfectly good sectional, would you consider getting a different one.  I mean the one I have is fine, its just crazy huge.  It even has sentimental value.  But the one I found is AWESOME.  No, its GORGEOUS.  And its small enough it wouldn’t take up my WHOLE living room!  It is kind of high, BUT not for a sectional, and and… its ON SALE and they deliver for FREE.  But $800 would sure buy a lot of crafting supplies.  Shoot, food even!  Plus I have dogs.  And Kids.  Would buying a new couch even make sense?

Before you say it, I already thought about just taking out the hide-a-bed part, but then its too little.  LOL!

Ok, ok, enough of my inability to not only decorate but to DECIDE. LOL!!!!!!!!!!

Here’s the video.  Hope it watchable quality.  If you knew how many different ways and times I converted it for this post you would DIE!  LOL!  Actually, at the time of this post its STILL uploading! bwahaha!!!  So if its not here yet, just try again in a bit.  It will work, eventually!

Now, want to win this set of cards?
There is another set up for grabs HERE too!
(Plus a review of Mrs Martha Stewart paper punches…)

Set includes 4 THANK YOU cards (blank inside except for a small floral bouquet) Plus envelopes.

To enter just reply to THIS POST by SUNDAY May 23rd, 2010 and tell me: When you make cards, do you make a lot of ONE LAYER cards or do you go all out with embellishments and stuff?  And When you receive a card, do you more like flat one layer cards or big crazy cards?  Shoot, do you even like to get/give cards?   Make sure to comment with your name and a WORKING EMAIL address so I can get your shipping address if you win.

Ok,  I’m out.  It has been an incredibly LONG day.

See ya on FB!
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