Today is just a quick post to let you know I have a new article up here.  It is about the color choices we make for our scrapbook pages.

More scrappy stuff coming soon but life has sort of taken over right now and I am trying to balance it all.  So if I seem slow to respond to emails or message boards then know I am just juggling some things right now and will be back full force asap.

So I am back from the land of migraines.  Remember when I said I wanted to curl up in the corner sucking my thumb and calling for my mommy?  Well, I should have actually called my mom.  She came over yesterday and was like - oh you have a migraine?  Well, have you tried X medicine?  I, of course, was completely clueless.  Off we went to the pharmacy, my mom holding my hand all the way (just kidding on the hand part but she did take me to the pharmacy!) and we got said magic pills.  One pill immediately and one before bed and I am a new woman!  I no longer feel as if I have a 2000 lb helmet on my head that is slowly squeezing, tighter and tighter.

Ahhh, got to love moms!!!  No matter how long I have been a mom, my mom always know a little more "mom info" than me.  Man, I love that woman! And not just for the magic pills....:)

So by now you might have read the Drab to Fab color boosting tutorial I have posted.  As with any tutorial it cannot possibly cover every sitution but I want to offer a solution to two hang ups that I have been getting feedback on.

The first hangup?  Not having Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.  If you did not have one of these programs or something similar you felt out of luck, didn't you?  Maybe you only have the software that came with your camera.  I would love to say that you could do the same with the free program you received but those programs are not set up in the same way.  They are meant for one click solutions and if the programing behind it isn't programmed to read you mind then it probably isn't going to do what you want.  :)  So what to do?  Well, if you want you can download this program.  Version 6 is a free image editing software program that works in levels (the same way PS does) and I am pretty sure would give you some more options.  I can, of course, make no guarantees about the program but I can tell you I downloaded it in the past and it didn't mess with my computer.  So the choice is yours.  :)  Now why do I use PS?  Well, simply cause it works really, really well. There is a reason it is so popular.  If you are thinking of getting it and you don't have it - just get the Elements.  It is still really powerful and will do everything the average person wants to do. (and it is way cheaper then the full version!)

So the other hangup?  Not having pasty white kidlets like me.  You may have found that when you followed the tutorial and used my suggested settings on your gorgeous skin tones you might have ended up with a strange look.  Obviously, not everyone glows-in-the-dark like my family and if you are not familiar with PS you might not have found settings that worked for you.  So I played around with this photo and came up with settings that worked with it.

Now this little chicklet's skin tone is still pretty light but hopefully it will help you with the understanding of the adjustments if your skin is darker.

The first change I made was on the opacity of the "screen" layer (step 7).  I found the opacity needed to be much lower than the 50%.  On this particular photo it is set to 24% so I would start around this mark and move it back and forth until you get the look you like.  Now why is it lower?  It is because the screen setting adds a sort of whitish filmy thingy over the whole photo causing everything to lighten.  With it set too high the skin gets washed out too much and makes the whole picture look wonky.  (do you like my technical terms??  lol)  So you must always play with the settings.  The ones I listed worked for my photo but each photo is different (even if I am working with the same subject matter I adjust) so you need to play.  It will come easier once you have edited a few photos (or ten or fifty...lol).

(Oh and on this photo I have the opacity of the soft light layer set at 60%.)

And the other change I made to the settings in the tutorial was on the hue/saturation adjustment level (steps 9-11).  I found that even though on my photos I don't generally edit the reds & magentas (step 11) the skin tones looked better if I adjusted the red here.  In this photo I pumped up the red to +10 and like the results much better.  So if you are not so white you are blue (yes, we as a family "might" have that creepy blue white skin especially in the leg area!) then you will want to adjust the reds (and maybe the magentas) until your skin looks more natural.  Again, you must play around with your photo.  PS is powerful and meant to have human interaction so it will not decide anything for you.  You have to play and learn and get comfortable.

Of course the ultimate test of your editing skills will be when you print the photos.  So before you get too many done, print some adjusted ones and see what you like and don't like about your edits.  Might seem like you are wasting a bit at first but I think in the long run you will be happier with your edits/photos and waste less.

That's it for today.  Any more major hang ups?  Let me know and I will see what I can figure out for you. :)

Want to make your photos go from drab to fab?

Then check out my article here.  It gives you step by step instructions on how to edit the colors of your photos to give them some eye catching pop.

More samples.

And the editors of Memory Makers books have a two part Q&A posted here and here about me and my book if you are interested in reading silly and strange things about me. :)  You can also ask questions here on the messageboard.

Remember to enter to win a copy of Cut Loose here.  They are posting a winner Monday July 7th.

The other day my pregnant sister came over for a visit.  Partly to catch up and hang out and partly so I could take some photos of her growing belly.  I have to admit I was sort of nervous about the photo bit. 

Since I have been designated the family photographer (mainly 'cause I am always at family events with camera in hand) I get the chance to take photos like this.  But I had never done belly photos before.  I know, if you can take a decent photo then you can take a decent photo of anything right?  Well not so much for me.  You see, I am not a photographer.  I am a scrapbooker.  A scrapbooker who for the sake of her pages has practiced taking photos and has improved.  I learned how to take photos in certain scenarios and what type of framing I like for taking photos of my kidlets.  I am happy with my picture taking ability but I have no delusions about being a photographer.

So enter a request for some belly photos.  I was so excited to be asked and then I thought what type of poses work, what type of framing, what would make my sister feel beautiful (she already is but I want her to feel it), what, what, what?

So I asked for advice on a few scrapbooking message boards and someone directed me to Flickr and told me to search Maternity.  Whamo!  Tons of inspiration!  I looked at all those beautiful bellies (I will admit to briefly longing to be prego but then I woke up!) and all the amazing photos and was slightly intimidated.  Again, I am not a photographer.  I am a scrapbooker with a pregnant sister.  But then I decided to narrow it down to a few favorites and study them.  I looked at the poses.  I looked at the framing.  I looked at all the details.  I looked and looked until I felt I understood what I liked about them. 

So when my sister showed up I felt more comfortable.  Well kind of.  I mean, it was my sister so I knew she would sit for me until I felt I got it right but I wanted everything to turn out OK 'cause these photos would be irreplacible in the future.  Talk about pressuring myself.  My sister - she was totally chill.  I bet she had no idea how nervous I was.  She is in her happy baby growing bubble. :)

So we took about 15 minutes and I took a ton of photos.  At first we were both a bit awkward but she relaxed and I relaxed and things got better.  And then we were done.  I was anxious so I uploaded them to the computer right away so I could see.  There were some not so great ones but there were a few treasures too.  I think that when we see great photos we often don't realize how many "just OK" photos were taken at the same time.  I mean obviously if you are a professional you might take less photos but even the pros take a bunch of shots knowing that there will be one that stands out from the rest.

Take for instance this photo.

I love, love, love it.  It was exactly what I had in mind.  But what you don't see is the 5 or 6 other photos I took that didn't turn out quite as well.

The one on the left is the one I love and then you can see the one on the right isn't quite as good.  Just subtle changes as I moved my camera slightly but they really effected the final photo.  This is what I mean when I say take a bunch of photos (especially if you have a digital camera) 'cause there just might be one that you love more than the others.

The same applies to these next photos.  Took a bunch of each pose but ended up with a particular one from each that I loved.  Of course there were some poses that didn't turn out at all.

And the other thing to consider when you see your final photos is that they are not final. :)  Never under estimate editing and cropping.  Check out this photo.

Love it but it didn't look like this straight out of the camera.  Look at this before and after.

You can see how I changed it from not so great to a much better photo.  All I did was rotate it a bit so she looked like she was standing straight and then I cropped it.

Possibly this might help someone out there who is scrapbooker and wanted to improve their photos.  In a nutshell  - look at some photos by others you like and figure out what it is you like about them, take lots (and lots) of photos at any event and after the fact, see if you can edit any photos to improve them. 

Over here. 

(Yup. That is me in that super, top of the line car seat!  Oh and check out those thighs!)

I have done something bizarro to my back and am in mega pain.  No scrapbooking, no bending, no anything I actually want to be doing.  Not fun!  I am resting and stretching and doing everything I am supposed to be doing to make it better.  Oh and being grumpy too.  That makes it get better faster I am pretty sure!

I am a little worried about having to stand to teach Fri. and Sat. in Chantilly this weekend but that is why I am resting.  If not, I am sure I can get the good drugs...;)  No worries if you cut your paper crooked then!  It will all look good to me :)