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I have been woefully neglectful of my blogs for sometime while I’ve been finishing my portfolio for submission. I must say it is by far and way the VERY best work I have done to this date. It is due tonight at midnight (MST) so I will back to blogging here happily Monday, Wedneday and Friday. Unfortunately, due to guidelines I am not allowed to publish any of the images. But to make it up to you this Friday, I will be offering another Freebie Action of my very own so stay tuned. I wanted to share some basic photography videos from www.youtube.com that have been very helpful to me. Youtube is a great resource to find good basic information on all sorts of aspects of photography. Rick Sammom has a number of videos that break down things to sweet and simple steps. I just wanted to send a shout out to Freebies that are available in the store! I ran this action straight out of a studio shoot. I thought I was going to faint, it’s so purdy. However, I did not write in the action Mode>Convert to 8 bit. I’ll rewrite it a little tonight. You can download now, but just remember…convert to 8 bit if it doesn’t go all the way through. You do that by going to Image>Mode>8 Bit Channel.
Here’s a quick little video that shows a colling lighting effect and gives some basic info about your histogram and info palette. This is a great video from Robert Vasquez from Photo Magic Productions. He simply explains, shutter speed, ISO, and depth of field. Awesome job!! His website is www.smays.com
Capture your life. Three simple words. Such power they offer. I know working with camera equipment and software can be so overwhelming, but JUST take the plunge and START! Sometimes we think it’s easier not to start at all rather than bungle through and try to learn as we go. Investing time in your camera and software will be the BEST investment you will ever make. Everybody has a story to tell. This is your life, your happiness, your insanity, DOCUMENT it! So start…just start shooting…start playing with your editing software. “Oh…” I hear from people, “I don’t have any editing software.” Well let me tell you where to get some….for free…I’m a huge Adobe fan, a recommend Adobe Elements and Photoshop over anything else, but times are such that many of us don’t have the extra dollars we used to have so here’s a few of my favorite freebies. Here are my top three favorite free editing software programs. 1. GIMP - Oh, how I love this program. This is the program that I started with. I’m technically somewhat retarded, so If I can do it, you can. But this is not for the faint of heart. It offers much of what Adobe Photoshop offers. However, it is free so there are issues that go along with it. BUT, for those who say, “I have Elements but would love to upgrade to the full Photoshop because of …..” Usually it’s only one feature they are looking for, well save yourselves the bucks and use GIMP instead. http://www.gimp.org/ 2.Photos Pos Pro- Ok, this a program that can take you a long way in your learning process. Kick Picasa in the trash folks. One of the best features is the help tutorials that are available. Not only can you do photo editing but you can also do greeting cards, web designs, web buttons, all very simply. http://www.photopos.com 3.Photoscape- RAW, batch processing, curves and all so easy to use. This program offers so many more features. It is easy to use, the icons and directions are simple and easy to follow with great results. http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php And here’s a new program that I’m just itching to try, Image Exchange. I’ll give it a review after I give it a review. http://imageexchange.picscout.com/ Best of luck and happy shooting! (why does that sound so bad…) Happy Picture Taking! I’m giggling in my rockety computer chair pretty darn hard….Let me show you why.
Ok, here’s a shot I did from my 365 day Project. I had done some pictures earlier in the evening but I wasn’t happy with them so I decided to do a shot of this deer skull that my daughter, who was seven at the time, was particularly insistent that we bring home from a trip in central Utah. Lora, one my dearest friends, of course wholeheartedly supported the idea of hauling a dried up carcass in the back of my car (not hers). And Hot Pants, my hubby, agreed. I can’t remember if finding the skull was before Lora shot the rattlesnake or after but it certainly was before one of my most memorable “Ambien” moments around the campfire that evening. Lora later remarked to her son, “Let that be lesson to never get high, especially in front of your friends.” Really, the comment was entirely unnecessary. Tyler, Lora’s son (now sixteen) will still to this day shake his head with a smile and ask, “Remember that time you got high?” Prescription RX sometimes don’t kick in like you think they will and I think the fact I took another one (we were camping, the ground was hard, it was cold) but still stayed awake added to…let’s just say a fun filled night that fortunately both my children were asleep for. Lora does occasionally remark, “Oh, you’d be such a fun drunk. ” I think my Ambien moments more than compensate for the fact that I don’t drink. Anyway, we brought the deer skull home and for the last four years I’ve been wanting to snap some type of picture of it. So I did last night…before the Ambien. Here’s a before, notice the crinkle of the paper in the back…
Here’s what so funny (at least to me). All I did is one run one of my fancy actions, Powder Puff (named for all those football games just for girls) and wow-ie-wow! Look how freakin’ hot it looks, I LOVE it! Actions like these are designed to run in Elements and Photoshop and are perfect those who do blogging of any type. Check out my store for more like it! http://www.myphotographica.com/blog/store/
I’ve embarked on the Project 365 challenge. That means for 365 days, since last week, I take one picture a day. You can read more about my motivation for such a project here here . What it really means is that I hope to force myself to finish some portfolios. Having you made any resolutions for the new year? Will I really stick with it, well so far so good… But I ask myself, do I have to post the bad pix? Do I really have to post everyday? You tell me…(not really, ok maybe somewhat really). This is from Day 1 last week. You can keep tabs of my project on www.marcelwalker.us/blog Holy Crudola! I love this action! This action is Honey Daze and it’s available in my Classic Action Pack or in the Whole Combo Action Pack in the store.
Holy Buddha! This makes me want to go create more actions! And that brings me to my great topic of the day, Freebie Friday. Right, now there are two free actions available in the store and today…I’m adding a third, Size for Web and Border! If you are a blogger this action is a must have. It will size your actions to a max width of 400 px and add a thin border. So with one click, your image will end up just like this.
The border is a semi-transparent black so that it will go with any type of shot. You can find this action, along with other freebies and actions to purchase here.. The advantages to using actions is speed and you can use actions when you batch process (lots of images at once). But you don’t need an action to do this. You can do it yourself by going to the top left of Photoshop and do the following:
Good luck and Happy Photoshop Editing!
You know what ruined this absolutely fabulous picture?
THESE, Evil Dust Bunnies! And you know what? They could ruin your photos too. Oh sure, the image may look just fine on your computer but zoom in close and then you’ll really know the quality of your shot. In this case, CRAP! The healing brush and blur tool in this case were very helpful. If you have a digital SLR camera and you’re scared to clean your sensor, you should be. Read why: http://www.photos-of-the-year.com/articles/clean-sensor/ If you have OCD, I would recommend skipping this link altogether otherwise you may needlessly obsess about all the possible damage you may do to your camera (experience here). But know if you send it off to be cleaned, be ready to wait for at least two weeks. If you feel brave enough to try to clean your sensor on your on, read this. If you have a digital SLR camera and you want to know how to clean your sensor click here. http://www.beyondmegapixels.com/2009/12/tips-for-keeping-your-camera-clean/ Come back for Freebie Friday and a featured action of the week on yes, you guessed it FRIDAY.  |
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