Backup, backup, backup…

I am in the process of transferring lots of files over from an older desktop computer to a shiny new laptop (isn’t it nice!) and I was reminded…

There’s nothing like a good backup!

It’s been easy because I have good backups of most of my documents and installation programs. And I know we are protected due to our double-layer backup procedure:

• Automatic backups locally on ourl network using SyncBack Free (get it free from 2BrightSprks.com)
• Automatic backups off-site via Mozy.

We’ve written about the importance of backing up before here and here and now would be great time to get or renew you subscription to Mozy. Click here or use our link to the right and use the code “AUGUST” to get 10% off your subscription. Cool deal for such a hot summer day!

I’m going to go do some backups right now! When did you do your last back-up?

(full disclosure: we are a Mozy affiliate)

End of an era – Foto Friday

I’ve written before about the ending of Kodachrome – Kodak’s flagship film that captured the truest colors and was used for a majority of the ground-breaking photography over the years. And what a fitting retirement that Kodak and National Geographic thought up. They gave the very last roll ever made to Steve McCurry – an award winning photojournalist who’s iconic picture Afghan Girl was one of National Geographic’s most recognized covers. Steve is doing a story for them about what he shot with the last roll – and think of how important every single shot of that roll will be! That’s pressure only a true professional like Steve McCurry could deliver. Here’s a link to a great article at NPR about the last roll and Steve’s project – Exposed: The Last Roll Of Kodachrome

And an important note – have any unprocessed Kodachrome hanging around? Better it it processed now as the last lab in the world is stopping their processing Dec 30, 2010. Dwayne’s Photo Service in Kansas is the only lab in the world who still processed Kodachrome and December 30 it’s done – forever!

Like all good things, it had to stop some time. I spend my early career in the commercial photography so I used mostly Kodak Ektachrome film – and that at some point will be discontinued due to the almost universal switch to digital cameras. But Kodachrome was always special and it’s kind of sad. Had you every used Kodachrome? Leave a comment and let us know!

Quick Tip Tuesday – super easy aged paper

This is a really easy and quick technique for digital scrapbookers to make aged paper using both Adobe Photoshop or Elements.  (This tutorial is done in Elements 8).  What I like best about this paper is because the various elements are on different layers, it’s really easy to quickly change them and make a wide variety of different papers.  So lets get started!

1) Go the File menu and select New – Blank File.  Use the dimensions you want or use the pull-down menu and select Scrapbook for predefined 6×6, 8×8, and 12×12 sizes.

2) Go to the Edit menu and select Fill Layer.  Use the pull-down menu to change the fill to 50% Gray.  You’ve just created a gray box – yea!

3) Go to Layers – New Adjustment Layer – Hue/Saturation.  This layer will determine the color of your paper.  As I said above, the beauty of this paper is how easy you can change this layer at a later point to make a different color paper.

For now, we want a tan color so in the Hue/Saturation dialog box click the Colorize button and set Hue to 35, Saturation to 40, and Lightness to +20.  You now have a nice tan paper.

4) Now we need some … clouds?  Yes, the cloud filter creates great texture for our paper.  So go to the Layer palette, create a New Layer, and name it “clouds”.  Press the “D” key to make sure your foreground and background colors are set to their default black and white, and then go to Filter – Render – Clouds.  You can hit Ctrl+F to make different textures.

5) Now go to Filer – Stylize – Emboss.  In the Emboss dialog box, vary to % between 150% to 500% to get more or less texture.  Now here’s a critical part – in your layer palette use the pull-down menu to set the blending mode to Soft Light.  And you have this:

 

6) Now we’ll add some additional texture.  Go to the bottom of the layers palette and click on the Create Adjustment Layer and select Pattern. (The Create Adjustment Layer button looks like this: )   In the pattern dialog box, click the arrow to the right of the thumbnail to select a pattern.  I used the Gouache Light on Watercolor in the Artist Surface group.  (see the dialog box on the left if it’s not clear).  Click Ok.

7) Again, set the Layer Blending mode to Soft Light and lower the layer opacity to about 75% to lessen the texture.  Looking good!

8 ) Now we’ll add some sizzle.  Let’s add some highlights and shadowing to the paper to make it sing.  Go to Layers and select Create a new layer.  Go to Edit – Fill and again fill it with 50% gray.  Now make sure to set the Layer Blending mode to Overlay.  (the paper will reappear – that’s normal).  Again press “D” to make sure the foreground and background are set to the default.

9) Grab a fairly large, soft-edged brush, set the opacity to 20% or less, and paint around the edges – you’ll see it will darken the areas you paint.  Hit the “X” key to switch the foreground and background colors and paint with white.  Where ever you paint, it will be lighter.

So that’s it!  A simple, quick aged textured paper you can use as a base to make lots of variations for your layouts.  Now by simply altering the layers we can get endless variations:

Changing the hue under the Hue/Saturation layer to make different colors…

Or changing the cloud and dodge and burn layers to get more or less texture.

I hope you liked this quick and easy aged paper.  You can see more of our Photoshop and Elements tips here.  If you have an questions or like or hate this technique, leave a comment.

Foto Friday – Missing the View(finder)

As you may remember, our camera went into Mouse Creek (courtesy of the 14 year old).  At least she was trying to get a good shot, and just slipped on a rock.  She never got the shot, though all the pics on the card survived.  I took the camera apart and dried it out, put it back together, and it turned on!  But when I went to take a picture, the lens jammed and it’s hopeless.  Either the gears got knocked out of whack, or there’s a bit of grit in there jamming  them.  I tried to free them manually, but the lens motor is inaccessible in this model, so I couldn’t free it.

So now we’re in the market for a new point and shoot!  We don’t want to lug the big camera on vacation, so we thought we’d go look around.  We’ve done a lot of research online, looking at sites like snapsort.com so we had an idea what we wanted:

• small but not too small
• good quality lens
• the special settings we use: macro, sports, self-timer
• good optical zoom
• decent sensor
• view finder

We’ve had good luck with Canons before, so that was where we started looking.  We learned 2 very interesting things:

• you can’t buy a point and shoot camera with a view finder.  Period.  Which is too bad.  I know that was sacrificed for space and cost, but it’s really very useful.  Using the viewfinder when you have it helps stabilize the camera for better photos, and often the screens are hard to see in the sun.  Not to mention using the screen sucks battery life.
• they don’t include a camera card!  Not even a 512MB card!  Used to be you got a small card with it, but no longer.  So we shelled out $14 for a 4 Gig card, which ought to hold us.

We ended up getting a Canon A495 point and shoot camera.  And it’s BLUE    It has a 10 megapixel sensor which is a little better than trying to cram 12MP onto a sensor, but I’d have been happier with an 8MP one.  But I think this will do.

We’ve taken a few photos with it so far, and I’m pretty pleased with the results!

Just look how happy everyone is with their cannoli!

So now we’re all set for vacation, and won’t miss a moment of our adventures!

What camera do you use to take the casual, fun pictures?

Jenn

Quick Tip Tuesday – Help for Healers

One of the best things about Photoshop has always been the Clone tool.  We used the clone tool to fill in blank areas and extend photos, to retouch blemishes and creases in photos, and to smooth out wrinkles.

But the Clone tool was a little difficult – it created visible patterns or over-smoothed skin very easily unless you were very careful and skilled.  All the clone tool does is copies pixels from one place and pastes them down where you tell it to -  simple but not the best results.

So a while ago Photoshop started introducing the “Healing” tools.  These tools use some complicated mathematics to improve your results.  They do this by taking into account the texture, color and luminosity of the sampled area and merging it mathematically with the destination pixels.  This lets the program maintain the look of the original area without making it look artificially smooth.

Now we have three different options: the Clone tool, the Healing Brush tool and the Spot Healing Brush tool.  Today we’re going to try to help you understand which tool to use when, and why!

HOW THEY WORK

Clone Tool – as we said above: it simply copies pixels from one place and pastes them down where you tell it to put them.  You can adjust the opacity of the pixels you paste down, but that’s about it.  Press the Alt key and click on the spot where you want to grab the pixels from, then move the cursor over where you want to paste the pixels and click.  You need to use a soft (blurry edged) brush to better blend the pasted pixels into the existing photo.

Healing Brush – this works like the Clone Tool only in that you have to set the source for the healing.  Hold the Alt key and click on a spot that looks good, then move your cursor over a spot that needs fixing, and click (and drag if necessary).  This works amazingly for fixing wrinkles!  What the program is doing is looking at the pixels you sampled, then looking at the pixels you want to fix (the ones you click and dragged over) and making the new pixels match the old ones in terms of texture, color and luminosity.  This means you don’t get ‘super smooth’ skin, or the kind of patterns you can see with the clone tool.  You should use a hard edged brush with this tool, as the program spreads out 10-12 pixels and blends the edges.  The only time this will give you a problem is when you are working next to an area of contrasting color.  The program may pick up some of the other color and include it in the fixed pixels.  When you get into that situation, you’ll need to go back to the Clone Tool.

Spot Healing Brush – this works just like the Healing Brush, but without needing to hold the Alt key to take a sample.  The program looks at the area you clicked on, checks the pixels right around it, and replaces the area with pixels that match the surrounding pixels.  You will notice a black dot while it does the calculations, don’t worry, it will go away once it’s finished thinking.  This tool has the same problem as the Healing Brush – if you are too close to an area that is a lot lighter or darker – then it may sample that and include it in the results.  Again, you’re back to using the Clone tool to fix those things.  This includes if you have a spot that’s very close to another spot.

WHEN DO I USE WHICH TOOL?

Use the Spot Healing Brush:

• dust spots
• small blemishes

Use the Healing Brush:

• to smooth skin
• under eye bags
• wrinkles
• stains on clothing

Use the Clone Tool:

• to fill in blank area (such as copying grass or sky to make an image larger)
• when working on or near the edge between two contrasting areas.
• whenever you don’t like the results you get with the other two tools!

There are way more details on retouching photos with these tools, but we’ll have to save those for another post.  I hope this encourages you to try fixing up some photos with these wonderful healing tools!

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