Well, as I was very busy building my new Shopify website, I initially missed weeks 7 thru 10 of the Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge. But I want my photo grid complete with host We Live in a Flat (and co-host Fire Bonnet), so am going ahead and competing entries for these (and back dating so they are archived in order).
Week 7 Photo Challenge: Art-Sketch Effects
We Live in a Flat gives a more full description of sketching via Wikipedia:
Sketches can be made in any drawing medium. The term is most often applied to graphic work executed in a dry media such as silverpoint,graphite, pencil, charcoal or pastel. But it may also apply to drawings executed in pen and ink, ballpoint pen, water colour and oil paint. The latter two are generally referred to as “water colour sketches” and “oil sketches”. – wikipedia
And yes it is true that we now digitally have the ability to turn our photos into sketches (and watercolors, and oil paints, etc.). I really like the look of the Camera360 app that she tested, so added it to my growing group of photo apps on my iPhone. This one was free!
It took me a minute to figure out where the “sketch” effect was in this app. You have to select the big + button to enter the effects store. From there they list the different effects offered; all are free. Once selected the effects you like are installed onto your main effects screen for use. A total of nine sketch effects are offered. I liked “surreal”, “years”, “color”, and “light”. Did not particularly care for the rest. And, ways to save are a little odd in that you export to your camera roll, and if not careful with your “finger placement” on your phone screen you will just re-save your original.
Here are the final results. I used a photo taken of Peyton this morning on a neutral background.
Original Photo
Sketch #1-Surreal
Sketch #2-Years
Sketch #3-Color
I think I like sketch #3-Color best. I think a darker subject would have worked out better for this effect, although there is quite a bit of contrast between Peyton and the almost white background. The “Years” sketch is also nice, although it really just looks like a b&w photo conversion, rather than a sketch.
My Photo of the Week County Road 281, Texas Hill Country
App Challenge Image Waves in the Sky
Mobile Device: iPhone 4s App Used: Snapseed
The Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge (hosted by We Live in a Flat and Firebonnet) this week was altering photos with HDR and saturation. I think using HDR, or high dynamic range, in photos works especially well with outdoor scenes. I used the HDR filter in my Snapseed app to get the desired effect with this beautiful Texas hill country back road! I also did some light cropping (to remove phone pole in front of trees, and the “straighten” feature in Snapseed. When I initially applied the HDR filter it was a little strong, so I reduced it from the default setting of 85 to 50. This made for a slightly more subtle effect, but still worked to bring out the grainy texture of the gray road and the lovely soft wave of the clouds in the sky that day. They were truly rather unusual.
Want to have fun and participate in the photo challenge, or just visit the other entries? Just click on the Snappy H’appy Logo at the top of this post!
App Challenge Image Making the Industrial Sparkle!
Mobile device: iPhone 4s Apps used: Snapseed, LensLight
My friend at We Live in a Flat describes Bokeh as “Originating from the Japanese word Boke, Bokeh (which rhymes with okay :P) apparently means blur or haze.” Glad I finally know how to properly pronounce it! After completing this challenge, I also have to say that I definitely prefer the photo with the bokeh effect. How about you?
The app Lens Light is great as it allows you to add effects like lens/flares, bokeh, lights (need a moon in that scene?). The effect I used was bokeh stars. The effects can be edited for placement, brightness, and color, and can be layered. There are also numerous filters than can be applied. The app does cost $1.99 but I think it’s great, and it is my first “go-to” app for adding bokeh or special lighting effects to my photos, although I don’t use it often.
Want to have fun and participate in the photo challenge, or just visit the other entries? Just click on the Snappy H’appy Logo at the top of this post!
I have been asked before about how I take photos for my Etsy product listings, so I thought I would take you through my process step-by-step. One of the things that makes Etsy such a great community is the willingness of sellers there to help each other out! Hopefully you will find some useful information within this post/video, even if you are not on Etsy. Also be sure to do a search in the Etsy Seller Handbook for some super photography tips, and if you are into photography via your smart phone, my friend at “We Live in a Flat” has some fantastic phone app tutorials!
To start, I use my Sony Nex C-3 digital camera, along with Photoshop (older vs CS2) for my product listing photos. Although I definitely love my iPhone with it’s apps, I find I get the best detail work from my Sony camera. One of the best things I did after getting my digital camera/Photoshop was buy a couple of good photography books. My favorite is “Photoshop CS4 Workflow” by Tim Grey. Although it was for a newer version of Photoshop, it taught me the basics about keeping my photos organized and saved for later use. After reading this book a couple of times, I developed a quick “cheat sheet” for editing/saving my photos. Although I no longer need that list, it was indispensable when I first set up my Etsy shop!
Here are the steps I use when creating my Etsy product listings, with a video of the full process. With photographing pets I will say that I always take photos with good daylight (windows at my back) and never, ever use flash. I take most photos on my bedspread because it is an off-white matelasse fabric which gives a nice white background to start. Taking photos when pets are most cooperative (i.e. not too close to dinner time) is also a good idea! And be sure to take LOTS of photos; you can always discard the ones you don’t want to keep.
1. Make a copy of chosen original photo and move to my desktop (this way my true original is always intact).
2. Open File>Save As, and rename photo “Master [Photo Name].”, then save to Photoshop (psd) format. Notice that photo is renamed in top left-hand corner.
3. Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels. Click ok to leave layer settings as is. Using the little triangles on the graph adjust by dragging triangles to “match” graph, and click ok. In this case I needed to pull the small right-hand triangle in toward center of the graph, which made the photo much lighter. This small step will do WONDERS for most photographs, which are usually too dark.
4. Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Brightness/Contrast, click ok for layer settings, and adjust to your liking. I usually increase the contrast and brighten the photo slightly more. Just be sure the photo doesn’t get washed out.
5. Repeat Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer with Hue/Saturation and Color Balance to your liking. Increasing the yellow slightly in the Color Balance section will warm up your photos if you think they are too “blue”. In more recent versions of Photoshop I believe you can do all these adjustments via bar sliders on your screen, but this is how I have to do it with my older Photoshop version.
6. Now within my Layers Panel I click the icon to ‘Create a New Layer’. Rename this layer “Dodge”. From the left hand Tool box select “Brush Tool”. Leave the brush settings as is, with Normal mode and 100% Opacity. From the color picker change the color to White. You will use your computer keyboard bracket symbols to increase and decrease the size of the brush tool. What you are going to do now is white out any unnecessary background in your photo, which will give a very polished, professional look to your listings.
7. I complete a quick overview of the photo for any small corrections needed. With the Background layer highlighted, select the clone stamp tool from the tools menu, then hit ‘Alt’ on your keyboard and click your mouse once in the area you want to copy the pixels from, then click once with the mouse to the area you want to paste pixels into. Repeat as needed.
8. Do a final save on your fully edited Photoshop master, then go to Image>Duplicate to duplicate the image.
9. Crop the image to 850 px wide by 550 px tall (160 resolution) for Etsy (cropping as you choose), then go to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask and sharpen about 100%. Leave “Preview” checked to see your changes.
10. Save for Web, noting the image size in bottom left-hand corner of your screen (try to keep at 100 K or smaller). Change name of file to “Final [Photo Name]”. Image will be saved as a JPEG. It is this cropped/sharpened image that will be used on your Etsy listing. Your original Master photo will remain intact with Photoshop edits in case you want to crop to a different size/resolution later, for example if you want to produce your photo as a print.
Hope this helps and if you have questions, please ask in comments!
Sassmuffins 