What a Difference

You'd be surprised by the kind of difference you can make by simply editing your photos.

Happy Fall

Just want to wish everyone a happy Autumn with a little card that I whipped up in Photoshop.  I pray that God blesses everyone this season. c:

Using Photoshop Wisely

The best tip for Photoshopping photos for blogging that I have ever heard is this:

Use Photoshop to enhance your pictures, not to create your pictures.

Photoshop can be an awesome tool to improve the look of your photos, if you use it wisely.  Try to avoid over-editing (i.g. making pictures too bright/dark or too contrasty, or adding tacky texts to pictures).

Before

After (good)

After (bad)

To create the good picture, I used this tutorial (via A Piece of Lisa) with one alteration: my Soft Light layer was set at 30% opacity instead of 80%.  I then added a color fill layer (ffebc1 at 75%) to give it an Autumn color.

To create the bad picture, I used the Brightness/Contrast feature, with a lot of contrast and a little bit of brightness.  Then, I used Hue/Saturation and increased the saturation significantly.

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The good picture simply gives the picture a bit more contrast, as well as a somewhat warm feeling.  It takes the picture, and brings it a step up.

The bad picture is simply bad because it is too bold.  The white is extremely harsh, and the colors are too vibrant.  It hurts the eyes of the viewer, and also shows that the editor  increased the amount of color within the picture a bit too much.  The original picture is a smidge dull, but the colors do not need to be adjusted quite so noticeably.

Keep in mind that these are tips for photos that are to intended to be used for blogging.  If you edit these pictures for your own viewing pleasure or for artistic reasons, then you may wish to have an overly vibrant picture.  As for the blogging world, however, harsh/bold pictures are not usually appreciated.

Make a picture harsh black and white

In my Walking Dead pendant tutorial, I said that I would show how I edited my picture to be harsh black and white, so that is what I am going to do now.

In Photoshop (I use CS2), open your image.

Then, select Image-Adjustments-Channel Mixer.  When the pop-up box opens, check the Monochrome box; this will change the picture into black and white.  Another way to do that is to select Image-Adjustments-Desaturate.

Then, select Image-Adjustments-Brightness/Contrast, and play around with it to get a good image.

I used:
Brightness: +27
Contrast: +56

And there you have it.

Here's another example, just to prove that each picture will look different, and each picture requires different settings in the Brightness/Contrast area.

Romans 15:17 "Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God."

Buttons

Instead of using other peoples' buttons with codes and stuff, I just save their button picture and put the picture as a gadget on my sidebar with the blog's link attached to it.  So I decided to make a few pictures for my blog that could be used as buttons.  {I'm too lazy to make them into actual buttons with codes right now}
More pictures will be added as I whip them up in Photoshop.

250x180 {above}

200x200 {above}


Romans 4:18a "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed;"

Oh No!

Not another coloring! Oh yes, there will be more colorings. And lots of them.

Tutorial available soooon.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 "There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins."

Rule Number One

You gotta have fun.

Tutorial coming soon.

Ecclesiastes 8:f "Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure."

Coming Soon-

-to theaters near you. Lol.

Psalm 119:173 "May your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts."

We were all supposed to die.

You were supposed to be the hero.

(Tut available soon.)

Proverbs 8:35 "For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord."
 

Barker, his name was.

Depp is pure gorgeousness.

It's Todd now. Sweeney Todd.

Proverbs 10:9 "The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found."

So dang sexy.

Tutorial available soon. <3

Proverbs 10:8 "The wise in heart accept the commands, but a chattering fool comes to ruin."

CB: Reedus Coloring

Mm.

(What is CB? Check it here.)

Psalm 138:1 "I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart."
 

CB: Adding Contrast

CB: CreateBlog. The site this tutorial is posted on.

Take a peak? Lol. Get it?
Cuz there's a mountain.

(What is CB? Check it here.)

Psalm 137:6 "May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy."
 

Oh, Amanda.

Just wanted to show my love for you via a collection of icons. <3

Like Photoshop?

 Like Photoshop?
Check out CreateBlog
They have super awesome tutorials and stuff.
This is a link to the tutorials that I've posted: http://xchangminniex.createblog.com/tutorials/

Psalm 108:6 "Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered."