Archive for photoshop
How to Put Your Logo on Your Images
Posted by: | CommentsI am not a Photoshop expert or guru but I can help you with this one! Like many things in Photoshop, there is more than one way to do this but here is one way.
Make your copyright mark difficult enough that most people will not want to spend time taking out your logo in Photoshop.
If you can use a Gif format, that is perfect for the web. A Gif format is less likely to be reprinted as the quality is great for the web but it is not good for printing.
If you are interested in more information about copyright and trademarking, please join Professional Photographers of America, www.PPA.com as they are the premier association for professional photographers.
- Open the image you want to put a logo on in Photoshop
- Make a duplicate of the image (in case you make a mistake you are not working with your original file.)
- If the image is going on the web, resize it smaller so it uploads fast, won’t look too good if someone prints it, but looks fine on the web. I use about 3×5 at 72 dpi.
- I have made an action in Photoshop for resizing my images since I do this often.
- Type your name or studio name.
- Select the Type Tool and type your studio name in black in your desired font.
- The layers palate will automatically put the text in. You can see in photo #1 that my top layer says © www.GordonPhotography.Biz
- With the rectangle tool, draw a box the shape of your letters.
- This layer should be underneath your type layer.
- If you need to resize it, Cont T will bring up the handles to let you resize it.
- Change the color of your box by clicking in the box that is colored in the layers palette.
- You can see in photo #2 mine is white already. (It is the second layer and it is called shape 1.) Select white which is color #ffffff and hit OK.
- Also make sure that this box color layer is the layer in between your text and image
- Reduce the opacity of the Shape Layer to around 45%.
- Then save as a jpeg or gif for use on the web.
You can also use a logo on a transparent background on a layer above your image layer. Mine looks like this. This logo, however, would be easy to crop out of the picture so it may not be a good choice for the web.
Your image is now ready to load on to the web!
Another great idea: Save your logo overlay separately in layers as pdf in case you wish to make changes. Make an action to open your saved web logo fast. Having this action will keep you from having to start all over each time you wish to mark a photograph.
The Background Painted by a Child
Posted by: | CommentsUsing a child’s own artwork for a background of their own portrait will pull at any parent’s heartstrings. This also makes this a totally custom piece while being very easy to do.
The portrait I set up was this little girl drawing and painting. Mom and Dad had her do a few art pieces ahead of time so we had a more interesting, decorated scene rather than a lot of white paper.
One of her watercolors was most interesting to me so I took a photograph of it too. I just set it flat on the floor, and shot with my same light set up so it took only a matter of seconds.
During the photo session I took other photographs without the full scene to mix it up and hopefully sell other poses. One was perfect. I dropped out the background in Photoshop and replaced it with the girl’s own artwork. The result was pretty fun!
Fabulous Fonts
Posted by: | CommentsOne of my favorite projects, shown here, was done using only fonts and background papers. (We talked about background papers two weeks ago.)
“Way to Be” (words composed by Gordon B Hinckley) was designed to coordinate with family portraits I took. All of the pieces now hang on the same wall so I did select the colors of this piece carefully.
I loved this piece so much I have a copy on my wall and have sold a copy as well.
Many fonts are free so Google free fonts and start your font collection. I have mentioned before and I will say it again, back up your font file to a DVD or something in the event you have to reinstall.
Photoshop Brushes-add them to your Creative Toolbox
Posted by: | CommentsSince we are on a roll talking about some fun Photoshop tools and resources, I have another creative one for you. Brushes. You can get a lot of drama from one simple tool.
Brushes can be used like a rubber stamp. This shape can be resized to whatever you need. They can be turned, flipped, or rotated to make each “stamp” unique. Of course you can change the color of them too.
For the image sampled here, I used one brush to make both designs. I used the same brush twice, each on its own layer. Each image is placed above the brush layer and then masked behind (cont alt g). Drop in an interesting background as the bottom layer and you’re done!
Photoshop comes with its own standard brushes but check out http://www.brusheezy.com/Brushes to get you started with more creative sets.
To Template or not to Template
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Personally, I am not a big fan of using templates. My personality likes to have each creation look different. That is not to say that templates are bad, they are really cool and a big time saver. It is more of my own personal hang up and part of my maximizer personality trait.
Not using template does mean time consuming computer work. You have probably read in previous articles that I am becoming a more efficient business person. What is one to do?
I mix it up. I have one product that is a template that every client who orders that product, gets the same look-exactly. Everyone is happy.
I have another product that involves eight images on an 11×24 framed piece and I sort of can not use a template for. This product feels like it should be different for everyone. The different images for each subject also call for a different feel, size, and format. But what I did was save my own design as a template for myself. Now I pull up my template, drag and drop the images, change the background color under the overlay (like we talked about two weeks ago), change my stroke color and I am done.
Christmas card templates never seem to work for me either. My clients want customization as well. I take parts of different templates to create my own custom card to fit my client’s photos. This saves me hours of design time, gives the client a visual of the idea, and I end up with a cool new design.
Again, a great resource for professional use templates for photographers is http://www.mylilcreations.com/
Google “professional use templates for photographers” and check out your own color lab. Many labs are providing or selling templates too.I can’t believe I used to start from zero each time. How inefficient of me!
Backup those Digital Files
Posted by: | CommentsI just had a scare. Remember a few weeks ago I was discussing selling my old negatives and digital files? Well I sold four files from 2006 and I did not have my retouched CD from that shoot to sell. Not to panic, my paranoid multiple backup systems paid off! Here is what I do.
Immediately upon downloading a session to my computer I burn a CD or DVD. Nothing has been done to the files at all, I just burn a copy. I label this my “Unedited Raws” disc. This is filed in a separate file cabinet and not with the order. In the event I loose my client’s order envelope, I have a copy stored somewhere else. Periodically, I take these CDs home to store, so they are off location.
My compact flash card from that session goes into a little tray on my desk. I do not reuse it right away in case there might be a problem.
Then I go ahead and edit my session, renumber the images and burn my second CD, the “Edited Raws” CD. This CD goes into the client’s order envelope.
Once the images are selected that will be ordered from are retouched, a “Retouched” CD is burned and it filed in the client’s order envelope. And of course by now my camera cards are rotated back in for reuse.
My hard drive is backed up to an external drive but before deleting anything off of my hard drive, I copy a bunch of sessions to a DVD. I copy the Retouched and the Edited Raws from as many sessions that will fit. This DVD gets filed off site as well. I probably do this every couple of months. So there are four copies of files in the end.
To make this process faster, I have three sets of pre-printed labels, a set for the “unedited Raws”, the “edited Raws”, and the “Retouched”. I color code each with a highlighter for even faster identification. There are also lines for the client’s name, type of session, and date.
So what happened to my 2006 files? Well, even though I have a checklist of what needs done for every order, it appears that I forgot to make a copy of the retouched images. But I was able to go home and go through the 2006 DVDs and found them in less than 5 minutes! Logically, I could have pulled the original Raws and had them retouched again, if I was desperate, but that would have cost a lot more. What a relief to have organized backups.
Change Drab Skies into Bold Skies
Posted by: | CommentsShooting on overcast days is terrific. It sure beats mid-day sun with heavy shadows and overly bright highlights. When photographing buildings overcast is very helpful for a nice exposure.
But what do to with that lifeless, dreary sky? Drop in a new one! Go out and shoot clouds on a day when the sky is full of them. Make a jpeg file and file it in its own folder called something like “clouds for new sky.” Of course you need to remove the old sky then place the new layer underneath the original layer.
Does the lighting match in each of these images? No, not really. But consider the use of the image, does it have to match? Sometimes it does, and sometimes it might not have to be perfect.
In the case of this church image, the intended use was for a bookmark. I was giving them to the church family members with the books of the Bible on the back for quick reference. So in this case, perfectly matching lighting was not an issue. I rather liked the impact of the bold sky.
You might want to get really creative and photograph storms and other skies for backgrounds.
If making the lighting match was critical, go out late in the day or early in the morning and shoot when the shadows are long and the lighting is softer.
A really good digital artist can actually tweak lighting in Photoshop also to make an image even more believable. I have a sample of this with a portrait session I did that I can share with you in a few weeks.
Oh – a good tip for shooting buildings (if you have the luxury of time) is to go in the spring or late fall when the leaves from the trees are not blocking out too much of the structure.
An Adobe Bridge Fix
Posted by: | CommentsThe first time this happened I thought I was losing my mind. In Adobe Bridge, I could not find the Image Processor function. It was totally gone, disappeared. I called a reliable friend of mine who confirmed that the function was indeed supposed to be there. He suggested uninstalling and reinstalling. Good idea, but I hate that stuff. So I asked in a forum and got a quicker fix.
This function disappears from the selections for me often, why I don’t know. But somehow the opening script gets lost. I have on many occasions had to reset my scripts.
If this ever happens to you, here is where to find it:
- Edit>Preferences>Start Up Scripts
- Check all the boxes
- Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the one that comes unchecked for me (don’t know why).
Oh, and if you are like me you will forget to do a restart on the computer. That is necessary. Good luck.
Copyright Mark your Work
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There are so many people sharing images on line these days. In many cases, the images are not particular valuable. But if you do good work, especially if you are a studio, you may want to consider “signing” your images. Not only should you be recognized and get the credit, this may help to discourage people from borrowing your images for their own use.
You also need to be aware that some dishonest photographers will use other people’s images on their websites and brochures claiming them as their own.
Legally, each image is copyrighted the minute the photograph is taken but you have very little legal muscle unless you actually register your images. However, those of you doing very good work should at least claim it and label it before putting it on the web.
Make your mark difficult enough that most people will not want to take out your logo in Photoshop.
If you can use a Gif format, that is perfect for the web. A Gif format is less likely to be reprinted as the quality is great for the web but it is not good for printing.
If you are interested in more information about copyright and trade marking, please join Professional Photographers of America, www.PPA.com as they are the trade association for photographers.
I am not a Photoshop expert or guru so don’t expect a lot of this kind of stuff from me but this is easy and important so if you want the directions of how I do this. Like many things in Photoshop, there is more than one way to do this. Since I used screen captures to write the article, I could not load the images on the blog so please download the pdf file.
Click here for is article in a Pdf form. It has the instructions on how to do this.
