Thanksgiving From Me, OutsideShooter

I read something today which caused me to write this, a podcast from Alyson Stanfield's artbiz blog

If I could thank you in person I would, but since that is not possible I just wanted to take today to thank you for your interest in my blog, for reading and occasionally taking the time to Comment, for linking to my Galleries at Imagekind, and for purchasing my Fine Art Prints there, for asking questions which I can help you with here, for sending me links to help me learn new techniques or info on updated equipment in the field or seminars in my area. This would be the proper day to thank you all, so thanks.

And for all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving too.

Tis Fall Again

Walking downtown the other day I was caught by this undisturbed cascade of mushrooms on a tree in the parking strip along a well-walked street. This is perhaps the largest display of mushrooms I have seen outside of a very large set, maybe 4 times this size, on a downed old-growth log some years ago. So here it is Fall again & out of nowhere comes this massive display within the city. I know it wasn't there last year because I frequent this street at least twice a week year-round. What a nice surprise and once again this just shows how convenient it is to often carry your camera and a walk-around lens with you. This was shot with a Canon 30D & a Canon 24-105 L lens on a bright sunny afternoon.

Soften and Sharpen a Face in a Portrait

So you have taken a series of photos for a client or a friend, a family member or partner, but because of a few facial flaws you want to soften the glow. How do you do that? Certainly you must have a piece of photo editing software/ I use Photoshop (PS). So I'll assume you have CS or better.

Open your image in PS, . Duplicate by dragging down to Create a new layer,then make sure your file is in 8 bit Mode by selecting Image> Mode> 8 bits per channel. This allows for manipulating a file with many more parameters. Next apply a Gaussian Blur within the Filter Tab to a Radius setting of 15. You should adjust as you feel but it should be a higher setting that appears acceptable as you will correct in the next Layer Adjustment.

Drop back the Opacity in the Layers Palette to say, 40%. Now pick a soft Brush, with a Hardness setting of Zero. Make sure before you begin painting, that you have pressed the 'D' key to select a black foreground & a white background so your brush is removing the blur with the black foreground. Begin painting around the eyes & lips so the brush size is in proportion to the area you are drawing back the sharp detail. You'll see the black appear in the Layer Mask.

Once you've painted around the eyes & the lips & anywhere else you want to appear sharper, then switch back to 16 bits, by going back to Image > Mode > 16 bits & Save As under File Tab.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Now Let's try a Reflective Text Tutorial

OK assuming you have watched the Oval tutorial below in my previous post, spent some time creating one and are now ready to try something different for another card of say just text, but want to make it look special let's take a look at Reflective Text. This is another very easy technique that any of us can master very quickly. Understand that the video is presented in a very calm & slow manner. Have patience as this is not a rocket style approach. But before you click on the video remember, if you don't wish to be transferred to youtube.com don't click on the center Play Button, click on the lower left Play Button.




As a reminder this can be used with isolated objects even within a photo if the object is first surrounded using the Lasso Tool & then placed into a New Document via the Control N (Option N Mac) then transfer via the Move Tool.

Don't forget to save this and consider an online source such as Mozy Online Backup: 2GB
Free. Automatic. Secure.

Creating an Oval in Photoshop

The link above by clicking on the Title will take you to a youtube video on how to create an oval surrounding a special photo you might wish to add this to. This is a silent tutorial with notes added so if you 'Pause & Play' as you read the notes you will learn a straight-forward method of learning a technique which you might use in creating a Birthday, Thanksgiving, Hannukah or Christmas Card.

Feathered Oval v4 by rubenflix

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You can see a whole scrolling page of my prints right here at 1stAngel&Friends

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