Thursday, August 27, 2015

SEPTEMBER CHALLENGES

For a change, I'm a little early with these.  No chance of forgetting to post on time this month.  I hope you like them.

CHALLENGE #1:  The sketch is for your inspiration but ignore the colours used in this sketch.


Anita:



 Carrie:




 Marlene:




CHALLENGE #2:  Mood Board


 

Anita: Should probably take these pictures over again in good daylight.  These pictures don't do the cardstock or photos justice.




Marlene:





CHALLENGE #3:

 


Anita:


Carrie:


Marlene:


CHALLENGE #4:  Mood Board



Anita:




Marlene:





CHALLENGE #5:  You aren't required to use a black background in this sketch from Flying Unicorn.


Anita:




 
Marlene:









Saturday, August 1, 2015

AUGUST CHALLENGES

I hope you are all enjoying summer sunshine and getting out to the lake! I'm not even sure why I am posting this months' challenges.  We have all been so busy with summer activities that we have all fallen behind in the challenges.   But it is August 1st so I will get these posted.   If you only get one done this month I think we will all understand.  I still have to do all July challenges!!! 

I'm attaching a very interesting tutorial on how to photograph your layouts written by Helen Tilbury [http://helentilbury.blogspot.ca]:


Ain't that something we all need to know???
Not many of us have it prefect but I have been
on an endless mission for the last 3+ years to 
get there.  You only need to hit my archives when
I first started this blog to see that I was CLUELESS
as to what I was doing.  I am vastly improved now
BUT there is still one thing I am doing wrong.

Funnily enough it has only started bothering me in the
last few months...It's like I'd never "seen" it before...
just like this article says.  Distorted perspective - yup,
got that!!  Very marginally but it's there.  I haven't
actually tested out this tutorial on my version of PSE
so I'm hoping that it will be as simple as it sounds here
when I do. I'll bullet-point my top layout photography tips.

1.  Check your layout before you start by scouring
every millimetre of it with your eye, for fluff, remnants of 
embossing powder, bits of glue, etc - have a large
 face-powder  brush kept specially for brushing off your layouts
 before you  start photographing them (You don't notice these
 little things when taking a quick look at your layout - but you 
DO notice them once you have uploaded your images - then
 you have to start again!

2.  Check your camera settings.  Shoot on manual or aperture-
priority and adjust your F-stop to the lowest number possible
without blowing out highlights.  Make sure your white balance
is set to CLOUDY and you shoot in the SHADE - there have
been a few very annoying times for me when I have
 photographed a bunch of layouts only to discover, once uploaded,
 that they were all "blue" from having my white balance set to 
"Flourescent" from shooting indoors the night before.  

3.  Adhere your layout to the wall of your house or to a pillar/
column etc (any vertical flat surface) using removable adhesive
(I use Prestik but in the UK it goes by the name of Blu-Tack,
some people call it "Sticky Stuff" - hope you all know what I
 mean - it looks like grey or sometimes blue, chewing gum!

4.  Photograph your layouts HEAD-ON.  Do NOT photograph 
them standing over them on the floor - your results will NOT be
as good and you will have problems with llight and perspective 
control.

4.  Have a very steady hand (like me - lucky!) or use a tripod -
you do not want ANY shake at all.  Lucky for me there is 
A LOT of light where I live so I always have a huge aperture
 (a very low F-stop number) so the shutter speed is so fast
 that there is no time to shake or blur at all.

5.  Stance & Angle.  Stand with your legs as wide as you
can (like a giraffe) to stabilise yourself and get a good 
distance between you and the photo (a couple of yards
 on average) - try taking some photos closer & some further 
away too (not more than  about 1 metre) & do your best to
 make sure that you are  HEAD ON with the image - 
not shooting down or up to it.

6.  Take a lot of photos.  Typically I take about 40 images
 of a layout - including close-ups and dimension shots,
 then choose  & edit the best, and once that's done I delete the
 rest immediately.  It's all digital now so no problem with that
 -  better to have a good selection so click away! Every click 
makes you a better and more confident photographer too!!

7.  Edit your layout photos.  Start with the proportion control
(see link above), or if that's all a bit fancy for now, just use
 the  straighten tool like I have done for years!  Then use the
crop tool - set to MANUAL so you can adjust it just right - 
around the edges of your layouts - then brighten it up as much 
as you can  by adding "fill light" - then a touch of highlights 
(don't overdo this or you lose detail) and a teeny touch of
  shadow.  This will immediately pack a mean punch.  Now 
desaturate so you don't all look like you have a fake tan 
(orange) and lastly sharpen for a crisp image. Be careful 
with this last one as it will add grain if  you have a bad
 quality image to start  with so you may only be able to 
adjust slightly.  

This may all sound very complicated but I've done it so often 
I can do it with my eyes closed now (so you will be able to
 as well, with some perseverance) & if I have a whole lot of
 images taken under exactly the same circumstances, once I have
 them cropped & straightened I can batch edit them all
 together as  opposed  to individually.  You can do this all 
FOR FREE in Picasa  (and probably other free software 
programs)  well - everything  except the  proportion control, 
which you will need PSE/Photoshop for.

And there you have it - layout photography demystified.  It's
 an important skill to learn if you want to show off your layouts
 online  - you take hours to create them so you want them to
 look their  very best for the whole world to see!  Helloooo? 
 Are you still there??  Well this was rather long...
hope it was helpful!?!


CHALLENGE #1:

  

Anita:



Carrie:



Marlene:

CHALLENGE #2 is from Page Maps:


 


Anita:







Carrie:



Marlene:




CHALLENGE #3 from Scrap Our Stash:


Anita:  This too-busy layout is the right page of a double layout where Challenge #2 is the left page.   For this Scrap our Stash challenge, I used:
B = burlap (under "Tales from the Tunnels")
R = rulers 
A = advertisement
D = Dots made with Tim Holtz distress ink (on pant legs
       bottom left corner)
S = Stencil (dots on man's pant legs) and strips of paper


I thought the background card stock really went with the story behind these old tunnels although this side of the card stock is busy.  This close up is an advertisment that I tore out of a Saskatchewan Tourism booklet.




Carrie:  For this Scrap our Stash Challenge (Brads),  B = borders.  I did go through my stash and these borders have been in a box for years.  If not for this challenge they would have stayed buried. R = roses.  I wasn't sure they fit with the theme but they are also very lightly on the borders.   A was a stretch.  Al came up with the Avalon Peninsula which I definitely wouldn't have thought of.  I went online for a map that I could print.  D= die cuts; and S= stamping & the scissor cut on my border.





Marlene:




CHALLENGE #4:

 

Anita:



I was in a hurry and didn't notice that the rick rack has come away from the double sided tape.




Carrie:




Marlene:






CHALLENGE #5:



 Anita:



Carrie:


 Marlene: