Jessica Sprague: Textures

The theme for Day 5 was textures. This photo was taken last November when the snow fell on my pumpkins. While there was enough "concept contrast" in the photo already, I decided to play with this photo and adding textures.

First, it's easiest to desaturate the photo and start with a black and white or somewhere close to it. Then, I added three .jpg files as layers. Each time, I chose "soft light" for the layer, which gives the layer a translucency. The layers alone looked like: a crumpled up brown paper bag, a piece of slate, and a really old, battered photo in clear plastic photo corners. Click on the photo to get a better view of the textures.

Jessica Sprague: Clipping Masks

This picture used a clipping mask in Photoshop. It was really quite easy, but I definitely needed instructions! The Grunge photo mask used was created by Jessica Sprague.

Jessica Sprague: Colorizing

For this activity, our exercise was to colorize a photo, giving it a vintage feel. The toughest part to this was finding a photo that would really lend itself to the colorizing. This is the third photo I chose and the only one I actually felt turned out a bit on the side of "vintage."

Basically, we learned to manipulate the hue/saturation layers in Photoshop. We created some sharper colors and better contrast with our photos. Then, we created a layer that added some sepia to the mix. We then took to using the brush, which was the part that I could use some... well, "brushing" up on. I chose to colorize Max's eyes and his cheeks (more visible if you click on the photo and see a larger image). Basically, that involved 4 layers, one for each cheek and one for each eye. That gave certain parts of his photo a colorized feel.

I definitely have to play with this more, but it's good to know how to do it. I have always wondered.

Also, as a bonus project, Jessica asked for us to use a frame and a star brush on our colorized photo. Here is my shot at that... using all the elements from the class so far...

Jessica Sprague: Brushes

Oooohhhhh. I have heard people talk about "brushes" in Photoshop, but I just nodded my head as if I was "in the know." Oh no, was I not in the know. Being the stampaholic that I am, I have officially fallen in love with brushes. Done deal.

The photo is just one sample of one quick and easy brush selection. The frame in the bottom right corner was a brush for this class (as are all the embellishments we are using) from a House of 3 kit. When I completed the frame and word art from the previous post, those were separate PNG files. PNG files are files created with the idea that they will be used for layering... some parts of them are transparent to create a layered effect. The brushes, however, are used like digital stamps within the program. So I stamped that frame as if it were one of my rubber stamps. How cool is that?! I was also able to choose colors from my actual photo to use for the brush. I picked a color from Max's shorts for the frame and from his hair for the words. There are brushes that can be used that have words, but I decided to type "sprinkler fun" in.

E-A-S-Y!

Jessica Sprague: Frames and Word Art

I am taking a free class at Jessica Sprague's site. Two thumbs-up to Jessica, as this is a great class! First of all, did I mention it is free? Second of all, her video tutorials are paced well. I kept up the whole time, and I got some good info on using digital elements with Photoshop. She's using CS4, but I am able to follow in CS2 (though I am wondering about an upgrade...).

So, behold! My first altered photo! We used a digi frame and word art for this. She used a different word art, but it didn't necessarily go with my pic. This has been altered so that it is ready to be sent off and developed. Kewl.

Jessica Sprague

Just a shout out moment to Jessica Sprague. She is offering a free workshop on photo editing. It will cover frames, masks, and special effects.

Did I mention it was free? So yes, I am taking it. I can't wait to learn more.