Category: Image Editing

Make an Antique Image

Our recent monthly photo assignment was about making an image look like it was taken years ago.

During the review, Ron Pearce explained how he composited his original image:

01 Almonte Falls Original Image by Ron Pierce
with this texture:

02Texture by Ron Pierce

and this photograph of an antique photo mat:

03 Old Photo Frame by Ron Pierce

to come up with the image he submitted .

If you have Photoshop, an easy way to make an antique version of an image is described in this video by Gavin Hoey. He provides a Photoshop Action and a collection of brushes (which can also be used with Photoshop Elements) which I used to create my submission.

Carol Brown created her own texture by photographing a crumpled brown paper bag, and adding it as a transparent layer using Photoshop to create her submission.

Several members reported that they used the Time Machine effect in Corel’s Paint Shop Pro to make antique versions of their images. A 30 day free trial is available if you want to try it out.

Bill Robertson

RicharD Murphy on Digital Asset Management

RicharD Murphy has provided a copy of the slides from his March 2nd presentation on Digital Asset Management which you can review here.

He also made these recommendations for bulk file renaming programs:

  • Renaming software for PC:
  • Renaming software for Mac:
    • Rename (discontinued – still works great)
    • Mac OS X Yosemite and newer will rename files in bulk via the Finder. Select files to rename, Right Click ( Command Click ) and choose ‘Rename Items’
  • Also, Adobe Bridge will batch rename files on both Mac & PC, and Lightroom can rename files on import.

Thanks again RicharD.

Add Rain to an Image

Stormy Weather was the recent monthly photo topic. Amy Lo had taken this picture:Original - Rain free

but it didn’t match with the topic so she added rain using Photoshop Elements version 11 and got this picture:Slippery Rain by Amy Lo

which she submitted. You can click on the above thumbnails to see larger versions of both images. If you want to see the intermediate steps, you can download Amy’s Photoshop Elements .psd file by clicking here then clicking on the blue Download button.

Amy used the technique shown in this video tutorial which she summarized as follows:

  1. Open picture with Photoshop Elements
  2. Create new layer and name it Rain
  3. Paint layer with black
  4. Go to Filter, then Add Noise and set Amount: about 30 percent, Gaussian and Monochromatic
  5. Go to Filter then Gaussian blur and set Radius: about 0.5 pixels
  6. Using the Layers Menu and while pressing <Alt> add a Levels adjustment layer
  7. Make sure to click “Use previous layer to create clipping mask”
  8. Adjust the white and black level triangles until happy with the # of dots
  9. Go back to the Rain layer and select Filter then Blur then Motion. Try Angle: 60 or 75 and Distance: 15 or 20 pixels.
  10. Change the blending mode of the Rain layer to Screen and keep adjusting the level to get satisfactory rain effect.

Thank you Amy for sharing.

Photo Swirls

swirl

Ron Pierce submitted this great image of swirled flowers in response to the summer garden assignment. He’s prepared a note for us explaining how it’s done. Inside his note are links to even more detailed instructions. Thanks for sharing Ron.

Julieanne Kost

At the recent Camera Club executive meeting, Brenda Smith mentioned Julieanne Kost as a good source of tips about Lightroom and Photoshop.

She has many free tutorials on her web site where she also lists several courses she has on Lynda.com. See this post for information on how to access the Lynda.com courses for free.

Thanks for sharing the great tip Brenda.

Get Photography Help

If you missed our recent “Learn your camera” workshop, don’t despair. Before every monthly meeting the Mentors are available to help you with issues you have with your camera. They are also there to help you improve your photography with ideas on composition and post processing. Between meetings they can be reached by phone and email.

One-on-one help is also available from the Seniors Council Computer Tutors on topics such as:

  • transferring your images from your camera to your computer
  • organizing your images
  • backing up your images
  • processing your images using Photoshop Elements or Picasa,
  • sharing your images using web sites like Flickr (used for the club galleries)
  • making slide shows

One hour sessions can be booked at the front desk for $8. Three one hour sessions can be booked for $20.