for this photo. Thank you to everyone who entered the drawing for a spot in an Everyday Elements workshop. Due to the overwhelming response to the giveaway, Amanda has decided to give away TWO spots for her workshops. Winners may choose the class that best fits their needs.
The lucky winners are #20 and #67, who are Jill and Beth.
I have had so many people ask me how I add a drop shadow background to my blogs. Well, here is the tutorial!
This is a simple colored background with a white drop shadow area behind your posts. You can download it HERE and follow along with the tutorial. This file has two layers and can be opened in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. The bottom layer is a simple color fill layer and the top layer is the white drop shadow area that goes behind your posts.
***********Closed!**************
Thank you to everyone who entered the drawing for a spot in an Everyday Elements workshop. Due to the overwhelming response to the giveaway, Amanda has decided to give away TWO spots for her workshops. Winners may choose the class that best fits their needs.
Once again Morgan comes to my rescue. See, it is my wedding anniversary weekend and my dear husband and I have a date night. These are quite rare because I hate dumping my kids on poor relatives/friends. However, we need an evening dining alone in a nice restaurant.
As I wrote that I started laughing thinking about what we have been doing lately to "get away".
We have this amazing huge front porch
Amanda is back again with a great tutorial on one of her versions of skin smoothing. And even better, you can find her video tutorial here!
And if you haven't checked out my free retouching actions that include skin smoothing layers (if you want to be really lazy!), you can find them on this page (page down to the middle). Baby PowderRoom, Perfect Portrait, Glamour Glow and PowderRoom are all great actions that will allow you to do a complete touch-up. :-)
Good morning, Coffeeshop Friends!! Today I am going to share with you simple steps to soften skin in Photoshop Elements (works in PS also, just the screen looks different). To utilize this tutorial, you will need to have Rita's Layer Mask Action because PSE does not come with the mask tool. Rita's action is spot on and works perfectly! I use it almost every day and if someone told me I could only keep on action for PSE, that would be the one. I love it!
Now, let me warn you that I don't use the mask to brush stuff off of a layer like most people do (black brush on white mask). Instead, I invert it and brush ON effects (white brush on black mask) only where I want them. I prefer to do it that way because I feel I have more control and can be more specific about where the effect is shown. Does it feel like I'm speaking French to you? Don't worry, go through the motions of the tutorial and you'll understand.
Step 1: Open image in PSE.
OK, I have to say it, I love my husband. We have been a couple since I was 17 (I will blog about how we met soon) and now, decades later, he still cracks me up. In a good way.
We have a little tradition during the summer. On nice evenings after we get the boys to bed, we pull out our finest box of wine and bring it out to the backyard. He pours me a glass (it is always too much, but it would be rude to complain, right?) and pours himself a bigger glass (he works out and can afford the extra calories) and we sit and chat.
This is going to sound corny, but we discuss serious things like religion and politics, and insignificant things like how many time the boys said poop in one day and the interesting nicknames they give their bodyparts...
So the other day we were sipping this light white wine and chatting.
If you loved the CoffeeShop Color Block It, Web Rounded Corners and Web Drop-Shadow actions, then you will love CoffeeShop Web Frame It! Just like my other web actions,
I get so excited when I get an email from Morgan with another of her wonderful tutorials. Thanks Morgan!!! I completely agree about selective color. Some photographers are so incredibly snobby about it that they make you feel guilty editing that way. However, talk to anyone who is not a "pro" and they will tell you they love it, at least in moderation. Sure, it can be overdone (like any editing technique), but if you ever look at any ads (tv or print) you will see it done quite often. And that is because consumers love it! I know you have seen that cereal commercial where the mom and child are listing to the snap, crackle and pop of their morning cereal. Yeah, I love that commercial and it uses selective color.
I always remind people photography is art and art is subjective. So do what you love. :-) And don't let anyone make you second guess your art.
A lot of photographers will tell you that this is so cliche and "out of style" and then ask the same photographer what effect that their clients request the most (other than standard b&w) and they will say selective color. I think that clients like it because of the mystery, they don't know how to do it :) There are lots of ways to get this effect, here is just one way.
. Lightbeams by Rita. Dandelion by God. :-). I have had this lens for years and years (before I went digital) and if something happened to it I would instantly replace it. Seriously, this lens does it all! The only time I take it off is when I put on my Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
. I use that one inside because our house is quite dark due to the million live oaks we have growing around it. :-) But I also use my 28-135 inside all of the time because it is a decent low-light lens due to the IS. I also use the 50mm lens outside for portraits and Army guys shots. ;-)I noticed an Army Guy in my flower bed. Well, flower bed/occasional cat box /chicken scratching area if you want to know the truth. I am amazed this rose even exists.
I wonder who he is radioing?
It is that time of year; when young hands and faces are stained with purple sticky juice and mothers are pulling huge blackberry thorns out of little finger tips with their teeth. Yes, it is Blackberry Season here in Texas.
I am so excited to introduce Amanda! Amanda and I have a lot in common, like our love of Pioneer Woman, homeschooling, chickens and taking photos of weeds, kids and farm animals. So when she touched base with my on my CoffeeShop Flickr Group and asked if she could write a few tutorials for my blog I was completely thrilled! Not only would I learn some new techniques along with my readers, but I would get a much needed break from the computer. :-)
Meet Amanda! I am a "Pioneer Woman" of sorts, although not nearly as talented, witty or culinarily gifted as the real one. I grew up in the suburbs or on military bases, but ended up in country on a cattle and chicken farm an hour from any sizeable town. I am a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom to four children, ages 11 to 4.
My photography journey started last spring, and it has quickly become a passion. Most of my subjects are my kids, the cows, my mother-in-law's flowers and my weeds (they're prettier in a picture than in real life). I enjoy editing (with PSE 7) and continue to learn daily. The tutorials I write are very basic and well documented so that brand new users can learn how to use their editing software.
I recently started a photography resource blog, PhotographyHaven where you can find lots of free actions, tutorials, workshops and more. You can view my personal pictures at Moving Forward or my Flickr stream.
Today I am going to show you a VERY simple way to give your photos a quick, soft focus effect, plus a little pop in color, which sometimes is all a picture needs. I edit with Photoshop Elements 7, but these steps can be done in both PS and PSE.
I want to start this post off by saying that I have been watching the news for hours the last days and am horrified by the oil spill in the Gulf. I have spent many a summer in Galveston Island, South Padre Island, and in many of the beaches on the Gulf Coast all of the way to and including Florida. This is a tragedy not only for the wildlife and beautiful beaches, but for all of the hardworking Americans that fish and own/work at hotels and tourist attractions on the Gulf Coast that will be affected. You are all in my prayers.
Today, to cheer me up, I invited the Army Guys back.
So while I was sweeping the back porch the other day (the boys were playing on their swingset) I came open this scene. I was shocked! What were these two Army Guys doing with my children's bubble pipes? I decided to walk away since the Army Guys are of age and are usually very responsible. But I will have a talk with these guys later and mention that this is something they need to do after my boys have gone to bed.
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