Picture That II

Sharing pictures online is becoming ever more popular. Photography websites like Flickr and Fotki or social media sites like Facebook, Google+ and Tumblr  are locales where photographers congregate. It has become so important in social media sites that Google+ has  boosted  its photo album service into the top ranks - see here And smartphone camaeras are certainly expanding even more the popularity of quick and convenient phototaking as Instagram shows  and the fact that Flickr’s most frequently used camera has switched from Nikon D70 to iPhone 4. Picture taking has become a popular form of expression like singing or writing well.

detail: Pearl Surveyer, Water Reflections – rug hooking
This post is about another way to express yourself photographically by  creating your own notecards with your favorite images on them. Think of photography like poetry – capturing intimate moments of your  times. What better way to express yourself but to add your favorite poetry in  images to your letters and notecards. The following slideshow proposes a plan for doing  just that – Click with mouse on presentation to advance to the next slide:

The above presentation is part of a series of free lectures I am giving in the Northumberland Ontario Canada libraries – see here for the details. The presentation emphasizes free software like Artweaver or Photo Pos Pro. But if you are Photoshop or Quark Express savvy then more power to you. cardmakers can certainly have a good time with the tools and plugins available in these programs. However,  the presentation shies away from fancy techniques like decorative borders, finishings on your envelopes, or specialty boxes if you plan to give away your notecards as gifts or sell them.

The emphasis is on getting used to how easy notecard making is to do. Quite often, I create one or two notecards right on the spot just before writing a note or letter. But of course refinement is the fun part of creating your own notecards. But the reality constraint – is what is your printer capable of doing? For example,my HP Laser printer turns out excellent cards with very true graphics. But it is unsteady with envelopes and outright  refuses to handle some of the heavier specialty stock papers. So for these items or situations I go to a local printing outfit. In sum, this post will hopefully get you started do your note and greeting cards – rest assured Mr. Google can help you with all the finer details.

Adobe Flash.

iBook Author got a lot of fan fair last week with many trial software runs.Ye Editor happened to witness one – 5 things stood out about iBook Author:

1)It is simple and fairly easy to use given this simplicity;
2)It  can turn out large iBooks but they are  huge  files about 1.3 GB for a 1oo page 10 large “animated” illustrations;
3)it can be slowwww at times in design and creation;
4)it does not have  advanced and compelling animation features familiar to Erain Swift3D [Mac, Win] , Toon Boom Animate [Mac, Win], SwishMax [Win], Anime  Studio [Mac, Win], as well as Flash CS5.5 [Mac, Win] developers;
5)As usual of late from Apple, it is highly proprietary and turns out proprietary iBook files.

Again, for animation Apple Quicktime is found wanting and iBook is no exception. HTML5 is not a viable  solution and in fact Apple simply does not have a replacement for Flash for its millions of designers. Yet Apple’s case against Flash is highly suspect.  iBook Author just underlines the case of deficient products being provided to loyal Mac graphic designers and developers when many products much better are available.

There are a lot of good camera review websites – Dpreview.com, DigitaCameraInfo.com, DigitalCameraReview.com, aand PCWorld are among the favorite sites which are frequently visited by ye Editor. But that is the problem, one has to scurry like a rabbit all over the place to get a complete look see on whats coming up and then the comparison among favorites can be … well not so much fun. So when CNET Review offered the following:

CNET Compartive Camera Listing

And don’t worry, CNET has all the specs laid out in order:

Net result, is that CNET Review is now a favorite place to go to do camera comparisons. What is especially nice is the ability to add and subtract cameras. Whats  is missing is a dropdown list of cameras that can be added to the comparison. But overall, CNET review is a real time saver and insight provider on the fast changing digital camera scene.

The .8bf open Adobe Photoshop plugin standard is endangered. So to honor the creativity and fun of so many .8bf based filter and plugins, thePhotofinishes has started a series looking at some of the fun, creative and often free .8bf plugins. And there is no better place to start than the Mehdi Plugins which are not only all free but also so much fun to work with. It is important to note that many of the Mehdi plugins are  FilterMeister productions - enough said. Now lets take a look at some of the free Mehdi plugins.

Color Control

HSL Plus
Do you think your photo editor’s HSL or saturation correction command is too timid or too tawdry? Take a look at the free Mehdi HSL Plus filter . The reason its stronger but less tawdry in it color enhancement is , according to Mehdi, because contrast  is control through luminosity and gamut clipping adjustments. Ye Editor can testify that this filter produces FujiFilm Realia color punch without going over the line. It is especially attractive in touch-of-color situations where rich colors are needed in the surrounding B+W ground. Try it if you are an old color slide buff.

Gradient Smithy
Gradient Smithy is fun to operate with color or black and white photos. In black and white  images including duotone tints, Gradient Smithy produces an old picture look or a more granular texture somewhat like a flat embossing. In color mode the effects are even more pronounced as can be seen in the screen shot above. It all depends on the initial Create Task when user drag their mouse across the initial image thumbnail to produce their gradient. the density and order of the colors in the gradient are all important. The results can be psychedelic, tri- or duotone oriented, or  quite subtle.

Photo finishers should consider the following tricks. Make a duplicate layer and then blend the resulting Gradient Smithy back into the original. The results can be like Flaming Pear’s Aetherize color altering plugin – again subtle or profound. Or mask of a specific area  and fether the mask for a gradual transition from changed color paintingto natural. Or try several gradient Creates  and then vary the gradient during the Apply task with the Offset option. Finally, use one image to get the gradient and then apply it to another image. This works  because Gradient Smithy remembers the last gradient used. In short, watch out – this plugin can quickly become addictive.

Color MegaMix
This plugin is like having the Photoshop replace Color Image Adjustment command but with more choices of colors to change from – 8  sources. And don’t be confined to the default choice provided by Color MegaMix. using the eyedropper tool or clciking the Source color thumbnail you can change the source color to be changed. For example, stepping up in increments of HSL reading around green it was possible in six steps to give an image a stronger sunset look. This depends on being able to set the Target thumbnail color precisely which Color MegaMix provides. This is a color retoucher’s tool extraordinaire.

Image Manipulation

Melt
One of my favorite plugins is any oldy but goody, Impressionist. It has a Style called Jaggy Glass. This is nifty to use but sometimes the specific effect is hard to control. Enter Medhi’s Melt. Now one can control the size, amount and aspect ratio of the Melt touch precisely. Net result, now Melt is the primary glassy look plugin.

Vibrations
Vibrations is for creating kinky backgrounds. A similar plugin is Flaming Pears’s Swerve. In fact, there is not so much control over the effect in its micro edge irregularity [okay the inner waves] thickness and distortion nor the blend opportunities allowed by Flaming Pear’s Swerve; but I like the Vibrations smooth, bulbous waves. And in general, both Vibrations and Swerve are great for producing unique backgrounds and blend effects.

Summary

This is just five of Mehdi’s 28 all free Photoshop plugins. These are fun plugins but also very useful. All are mask-aware, have good response time and simple to oerate controls. And time after time they surprise you with the quality and cleverness of the results. In short, thePhotoFinishes will return to Mehdi in the months ahead as we look at .8bf plugin fun.