Fine Art Template

I went for simplicity on my fine art template.  I chose a white background with a simple font.  It's called Champagne & Limousines and I downloaded it on dafont.com.  
Here is the template on it's own:

Then I added a picture of a rose that I took this weekend:

June 19th 2010, 4:47 PM, F/3.2, 1/100, Logan, Utah, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS

This picture is also artsy so I put it in the template also.

April 27th 2009, 7:28 PM, F/4.1, 1/40, Rexburg, Idaho Casio Ex- Z600

Photolusion

 The Wind is Blowing - June 21st 2010, 8:07 PM, F/4.0, 1/160, Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS

For this picture I posed my friends far apart from each other.   One I had hold out her hand and the other one I had act crazy.  My camera didn't focus as well as I would have liked but I think the picture turned out pretty good.  I made minimal edits, just doing auto tone, color, and contrast and brightening the picture to 29.

Flower Ring -
June 19th 2010, 1:59 PM, F/9, 1/160, Logan, Utah, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS
I took this lovely photo of a rose outside of my friend's brother's house.

Ring-
June 21st 2010, 9:47 PM, F/3.2, 1/160. Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS
I really liked the way my ring looked and thought it looked like the inside of a flower.  So I took a picture of it.

To start off I tried to match the color of the flower to my ring.  Then I used the quick select tool and dragged the ring over to the flower, and then sized it and placed it in the middle of the flower.  I then played with the settings to make it so it wasn't so bright and it looked like it had a shadow on it.   I toned down the brightness and contrast on just that layer.  Then I flattened the image and used auto tone, contrast, and color.

Edge Effects

Brush Effect -
May 7th 2010, 5:56 PM, F/9, 1/250, Layton Utah, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS -
For this photo I converted it to a smart filter and used the Fresco Filter to give it a painted look.  I made the brush size 2, brush detail 8 and texture 1.  I then deleted the photo and brought out the white background color.  I used the history brush tool to bring the picture back.  The thick brush I used was the last brush at 453 pixels.  I went from side to side to get a good brushed on effect on the photo.

Double Fade Border - June 6th 2010, 7:31PM, F/3.2, 1/30, Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD 780 IS - I really loved the way this photo turned out so I pretty much just left it the way it us, just using auto tone and contrast to edit the photo.  To get this border I reduced the picture so I didn't have to crop it too much.  I matched the color of one of the bulbs for the canvas extension to add some variety to the background border.  I also chose to go as small as possible in my borders because I did it on another picture and went a little too big and it ended up looking not too great.  This border looks awesome!  

Night and Light Effects

Rings -  I took the series of these photos on Tuesday June 8th at 10:37.  I set the shutter speed to 10 seconds and the F Stop was 2.8.  These were all taken in my apartment in Rexburg Idaho and I used my roommate's Canon Powershot A720 IS.  I liked the colors and the way these pictures turned out.  To get these shots I took the glow stick bracelets and arranged them into a pattern like this:

Then I moved the camera in a circle making the circles blur.

Then I moved the camera across the line to get a cool blur.  I love how these turned out!

Sarah - June 8th 2010, 10:26 PM, F/2.8, 15 sec, Rexburg, ID, Canon Powershot A720 IS For this shot I had 3 of my friends move glow sticks while I took I pushed the button on the camera.  My friend wrote out Sarah and then I flipped it in photoshop.  Then I painted some of the background black because the blinds were letting some light in that was a little distracting.

Photobook Template

I started off with the template that was provided to us.  I didn't like the brown color that was there originally, so I used the replace color tool to change it to a shade of turquoise that I liked.  I saved the settings and used it to change the other page.  I also didn't like the font that was included in the template, so I downloaded a new font on dafont.com.  I then had some troubles getting the photos to fit in the frame.  I was so frustrated because I couldn't resize the pictures.  One of my friends who is a photoshop genius happened to stop by my office while I was doing this.  It was a miracle!  He showed me a different way to do it.  He said I should first resize them using the free transform tool.  Then with the transform tool to rotate it to the same angle as the frame.   Then he used the polygonal lasso tool to trace the frame.  He then placed the traced shape over the photo and selected the inverse.  Then he went to edit clear to cut the photo out.  Then you move it on top of the frame and voila!  A perfect cut out photo.  I love it!

My Week in Photos

Wednesday - June 2, 2010, 7:52 PM, F/3.2, 1/320, Denver, CO, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

I was driving downtown with my friend and decided to take a picture of these lights in Larimer square.  I used auto tone, color, and contrast, and then I changed the exposure to +1.71 because the photo was underexposed.

Thursday - June 3, 2010, 9:48 PM, F/3.2, 1/10, Englewood, CO, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

I was finished with a fireside and decided it would cool to take a shot of the trees with the light shining through.  To edit it I just used the auto color, tone, and contrast to change the colors a bit.

Friday - June 4, 2010,  9:48 PM, F/3.2, 1/20, Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

My roommate was eating ice cream with twix and I thought it would be cool to take a picture of it.  I used the macro mode to get the detail in the front and blur the back a bit.  To edit it I changed the levels to the increase contrast 3 in the drop down menu.

Saturday - June 5, 2010, 6:38 PM, F/3.2, 1/10, Rexburg Idaho, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

I took this picture of my necklaces because I thought it looked cool.  To edit it I used  the HDR tool in photoshop and changed the edge glow to 126 px, the strength to 2.75, the exposure to +1.43, and the highlight to -41%.

Sunday - June 6, 2010, 7:25 PM, F/5.8, 1/100, Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

I took a walk on Sunday night and I saw these cones lined up by my apartment complex.  I thought it would be cool to take a picture of such a bright color against a gray sky.  To edit it I opened the curves and drew an S and then smoothed it out until it looked good.

Monday - June 7, 2010, 10:55 PM, F/3.2, 1/10, Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

I took a picture of some of the decorations in my apartment.  I played with different angles and this was the best one that I got.  It was underexposed, so I changed the exposure to +2.69.  Then I increased the vibrance to 74.  

Tuesday - June 8, 2010, 10:59 AM, F/9, 1/80, Rexburg, Idaho, Canon Powershot SD780 IS

On my walk to school I saw a tree with gorgeous flowers on it.  I used the macro mode to get some good bokeh.  To edit it I changed the levels to Increase Contrast 3 in the dropdown menu.