Prepping tips week 3

Hi Crafters,

Sorry for the late post this week, I ended up spending two days in bed recovering from a cold. I'm now up and awake and ready to continue on from last week's tips...

Over the last few weeks I have discussed making sure your equipment is running well for taking pictures, making sure your monitor is looking good, and now I'll cover how to get those pictures looking great!.

Some factors may affect your image colour. These could be the lighting used, the overall image colour, or even the flash distance. If any of these factors have effected your image you will need to apply changes and the best way to explain this is to show you.

Using the sample image from last week, I have changed the contrast and brightness along with the colours. The picture will show how colour and contrast/brightness changes will effect your image. Using your selected programme i.e. Microsoft Paint / Photoshop apply the changes as explained below.

When adjusting colours remember this rule; The opposite to Cyan is Red, the opposite to Magenta is Green and the opposite to Yellow is Blue.

So if your image is too yellow, you'll need to add in some blue or if your image is too magenta add in some green and so on. I find the hardest colour to identify is Blue and Magenta, they look very similar, if your unsure hold a piece of white paper against your monitor or the print as per below, this will give you a better idea of the colour.

You image may need to be adjusted in more than one colour, for example you may need to add red and remove magenta, so you will need to add red and add green (green being the opposite to Magenta).

I'm not expecting you to understand this straight away, it took me 10 years of industry experience to have this knowledge, so hopefully with the basic information you can play with your images and see how it works in your own time. Ow but remember to "SAVE AS" and change the file name or you will wright over the original image.

   What adjustments can do to your image.

 

Hold  piece of white paper against it to see what colour it looks like.

 

 

Example of colour and contrast change

 

The Image on the right is to dark, flat and red. while the image on the left has been adjusted to look cleaner and the card looks white.

 

 

 

If you have any questions about these facts or you want to know more please feel free to contact me.

 

No onto the pics for this week...

 

 

Top Row L-R: Angela Palmer, Sharlene Meyer, Rhonda Fawcett.

Middle Row L-R: Roz Begbie, Vanesaa Baker, Lisa Bullock.

Bottom Row L-R: Paula Dobson, Judy Beetson, Ann Wills.

 

Prepping Tips Week 2

Hi All,

This week I'm following on from last weeks prepping tips so I'll now cover how to make sure your computer screen matches your prints.

As you may already know, there are more than one type of computer display monitor which means colours can vary between screens. The best way to make sure what your adjusting on the display matches the printed version is to calibrate. This can be achieved by using calibration software, however for day to day images this is not necessary. A method I use is to print out a calibration image as shown below and then match your screen to match the image.

NOTE: The most important colours to note are your blacks and whites. Make sure your printer is not running out of ink and producing a bad print. Place a piece of white card stock next to the whites on the image and check if they look good to go.

Once you are confident your printer is setup as you want it to, hold the printed image up against the monitor and play with the settings (on your monitor) to match the print. You may need to adjust your brightness and contrast along with your colours. Once this is done you're good to prep your images for your blog.

Next week I'll follow on by explaining how to get the best colours.

Now onto this weeks pics...

 

Top Row L-R: Susan Wong, Jacquelyn Williams, Janet Mills.

Middle Row L-R: Paula Reid, Karen Rogers, Debbie Lamb.

Bottom Row L-R: Lisa Bullock, Keryn Campbell, Julia Leece.

 

Until Next week...

 

 

Prepping photos Tips week one.

Hi Crafters,

Back in February I went through Photo Tips with you. I gave you a brief outline on what to do to capture the best picture for your blog, Now I thought I'd go over how to prep them.

What is Prepping? Well in the industry it is slang for the preparing of the image and getting something to a finished state. To get your images to a finished state you need to factor in a few things such as the image size produced for the file and the quality of equipment used in taking it.

I use Photoshop for prepping my images, but there are other useful applications, like Paint.net, Microsoft Paint, Paintbrush or Photoshop Elements or more professional applications like Lightroom or Photoshop CC.

Just remember these points;

1. Make sure you have a good quality camera.
2. Take your photos on a good file format and size.
3. Have an application the suits your skill level.

Next week I'll go over some more tips to increase your skills in getting the best image displayed on your blog.

Now onto this weeks pics...

 

Top Row L-R: Sharon de Vos, Sally Williams, Delys Cram.

Middle Row L-R: Jacquelyn Williams, Julia Leece, Paula Dobson.

Bottom Row L-R: Rhonda Fawcett, Lisa Bullock, Paula Reid.

 

Until next week...

 

Out with the old and in with the new...

Hi Crafters,

It's that time of year again when the retirement list comes out in anticipation for the exciting New Catalogue.

I for one are very excited about all the new and exciting things Stampin' Up! have planned for us this year. We've already had a taste of things to come with the release of the Single Stamps and the 25 years celebration stamp set, which I must say is gorgeous!

What are you planning to do with your retired stamp sets? I plan to keep most of mine because I buy what I love, and love to keep what a like!. I will however have a few I'll sell once the new catalogue arrives.

I would love to see some card examples of new products available now, post them on your blog and I'll chose the best to post.

Now onto the pictures for this week...

 

Top Row L-R: Judy Beetson, Sharon de Vos, Alison Hydes.

Middle Row L-R: Angela Palmer, Tee-Jay Horrell, Heather Stewart.

Bottom Row L-R: Roz Begbie, Paula Reid, Paula Dobson.

 

Have a great card making week everyone.