Tips
362 creative works found
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made this to share with everyone – favourite this page or download (save as). See original journal post : Format and Found by Accident For anyone who uses Firefox and has Greasemonkey installed, Dave Pearson has created a script that replaces the existing hints on RedBubble with the cheatsheet
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[HOW TO] Links and photos in Red Bubble
by Craig ShillingtonI thought I would do a separate and hopefully less complicated How To in regards to making links and showing Jpg files in RB. There s…
I thought I would do a separate and hopefully less complicated How To in regards to making links and showing Jpg files in RB. There seems to be a lot of confusion as to how these things work. So find the part you are interested in learning, maybe open up and edit an old Journal Entry and practice. VBS A URL is simply the text that shows up in your Browser Window Address Bar (up the very top), the line that starts with http:// If I refer to the URL, that is what I am talking about. ALL CODE IS WRITTEN WITHOUT SPACES Some wrapping of longer lines of code will occur within this Journal Entry, regardless of what the lines look like, code is always one continuous line WITHOUT spaces TEXT LINKS Sometimes it’s nice to have a text link when we are conversing to others in Red Bubble to help people share information, or to allow them to see another web page that has something to do with the convo. Maybe you like to include songs from YouTube with your work and want to share those Videos and music with others. Anytime you want someone to be able to link to another webpage somewhere, you can make a line of text (or one word) clickable to that link and it’s really easy to do. :) All you do is wrap the text you want people to see as a link, in qoutes {“} then add a colon {:} and then the URL. So let’s say you wanted to link to my Porfolio so people can have a look at buying something off me HEHEHE ... all you need to do is open up my portfolio page in your browser to get the URL from your browsers address bar and just type the name of the link text wrapped in quotes, followed by a colon, then the url so it would look like this (with no spaces) : ” Craig Shillington’s Portfolio ” : http://www.redbubble.com/people/crackers1967/portfolio Craig Shillington’s Portfolio is wrapped in quotes, so that is the text people will see. http://www.redbubble.com/people/crackers1967/portfolio is the link we want the text to click too When you type that within Red Bubble without the spaces you get this : Craig Shillington’s Portfolio So, abbreviated – to make a text link in Red Bubble you would type this in as code: ” text ” : link Replacing the text and link for yours and no spaces. DISPLAYING JPG’S GIF’S PNG’S ETC Please try to keep the size of these files small, both in dimensions and in download size, as if you use a lot of bigger files, the pages you put them on will load more slowly and that might piss people off!! Okay, you look around and you notice somehow people are actually making it so that you can see the thumbnail photos of thier works, or others have cool little animated gifs showing. Well … if you can bring up a photo by itself in your browser, you can show it in Red Bubble!! And again, it’s really really easy. If you want to know the link to any photo you can see in your browser window, right click on the image itself (PC Users … sorry Mac users, maybe someone can help me here) and go down to properties. In the window that opens up you will see a section that has the image properties and the location (or URL). That is the link we need to show that image. I use a little rotating Note near all the links to Videos throughout my Portfolio, so I will be using that as an example here. This applies to ANY image you want to display though. First, right click on this LINK and open in a new Window or Tab. That way you can still read this and flick back to the link to practice. :) You will notice at the top of my description for the photo, I have used the Text Link method described above to link to the Video of that Song in YouTube. And right next to that link, to draw attention to the link, I have my little rotating Note :) Right Click on the little rotating Note and go to Properties. In the box that opens you will see the Image Properties and A URL to the Image. It should be this: http://home.people.net.au/ ~ casphotography/notes-15.gif That is the link to where I have the Note.gif Stored. And that is all you need to know for any image, the URL that will show just that image in your Browser. If you copy that link to your browser Address Bar (with no spaces) and hit Enter … all you should see is an empty page with the little note rotating in the top left corner. PERFECT!! If you can open any image in this way, you have the URL in the Address Bar. If you copy a link to your Address Bar and it doesn’t just show the image, something is wrong. Most Image URL will end in JPG, GIF or PNG. There are some exceptions, but there should be one of those somewhere in the URL. Okay, so we have the URL, how do we make the image show in Red Bubble. Where you want the image to be shown, paste or type the URL. Then at the very start and the very end of the URL (with no spaces) put EXCLAMATION MARKS {!} So my note would then be (without spaces): ! http://home.people.net.au/ ~ casphotography/notes-15.gif ! And in Red Bubble will look like this: So, abbreviated – to make an image show in Red Bubble you would type this in as code: ! URL ! Replacing the URL with the URL for the image and no spaces. IMAGE LINKS Okay, so we know and understand now how to make links and also how to display images in Red Bubble. If you don’t, go back and understand it because this next bit could be very confusing if you don’t ;) We know we can show an image, and we know we can make links to text. So can we make an image work as a link? YES!! VBS And it’s sorta easy if you understand what the code is doing and how it works. I will be using my Message Me button link in my profile for this example. Because that is an Image that links to my message board and so you can leave me a message ;) Here is the link to my Profile The very first button I have in there is the Message me Button. When you click on it, it takes you to my Journal Entry I set up for people to message me in. So I know the link … all I need to get now is the URL of the button. Easy, again, right click the Message Me Button and goto Properties, look at the Image Properties and the URL there … It should be this: http://home.people.net.au/ ~ casphotography/m.gif We know from above, to display an image we wrap it in Exclamation Marks, so to show that in Red Bubble we’d type (no spaces): ! http://home.people.net.au/ ~ casphotography/m.gif ! Which will show as: Okay, we have the image up and working, how do we link to it? Exactly the same way we link to text from above. Simply follow the code with a colon {:} and the link you want people to goto when they click the image. In this case my Message Board: http://www.redbubble.com/people/crackers1967/journal/show/30445 So the whole line of code would look like this (no spaces .. and ignore the word wrap, this is all one single line): ! http://home.people.net.au/ ~ casphotography/m.gif ! : http://www.redbubble.com/people/crackers1967/journal/show/30445 When typed with no spaces and on one line it looks like this: So, abbreviated – to make an image show in Red Bubble that links to a URL you would type this in as code: ! URL ! : link Replacing the URL with the URL for the image, and link for the URL of the link to click to and no spaces. View all my HOW TO’S
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[HOW TO] Sets in your Profile
by Craig ShillingtonA lot of people are asking how to do the links to sets of photos or works in our profiles … so I thought I would outline it here for th…
A lot of people are asking how to do the links to sets of photos or works in our profiles … so I thought I would outline it here for those of you that would like that option. First thing is to have sets in mind and tags to associate with those sets. Then … make sure you have those tags on the photos you want in each set. This way a photo can actually be in more than one set if you like :) Then …. to make the links in your profile: (I’ll use my tree tag as an example) / you type the set name followed by the link to all your photos tagged with tree like this ….. but without the spaces: ” Trees ” : http://www.redbubble.com/people/crackers1967/art/everything/tags/tree When you do this without the spaces you get this: Trees / Edit your Profile and place the set code somewhere within the About Me section. I place mine down a little lower because for some reason long lines get cut when you view your Profile on your Overview page, it looks neater down lower and only viewable when someone clicks on the more link. You should be able to copy and paste that line with the spaces and just change the word, tag name and username, then remove the spaces and go for your life. :) You can also bullet the list by placing a hash and then a space before the whole lot and it looks like this: Trees / / The easiest way to see what your username is, is to open up RedBubble and click on View your public Profile. Look in the address bar of your browser and it will show you your username at the end of the address: http://redbubble.com/people/ username View all my HOW TO’s
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Macro work using light tent and black cardboard.
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6 Quick Tips For Selling Your Art On RedBubble
by Jo O'BrienKeep your portfolio short and sweet. Show only y…
Keep your portfolio short and sweet. Show only your absolute best work and ensure your portfolio can be flicked through in under a minute. People have really short attention spans Use tags. But only use relevant tags which describe key features of the work. Use your journal to give buyers a glimpse into your motivations, inspirations and learning. Don’t put anything negative in it (people can see it!) Remove negative or critiquing comments from under artworks- potential buyers can read them and you don’t want them to be put off Personalise your work by adding meaningful descriptions that tell your audience about how the work was created, what it was inspired by or the story behind it Think about and make a deliberate decision on how much to charge for your art
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Candid/Street photography - a few tips.
by Mark GermanToday I was asked by someone for a few tips on shooting street/candids. Many people like this genre, but it is not the easiest to perform…
Today I was asked by someone for a few tips on shooting street/candids. Many people like this genre, but it is not the easiest to perform successfully for many reasons, and often shots come out like – erm… snap shots. Since I took the time to write these brief pointers up for my friend, I thought I may as well share. Feel free to add, contest, debate, or send me lots of money. That last bit was a joke. Street/Candid / A few pointers: - A mid-zoom lens is ideal for candids. I use a 70-200mm on a crop body, and that would be fine for a full frame, also. If you do not have access to something in this range and/or can’t afford it, then concentrate on wider street scenes instead, and work within your equipment limitations. You do not need to have very expensive gear to do street. - 80% of people will be flattered you are taking their photo. Don’t try and hide it too much – and smile a lot. Walk up to people afterwards, and show them what you took (if digital). Without a long lens, you will more then likely be noticed most of the time. My rule is smile – and they smile back :) / (a hefty monopod can come in handy if things get out of hand) - 15% of people will not like their photo taken and either try and hide or cover their face or something. If you notice this – let them go – easy :) Respect people and their wishes. Many other opportunities around. - 5% of people are born assholes – or intensely dislike being photographed for their own private reasons. When you encounter this, just call out that you are deleting the image, and walk away. A few days ago, I was shooting a laughing session out in a city square. I laughed along with them. Someone asked me to join in, and I said that I was laughing on the inside ;) Then this guy rode up, and walked up to me. He asked me why I was shooting and I told him because it was a nice, fun thing to shoot. I asked him if he were going to join in and he said “no, not with a photographer around”. He said this as if I were a murderer. I said “easy fixed, mate. I promise not to take a photo of you”. And he walked off. Some people are just surly. NEVER hand your camera over to anyone. Even in the US, it is your right to take photos of anyone providing you are in a publicly owned area. This includes law-enforcement officers. Of course if they demand it, you must hand over your gear. But they are in the wrong, and it can usually be contested successfully. - A good way to take candids, is to visit fairs, fetes, etc – and face the crowd. Go to the side of the stage area and walk around, getting people used to you. Then start scanning the crowd through your lens. Make some jokes, take interest in the proceedings, become one with the crowd. Eventually people ignore you and you become a hunter/predator hahaha!!! / Look for emotions – listen to what is happening around you and time your shots to get the best emotive reactions. Position yourself so that light is to the left or right behind you, so that you can get reflections (catch lights) in the eyes. Always consider your backgrounds while shooting. Nothing worse then spending hours cloning out a light pole from behind someone’s head ;) / And frame your shots to allow for movement, as well as giving space to the direction someone is looking. - Wider street shots live and die by the ‘story’. This takes a little bit of keen observation and patience. A good system, is to position yourself in a people-traffic’ed (yes, I made that one up) location where you have visually composed an interesting scene. It may be a poignant billboard, or a large puddle in the street – maybe a pool of soft light spilling from an overhead lamp. And then wait like a spider :) A car will rush by as someone is walking, splashing them with muddy water – you time your shot to capture their indignation and water spray like an upturned umbrella. A mother and child walk through the lamplight, and as the mother moves back into darkness, the child, holding her hand, is illuminated. Your billboard espousing ‘have a happy day’ becomes a backdrop to a crying girl – or an arguing couple. Observe/setup/plan/wait/timing….a tripod is useful… Learn your camera so that settings are intrinsic. The less you need to think about technicalities, the more you can free your mind to focus on art. Hope that helps a little. Above all – try and relax and enjoy yourself. If you are uptight, it is contagious. If you smile, and interact with people, you will be automatically accepted.
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[HOW TO] Buttons and links to Sets in your Profile.
by Craig ShillingtonOkay … we have discussed how to set up Sets in your Profile, if you are not up to speed with doing that yet, I’d advise understanding a…
Okay … we have discussed how to set up Sets in your Profile, if you are not up to speed with doing that yet, I’d advise understanding and get that working first before attempting this next step. You can view that [HOW TO] HERE At the moment my Profile looks like THIS As you can see I have used the same type of button to try to keep my profile looking neat and tidy. First thing you will want to do is decide on what STYLE you want your profile to be, as the button choice will make all the difference. I liked mine because it sorta had a Red Button feel to it. You can either make your buttons online, the site I used was Button Generator , or you might want to have a go at making your own buttons (my buttons are about 135×25 pixels). Which ever you decide to do you will need somewhere online to upload your button to, that way when people view your profile the links to the buttons will work. I used my ISP’s storage space to store my buttons, you can also use free online storage spaces such as Image Shack to store them. Once you have this sorted out and the images uploaded, you are right to move onto the step of placing the images in your profile and linking those buttons to your Sets. We already know that we can link to text by placing quotes around the text and adding a colon and the link afterwards. That’s how we made the Sets and the links to them before. So we understand that putting a link directly after a colon links whatever is before that colon to that URL. Such as: ” link text ” : http://www.thelink.com The ” linktext ” part shows the text {linktext} as a link … and it links to the URL www.thelink.com because of the use of the colon. Of course when we put these links in our profiles, there are no spaces in the line at all … that way the whole thing works. When you understand how this works, you will see now that we can actually change the TEXT part for an image. In this case, instead of showing the sets as text links, we can change that for an image of a button. In Red Bubble, if you want to show ANY image all you need to do is know the link to the image and wrap that link in Exclamation marks. Easy eh. So to show a text link, you wrap the text in quotes … to show an image you wrap the image link in !’s. The MESSAGE ME button in my profile is stored at my ISP. The link is: http://home.people.net.au/ ~ casphotography/m.gif You can copy and paste that to the address bar in your browser (remove the spaces around the Tilde { ~ }) and press enter, it will open up the Message Me button in your browser window. What you then need to figure out is what the links to YOUR buttons are going to be. You can test if you have your links right by copying the links (like mine there) into your Browser Address bar and pressing enter. If the only thing you see in your browser window is your button (and it usually ends in jpg, gif or png) then THAT is the link to THAT button. All is working well :) :) To make the button visible in Red Button, all you need to do is wrap the LINK in !’s without any spaces at all so for my Message Me button it would look like this (again, without spaces): ! http://home.people.net.au/ ~ casphotography/m.gif ! You can play with that by editing your profile and going right to the bottom and putting the code in … then viewing the public version of your profile to make sure it works. Once you are happy with that, you can then move onto linking your sets to the buttons. :) Once again we know to link to stuff all we need to do is type a colon and the link we want to link to. :) As we have all already worked out how to do the TEXT versions of sets in our profiles, we are half way there already :) All we need to do now is replace the TEXT links we have with the BUTTON links. So really it is just a matter of removing the text parts and replacing those with the button codes. I will use my Trees Set as an example. As a text link it would look like this in my profile {again, no spaces} ” Trees ” : http://www.redbubble.com/people/crackers1967/art/everything/tags/tree If you have set the Text links up to your Sets in your Profiles you will already have lines like this there. What we want to do now is replace the TEXT link for Trees, with the button. So all we do is replace the ” Trees ” bit with the button photo. In my Profile it looks like this: ! http://home.people.net.au/~casphotography/RB/Profile/treesbutton.gif ! : http://www.redbubble.com/people/crackers1967/art/everything/tags/tree That is probably not showing as one whole single line, but when you put it in your profile it is … one single line of text without spaces. Then it will look like this: So, go edit that line you put in to show your button at the bottom of your profile before. Have the Button link wrapped in !’s … then a colon {:} then the link to your set. Save and preview your Public profile and click the button and make sure it works. If it does you can now add more buttons and links. :) If you want more than one button on a line (I have 2 per line) just do each button code with a space between them. so you will have code for 2 or 3 buttons all on one line with a space between the 1st and 2nd and a space between the 2nd and 3rd button codes. It will look strange in your Profile when you are editing it because the long lines will wrap back to the start, so it will look like they are broken, but as long as you have spaces where you are meant to, and no spaces where there aren’t meant to be, all should work. Again, practice at the bottom of your profile and keep checking it till it works, then when you have it working, move the text up in the About Me box till you have it placed where you want it. I have found that placing a line of space between each line helps too. Good Luck :) :) Just a warning on using MS Word or other programs for editing text. These programs have a funny way of formatting text and as such using them will make all the code not work. IF you are going to use such a program to edit text I would suggest using MS Notepad ….. or simply type out the code in RB and copy and paste and edit within your About Me Box View all my HOW TO’S
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Photographers - What are you paying for? (Part One)
by Jo O'Brien^Disclaimer: This is not legal advice or even professional advice. This is some stuff I’ve learned along this funny little thing called l…
Disclaimer: This is not legal advice or even professional advice. This is some stuff I’ve learned along this funny little thing called life and may not apply in any way to your current situation. At worst, it’s my opinion, at best it’s some ideas for you to think about. If you need real proper advice, go see your solicitor. I’m of the opinion that photography should make me money, not cost me money. So far, I have been successful is making more from a photograph than it took me to create. Here is my list of not so secret tips and advice on covering your arse and saving your cash. When To Pay There are times where spending your hard earned money is the right choice. For example to obtain goods or services you can not find for less (or free) elsewhere. Or when you have done all the maths yourself and you feel you are buying into a good deal. But there are also some pit falls to watch out for. Art Direction, Ideas and Intellectual Property My rule of thumb, if I am paying to shoot, I should have full rights to everything I take. No ifs buts or maybes about it. If you shoot a commercial, the art direction team put together a shoot and then hire a photographer to take photos of what they and the crew have created. They pay for lighting design, they pay the models, they pay the hair stylist, they pay the guy who makes the coffees- and they pay the photographer. Some businesses operate under a similar model but suck money out of photographers in the process. As part of a ‘workshop’ or ‘event’, several photographers rock up with their cameras and take photos of a scene. Often they have little or no control of the setup, can’t communicate properly with the models and will walk out of it with similar images to everyone else who attended! In the worst cases they have restricted rights regarding how they use their images. So is essence, they have paid for something that out in the real world, would be making them money. Sorry if it sounds confusing, the concept completely baffles me. When you are shooting someone else’s ideas and have restricted publishing rights or have little influence over the set up, posing, lighting or set design, (in my opinion) you should be getting paid by them. After all, you are doing them a favor by taking images of their creative work. Classes or Tuition Wanting to improve you skills and knowledge is a great thing. And there are numerous classes, mentors and workshops available for you to choose from. If you are going to pay to attend these, make sure you are getting what you pay for. Before you hand over any cash there are a few details that you should have to help make your decision. Class Size: The more people attending, the cheaper the class should be. If there is a practical component, I usually wont accept a class bigger than 10-12 / Location & Time: no point signing up for an ‘on location’ workshop only to find it is out of your way. Also as a safety issue, you should always be able to tell a trusted person exactly where and when you will be shooting. / The Teacher: You should be able to find and contact the person facilitating the class to verify their experience and ask questions. It not always convenient for a facilitator to take calls from a whole class, but you should be able to send them an email and get a reply without going through a middle man. / Contracts: Ask if you will need to sign any contracts and insist upon receiving them before paying. / What do you get: do you get class notes to take home? Exactly what does the course entail? What can you hope to know and have learned at the end of the course? Contracts These are a great way to waste your money. They also happen to be very important. First and foremost contracts exists to make people money or stop people from making money. So before signing anything, read it a few times and make sure you are aware of what your actions are costing you. If you need to get images approved before sale or publication, you could be agreeing to never publishing or selling any images taken if none are ‘approved.’ It is completely reasonable to request changes to a contract or write your own and offer it instead. Don’t sign away potential income! You should always be able to take a contract away and show it to other people for advice before signing it, and especially before paying for anything. If you are not given this opportunity, my advice is to avoid it with a ten foot pole. And then there are the bazillion poorly written contracts that mean very little or nothing at all. It’s actually quite funny to me sometimes, what people will put on paper. Useful Links Australian Competition & Consumer Commission / Scam Watch Photographers – What are you paying for (part 2).
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TIP: A very useful colour adjustment tip
by Alan RodmellI am currently working through my third CS3 tutorial and I picking up a ton of useful tips for my photographic workflow. I just HAD to s…
I am currently working through my third CS3 tutorial and I picking up a ton of useful tips for my photographic workflow. I just HAD to share this one with you. Regarding Hue/Saturation. When you overdo this on an adjustment layer in your photos your detail is lost and it looks really blocky. Sometimes you just can’t get the saturation adjustments you need. Here’s how its done – Thank you to Chris Orwig for this one. 1) Open you image and convert it to LAB colour using: Image – Mode – Lab Colour 2) Create a curves adjustment layer 3) In the Curves dialog box ALT-click the grid to get a more detailed display 4) Go to the a – channel 5) Pull the black slider on the bottom of the grid into the right just one grid line (in this example although you can play!) 6) Pull the white slider opposite into the left by the same one grid line 7) Switch to the b channel and repeat. 8) Check out your image. This method actually increases saturation in tones you couldn’t even see that you had. Its excellent for autumn leaves or rivers and waterfalls. 9) When your done exit Curves dialog and convert your image back to RGB (select to Flatten in the pop up prompt) 10) Your all done. This is by far the best tip I’ve discovered so far. I tried it out of interest on a shot from this afternoon and it brought out lovely greens in Autumn leaves and a lovely hazy blue on water and waterfalls. Try it – I think you will like it! :D
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A recent digital work on CS2. I love Rat Rod culture. This image was inspired by WWII aircraft and some work I’ve seen recently that develops USAF themes on Hot Rods.
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I wanted to share this tip with you....
by Alan RodmellNow I discovered a rather useful tip for up-sizing photos for poster printing. Up until a few months ago any photo scaling I did was…
Now I discovered a rather useful tip for up-sizing photos for poster printing. Up until a few months ago any photo scaling I did was left to be resampled by PS. This isn’t a good idea generally. Now when providing images for use on RB they ask for BIG files so I have been having to upscale some of my shots. Some of the seasoned pros may do this the way I will describe, others may not. I have found that doing it this way upscales your images massively without any obvious loss in quality. (Thats not to say that there is not any though) Open your image to be upscaled and open the Image size Dialog box from the Image menu in PS. Select “Percentage” in the document sizes drop down menus and enter the amount you wish to upscale – I usually use 200% Then enter 360 pixels/inch as your resolution. Check the RESAMPLE box and select the BICUBIC SHARPER option (Note this is recommended for down-sampling your images in PS – but just trust me) Click ok and your image is resampled. Take a good look at 100% zoom and be amazed at the quality. It really doesn’t lose much in the resampling. Let me know what you think people :D
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Ten Tips for the Absolute Photoshop CS2 Beginner
by The Gift of Art: Members of A Photographer's CraftSo you’ve finally installed your copy of Photoshop CS2, the one your friends have been raving about for months now and telling you how go…
So you’ve finally installed your copy of Photoshop CS2, the one your friends have been raving about for months now and telling you how good it is and how you won’t be able to live without it. Yet, once installed, you can’t make heads or tails out of it? The language seems so foreign and you have no idea just where to start. Here are 10 very basic tips on getting to know and love Photoshop CS2 – you’ll see that in no time, you’ll agree that your friends are right on this one – you won’t be able to live without it! Let’s begin: / 1. When you open up an image for the first time, make a copy of that image and give it a name. Then promptly close the original image so that you have a record of it. To do this, simply go to the “layers” panel, right click on the background image and then select “duplicate layer” and select “new” in the destination bar. It’s good practise to do this each and every time, so that you maintain a record of the images in their original format, to those that have been edited. 2. Digital cameras use their sensors to see the images we see with our eyes. Sometimes images captured with our cameras aren’t as we remember them. That’s because no matter how sensitive the sensor, they’re still no match for our own eyes. To try and replicate the image we saw with our own eye, we need to tweak the levels, the contrast and the colour. When you’re just starting out, simply select “image” from the toolbar, go to “adjustments”, then select auto levels, auto contrast, and auto colour. You can always undo these steps in the history panel. And when you get more comfortable with PS, you’ll be able to tweak the levels, contrast and colour yourself from that same “adjustment” menu. 3. Is the photo still lacking that little something? Perhaps you need to apply “curves” to it. No, it won’t warp it into something unrecognisable (unless you want it to…) curves will simply help with the tonal range of your image. If your image is lacking contrast, it could be that the curve is a little flat. To remedy this go to “image” in the drop down menu, select “adjustment” then “curves”, a graph will display and you will want to make that line follow an “S” shape. As you’re tweaking it, watch the changes on your image, then simply select ok when you’re done. / 4. Now, speaking of warping images. You’ve taken that perfect shot of that sunset. Compositionally it’s perfect, the colours to die for, but your horizon is crooked. Do you delete the image? No, of course not! Do you live with the image as is? No, of course not! To correct something like a crooked horizon line, go to “Select” in the toolbar, select ‘all” – you should have marching ants surrounding your image (hoorah!), go to “edit” in the toolbar and select “transform” from the menu. Now you have a selection of different methods of transforming your image – and it will depend what you want to do with it as to which method you choose. For this example, let’s select “skew”, then use your cursor to straighten up that horizon. When you’re done, just hit enter, the computer will have a think and you’re done. 5. If you’re still not sure whether that horizon is straight or you simply want to see if you’re following the “rule of thirds”, then go to “view” in your toolbar, select “show” then “grid” – these gridlines will tell you just how straight the lines in your image really are. / / 6. Get to know and love “Layers”. That is the one big mystery that catches beginners in PS time and time again. I’m sure volumes can be written about Layers alone, as they are crucial in turning an ordinary image into a WOW image. Layers means that you can divide your creation into different parts by assigning these parts to different layers. Different “layer effects” can be applied that can enhance your image, and you can blend more than one image together to create a totally new image – this is all possible by using layers. If I have an image of a flower and the background isn’t especially pleasing, then I can create a layer, position this above the flower image, select a brush and colour of my choice and begin to paint on that new blank layer. You haven’t destroyed the flower image, and any excess painting can simply be erased. Which brings me to the next point, 7. Make “Layer Masks” your next best friend to using layers. Using the analogy of painting a more interesting background for your flowers, there is an icon in your layers palette – the circle in a square, select that icon and you will see it will appear on the layer you had active. Making sure that the mask is the active of the two images on that layer, now select the “eraser” tool and make sure that the colour selection in your toolbox is set to black and white. White will erase what you have painted, and the black will add the paint back again. What this means, is that you won’t lose the image as it stands. There is nothing worse than making changes, finding you don’t like them, then finding you have to start all over again as the history panel has only gone back so far. Using layers and layer masks will help save a lot of time and effort, as what they do is act as a record for each editing change you make on your image. 8. Again discussing layers, don’t be afraid to select a choice other than “normal” when applying layers. One effect that is popular and creates a dreamy, diffused effect to your image, is the “Orton Effect”. To do this, you will need to duplicate your background image. Now with your duplicate, go to your “filters” toolbar and select “blur” then “Gaussian blur”, depending on your image and the effect, choose any number of pixels here. The greater the pixels, the more diffused and exaggerated the effect. Select ok, then go to the layers panel, select “multiply” and you now have a soft, dreamy, moody image. Selecting other effects such as overlay, soft light, hard light and so on will yield you different results, so have a play with the effects. You can always tone it down by moving the slider from 100% opacity to a lower amount. 9. Could your images use a little more sharpness to them? There are several ways of sharpening your image, but for me the easiest and most effective is the “High Pass” method. Begin with your background image, then duplicate. Go to the “filters” toolbar and select “other” from the drop down menu, then select “high pass”. Here is where you don’t want to overdo it. Only select between 1 and 2 pixels for a realistic look. The image shown should be quite grey with only the sharpest areas highlighted. Select ok, then in the layers palette, select “overlay” and your image is now sharper and crisper. If you still want to retain some areas that aren’t as crisp, simply apply a layer mask and erase the part of the high pass image you don’t want (remember to make sure you’re erasing the mask, and not the image). 10. Lastly, don’t be afraid to explore and play with his wonderful program – it has so much to offer, that these 10 basic steps really don’t even do it justice, but they’re a way to slowly introduce you to the joys of Photoshop. Keep a pen and notebook beside you so that you can record your steps and discoveries – there’s nothing worse than trying to remember exactly what you did last time. / Most importantly, have fun, enjoy and create!
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Car design by Guntram Bechtold, picture shot at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.
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Casual Portraits - a few tips (beginners/intermediate)
by Mark GermanI was recently asked for some advice regarding shooting portraits. Since it winded up being rather lengthy I thought I’d share, for those…
I was recently asked for some advice regarding shooting portraits. Since it winded up being rather lengthy I thought I’d share, for those that are interested – or would like to discuss it. / / Let me make it plain – I am not a professional portrait photographer and these points are more for casual portraits without the use of studios / backdrops / professional lighting equipment. / / Composition is extremely important when shooting portraits. It is essential to get the right framing and perspective happening, to display the person to the best that you can. That doesn’t mean they have to look beautiful – I am speaking technically. / / Perspective – / In general, there are three levels of plane that you can shoot from. Above, below, and straight on. They each produce a different effect to the viewer, and also depict the subject in a different aspect. From above – lends vulnerability. Can also impart a ‘questioning or questing’ mood. Emphasizes the cheek bones and eyes, which when looking at the camera, are wide open with pupils at the top. / / From below – imparts dominance. Gives greater power and impact to the face, while reducing the cheek bone lines. Emphasizes the bones around the eyes and chin and gives strength. Generally a more square look. / / Straight-on – An ‘honest’ portrait. ‘As-is’ feel. Great for illustrative/documentary shots, or when you want someone to look as natural as possible for a particular reason – for example, as part of a written piece about the character of a person. Also gives a simplified feeling, that can be great for humorous shots or anything that has an associated story other then the portrait itself. / / Of course, throw in angles, and you have a virtually unlimited range of choices to work within. / / Lighting - / _ / / As with perspective, different lighting gives a different feel and meaning to a portrait. Play around with side lighting, curtained windows, lampshades, off-shoe flashes, bounced and reflected light. Two semi-diffused hard lights from either side of a face with a soft central fill adds drama. Harsh light on one side with none on the other adds mystery. Soft all around diffused light looks glamorous (something people try and achieve by blurring their image – silly, really). / / Depending on the background, try and find a bit of back lighting. It brings out clarity in the hair and edges of the subject, delineating them. This is sometimes called ‘separation, and is used in videography also. / / Eyes are the shiniest thing on the human body. They are little mirrors. If you shoot a subject with their back to a window, you will have little to no light in the eyes. If they are facing a light source, you will get nice little _catch-lights that give life to the eyes. You can alter how these look by changing the angle of the subject’s head, moving your light source, or changing what the light source is. Or – you can play around with Photoshop, and not learn anything photographically ;) / / Composition - / The old rule is a strong and valid one. Give more room to the direction of the gaze. Not doing this asks more of a question, and needs to be substantiated in the subject’s attitude and/or expression to work well. Why are they looking off-frame? What’s out there? etc… / / Try not to amputate too many features – like ears. If you must, choose the frame line carefully. There are natural frames within frames – try a few crops/compositions and feel what works best. Personally, I try and spend a little time thinking about the subject, the environment – watching, trying to find the best angles to bring out the nature and character of the person. / / Group portraits - / Generally speaking, a good group portrait composition is one where the subjects’ faces are at different levels. Try it and see. Line ‘em all up – looks like a snap shot. Position the ‘family/group’ at different levels – voila! 100% improvement. / / If photographing a child, expect your best shots to be candids. Children have a short attention span and while you can amuse them for a while with sparky things and little jokes – I find the best shots wind up being those while the child is unaware. Burst mode helps a lot here, just as it does with pets ;) / / Choose a depth of field that either isolates a feature entirely, or brings the entire subject into focus. Don’t wing it. Winging it relies on luck. The more prepared and skilled you get – the luckier you get ;) There are DoF calculators around online if you search. Figure out what works well for a certain distance. / / Editing - / Ok, so you have discovered Photoshop, Gimp, PaintShop Pro – or whatever. I find there is an initial learning curve where everyone tries their hand at manipulation – from plastic skins, to glaring alien eyes, selective colouring, and so on. This may sound a little arrogant, but – leave your portraits as natural as you can. You do not do any favours to the subject by making them look inhuman. Seriously. My personal philosophy is, I edit anything that is transient. By this, I mean, a pimple /zit / love-bite/ wayward hair in the eye/etc. But I leave anything that is intrinsic to the subject – scars, eye colour, and yes, even double chins (and ladies – we all have them). If you position your subject (and choose your light and angles right) you will not need to do extensive editing. Saves a lot of time, faithfully portrays the subject and gives you a finer work. / / Any magazine portrait you see (unless it is one of those horrible before shots) has been manipulated for what the market now expects. Perfection. Perfection is not beauty. Perfection is unreal. There is no perfection. Repeat that. There is NO perfection. I do a lot of portraits. I see peoples’ skins magnified a hundred times very often. Our skins are not plastic. They are dynamic, breathing, living organs. I could carry on with this subject forever, but I hope this helps some.
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[HOWTO] Want to be recognized .......
by Craig ShillingtonI just thought I would sit down and write out a few of the things I do that make my experience in Red Bubble a lot more enjoyable. I’m pu…
I just thought I would sit down and write out a few of the things I do that make my experience in Red Bubble a lot more enjoyable. I’m putting these ideas down in a form of tips, please don’t take these as Gospel!! These are the things I do that I find helps my work get recognized. Things will be different for each of us and we all find our own place. With that said, a lot of these tips will be placing emphasis on recognition. If you wanna be noticed within the Bubble, you have to know what the best way to do that is. Hopefully you can take a little something with you from this that helps you out too :) Oh and just a sub note … I am a photographer, so a lot of my experience is with getting my works seen. Hopefully I don’t place too much emphasis on JUST that side and anyone else can apply some of these tips to whatever creative works you do :) If you can think of any more tips you use … or you are a better writer than I am (THAT MEANS MOST OF YOU!!! LOL) feel free to ADD to this and post it in your own Journal!! PLEASE!! :) Just link back to this original :) Part One – Uploading Choose what you upload carefully It’s soooooo easy to have a group of wonderful works you want to upload and share with everyone that you upload work after work after work. My advice … don’t do it. Why? Because your work will pass so quickly through other people’s Activity Monitor that by the time they look at it again, they probably would have missed a lot of them anyway. Another reason is that if you do this on a regular basis … you may actually stop a lot of people from seeing other works on their AM and so, they may even unadd you as a contact for that very reason. Assume most people are only going to have the time to comment on ONE of your uploaded works. We all have a lot of contacts in RB and like to keep up, so doing the rounds is a Quick way of visiting. It isn’t an indication of our work … it’s a matter of time restraints. Think about what you are going to upload. Have a small list of choices and pick the better 3 or 4 of them. If you have 12 really cool works you want to upload … split the uploads into Days of 4 each … or Half Days of 3 each. And always upload what you consider to be the BEST in these Groups ….... LAST. There are two main reasons for this. Usually the last thing you upload is going to be the FIRST thing others see of you. The other reason has to do with timing which I will touch on now. Choose when you upload Timing when you upload your work has such a significance on the reaction and response to it. Think about it … you are up late … it’s 3am and you just finished working on something and are so excited. So you uploaded it to the Bubble and wait. And wait and wait and wait. Hmmmmmmm. No one is there!!!! Maybe in the morning when people start getting up and load up bubble, the first few might see it … IF they get that in their AM’s. For the most part as people start getting up and posting stuff … suddenly yours starts disappearing off their AM’s and even off the Recent page on the Gallery Page. The best time to upload is when your work is going to be see by the Maximum amount of people. I find the best time for this is in the morning (Before work) or in the evening (After Dinner). It’s most likely at this time you will receive spontaneous responses. And as a last point with timing …. again … upload the 3 or 4 you have picked … timing it so that the LAST and BEST is uploaded at the time that it is going to receive maximum exposure. If you like to see your photos on the Popular pages … try to follow these tips but upload in the morning. The more views, comments and favs you get .. .the higher up the pop. lists your work is going to move .. especially in Today’s most popular list. View all my HOW TO’S
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How you too can be Gay
by Robert KnapmanNSFW
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The movie starts production / The lights are set, The sound is on / The actresses ready to pose * / This image is a continuation of the Tip photo shoot. Thankyou to my 2 models, Jo and Jessica / and to Wen and Chris for watching me dance round like a monkey while taking these shots as well as lighting the night up extremely well. Back Alley Atelier
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Tip
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Sugar Plums / by Karin Taylor / Digital Art Photoshop Sugar Plum on tippy toes / round n round n round she goes / / / / / / Sugar Plums TShirt / Sugar Plums available in baby onesies at Zazzle Gallery
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Sugar Plum on Tippy Toes / by Karin Taylor / created in Photoshop Sugar Plum on tippy toes / round n round n round she goes / / / / / Sugar Plum on Tippy Toes TShirt / Sugar Plum on Tippy Toes available as a baby’s onesie at Zazzle Gallery
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Fork macro using Canon 100mm
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Title: Tip / Artist: Michael Alesich / Medium: Signed Photographic Print / Technical Help: Wen Lim, Chris White / Model: Jo O’brien Jessica Tremp Description: / Don’t mess with a girl / you never know / she might just push back Thankyou to my 2 models, Jo and Jessica / and to Wen and Chris for watching me dance round like a monkey while taking these shots as well as lighting the night up extremely well. Back Alley Atelier
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Sugar Plum on Tippy Toes / by Karin Taylor / created in Photoshop Sugar Plum on tippy toes / round n round n round she goes / Sugar Plum on Tippy Toes available as a baby’s onesie at Zazzle Gallery / / /
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Red Bubble Tip #1: Adding a Portfolio Banner to Your Red Bubble Profile Page
by bchrisdesignsI am not sure if someone else has already posted a tutorial on this, so I thought I would have a go at it. I read “this (How to add a Po…
I am not sure if someone else has already posted a tutorial on this, so I thought I would have a go at it. I read this very insightful tutorial by admin Xavier Shay about posting a Portfolio into an email signature. I was toying around with the code, and discovered how to place the code on your Red Bubble profile page. I have noticed that some people have already figured out how to do this, so there are some who probably already know about this. I, however, did not know this until I toyed around with it and, so, I am sure that there others out there who might find this of value. I would first recommend that you read Xavier’s post and the comments that follow, as they were a very big help in learning how to do this. (1) The first step is to use the image location link that was provided in the forum tutorial: http://redbubble.com/people/username/recipe:banner;back_color:ffffff;orientation:horizontal;limit:4/username_banner.jpg (2) Next, paste this image location link somewhere in your “About Me” section between exclamation points, like this: !place the image location link here! (3) Now, notice the bold areas of the above link. You must insert your Red Bubble username (not your real name) where it says username (there are two spots in the link where you have to do this). So, my link would like like this: http://redbubble.com/people/bchrisdesigns/recipe:banner;back_color:ffffff;limit:4_;orientation:_horizontal;/bchrsidesigns_banner.jpg Can you tell where I have replaced “username” with “bchrisdesigns”? (4) Finally, if you take note of the italicized text in the image location link directly above, you will notice that the values of “back_color”, “orientation”, and “limit” are all italicized. These values are yours to control and manipulate to get the proper look and feel that you would like on your page. back_color: is the image’s background color, which you can change to any color using the standard HTML Color Code. Note, that you do not need to use the # (pound sign) that normally precedes HTML Color Code (i.e. ”#ffffff”) – you just need the code (i.e. “fffffff”). #ffffff is the color code for “white”. limit: is the number of thumbnails that will be seen in your banner. I have experimented with this in my blog and have discovered that the most you can set it to is “6”. On your Red Bubble profile page, the most you can really set it to is “4” for horizontal images and “6” for vertical images orientation: is the way your portfolio will be seen. This can be changed to either “horizontal” (from side-to-side) or “vertical” (up and down). And, that is it. Once you have decided how you want your image to look, just save your profile and presto! You’ve got a nifty banner on your page. BUT… If you would like your banner to be click-able, you need to add a link code to it, such as: ”! image location here ! ( link description here )” : hyperlink here You can copy and paste this example into your “About Me” section and then fill in the blanks with your information (make sure you delete any and all spaces). In the above example, replace the underlined text as follows: image location here: replace this text with the finalized image location link that we worked on in steps 1-4 above. link description here: replace this text with a description of what you would like people to see when they hover over your banner. (Mine says “View My Red Bubble Gallery”.) hyperlink here: replace this text with the actual hyperlink that you would like your image to link to (i.e. a specific Red Bubble section or your profile page; you can also link to your blog/website/etc.). Once you replace the text as indicated, simply save your edited profile and check out your radical awesomeness! Here is an example of mine (with hyperlink): I hope this helps everyone! Cheers! P.S. I am adding this to all of my groups in the hopes that everyone can use this tool to display their beautiful works of art (from Atmospheric Optics to Zoophoria). Much love!
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