I hosted a speed scrap and the inspiration I used was an interesting one.
One of the participants suggested right up that it was graphic style and the inspiration certainly is, but I think you could easily do a paper style layout with this inspiration also. I loved the arty effects on the photos and decided to do a similar effect on my own.
Here is the inspiration image which I found on pinterest. I loved the creative colours on the images! It looks as if the artist has blended colorful textures over the top of each image.
Right off the bat I knew I wouldn’t be able to create the same effect but I did want to try and do something similar in style. I do all my layouts in square format so the shape was going to be different also.
I had some lovely colourful photos of my kids and husband on a merry go round and thought they would be perfect for this kind of project and decided to use them for the speed scrap. When I follow a speed scrap inspiration I often try and capture the general feel of the inspiration rather than copy it perfectly and this is what I have done in my layout. I arranged four different photos on a page with a creamy coloured background underneath from my Childhood Adventures Digital Scrapbook Kit, not necessarily exactly the same layout as in the inspiration.
Prior to placing my photos on the page I edited them in Adobe Camera Raw using a split tone effect to give the photos some slightly unusual or cross processed looking colours. I teach a class on Adobe Camera Raw at Digital Scrapbook Place and one of the things you learn in the class is how to do a split tone effect.
Below is an example of one of the photos with and without the split tone effect applied.
Click on the image to see a bigger view of the example. The split toning immediately gives the photo/s a more surreal and colourful look which is the start of what I wanted to achieve.
After the photos were placed on the page I created gradients over each photo using colours in the inspiration image. I did this to give uneven colour tones to the image. Each gradient was then given an overlay blend mode to allow the colours to overlay the image below but still allow the images to show through. I reduced the opacity of each gradient to suit each photo.
At this point I found that the effect was a bit strong and I wanted to tone it down a bit.
At this point I decided to tone the colours down and to add some texture I would reuse the creamy background (from Childhood Adventures Value Collection) I used in the background, over the top of the photos with a linear light blend mode and reduced opacity. This softened those harsh and bright colours and gave the entire layout varying and interesting texture.
I then used the red paper from the Childhood Adventures Value Collection to create a rectangular journal block near the center of the page, similar to that in the inspiration image. I placed the journalling over the top of this journal paper in white to enable it to stand out clearly against the background which was also blended using the pin light blend mode. Each photo and the journalling paper also had drop shadows added for a little extra depth. (not something usually done in graphic style layouts but I like to, to add definition)
I also added a fill layer over the top of all layers with opacity reduced to zero and an inner shadow with a colour burn blend mode to create some soft and subtle borders to help retain the eye within the layout.
Below is the final layout, which as you can see looks a bit funky and arty and a little bleached out, but is an effect I quite like for something a little different.
A lot of new digital scrapbookers seem hesitant to buy effect overlays because they can’t see themselves using them or are unsure of what to do with them. In this tutorial I thought I would give some quick and simple sample ideas of just how much you can do with overlays. For the purpose of this tutorial I am going to be using my Water Color Arsenal Overlays available in the following stores.
Firstly the important thing to remember with overlays is that in order to get maximum use out of them you need to be experimenting with blend modes. In Photoshop, you will find the various blend modes available to you in the Layers Palette.
For our first example I am going to use a photo. I know I often forget the interesting effects you can produce by using overlays on photos.
Here is the original photo of tulips and the second version, with Water Color Arsenal Overlay number 1 from the set, laid over the top and using the Linear Light Blend Mode.
As you can see, using the Linear Light blend mode, lightens the colours of the photo underneath in conjunction with the lighter colours in the overlays, and darkens the darker colours in the overlay and colours underneath giving an interesting water colour wash effect. In the following sample, I have laid two different water colour overlays on a digital scrapbook paper.
On this sample I used the Colour Burn blend mode on both Overlay layers. Colour burn tends to give a wet saturated look on lighter colours making the paper in this case almost look like wet fabric. Overlay Blend Mode will produce a softer effect to Linear Light. On the Paper below from my P365 Essentials Vol 2 Page Kit I have used the water colour overlay over the top of the paper using an Overlay Blend Mode.
The effect can be adjusted by reducing the opacity of the layer.
You can also experiment with blend modes to age your photos. The photo below is a monochrome image of my daughter taken a few years ago. Adding a water colour overlay with a Hard Light Blend Mode and 61% Opacity gives the photo an aged look. This effect works best on dark monochrome photos. You could get similar effects with different blend modes on lighter photos.
Here is the original photo and the photo with the Hard Light Blend Mode
You can enhance your special effects even further buy recolouring the overlays and using more than one overlay. There are so many possibilities available to you.
Anyone who joins the online digiscrapping communities will notice the popularity of blinking avatars and ‘blinkies’. This tutorial teaches you how to easily create your very own blinking avatars and blinkies in Photoshop CS-CS5.
There are a few more steps to create a blinkie in older versions of Photoshop CS than in Photoshop Elements but once you know how you will be creating dozens of blinking avatars and blinkies! The blinkie size I have used in this instance is 125×60 pixels, another common blinkie size is 150×50 pixels. The avatar size limit on most scrapping forums is 125x125pixels so this is a good size to create your avatar’s at.
Firstly you need to create your design, and this needs to be a layered image, as showing and hiding the layers enables you to create each frame of the blinkie.
For the purpose of this tutorial I will be using the top three layers as ‘blinking’ layers for the blinkie. You can use any combination of layers you wish to create a frame for your blinkie. In this instance I will keep it simple and only ‘blink’ the top three layers.
Once you have all your layers ready to go you then need to begin the animation process. To do this, go to the file menu and choose Edit in ImageReady.
Note: This step is unnecessary in Photoshop CS3+ as animations are now done within Photoshop itself. Simply click on the window menu and click on Animation to open the Animation window while still in Photoshop.
Image Ready will open up (this can sometimes take some time to load) with your image in it, and no longer in Photoshop. If you need to go back and fix something you can just choose Edit in Photoshop from the file menu of Image Ready. Be warned however if you do this you should do so before you begin the animation process as it can play havoc with your frames. If you need to do it after you have started adding new frames, first delete the extra frames and then do your editing in Photoshop before coming back to Image Ready.
Next you need to open the Animation window, in image ready or in Photoshop CS3+.
Go to the Window menu and ensure that the Animation option is checked. This will ensure you have the animation window open.
To create each frame we need to turn on the layers we want visible and off the layers we don’t. You can do this by clicking on the eye next to each layer. If there is no eye next to the layer, it means the layer’s visibility has been turned off. In the above sample we have turned off the ‘Love’ and ‘CD’ Layers which will be for the first frame of our blinkie. For this blinkie the first layer only has the ‘I’ layer visible.
Here we have the Animation window visible. This is where we create each frame of the animation. Here we need to ensure it is set to forever. This allows the blinkie to continue blinking. If it is set to once, it will only go through the frames once and then stop.
The frame delay is the length of time in seconds the frame will appear. You can set different time values for each frame if you wish. For instance if something takes a little longer to read you can make it a longer frame delay. If it is just an outside border which flickers, you can set it to a short delay so that it blinks quickly. For the purpose of this tutorial we will set all the frame delay’s at 0.5 seconds.
Once the first frame is set, following new frames are defaulted at the same value, but can be changed if you wish.
We already had the first frame ready to go, and just had to adjust the frame delay. Now we are ready to create the second frame. First we need to click on the New Frame Icon circled above.
Next we need to make the layers visible that we want to appear in the second frame of the blinkie. Above shows the second layer we want visible.
Here is the third frame we wish to have for the blinkie, showing the layers which are visible for this frame. We have now finished creating the frames for the blinkie and it is now ready to be saved into gif format.
Note: In CS3+ this step is now done through Save For Web & Devices (file menu). The settings are on the right hand side of the window. If you wish to view the quality settings, click on the two up tab. This allows you to view the Original file on the left, and your adjusted settings on the right. You can use the play button at the bottom right of the window to view your animation before saving. Once you are happy with your settings click on save and save to your computer.
Photoshop CS3+ Save For Web & Devices
Back to prior photoshop versions…
Next we need to make sure that gif is selected in the optimize palette. If you need to compress the image a little further and reduce the file size you can try adjusting the number of colours, however this can reduce the viewing quality of the image. If file size is not an issue you will not need to adjust any of the other settings.
For the purpose of this tutorial I have left all the settings at their defaults.
Now it is time to save our image! Go to the file menu and choose Save Optimized As. Choose an easy to find spot on your hard drive to save your blinkie and you are done!
Drop shadows can have a dramatic affect on your layouts and can provide a variety of different effects and looks. Adjusting a drop shadow can really make your layout pop, or can spoil it. The trick is creating the right type of drop shadow for the effect you are trying to create.
Below is a photo with six different drop shadows to illustrate the different effects a drop shadow can give.
The first image has a subtle drop shadow, a short distance from the image, with the shadow being heavier on two sides of the photo, illustrating that the light source is coming from the top left. The small size of the shadow also suggests that the photo is likely to be directly on top of the background paper as it might be on a traditional paper layout.
The second photo has a heavier and larger drop shadow again heavier on two sides of the photo indicating that the light source is coming from the top left. The increased size and softness to the drop shadow makes the photo appear that it might be further away from the background paper. Such a shadow might also be used for objects such as page pebbles, or other embellishments which would appear to be thicker in real life than a photo. In this instance, used on a photo which is less than a millimetre thick, it makes the photo appear to float on the page.
The third photo has a very large drop shadow and is much softer looking than the previous two. The shadow has dispersed just as shadows do in real life when an object is a distance from something. The closer the object is to where the shadow is being cast, the darker, smaller and sharper the shadow will become. This shadow makes the photo appear as if it is floating some distance above the page and does not lend itself towards a realistic looking paper style layout as much as the first shadow does.
The fourth photo has a small brown drop shadow with the colour altered from black to dark brown. The shadow is set at zero distance giving an even size around the photo and indicating that the light source might be directly above the photo. This form of drop shadow gives a lovely soft look and is useful for creating a realistic and soft looking shadow around the photo. This effect is particularly useful for freestyle layouts and a variety of other effects and looks.
The fifth photo has a larger, softer drop shadow, at zero distance with the colour altered from black to dark brown. The shadow has also had noise added to give a less even look. The size of the drop shadow does not lend itself to a realistic photo on top of paper look, however it does almost give the appearance that the photo is set behind the paper instead of on top of it. To enhance this effect you may wish to reduce the opacity of the shadow and include an inner shadow on the photo itself. It is another style of drop shadow which may be useful for freestyle layouts.
The sixth photo does not look at all like it has a drop shadow but like it has a frame around it or that the paper may have been embossed. This look was achieved by using zero distance, changing the colour to dark brown and experimenting with the contour of the drop shadow. Once again, not a very realistic looking drop shadow, but perhaps an interesting effect to experiment with!
Knowing how to make the most of your drop shadows is a very useful tool to have under your belt and it can be fun to experiment with them. Why not give it a go in your next layout?
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.
These five gorgeous Ornate Damask Grunge Overlays are so versatile you will wonder what you did without them. You can use them to add drama to photos, to make beautiful digital scrapbook layouts that encompass a photo that takes up the whole page, and use blend modes to extend the use of these ornate overlays even further.
The Ornate Damask Grunge overlays are available in the following stores.
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