Cropping For The Feeling Of The Photo

Texas Chicks Blogs And Pics recently had a blog entry discussing cropping. Of course we all crop. But, the topic of discussion was cropping for the essence or feeling of the photo. So, I thought I'd do some crops of my own. Here are my crops:

Yawning

 

 

Daddy and Daughter

 

 

Bagel Girl

 

 

 

Vintage Effect

I worked through a great
tutorial tonight on adding a vintage effect to your photos. Here is the tutorial from Verle's Blog. Here are some directions in a nutshell:

• Do some modified cross processing and up the contrast to create a really strong image. (Not new to me.)
  
• Run an edge darkening vignette by going to Filter >> Distort >> Lens Correction and adjusting the vignette there. (This was not new to me.)
  
• (Here's where it gets interesting.) Go to Hue/Saturation and check the "Colorize" box. Move the Hue and Saturation sliders around until you get a Sepia you like. (It dawned on me as I did this that this must be how some Photoshoppers get that real chocolate brown or true Sepia pictures more than by using Photo Filters.) Now for a vintage look decrease the Sepia opacity to 50% or so.
  
• (Something else I did not know.) Old photos have a pinkish cast to them. So, add a magenta pink solid color filter and decrease it's opacity to 5% or so.
  

Turned out great I think. Go to her tutorial for more thorough directions. Here are my photos (followed by their originals).

Autumn

I am participating in I Should Be Folding Laundry's weekly photo challenge. This weeks theme is Autumn.

Clipping Masks & Displacement

I had some fun following this tutorial. Once again, this uses clipping masks. The tutorial also teaches you to make a displacement mask. Very handy skill, I think.

Shapes In Photoshop

I made this:

Using this tutorial. I didn't realize that you could manipulate shapes with the direct select tool much the same way you do in Illustrator.

Another Clipping Mask Plus Texture

Here is another picture done with a clipping mask.

Only to get a good border, I had to paint the side, then select the transparent cells, fill those with black, and select inverse again to get the original painting on the side, and delete. Then, I could use the transparent cells on the side to make my border. (A bit of a pain. There is probably an easier way.)

And I added a layer at the bottom with the color black for my background color.

I also added a texture and followed my standard texture protocol...which in a nutshell is...

• Add the layer I want to texture, choose blending options and change the blend mode under "General Blending" to my liking.
  
• Create a copy of my original image. Choose Alt-Add Layer Mask (the circle button at the bottom of the layers pallete). Paint on the mask with white to bring clarity back to the main subject.
  

Rough Edges With A Clipping Mask

Using the same (EASY) technique I write about in the previous entry, I also made this. I

For the above photo, instead of using a shape for my black clipping layer, I just painted with a large, rough brush on a transparent layer, and made sure the color was black. Then I ALT clicked the line between the black layer (bottom) and the photo (top).

If you want an edge other than standard Photoshop brushes, this gal has quite a few she offers for free (and others for a good price). Or, you could make your own.

Rounded Corners With A Clipping Mask

Rounded Corner Image with Border

 

I was over at Pioneer Woman. She has recently asked readers to submit their photos with rounded corners. Rounded corners, of course give your photo a different feel and certain photos look especially great with rounded corners.

I was also recently over at Coffee Shop Photography. She has a couple of tutorials over there on making story boards with clipping masks.

Do you ever have something you want to do in Photoshop and it isn't that Photoshop's directions are so terrible, but you have to know what that thing you want to do is called so that you can look it up. I think Photoshop's directions on this are quite clear. If you don't find mine clear, just look up Adobe Help in Photoshop and type in "Clipping Mask".

Pioneer Woman gives you one technique for making rounded corners. It is how I've been making rounded corner images up until now. But, having just learned about "Clipping Masks", I'm thinking clipping masks to be the most straightforward way to do this. So, I'm including a little tutorial.

1. Open your image.
   
2. Choose the rectangular shape tool. This will automatically make a new layer. Choose the rounded type of rectangle (you do this on the shape tool bar at the top of your window) and choose how much of a radius you want for your rounded corners. I was working with a full sized image so I chose 300px. Also make sure the color of your shape is black.
   
   

   
   
   The arrows point to the settings on your rectangle that you want to pay attention to.
   

3. Now take your picture and make it the top layer above your rounded rectangle. You can do this by clicking on that layer and dragging it above the other layer.
   
4. Now press and hold ALT (CMD on a Mac)and take your mouse and click it on the line in between your picture (on the bottom) and the rectangle (on the top). You will see this little symbool when you are pressing ALT and hovering over the line. This is the Clipping Mask symbol.
   

   
   
   

5. You should now have a clipped version that top layer (your picture) and it will now have rounded corners. Save.
   
   

   
   

If you further want to add a black border around the rounded image you can easily do so by merging visible layers (don't flatten), right-clicking on the image and choosing to bring "Layer From Background", right-clicking and choosing blending option, choose stroke, make the color black or other desirable color, choose your width, and for position choose inside. This will give you a border.

I plan on adding a tutorial for making a story board or collage with clipping masks soon too, but this should get you started with them. A very handy tool to be familiar with.

Park

I was playing with my new lens again and so I took my kids to the park. Aren't I blessed to live somewhere with such beautiful trees everywhere? When the rain gets me down, I realize I've been letting myself be stuck inside too long. When we got to the falls at the park, we saw a bald eagle and I was saddened I didn't bring my other lens with me. We may go back soon.

Trying Out My Lens

I just got a new lens that I've been wanting for the longest time. Did you know that having a high quality lens allows you to overcome weaknesses in your camera itself? Like digital noise issues. I for one have never been happy with how landscape pictures have turned out on my camera. I am so happy with this lens. It is sharp, sharp, sharp.

It's a Canon Wide Angle 17-40mm f/4.0L. Sure I would have rather had low f stop lens, but this lens was a great price point for how high quality it is. I'm so excited to take pictures of things like...trees. Boring I know. But, it thrills me.

I've got my zoom lens and my macro lens. Pretty much I have the lenses I need now...with the exception of some kind of f1.4 or f1.8 lens or a super zoom. I have to have something to wish for in future years, right? So, here are some try out pictures. I did add some minor cross-processing post camera.