Category Archives: Image Enhancement
How to Create a Multicolored Watermark
A while ago two readers asked me to write a tutorial on how to create a watermark. I wrote the first one here; it shows how to create a brush that can be applied as a single color watermark. But how do you create a multicolored watermark?
The advantage of using a brush as a watermark is its consistency and flexibility. With a brush, you will always have the same watermark in different sizes and colors.
A single color watermark.
Now, the second watermark I used had multiple colors and that’s the one they liked the best. This watermark is not a brush, it is actually a picture. To create a watermark with multiple colors you need to create it as a PNG image. Continue reading
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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La Bella Donna in Venezia
Do you ever stumble upon your older photo or photos and get an urge to work them all over again? That’s what happened to me a few days ago. I was sorting my 2011 photos and I came across maternity photos I took at the island of Burano, Italy. Not only I instantly had to go and make myself a cappuccino but I also had to retouch a few photos.
At the time I took these photos both of us, the expecting mom and I, lived in Italy. Probably because we lived in Italy, I did not feel like I needed to make photos more Italian. I loved the natural vivid color that Burano is famous for and I left it at that. However, I feel differently today. I kept looking at this photo and although it is clear to me that this one was taken in Italy, I kept wondering if there is a way to make it sooo Italian.
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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How to Add a Brush Watermark to Your Images and Why?
Many of us like to add watermark to our images and there are many reasons why we do that. Here’s a few reasons why people like to watermark their photos:
- to protect them online from other people claiming them as their own
- to make them unusable for commercial or personal use without the author’s permission
- to tell people you have the copyright
- to give prospective clients information about the photographer so that they can look up for more of your work
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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Enhancing Images Using Topaz Lab Filters + Giveaway
Just like many of you, I too have lots of images that I am not very happy with. I no longer take a lot of photos simply because I prefer to enjoy time with family and friends rather than focusing on taking pictures. Actually, most of the time I don’t even carry a camera with me. So, as a result of taking very few photos for myself to remind me of places I have visited, and taking average snapshots that do not require a lot of time, I haven’t shared them with you. Most of them were taken with a 55-200mm or even 300mm zoom lens from a distance during not-so-perfect weather conditions, and captured in a lot of haze and fog. Most of these photos were never intended to share so therefore, I never took the time to edit them. Well, I never edited or shared them until now and I am showing them now because I discovered the power of Topaz Lab filters! You have already seen how brilliant Topaz filters are on images I like here and here and now let’s see what it does to average snapshots!
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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Focusing for Macro Images in Photoshop
I really liked Lisa Gordon’s tip on selective focusing when shooting macro images that she shared with us in Photography Advice Worth Remembering. Her tip on minimum distance is brilliant and gives that “true macro” look to her images. I guess I was subconsciously thinking about it ever since I first read the tip because this morning, as I was waiting at the traffic light thinking of nothing else but Starbucks, it dawned on me – you could do that in Photoshop! …and naturally I decided to share my idea with you. This tips also includes a tiny tutorial on working with layers and masking.
Of course, getting this look in camera is always a better idea. However, if you do not have a macro lens or if you have a few older photos that you’d like to edit in this manner, here’s how you could do it in Photoshop: Continue reading
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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How to Cut Text Out of an Image?
Last week I got an e-mail from Sarah asking me how I created the small icon (on the right) I use to mark posts by guest bloggers. What she wanted to know is how I wrote “Guest Post” using a pattern as she would like to create something similar for her scrapbook. She would like to cut text out of an image to use it for headlines and titles. I promised to write a post about it and here it is. Although this may look difficult to create, it is actually pretty simple if you have Adobe Photoshop. All you have to do is to use the Type Mask Tool.
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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A Super Simple Way to Fix Exposure Issues in Photoshop
A while ago I wrote about exposure issues when photographing both the sky and ground. I am sure that you know that unlike our eye, a camera cannot expose for both the sky and ground. The sky is usually a lot brighter than the ground so if you set the exposure for the sky, the ground will be underexposed. And if you expose for the ground, the sky will be overexposed. I discussed a way to overcome those difficulties in How to Take a Photo of the Sun. You probably wonder what that post has to do with food photography? Well, I came across a similar photography condition this week as I was taking a photo of 4th of July cupcakes: the chocolate cupcakes base was quite dark while the icing on top was very bright. So, do I expose for the bottom or the top? I decided to expose for the bottom to have the chocolate part right… But how did I get correct exposure of the white icing too? The answer follows…
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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What Are Photoshop Actions And How Do You Use Them?
I use Photoshop actions a lot; when I talk to someone about Photoshop, I usually mention them a few times. And than… I get unavoidable question: what are Photoshop actions and how do you use them? Do you have to pay to use them?
So, here’s the answer for all of you who wonder the same thing…
First of all – is it free? It can be free. You could either create your own actions or download the free ones. However, many people have made a business out of creating and selling Photoshop actions so those would not be free, you would have to buy them.
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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Food Photography: Have You Found Your Style Yet?
My dear blog friends, I hope you are all well, happy, and ready for another Food Photography Challenge AKA Weekly Photo Stew. I know I’ve been a pretty sloppy blogger lately and I wish I could change that but unfortunately I cannot. My overseas move caused all kinds of delays and bureaucracy drama that’s still going on. So, please excuse me for not being the best blogger ever. : )
Even though I don’t feel like taking photos these days, I still strive to pick up my camera at least once a week and this is what I came up with this week: a couple of tightly framed shots.
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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How To Save Photos for Web
PNG saved for Web
Hello! I don’t have any food photography today mainly because I spent a lot of time on the road during the past two weeks. However, that does not have to stop you from showing off your food photography.
Still, I will share a photo tip with you that you could apply in your photography work flow if you use Adobe Photoshop to edit and save your photos. This tip is so simple and yet so effective that you won’t believe it.
You know that in order for the color to look same on different monitors you need to calibrate each monitor. Now, if you know that, you know that your blog readers and friends on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, probably do not see your photos the way you see them. In order for everyone to see the photo accurately, everyone would have to calibrate their monitors and that will never happen. So, what can you do to improve the chances of other people seeing your photo (more) accurately? There is something you can do using Adobe Photoshop.
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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A Smart Way To Edit Your Photos
Welcome back to Food Photography (weekly) Challenge! You can read here why I did not hosted this challenge for the past few weeks. You all know that I am an avid Adobe Photoshop user. That’s the software I have used for the last ten years and I guess I am too comfortable using it to try to learn something new. However, I recently discovered software that is really easy to use and offers great diversity when it comes to artistic editing. It’s called Smart Photo Editor.
I used a trial version for a bit to explore its possibilities and I wrote about it in A Smart Way to Edit Photos: Smart Photo Editor. After that post I got an opportunity to try the full version and I loved it! Of course, I still use Adobe Photoshop but what Smart Photo Editor offers is the creativity! Its artistic possibilities are impressive. As I said in A Smart Way to Edit Photos: Smart Photo Editor, if you love using Photoshop and Lightroom actions, you will love using Smart Photo Editor because it comes preloaded with many (free!) presets.
I played with Smart Photo Editor features using this small cake photo below.
Linking up to The presets are definitely my favorite Smart Photo Editor feature but the software offers more than just great presets. Once you open your photo in the Effects Gallery, you can select one of the presets (97 pages of presets!) that will be applied to your image (thumbnails). As you can see on the right side, you can also browse the preset menu on the left. Smart Photo Editor offers you to browse Artistic or Realistic presents and then it groups effects by Light, Color, Detail, Artist, Style, Borders, and even Mood.
Smart Photo Editor
The software allows you a complete control over each effect.
Not only you have a complete control over all effects (presets), you can also use layering mask options in Smart Photo Editor just as you can in Adobe Photoshop – just in a more user-friendly way.
A great thing about Smart Photo Editor is that it keeps all your steps clearly visible at the top of the screen; that way you can track your progress and cut each step if you decide you don’t want to use a specific effect.
Cropping the photo or creating a border or photo collage is another easy task when using Smart Photo Editor. It’s just a great everyday tool not only for photographers but for bloggers too!
Tell me – isn’t this little photo editing software really smart? I think it is and I love using it! It’s so much fun!
It’s Giveaway Time!
Now
really great news!!! I love using Smart Photo Editor and I was thrilled to hear that Anthropics Technology Ltd, the company behind Smart Photo Editor is so generous to sponsor a giveaway and gift one copy of this great photo editing software to one of my readers! How awesome is that?
In order to be eligible to win this prize, you need to do three things:
1. Blog or Share info about this giveaway.
If you are a blogger, blog about this giveaway and leave a link to your post in the comment under this post.
If you are a Twitter/ Facebook user, share this post on Twitter or Facebook using social media icons below this post. Live a link to your status in the comment under this post.
(links are located below)
2. Go to Smart Photo Editor Facebook page and like it.
We want to tell Smart Photo Editor that we do love their products, right?
3. Come back here and leave two comments stating that you complied with number 1 and 2.
I will allow two comments: one for the link to your post/ share where you mentioned this giveaway and the second comment for letting me know you liked Smart Photo Editor’s Facebook page.
However, even if you wish to leave only one comment, you still need to follow both number 1 and 2 – meaning you need to blog/ Tweet/ or Facebook about the giveaway AND like Smart Photo Editor’s Facebook page to be eligible for this prize.
I will select a random winner next Thursday (May 24th, 2012).
Good luck everyone!
It’s Time to Join Food Photography Challenge!
Please, feel welcome to link your food and beverages shots to Food Photography. The rules are simple:
1. Make your photograph about food or beverages.
2. Tell us about that photograph: share a photo tip, recipe, or a story behind it.
3. Submit the URL to your food photo post or a specific Flickr image, NOT your home page or album URL.
4. Please, include a link back to my blog in your post or Flickr image description. You can grab the button below or use a text link. Note: Linked photos without the backlink will be removed.
5. Visit bloggers on your left and your right and leave some comment love.
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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Food Photography: Coffee Splash
A year ago I wrote about Andric, a commercial photographer who creates pure art. However, that post for some reason has not been imported from my old blog at www.miracrisp.com to this one. For those of you who are not familiar with Andric’s work, I will tell you that he’s a photography genius.
What is so special about Andric? Andric applies his rigorous aesthetic to everything he shoots. I read the interview he gave some time ago and here are my favorite parts. Andric says: “Everything in the shot is a choice. If there’s a lamppost on location and I do not remove it, it’s almost as if I put it there on purpose.” A master of both still life and location imagery, Andric has a long list of clients including AT&T, Panasonic, Palm and Corona. His range from studio product shots to surreal location imagery is impressive. He shot below image for IGA, a Canadian supermarket chain.
The clear blender was the key to communicating his client’s mantra: “Disregard the packaging, look at the content,” as Andric puts it. The image was highly visible, plastered across not just magazine spreads and in-store displays but also on billboards and even the sides of delivery trucks. The crew’s session took all day. The blender was adjusted, the engine dismantled, the blades adjusted and placed in a clear acrylic cylinder. Andric attached some vertical phone cord to spread the splatter. Wanting to make it look less like a standard still life shot, he selected a wide-angle lens to give the image a different feel from the standard product shots done using more telephoto lenses.
Copyright Andric
Andric has a unique talent for bending the limits of reality in a subtle yet convincing way. In one image a woman effortlessly kayaks through rolling hills covered in tall grass; it seems believable until one realizes…kayaks don’t move so easily on land.
Copyright Andric
In another image, a young woman pulls a giant white bag of balloons, simultaneously seeming both weightless and massive, through a bizarre underground structure.
Copyright Andric
Andric says there are many things on location that are not fully predictable. When you look for a location for a shoot, you are trying to find a location that is a perfect theatre for what you are trying to put there. But also a place that has some elements of randomness that will make it feel real. If you shoot on location you are going to find things that are going to surprise yourself in the first place, since when you’re photographing in the studio, you start from blank canvas. I find it endlessly stimulating to find a place that’s totally unexpected because reality is always very unexpected. That’s the best thing about shooting on location. Now, the difficulty is that on a bad day or in the wrong light, the place can look completely different from what you expected. Read the rest of the interview here.
Copyright Andric
More info on Andric’s work:
http://altpick.com/andric
http://www.andric.biz/#/folio
http://www.designtaxi.com/export-portfolio.php?username=andric
Andric photographs captured my attention and ever since I wrote about his work I wanted to try to do something similar with food. His yogurt shot was an inspiration for my coffee splash:
- Coffee Splash
One would think it’s hard to get this kind of a shot but that’s not true. There are only a few things you need to do and you can get this shot in an hour.
Here’s what my workflow looked like:
1. I set the spot near the window to take this shot. I set up the reflector and two lamps – read my guest post at The Hollie Rogue Simple Ways to Improve Indoor Lighting if you would like to learn more about light bulbs and other small on-budget-accessories that can help you improve the indoor light. I also used tripod. I don’t think you can get this sort of a shot without tripod. If you get one without it, I would love to hear about it.
2. I used a glass of water to set the camera settings and to test the shot. Why water? Because it’s easier to clean water that splashes around than coffee.
3. Once I had camera settings right, I placed brownies and an empty cup the way I wanted them in the final shot. I took a picture.
4. I moved away the entire set and left only the coffee cup in the spot. I poured coffee and then I used a hard candy to throw it into the cup to get the splash. Remember, in step 2 I practiced this with a cup of water and I had camera settings ready, so I knew exactly when to drop the candy into the cup and when to trigger the camera to capture the splash. Hint: set your camera to continuous shooting. Why would you want to work only with a cup of coffee and not the entire set? Because whatever goes up, must come down!
5. Now you have your set shot (step #3) and your splash shot (step #4). What you have to do now is to go into Adobe Photoshop and merge these two images. It does not take too long to merge the splash shot with the background one. I showed here, here, and here how to merge two images into one using layers and masks.
That’s it!
Linking up to
This and That @ DebDuty.Com
Now, I would love to see your food shots!
Please, feel welcome to link your food and beverages shots to Food Photography. The rules are simple:
1. Make your photograph about food or beverages.
2. Tell us about that photograph: share a photo tip, recipe, or a story behind it.
3. Submit the URL to your food photo post or a specific Flickr image, NOT your home page or album URL.
4. Please, include a link back to my blog in your post or Flickr image description. You can grab the button below or use a text link. Note: Linked photos without the backlink will be removed.
5. Visit bloggers on your left and your right and leave some comment love.
Finally, make sure to stop by tomorrow (Friday, 3/30.2012) for a beautiful March giveaway!
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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It’s here: Adobe Photoshop Touch!
If you love Adobe Photoshop and you are in love with Apple products too, you will love this: Adobe released the Photoshop Touch for iPad 2 (works with Android devices also). You can download it from the App Store for $9.99 and you can read more about it right here!
Make sure you visit Photoshop Touch website too:
According to Adobe, “Photoshop Touch gives users the ability to combine multiple photos into layered images, make essential edits and apply professional effects to create beautiful artwork, touch up photos, paint, lay out ideas and much more. The Scribble Selection Tool allows users to easily extract objects in an image by simply scribbling on what to keep, and then what to remove. With Refine Edge technology from Photoshop, even hard-to-select areas with soft edges are easily captured when making selections. Photoshop Touch helps users quickly find images and share creations through integration with Facebook and Google Image Search.”
Of course, as Photoshop Touch was announced a while ago, other photo editing companies worked on their tablet editors so we also got Laminar a couple of days ago. You can read more about that tablet editor here or download it from the App Store for only 66 cents (66% discount). A few days ago I wrote A Smart Way to Edit Photos: Smart Photo Editor, sort of review post, if case you are interested in an affordable desktop photo editor.
Anyway, did you notice this is my first post without images? Crazy, I know. 
Have a great Monday everyone!
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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A Smart Way to Edit Photos: Smart Photo Editor
Do you love editing your photos and playing with different looks but you think Adobe Photoshop is too complicated to use, Lightroom is too expensive, and all other free online software are too boring? Well, there’s something for you out there that’s not complicated at all and not expensive as Lighroom. Also, not everyone is using it. The other day I came across an unknown (to me) photo editor online that offers great diversity. It’s called Smart Photo Editor and it has tons of presets! When I say tons, I mean 1113 presets (and growing) that are also adjustable individually.
I played a bit with it and I will show you some of the presets I liked. Since I used trial, I wasn’t able to save edited photos so I only have screenshots to share with you. No, I haven’t checked out every single preset but you can if you’d like. The software is really easy to use; it is idiot-proofed as one of my professors used to say. The current price is around 18 Euros ($25) so that’s really not that bad. Most Adobe Photoshop or Lighroom actions cost more than that.
It’s Presidents Day today so we had a three-day weekend and my husband and I used it for a getaway to the west coast; Italian of course. We visited a few places in regions of Liguria and Tuscany and that’s why I will use a photo of Cinque Terre to show you how easy it is to use the Smart Photo Editor.
Preset pages are listed as thumbnails at the top of screen, on the right side in the Effect Gallery and in a sort of theme-grouped effect menu on the left. Each effect (preset) also allows you to change values (controls) to get the exact effect you want.
Neat thing about this software is that it shows you the preset name as well as the author. You can click on the link to get more info about both.
You can edit the entire photo or select a part of it to edit it by using selection tools.
When selecting an area to work on, there a few preset selection tools to help you…
Now, here are some of the effects/ presets I like…
Have you used Smart Photo Edit? If yes, do you like it?
P.S. Apparently, this post was published while I was still working on it. WordPress published the draft. I apologize to all of my e-mail subscribers who received unfinished version of this post.
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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A Plan to Enhance Your Images Using Photoshop Actions
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- Use the Quick Select tool to select her leg (it’ll be on the left side of your screen)
- Then click (on your keyboard) CTRL+J to move her leg into its own layer.
- Make a copy of the background layer (your bottom layer) and drag it above the leg layer.
- Group your layers by clicking CTRL+G.
- On the top layer, click CTRL+T (transform) and pull the right side of your photo with your mouse to the left side. This will create a mirror image…just use your arrow keys to push it back into place (to fit in line with the rest of the photo). This might be the trickiest step, but practice and it should come together.
- Click CTRL+SHIFT+E to merge the layers.
- Finally, create a new layer (CTRL+J will also make a copy of any layer) to heal the line from the merge using the Healing Tool which looks like a band-aid (again – left tool bar on your screen).
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Beyond the leg removal (in case you’re interested – my workflow has changed since this edit, but it’s worth noting)…
- I used Coffeeshop’s Baby Powder Room Photoshop action in low opacities to even out his skin tone, lighten the shadows and remove the bug bites from his legs. If I had to redo this edit today, I would probably use Coffeeshop’s Perfect Portrait 3 Photoshop action since it makes the process I used with Baby Power Room so seamless.
- I then used Morgan Kervin’s Eye Love Sparkle action on his eyes. He has such beautiful baby blues that I wanted them to stand out. If you use this action, just be sure to lower the opacity of your brush to 20-30% so it doesn’t add too much sharpen.
- After that I used Pioneer Woman’s Fresh Color action to brighten up my background. I lowered the soft light layer to 40% and removed a bit of it from his face.
- On top of that, I used Everyday Actions Florida action, using sunlight and creamy glow (in addition to their default settings – removing some of the layers from his face).
- Finally, I applied a median layer (go to Filter>Noise – applied manually using a layer mask) to reduce any noise.
I hope I didn’t lose anyone in the process of explaining my steps…if I did, I am sincerely sorry. Here’s the before and after:
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Mira’s note: The current giveaway closes Thursday morning. To make sure you don’t miss out, click here!
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Thanks Mira for having me. Have a great day!
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A Simple Way To Turn Dull Photos into Stunning Images
Have you ever gone on a vacation or trip and faced stunning architecture, amazing nature, or surreal landscapes? Then you snapped a photo hoping to impress your family, friends, and coworkers or to share the moment and memory with people you hold dear? However, the moment you opened the image on your computer you were disappointed because the photo did not represent what you hoped to capture. Instead, it turned out dull and nothing like what you had hoped. The sky is gray, clouds are gone, and colors are faded. It doesn’t have to be like that.
That’s not what I saw!
The reason your photos are not what you had hoped for is pretty simple: our camera does not capture the scene the same way our eyes see it. If you simply point your camera in the direction of an attractive scene, you will not get what you’re hoping for. Our cameras never capture exactly what we see and our images never match what we saw unless we take the time to adjust camera settings. You need to know your camera and you need to be able to apply your technical knowledge to capture the shot the way you see it.
Capturing Feelings
I took the image above in Venice, Italy on a dull December afternoon. That day in Venice was dull, very cold, a bit foggy, and just not so nice. However, I felt great because I was spending a week day with my husband in my favorite city in the world. We found a lovely place to have lunch at; we also stopped at a few cafés to have a coffee, snack or a spritz and we visited museums. And the most important, the city was deserted as tourists don’t typically visit Venice on a week day during cold and windy December. I snapped this image as we walked back to catch the water bus (Vaporetto) to get back to the main square. When I opened it today, a couple of months later, it did not show how I felt when I took it and I was quite disappointed.
Is there a way to fix it?
On a family vacation or a romantic trip, we usually do not have time to play with our camera’s settings. Adjusting settings can take time and we generally want to spend as much time as possible with our family or friends. If you have small kids, photographing becomes even more challenging. We snap pictures and hope for the best. So, if you haven’t captured not only the place you saw, but also the way you felt when you captured it, you should not feel frustrated, there is a way to fix that. In my post How To Take a Photo of the Sun? I’ve explained how to fix underexposed or overexposed sky which is one of main reasons for dull photos. I will apply that technique here. Please, read that post for detailed step-by-step tutorial.
So, let’s recap how to fix the sky in Adobe Photoshop:
1. Open the image in Camera Raw and fix the foreground. Then open the image as an Object, not Image. As soon as you press the SHIFT on your keyboard, the Open Image button will change into Open Object. So, that’s pretty easy.
2. Now, right-click to create a New Smart Object via Copy to duplicate the layer. I told you why you should not simply duplicate the layer in How To Take a Photo of the Sun?
3. Double click the smart icon on the new layer to open that new layer in Camera Raw. Once the image opens in Camera Raw, decrease the exposure until your sky looks just right. Re-open the image in Photoshop once you’re happy with the overall look of your sky.
4. Create a layer mask for the top layer by pressing ALT-layer mask icon at the bottom of layers window. The mask needs to be black.
5. Press the letter D on your keyboard. Your foreground and background color will turn black/ white. Set foreground color to white. If it is set to black, you can simply press the letter X on your keyboard to switch foreground and background colors.
D = foreground and background colors turn black/ white.
X= switches background and foreground colors.
Pick a soft brush to paint your sky. Remember, if your layer mask is black, the brush color needs to be white to reveal the mask. If you paint area that you do not want to paint (darken), all you have to do is to change the paint brush color to black (press letter X), and paint back to hide the darker area.
Black layer mask + white brush = reveals the layer underneath.
Black layer mask + black brush = hides the layer underneath.
6. Now that we’ve fixed the sky, let’s merge layers by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+E or going to Layers>Merge Visible.
7. Duplicate the layer by CTRL+J. This is simply because I never work on the background layer. It’s easier to delete a layer if I don’t like something than going back to the history.
8. What I did next, I went to Image > Adjustments and increased the exposure of the image until the image looked right. Since both, the sky and ground were pretty much underexposed, it was safe to fix the exposure of the entire image. I did not risk overexposing the sky at this point.
9. I ran Pioneer Woman’s Boost action at 50% opacity before I enhanced the water.
10. To enhance the water, I added a new layer to the image and used a color picker to pick a soft blue/grayish color that already existed in the water.
11. I picked a soft brush and painted over the water.
12. I decreased the layer’s opacity to 80% and changed the blending option to Soft Light.
Here’s the result!
Pin It
It took me a few minutes to fix this image to match what I saw that day in Venice and to express what I actually felt. So, it is possible to fix images you snapped in a rush.
Now, tell me – how do you deal with images that do not represent what you saw at the moment you captured it?
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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Using Different Layer Blending Options in Photoshop
[dropcap style="font-size: 60px; color: #9b9b9b;"] H[/dropcap]i everyone! I am Alicia. Here in the blogging world I am Lili (lee-lee). Don’t know why, no one but my niece and nephew call me that. I have been blogging for over a year now and have had my photography blog for almost a year. These days I call it Sanukipity Photography. I made up Sanukipity. I love how Sanuk means fun and happiness in Thai and Serendipity is one of my favorite words. Put the two together and you get chance discoveries of fun and happiness. How better to explain photography?
[button link="http://lilisview.com" type="icon" icon="heart" newwindow="yes"] Sanuk + Serendipity = Sanukipity! [/button]
I make it no secret that I love using textures, when the picture calls for it. I LOVE Kim Klassen’s textures. I think I now have all she has ever shared. Today I am going to share with you a comparison of how you can use the textures in your photos, when using Photoshop Elements and I think it is the same in Photoshop.
Here is the picture I am going to use. At this point I would have already edited the picture how I wanted it, cropping or whatever needed to be done to it.
The Original Photo.
And this is the texture I am going to add to it, it is Kim Klassen’s Stained Linen.
Stained Linen Texture
From here I am going to just show you a comparison of blending options available in Photoshop. There are some great explanations out there on how to use textures and layers but I just want to show you different looks you can get with different blending options of the Stained Linen texture layer.
Layer Blending Options in Photoshop
Granted, I don’t use most of these. In fact this is the first time I have experimented with many of them. I tend to use Multiply, Soft Light and Overlay. It depends on the picture and the texture I am using. You can also change the Opacity of the layer type. Here is what Multiply looks like at two different opacities.
The one layer type that I left out of the comparison is Screen. It has a different effect and I wanted you to see how it works better with a black texture. If you were to use a snowy overlay or texture, Screen would be the one to use then too.
I hope that everyone learned something useful.
Come check me out on Tuesdays at Sanukipity Photography when I almost always have a textured photo to share.
Three Quick Steps to Editing Portraits in Camera Raw
[dropcap style="font-size: 60px; color: #9b9b9b;"] E[/dropcap]diting portraits can be time-consuming and no one likes that. Also, there are many editing options and software out there and selecting the right one can be a real hassle. Have you ever wondered how to gain a full control over the editing process and yet keep it simple? I will show you how to do it in three simple steps using Camera Raw.
To find out how to get the result I got in three quick steps, please go to a Photography Blog by Jaymi McClusky! Yes, I am a guest blogger over there and I am so excited! Jaymi is a great photographer and blogger and she is the host of Tuesday Tips and Pics and I am sure you will find other helpful tips at her blog too. Jaymi, thanks for posting my little tutorial!
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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How to Do Mouse-Over Image Swap?
[dropcap style="font-size: 60px; color: #9b9b9b;"] W[/dropcap]hile I do not prefer to use the mouse-over effect that swaps images in my posts, some of you may be interested in using it and I will show you how to do that. If you have a blog, any blog, you can use it. That is, as long as you can change or edit the HTML code of your posts. You don’t have to have a WordPress blog to be able to use this feature. If you are not sure what I am talking about, mouse over the image below.
A Family Portrait. Italy.
Now, why I don’t use this feature?
There are a few reasons why I don’t like to use this feature for my “before and after” photographs.
#1. Delays equal frustration: I don’t like to use to this effect because sometimes the image swap is delayed and that causes readers’ frustration and no one likes that.
#2. Readers do not know when they are expected to mouse over: The other reason why I don’t use it is because an average reader does not necessarily know that he or she is expected to mouse over the image to see the other image. You cannot expect your reader to guess (or to know) when to mouse over the image.
#3. If you tell them to mouse over, you are killing the surprise effect: Yes, you can put a note to mouse over next to the image but that just kills the effect and if it doesn’t work, your readers are not happy. The swap effect should be sort of surprise, like your links. You don’t put a note next to your link to mouse over to see the color change, don’t you?
With all that said, if your “surprise” image is an important part of your post, for instance, the “after” part of your editing process, you will probably do better if you put both, the before and after images next to each other. I don’t know about you, but I like to see both images at the same time, that way I am able to compare them better. Well, I may just be an old-fashioned gal. ; )
The Before and After of a family portrait. I took this photo in the summer of 2010.
When to use the mouse over swap?
I would say anytime you’d like to have some fun or would like to add something extra for your readers like a button in your sidebar that reveals more info when they (accidentally) mouse over. You can be really creative with this effect. Finally, if you like how the swap effect works, go on and use if for every set of images!
Now, how to do it? It’s really simple. All you need is following:
1. Upload both images to your server, blog or a free hosting such as Flickr, Photobucket…
2. Copy the direct URL for both images
3. Type the following code into the HTML section of your post by paying attention to “ and ‘ signs
4. Replace URL 1 with the URL of a photo you’d like your readers to see first
5. Replace URL2 with the URL of the photo you want to reveal with the mouse over.
6. Save post.
That’s it! It’s simple and easy. All you need to do is to have the access to your post’s HTML to insert this code.
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Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
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A Trick to Enhance the Texture
[dropcap style="font-size: 60px; color: #9b9b9b;"] T [/dropcap]extures are great and even though I said they are not meant for each type of photography in my Should You Apply Texture to Your Photos? post a while ago, I have to admit they might work for just about every photo if applied properly. Of course, you as the photographer will always have to make the call whether to add or not to add the texture to your photo. If you decide to apply it, how do you enhance it? If you are new to textures or you haven’t really worked with layers in Photoshop, you can watch this short You Tube tutorial on how to do it:
Applying Textures in Photoshop
Although the video author states there are three blending options for your texture layer, that’s not really true. She mentions the Overlay, Light and Hard Light. However, you should try all options to see what you like the best or what would work the best for your image. For instance, I like to use the Multiply option. I would recommend this video for those who would like to learn how to use layers because the author uses the mouse to navigate around the Photoshop. That allows you to learn steps easier than if you followed a tutorial that uses keyboard shortcuts.
Enhance the texture, not the photo!
Once you add the texture and select the right blending mode, there may be one more thing you’d want to try out before you flatten your image. For these two image sets below, I used Kim Klassen’s texture called Simplicity. After I applied textures I realized something was missing. I wanted to enhance the texture even more. You can tell that the texture in the first set is well blended with the photo and does not stand out well while the texture in the second set is defined much better.
Rome. The Colosseum at Night.
I wanted the texture in the second set to really stand out. I wondered how to do it and sharpening crossed my mind. As you can tell, my photos were already sharp and I didn’t want to over-sharpen them.
So, what did I do? I decided to sharpen the texture itself without affecting the photo layer. All you have to do is to sharpen the texture layer.
Three easy steps are:
- Select the texture layer
- Sharpen it by using the sharpening brush or this excellent sharpening technique
- Merge the image by pressing CTRL (Command) + Shift + E
History time is a Story time. Imagine what stories these walls could tell!
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GD9SGGP6X6MH
Mira Crisp
Hello! My name is Mira and I take pictures, blog, and drink espresso! As a portrait photographer I take pretty pictures in Ft. Walton Beach - Crestview - Destin, Fl. area. I blog mainly about photography and image enhancement and I am enjoying it a lot. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel very welcome to leave a comment or two.
Follow Me: