Hey Girl, Nice Shot

Free iTunes, and Learn Something

The nice folks over at Phaunt Actions (okay, folk as I think Kylie is the only one running that show), post free actions every week.  It is a great place to go for a tutorial on how to really up your Photoshop game.  Right now they are running a contest which can get you a free iTunes gift card so head on over and check out what they have going on.  You might even learn something along the way.

I posted a while ago about my first experience with texturing a photo after seeing a tutorial on the Phaunt blog - check out that old post if you are interested.

Christmas Hangover

It's the day after Christmas
And all of my thoughts
Are turning towards cleaning
And storing filled boxes

Okay, that's the level of effort I can put into making a play at "Twas the night before Christmas".

I don't know about you but there is stuff to put away and stuff to throw away.  I have a big pile of stuff to list on craigslist to try to declutter.  And closets all need lots of attention.  I have to prepare for 2008 but getting my updated pricing and products on my website.  Oh, and I have two birthday party shoots and three portrait sessions to proof.  I have no sessions scheduled after tomorrow for the next three weeks so I can get all this done and have a little recovery time just before my in-laws come to town from New Zealand then I'll be ready to jump back in full-swing!

Maternity Pose - Constructed

I recently had my first maternity shoot and I think it went pretty well.  At least the mom to be and I had a good time - there was much laughing and sharing of stories.  We did sunset pictures which was wonderful lighting for her bare belly!  One picture that I had in mind was the somewhat standard focus on the belly but I thought with the pond at sunset background at least it would stand out and I really was very happy with how the picture came out.  Here's the file with just the RAW adjustments in light room applied.

I was pretty sure with minimal extra work the picture would really pop!  So the next step which is pretty standard in my workflow is to run the Boutwell Studio Totally Rad Action: Oh Snap! which defogs, and ups the contrast and saturation.  I hope you picked up their actions when they had their black friday sale!

I like the pop in the picture at this point but I want do enhance the blues just a tad so I run the Boutwell Studio Totally Rad Action Big Blue and using the layer mask it creates I selectively popped the blue in the pond and the sky.  Just a little - I didn't want ti to look freaky.

Next I ran the Totally Rad Action Prettizer which is frequently one of my last steps in many of my pictures.  I like the way it softens the focus just a little and enhances the color of a picture.  I use the skin correction layer (with mask) to mask the stomach and arm because the action tends to add color casts to skin.

At this point I had a finished picture that I'd be thrilled to share with the client (minus an electrical tower in the background which I went in and cloned out).  But I really have been wanting to do more textured work and I just got my Jesh de Rox textures and have been itching to try them out and this seemed like the perfect picture to try them on.  So I opened up the first texture and pasted it over the top of a flattened version of this picture.  I changed the layer style to Overlay so the texture would look like it is embedded in the picture.  The first texture looked like a stained concrete with lots of pits in it.  I lowered the opacity of the layer to 71% to decrease the effect and used a layer mask to mask off the arm and stomach again. It may seem like a subtle change but you'll see it the most in the plants that are in the pond.  They take on an almost painterly quality.

The second texture I added (after all, it is all about the layering) was again some sort of stone or concrete with a big crack running through it.  I used a layer mask to take some of the effect off the body because let's face it, no mom needs a crack through her belly!  But I love the cracks around the edges of the picture.

Finally, I'm a sucker for textured fabric and wallpaper prints so I picked one that looked like a brocade fabric and applied that.  Again, I used a layer mask to take some of the effect off the body, and I dropped the opacity of the layer to 71% (the % are all done to taste - there is no formula).  I really like the warmth and reddish tone the texture brought in and you can just see some of the pattern in the darker areas.  I'd consider this done!   I think it would be delicious printed on a fine art paper and framed with a giant frame.

Are you texturing yet?

It seems like everyone is texturing these days and the whole thing is appealing to me even if I'm not yet proficient.  As the holiday season wraps up (I HOPE) life should be settling back down and I expect I'll be able to start playing around with texturing next!  If you spend any time on the ILP boards you've no doubt seen lots of textured photos by Andrea Joki.  Her work is definitely inspirational and she posts lots of pictures of her own kids so you don't have to be busy professionally to try this out.  Although I think she is busy professional now!  She is now offering some actions through Design Aglow so check them out.

Lots of other folks getting in on the texturing trend....Leah Profancik who also has great children's photography (take a look if you are looking for some ideas) recently launched her texturing actions.  Then the big daddy of all texture packages...The fine art textures from Jesh de Rox.  His collection includes 35 high resolution textures (these are NOT actions) and a brief instructional video for how to use them.  They are popular with some of the higher end photographers, including Jessica Claire.  See my previous post about texturing to see step by step how I used some textures on a photo (the textures were free from Texture King).

I'm thinking about how I can incorporate texturing into my products.  I know one idea I have is to have a special session day at a spot I'm going to scope out later this month and roll a textured fine art print into the session fee for the special session.  I think textured photos would look especially delicious on fine art paper like Epson Velvet (which is offered by White House).

Are you texturing? Do clients seem to like it?  How do you offer it with your products?  Do you charge extra? Where do you get your textures?   

Edited to add: It seems Pink Ink Studios is super popular for textures.  I've bought other templates there but not textures.  Their shop is closed right now because they are changing shopping carts but it should be open again later today so check them out.