DIY Fairy Photo

Recently I had the privilege to create a fairy out of my adorable “niece” Hailey. I had so much fun with the photo that I also took a photo of Moira with the sole purpose in mind of turning her into a fairy as well. Well, people liked the photo tons, and many asked how I did it. Hence I am creating this tutorial showing the process that I use to create a soft, magical type of photo. **There are many many ways to do things in Photoshop, I’m sure that there are different things that you can do to create the same effect. This is simply my process. **

 

 

1. Open your image in Photoshop. (I use Photoshop CS6)

2. Color correct the image and balance the brightness like you would any image.

3. Create a new layer and change the layer to “Overlay”

4. Using a soft white brush, highlight the skin. This will look very bright and not normal at first, just go with it.

5. Turn the opacity down to something that looks more magical glowing than ghostly.

6. Compress the layers into one.

7. Now is where you can add color effects and whatnot. I used an action called Peachy Glow from The Coffeeshop Blog.

If you aren’t familiar with actions, they are AWESOME.

The Coffeeshop Blog in particular is my favorite source of actions.

8. Once you are satisfied with the effects, create a new layer. This is where you are going to add the wings and the glitter effect.

9. Find a brush pack that has wings that you like. I got mine from Deviant Art but there are tons out there.

Play around and find a pair of wings that you like and add the them to the empty layer.

You may have to do a little positioning and erasing to get the effect that you want.

10. Once you are set with the wings open your glitter brush. (Same deal as the wings, do a search there are tons of glitter brushes out there.)

**Make sure you make another layer so that you have more control over what is going on.

11. I added some larger glitter effect to the dandalion she was holding, turning into a magic wand.

I also add some sparkle lines to add a magical effect. It is all about taste and what you are looking for.

12. From there you can crop the photo or what not. That is the jist of how I turn adorable kids into fairies! Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions.

(This was the first time doing a tutorial like this so there is a pretty good chance I am going to confuse someone about the process, lol!)

The Importance of Photo Editing

Most beginning photographers don’t truly understand the importance of photo editing, I certainly didn’t! I was quick to share photos straight out of the camera to my friends, spent money on raw prints, and was woefully ignorant to the world of photography processing and editing. But I am learning that photography is not just clicking a button and praying to the photo gods that the images captured will be awesome, editing plays just as big of a roll. Take this photo below:

The first photo is sweet… my little one is smiling and there is nothing distracting in the background. However, the colors are off, there are dark shadows, and it is sharper than I prefer. The detail of her pretty lace romper are lost and her eyes are shadowed. Of course I love photos of my girls but I knew I could make this better.

I didn’t need to crop it but I brightened shadows and her eyes, added detail to the lace, softened her skin and added a subtle glow, and added a blur effect to the background.

Photo editing doesn’t have to cost anything, there are plenty of free programs out there like Photoshop Elements. Even smartphones have photo editing programs, Camera + for instance, so there is no excuse for not doing it. I use Photoshop CS5 for editing, but the point is to use something to edit.

Once you get a program here are some basic edits to do:

Crop- try to follow to rule of thirds or crop out elements you don’t like

Auto correct if you don’t know how to manually adjust tone and color.

Saturation- how bright your colors are

Sharpness, Contrast, Brightness- all important things

Here is another example of before and after editing. I cropped the photo to bring more focus to the deer, lightened shadows, made the deer more vibrant, and blurred the surrounding forest to add focus.

Once you get the hang of basic editing then you can use actions and special effects to your photos like adding sun glares, making them appear vintage, and other cool things. I highly recommend CoffeeShop Actions… they are for Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Elements and are addicting as well as time saving! Also, check out Pinterest for other photo editing tips and tricks… I learn a new skill every day thanks to Pinterest!

Take lots of photos and practice, practice, practice. Enjoy and be back tomorrow!

Creating New Business Cards

One of my favorite hobbies is playing around with graphic design in Photoshop and Illustrator. I am totally self taught and dabble in a totally amateur arena. This dabbling has gotten me some paying jobs though and I am now able to create posters to sell, re-vamp blogs, Facebook timeline headers and so much more. One of my biggest challenges is trying to define what it is I exactly do when people ask… what job is the most important, what do I put on business cards and resumes?

Of course I am a mother first and foremost, but most employers don’t care about that. I am a dance teacher, an Etsy artist, a writer, a teacher, the list goes on and on. I needed a new business card that would allow people to connect with me without boxing me into just one job or skill set and here is what I came up with….

There are so many decisions that go into making a business card design- the overall content and feet, colors, photo or no photo, fonts, layout…. it is mind boggling! With all the creativity floating around it is hard to keep up with what is new and trendy. I prefer traditional cards that are bright, fun, and convey “me”.  I didn’t know which way I wanted to go so I just started creating and ended up with the designs you see here. I don’t have a brand or logo really set because my store doesn’t dominate my blog or vice versa… I just do what I do for fun!

So what do you think? If you don’t work in a traditional job that required business cards do you still have any? And most importantly, what design do you like from the above?! =)

Photo Love

I get asked a lot  about what camera I use and I can tell people are really surprised to learn that most of my photos are taken with my iPhone. Sure we have a nice camera but I never remember to take it, and when I do take it I am too busy juggling/chasing a wiggly toddler to concentrate on composition etc. It is just easier to whip out my phone and take the photos. Honestly 9 times out of 10 I am really pleased with the photo straight out of the phone thanks to my fave app Vintage Camera, which I have talked about before. The effects are great and it serves it’s purpose. But once in awhile I get a photo that I want to play around with on a deeper level- yesterday that happened with a photo I took of AJ.

Isn’t she beautiful? This photo is so her but a side of her that people don’t see very often. It is quiet, still, secretive, and deep. Usually people see the nutty, loud, bossy, opinionated side of my middle child- bright colors, strong emotions. I am in love with this photo.

I decided to try a variety of actions from The Coffee Shop Blog on the photo and came up with such wonderful photos….

I couldn’t decide which one I like the most, all of the actions are so wonderfully designed! If you haven’t ever played with Photoshop Actions I highly recommend checking out all the ones here and also reading how to install/use them here. The ones I used here were Sunkissed, Pink Glow, Lomo, and Faded Daydreams. The actions are also compatible with Photoshop Elements so everyone can have beautiful photos!

People are so visual that it is so very important as a blogger, artist, creator to take good photos. They don’t have to be fancy, just make people feel something. Play around with the effects and you will see a huge difference in the level of photography with even a simple phone camera!

DIY: Animated GIFs

Look what I learned how to do!

I had no clue that animated GIFS were so easy to make with Photoshop!

I have always seen them and thought you needed a special program to create the animation part.

Want to learn how to make your own?

Head over here to PuglyPixel and learn how to make your own fun graphics!!!

(Be sure to check out her whole blog… it is full of great freebies, tutorials, and graphic yumminess!)

Just think, all those favorite lyrics and colors you love can now move and groove… ah the possibilities!

(The top one will go on forever, the bottom image only plays 3 times)