I have been meaning to scrap the flash flooding layouts for a while and I have finally done one! Many of you may have heard of the flash flooding nicknamed the ‘inland tsunami’ on reports around the world. Well the flash flooding you saw was very close to where I live. We also had some flash flooding over a nearby bridge temporarily cutting off our access to the city!
The Paper Butterflies Digital Scrapbook Element set features flittering, fluttering, Paper Butterflies perfect for adding that finishing touch to your digital scrapbook layouts and creative projects. These butterflies are perfect for altered art and art journal projects, adding wings to babies and children and adding a bit of fluttering flourish. These butterflies were created with various pieces of ephemera and shaped and primped and prettified. Use individually or mix and match a selection of butterflies, the options are endless. The Paper Butterflies Digital Scrapbook Element Set is available in my Etsy store.
These large versatile borders (12″ wide) are a fabulous and easy way to give your layouts and photos stylish flowery look. You can re-colour them to suit your layout or leave them as is, or simply use them as a clipping mask to clip them to your photo. The page borders are a quick and easy way to add some art to your layouts and are ideal for a wide variety of layouts.
Have you ever thought about experimenting with Shutter Speeds on your camera? You can achieve some interesting effects by using slower than normal shutter speeds. Unfortunately not all camera’s are able to do it but most SLR’s and higher end compact camera’s can. You will need a tripod or stable surface to keep your camera nice and still.
You can achieve some very interesting patterns and effects by using slower shutter speeds than normally required to capture the action. Lower light conditions are usually required to achieve the slow shutter speed effects. The image above was taken from a stair case at twilight in a large crowd.
The lower light enabled me to use a slow shutter speed to blur the action. The faster movements are more blurred and ghost like and the movements not quite as fast, have slightly less blur to them.
You may have seen a similar technique used on photographs of moving water, such as a waterfall or stream. It can produce some very interesting dreamy looking effects.
The image to the right is a photo I did late in the afternoon of a small waterfall at a nearby park. I used a shutter speed of 15-30 seconds to create the effect of the softly blurred movement of the water. Because there is no movement in the rocks they remain nice and sharp.
You can also combine slower shutter speeds with a burst of flash to show both movement and capture detail in an image.
The following image is at a Christmas Concert at twilight. My son had a light up candle that had various colours within the light. We had a wonderful time experimenting with shutter speeds of around 1/10th of a second, and using a burst of flash to capture more than just the light trail.
The slower shutter speed enabled the light trail to be captured, and then a quick burst of flash allowed the image of my son at the end of the exposure to be nice and sharp. The light trail shows because it is brighter than the surroundings and it appears on the image first, with the darker elements needing the help of the flash to be seen on the image. The quick burst means it is nice and sharp.
You can do some wonderful light trails just using the slower exposure without the flash. Because the bright object such as this candle or sparklers is so much brighter than the surroundings, it makes a trail on your image leaving the rest of the exposure dark. Experimenting with shutter speeds is a lot of fun. I encourage you to do it, because it teaches you a lot about the effects of light on your images.
Beautiful whites with splashes of red and shabby with an altered art flair. The Be My Valentine Digital Scrapbook Kit is perfect for scrapping your loved ones, sweetie, best friend or baby. Gorgeous and romantic hearts, altered paper elements, chic stenciling and dreamy clouds. The Be My Valentine Digital Scrapbook Kit is available in my Etsy store and Clikchic Designs store.
Dreaming of White is now available in my Etsy Store. Dreaming of White features beautiful winter tones with splashes of red to add warmth and wonder. Lovely Rowan Berry Branches and Wreaths, beautiful icy elements for scrapping your winter and Christmas photos. Dreaming of White is available in my Etsy store and Clikchic Designs store.
You can produce some interesting selective blur effects with the Lens Blur filter in Photoshop. It is a technique originally created with a specialized camera and sometimes used in advertising images. Following is a quick tutorial on how to create a similar Lens Blur effect in Photoshop. Photoshop gives us a lot more control after the image is taken and how the blur is applied. It is a very effective technique great for emphasising a focal point or drawing the eye to a specific area of your photo.
First, create a selection on you photograph with the Elliptical Marquee tool. (situated on the rectangular marquee button).
Now feather the selection using Feather Selection in the Select – Modify – Feather Selection.
Type in 80 as a feathering range. (can vary depending on photo size)
Click on ok. Your selection may not change much on the screen but it will now be a feathered selection.
Click on Filter – Blur – Lens Blur. This will bring up a window for adjusting your lens blur settings.
Within this window you can adjust your settings. Select invert so that the outside of your subject is blurred. Below are the settings I used, you can adjust yours and experiment with your own settings to get an effect you are happy with.
And here is the final image. I love this effect and I am sure you will find many uses for it as well.
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