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Photoshop

Day 157/365: Senior Pictures On A Budget

May 11, 2011 by info@3QuartersToday.com

Senior Pictures
Senior Pictures

High School senior pictures can one of the biggest expenses of your son or daughters senior year.  Some parents pay thousands of dollars to professional photographers for pictures that are often dated and forgotten about just a few years later. If you’re on a budget is it really worth breaking the bank? They seem so important at the time. But, with the help of Hamilton Color Labs and my friend Beth at Vivid Image Photography I created a huge senior portraits package for less than $125.

Many photographers will now provide the original images on a disc and you can order prints at a variety of professional labs. That’s what Beth does. She started out taking portraits of her own boys and has expanded her hobby of photography to taking senior pictures for friends and family. For a small sitting fee she lets the senior pick the location and then provides them the original unedited images to do with what they wish.

Original SOOC

This bridge photograph was originally uninspiring, but I loved my son’s Marine shirt, so I cropped it down to the photo at the top of this post. I loved the tight crop, but since the cropping was drastic the resolution decreased. This I compensated for by creating a sepia effect, creating a blurred background layer, and printing it on a metallic paper at Hamilton Color Labs.

The result was stunning. The Marine wallet became his classmates favorite. My favorite senior portrait was the traditional shot sitting by the hay bale, until I saw the printed Marine wallet. Now the Marine print sits in the front of my wallet.

Top printed on metallic paper, bottom SOOC

Another favorite wallet amongst Davids classmates was the creek image, again printed on metallic paper.  The glaring sun in the original bottom photograph made it difficult to bring out his face and seemed to overwhelm the photograph. By changing the color tone and bringing up the blues in a separate layer this changed the focal point and the metallic paper gave the image a surreal effect which was perfect.

Senior Pictures

By far David’s favorite senior picture was hanging upside down in the barn. As a wallet it didn’t have the same impact, but made a great enlargement. There are those that like the “studio experience”, especially girls, the process mimics a model shoot. Many people don’t have the ability, or time, to edit or create post production effects, but I enjoyed this aspect.

With so many favorite photographs, it was hard to choose, but I didn’t have skimp. Since since I was ordering through Hamilton Color Labs in Omaha Nebraska I could have them all. A sheet of 8 wallets costs less than $3.00, and an 8 x 10 on professional Lustre paper was less than $5.00. Amazing! Check out their prices yourself. This photography lab is the same place professional photographers use, but hobbyist are welcome at this professional processing lab.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t use a professional photographer. There are benefits in their years of experience and camera investment. If I was add up all the post production hours experimenting and put a time value on the process it would be several hundred dollars. But it’s something I enjoy and the end result yielded compliments all the way around. It’s a personal senior gift from me and my best friend to my son.

Hamilton Color Labs

The people at Hamilton Lab are fantastic. My first experience was with Shelli when I brought in my digital files on a USB drive. Not only was she extremely helpful, but we had a lot in common and I felt I had made a new friend. In fact, we are now Facebook friends and she reads this blog. “Hi Shelli!” She has her own blog and loves trying new recipes, check out her cinnamon roll recipe, it’s to die for.

Shelli helped my upload my files onto the lobby computer, noted my sized wallets were smaller than the standard size and pointed me to their website where I could upload them from home. In less than a week the package of senior pictures was finished and I picked them up. Three 8 x 10’s, six 5 x 7’s and over one hundred professional rounded die-cut wallets for less than $40.00, can’t beat the price.

David Hamilton is the owner of Hamilton Color Labs and I met him just last week when I picked up some additional wallet reprints. My son had run out of the “Marine” and “Creek” senior wallets and needed more. We started talking cameras and he was very gracious and informative. The Hamilton Color Lab website offers soft proofing plug-ins for Photoshop on all their papers, and it does make a difference. The colors on your computer screen do not normally reflect how the photo will look on a metallic or Lustre paper unless you change the proof set-up. They explain soft proofing much better though.

I’m going to definitely use them again and look into their gallery options, mounting, framing, lamination services, and other photography services. They do provide nationwide service  so if you don’t live in Nebraska you can use their upload function and have it shipped.

Filed Under: Photography, Project 365, Small Town Living Tagged With: 365project, Bargain, Elmwood-Murdock, memories, Photography, Photoshop, postaday, Product Review

Day 156/365: Canvas On Demand Creates a Work of Art for Your Senior

May 10, 2011 by info@3QuartersToday.com

Canvas on Demand

I love creating special personalized gifts that people remember and through Groupon, (did I tell you I love Groupons) I found Canvas on Demand. Canvas on Demand turns normal photographs into three dimensional works of art on stretched canvas prints.  Now, I LOVE Canvas on Demand and love their customer service. Let me explain.

About a month ago I decided to use the image of my son hanging from the barn as a graduation gift from Elmwood-Murdock high school. When I entered the photograph into the program the image didn’t have enough border to wrap without cutting off important accent parts of the photograph.

So I decided to create a collage of senior portraits. The design was done on Photoshop CS2 and changed all the images to a  grey blue tone for consistency. My goal was to have it match the theme of the invitations. By the time I finished the design I was pressed for time and had to order it rush delivery. I noticed there was two orders in my shopping cart. How two got there I don’t know, so I deleted one of them.

Big mistake. When my order arrived it wasn’t the collage, but the hanging barn canvas which was created a month earlier.  I then realized my mistake and was really bummed. I already had an enlargement of hanging from the barn and didn’t need another. At that same time another Groupon for Canvas On Demand. I ordered it and called Canvas On Demand to explain my dilemma. It was one week before the party, could I get it in time? Maybe by chance I could get a credit of some kind.

They did better than that. Customer service said they would replace the canvas and all I would have to pay for is the shipping. Awesome! I was also sent a return form to include a 5″x 5″ cut out of the canvas I wanted to return. After showing the barn canvas to my friend Beth she was impressed by it as well and thought I should keep both.  I might just keep it and pay for it with my Groupon as I originally intended.

The second canvas arrived the day before the party and I am thrilled. Hanging on the wall it looks like a a work of art, the frame is very high quality and I plan on getting another canvas when my daughter graduates, possibly one of my oldest Marine son.

Canvas On Demand Detail

Definitely recommend the company, can’t say enough good things about them. Tomorrow I’ll give you my secret to printing senior portraits economically. Hint, it’s about Hamilton Color Labs.

Filed Under: Photography, Project 365 Tagged With: 365project, Elmwood-Murdock, Photography, Photoshop, postaday, Product Review, project365

Day 151/365: Weeping Tulips

May 5, 2011 by info@3QuartersToday.com

My Spring photography theme is still tulips. There are so many colors and moods of tulips that I can’t help but capture each one in photographs.

Red Tulip Gifts and Decor
Tulips Gently Weeping

This one reminds me of the Beatles song While My Guitar Gently Weeps.  What do you think?

Photography Notes: This was taken on my old Olympus digital camera and I adjusted the overexposure by using Photoshop CS2 curves, used my 365 Action which automatically adds adjustment layers (in case I need to use them) resizes, sharpens and bumps the contrast. Then added the stroke for the outline and the drop shadow

Pastel Tulip Night Light
Pastel Tulip Night Light
by ndjmom

Tulips are one of my favorite flowers because they signal in warm spring weather, sunny days and gardening.

I drive around town searching for as many colors as I can to photograph and my favorite spot is the mass planting of red tulips that remind me of Monet’s painting of flowers.

Pretty Red Tulips Throw Pillow
Pretty Red Tulips Throw Pillow
by ndjmom

There are several interesting facts about tulips and did you know they are the third most popular flower? Some say they are the new rose. I know I like them better than roses.

Tulip Flower Arrangements

There is nothing more impressive than tulip flower arangements for Spring and Easter. This flower door hanger below is just one idea.

Tulip flower arrangements and door hangers are perfect for spring decorating and Easter.

Filed Under: Project 365 Tagged With: 365project, Photography, Photoshop, postaday, project365, Spring, tulips

Day 149/365: Does Your Goat Wait for You to Come Home?

May 3, 2011 by info@3QuartersToday.com

Day 149: Your goat awaits (Olympus)

It just looks like this goat is patiently waiting for his owner to come back from work. No leash, no tie out, no pen. It would have easily been a yellow lab dog waiting for his owner. He even had a collar.

Last week I took a shortcut which  took me on gravel roads through Otoe, a very small town in Nebraska which only has a population of 205 people, don’t know if it includes the goat or not. This is the scene on the edge of town this is the scene that greeted me. Thought it was rather whimsical, and the type of photo opp that makes you stop, back up and shoot a few pictures. The goat was unfazed, didn’t even get up.

Photography Notes: I did play around with this in Photoshop Elements, the newest version that came with my new scanner last week, but I don’t remember my post production notes, sorry. There is an artistic filter added

Filed Under: Project 365, Small Town Living Tagged With: 365project, goat, Nebraska, pets, Photography, Photoshop, postaday, project365

Day 148/365: Red Tulips Look Like a Monet Painting

May 2, 2011 by info@3QuartersToday.com

Ok, maybe not the famous Monet red poppies, but it’s what I thought of as I crouched down in a neighbors yard to take these red tulips in a neighbors yard. I learned he planted this tulip bed over forty years ago. Daffodils are the first flowers of spring to bloom in my yard, now it’s time for the tulips to shine.In my small town in rural Nebraska people are used to seeing me crouched on the ground with my camera.

This photograph was taken with my old Olympus E-10 camera. It’s only a 4.4 megapixel, but the sensor is better than my Canon Rebel camera and the quality is so much better. I just have to be happy with smaller images.

Red tulips in the garden
These red tulips remind me of Monets Red Poppies (Olympus E-10)

I do love tulips, they are one of my favorite flowers and they are such a welcome sight in the spring after a long winter. Red tulips should be the tradition on Valentines Day instead of roses. I don’t like red roses, so over done. Do a search at the top of the page for more tulip photography. There will be more to come in all colors from red tulips to pink, yellow and the rare variegated tulip hybrids.

Photography Notes: Again, image was originally overexposed, so I played around a bit with the curves layer, added a threshold layer with a low opacity and fill for some dimension to the petals.

More Fun with Tulips

Express your love with red tulips

Hopefully, you followed this ageless custom and expressed your love by giving flowers. This year, rather than giving Rita a bouquet of red roses as I’ve done in the past, on November 3, 2013, I began Plan A — preparing a gift of red tulips. Perhaps …
5000 tulips main attraction at Mughal Gardens this year

President Pranab Mukherjee will declare open the annual ‘Udyanotsav’ at the world-famous Mughal Gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan on February 15. The Mughal Gardens will remain open to the public from February 16 to March 16. However, it will be closed …
Tiptoe Through the Tulips in Ottawa

Feedback. <. > Bright red tulips in bloom. (Don MacKinnon/Getty Images). As a token of appreciation for the protection of Queen Juliana and her young family, as well as the liberation of Holland, the Dutch sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Canada.
 

Filed Under: Photography, Project 365 Tagged With: 365project, flower, flowers, Photography, Photoshop, postaday, project365, red tulips, Spring, tulips

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