PS Tutorial: Fun Text & Clipping Masks

As this is last Tuesday of January I wanted to share a #tutorialtuesday post! Using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator softwares, Lindy-Ann and I both love creating graphics incorporating the use of typography. Typography is a pretty fun and powerful design technique used to layout and arrange text. The font, spacing, sizing, and layout of text can tell you a lot more than just what the words spell out.

With the addition of a photograph you take your 2 words to 1,002, because a picture is worth a thousand words, right? ha!

Today I’m going to show you how to overlay a photograph or background design using a clipping mask and layer mask in Photoshop. Use this as a jumping off point to play with the different blending modes, colors, and more…go crazy, love!

Another fun link I wanted to share with you is my favorite source for commercial free fonts, Font Squirrel. These designers are fantastic and super generous to share their work with the rest of the world for free!

If you have a favorite font or a fun graphic you created we would love to see it! Share in the comments below!

Have a type-tastic day!!

PS – Did you notice my love theme?? Let it inspire you for our LOVE Photo Challenge starting this THURSDAY the FEBRUARY 1st!! Can’t wait to see how you capture love through your lens!

PS Tutorial: Stamping away the crowd

The past couple weeks I have been post processing the images from my Fall Mini Sessions. Unlike all the amazing autumnal sessions I’m drooling over from back home, my sessions were seaside, and the Mediterranean did not disappoint! My seven families, all sporting a variety of blues, were perfect against the teals and turquoise tones of the sea, and the morning light was glorious. Each session even had it’s own special moments and poses unique to each family, which kept it fun and fresh. Overall, it was a dream day, with the exception of all the other beach goers.

Not only did we have several walkers, joggers, curious by standers, and sand castle builders to compete with, we also had the absolutely unnecessary older gentleman in a speedo…seriously?! This actually led to a few good smiles and laughs from my clients, but we do not want those in the shot, am I right?!

This is a quick tutorial on how I utilize the clone stamp tool in Photoshop to get rid any background noise that takes away from my subjects, including people and litter.

I hope it comes in handy for you and that you don’t have to deal with an old Israeli in a electric blue speedo any time soon!

Cheers,

PS Tutorial: Blemish Removal Technique

There are so many ways to edit (and play) in Photoshop, it’s one of the many things we love about the program. Even Lindy-Ann and I we have different go-to techniques and tools we use to accomplish the same tasks. Oh, and don’t get me started on why everyone should use shortcuts, ha! Anyways, today’s #TutorialTuesday video is demoing a great technique I picked up several months ago, and use all the time, for removing blemishes without getting rid the details of a person’s face, like freckles and laugh lines.

We hope you enjoy adding this new trick to add to your bag!

Cheers,

 

Tutorial Tuesday: Camera Care

This #TutorialTuesday we are talking about camera cleaning and maintenance. Whether it is a point & shoot, digital SLR, film camera, or smart phone, caring for your camera will always help with getting the best images you can and prevent dust spots. Here is a video of some “best practices” on how to care for your camera.

If you have other thoughts or tips on caring for your camera we would love to hear them! Feel free to share in the comments below!

Keep snappin’

Links:

Mod Straps

Lens Pens

Camera cleaning kit

Filter

 

Tutorial: Website to App on the iPhone

Happy #TutorialTuesday everyone! Today I’m sharing one of my favorite tricks on the iPhone. I have to give a shout out to our school’s Director of Technology, Brian, for teaching it to me after I inquired about a school app. I was hoping to simplify the process of getting onto our parent portal and this tip did the trick!

Let me know if you find it as handy as I do!

Cheers,

Creating Colour Palettes

Have you ever found yourself trying to figure out what colours go where? Perhaps your family photo session is coming up and you’re not crazy about ‘matchy-matchy’ styling but you want your outfits to fit and flow well with each other. I have a little tip for you today that will take out all the stress and uncertainty when choosing colours and colour combinations.

Colour palettes are everywhere.  They are not just for designers and artists, or for creatives who seem to have a gift for colour. All you need to do is open your eyes and look around you. Bring out your favourite dress and analyse the colours within the patterns. Or how about your most recent bouquet of flowers. Even your child’s art work can be a source of colour combination inspiration.

As was the case for our last family shoot with Katie.

I have prepared a little video tutorial for you to help guide you through the process on retrieving colours from images through photoshop. It’s my first video post so be kind to me 🙂

Cheers

 

Photoshop Tutorial: Brushes

Lindy-Ann and I are huge fans of Adobe Photoshop and all the amazing things you can do with it from editing photos to creating flyers and invitations. This is the first of our series of tutorials with tips and tricks.

Brushes can be used in a variety of ways, including painting, erasing, watermarks, and much more. This tutorial will walk you through creating a new brush from a hand drawn sketch.

Enjoy!