Photoshop Made Chocolate Bar

Enjoy the chocolate bar created by Photoshop! Happy Holidays!





You can find the recipe in the book "Photoshop Type Effects Gong Wild". Of course, make all the tweaks you want. (I did and I found that being bold is good!)

Forte - A Bloated Script-Style Font (free download included)

This "whimsical" font appeals to children. The author of "Photoshop Type Effects Gong Wild" says it would make a good candidate for prints on kids products such as cereal boxes. You can find a free download from here.

Old Melody

I accidentally heard this old Chinese song on a website. I still can't remember its name, but it struck me like the bright mid-autumn moon did when i was in the country of China. Tonight, I sat down on the couch in my little office at home, turned off the lights, and let the melody start to flow. Slowly, like an old story-telling friend, this old melody brought up all the old memory to me. I don't know whether it is the beautiful music or the old memory, whatever it is, inch by inch, it filled up the whole room, it embraced me, it melted me...

Old Melody

By Steven Taylor

Hello again old melody,
please play for me today….
bring back those
special magic times
my mind keeps packed away

Sing to my soul, old
friend of mine….
your song is my desire..
so nice of you to visit me,…
your style I so admire

Your music paints my past so well,….
old smiles and tears return,
play on Old Melody my friend,
for times gone by
I yearn

Your last refrain, you slowly fade
into obscurity
Old Melody, my dear old friend,
return to me real soon

Book Reading Project

I know if I don't at least sign in and write a few words, I will forget my login id and password to enter my blog. So here I am.

I am still working on my photoshop skills. I am immensely enjoying the book "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching" By Katrin Eismann. I made a promise to read the book (and practice the techniques) for at least 3 times. Now I am less than half way on the first round. Check back to see if I can keep my promise. I really need some pressure on this. Yell at me, chastise me, despise me when you see me trying to back out!

Shampoo Bottle Design (failed versions)

Where is the successful version? I don't know. I may never be able to make one...

The bottle: drawn with photoshop.
The flower: derived from the original image "Tibouchina urvilleana" by photographer Kristine from St. Augustine, USA

For John

Every so often I get this urge of trying new things. It comes and goes. I forget about it pretty quickly. But John remembers it everytime. Over a year ago, I happpened to see an article on the Internet that says digital SLR cameras were hot and professional photographers did wonders with them. One night I mentioned it at the dinner table and expressed my admiration towards these SLRs. A few weeks later John bought me a Cannon SLR camera. I screamed - how wonderful! But it must be expensive (he wouldn't tell me how much it cost)! I was estatic but in the meantime I kicked myself for saying my wishes too easily because John always tries to make them come true! He is always happy to see me joyfully surprised. The fact is each time I AM truely amazed by him and I AM speechless at his loving attention. Again and again I thank God for giving John to me - not because the things he buys or does for me, but for his forever gentle caring heart!

Back to the SLR. Life has been so busy that I never fully utilized this advanced equipment as of today. This afternoon we took our duaghter and her friend to the Fort Worth garden for a walk. We did some blind photo shooting there. Suddenly I realized how little I knew about my camera - I still don't know how to set the f-stop, the exposure offset, etc. Most of the time I had to do what I always do, which is setting it to "automatic" and just point and shoot. What a waste to have such a nice camera! John kept telling me it was ok and this was a good start. He even picked out a couple of photos to prove his point. I knew he tried to make me feel better, but I couldn't stop feeling sorry because I should have been good at using this camera by now. I felt I didn't treat John's gift right, I didn't treat John right.

John suggested me to put these pictures up as some sort of self-encouragement. I know they are very so-so pictures, but I will do as he wishes...






As for the previous post "Shampoo Bottle Desgin", I am stilling working on it. There is a long way to go yet.

Shampoo Bottle Design (Phase 1)

Not completed yet, but I will finish it soon.
The bottle: drawn with photoshop.
The flower: derived from the original image "Tibouchina urvilleana" by photographer Kristine from St. Augustine, USA

Bottle makeover with photoshop

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Professional U-Turn

I am learning about myself - still. Last December, I was still with a tiny compay working really hard for myself, and for the company. I was always afraid if I didn't work hard enough, the company would have difficulty to pay us on time, or, pay us at all. Later I realized how childish I was - I had been with that company for two years by then and it didn't really miss any of our paychecks even though there were a few incidents that signaled some financial trouble. Finally, in January, everyone's hard work paid off - our 20 people company got bought by a huge corporation, a corporation that is top 20 in the nation and has around 180,000 employees. We cheered - we are "rich" now, we are safe now.

I thought I would "work" happily ever after the bought-out. What I didn't realize was that I just entered into the nightmare of big corporation's bureaucracy, mind-buggling controling policies and the new manager's power struggles. Suddenly, a different kind of pressure was mouting. It sufficated me to the point that I finally could't take it anymore.

Now I am back to a small company. I feel like I just went on a long waited journey and quickly took a U-turn and came back home. Now work is as harder as ever again but I couldn't appreciate it more.

Poster Design - Protect Our Forests

Trick 1: See my previous post.
Trick 2: Added a black layer and then I used the dodge tool to enhance the torn look of the page.

How to create text filled with the scene

How to create text filled with the scene (flame in this case) from the photo that it accentuates?

1. Define the photo as a pattern (Edit -> Define Pattern).
2. Type the text and add a Pattern Overlay style on the text, using the photo pattern created in step 1.
3. Use cursor to drag the image around to find the best background that shows through the letters.
4. Use Gradient Overlay and Inner Glow to enhance the effect if necessary.

In this case, I created multiple layers for the letters so I could get the best background I want for each letter.

Play With Type Effects

I have been playing with photoes more than playing with text effects. Today I read a phototshop book basically asks me these quesetions: If you own a company, what kind of logo would you like to have to attract most customers? If you have an album, what style of your album title should you use to get most buyers? If you write a book, what the book cover should look like, especially the book title? If you send out invitations for your wedding or your kids' birthday parties, what type of font will you use on the invitation cards?... Ok, ok, I got it, I should learn some Type Effects using Photoshop!

So here is the start. I think I will try all sorts of things. Maybe someday I will come up with a good logo for my furture company or something! ;)

That Hair, That Flame...

Selecting objects without clear, continuous edges is hard. Fine hair and flames are in this category. The main tricks for selecting these things out of a picture are: 1. Use channels; 2. Use all the tools or methods you can find to inscrease contrast between the object you want to select and the background. Contrast is the key! (I sound a little crazy here, but I am sure many photoshoppers understand what I mean.)

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Friend Engaged

This is not about photoshop even though I had to use it. This is a "gift" for a friend who recently got engaged. I borrowed his engagement picture from his blog (although I do hope it has higher resolution :)). Will, congratulations! I wish you and your bride live happily ever after!

Rose Pedals Hand Made

Aren't these the most beautiful rose pedals? Yes, they are 100% created with photoshop. Here is how.

Stress Reliever

The ineresting thing is, during the day at work, getting to see what I learned about photoshoop at home really takes some stress off from my job. So, I am post what I did again. Not to show off, but just to entertain myself.

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Photoshop Inner Glow and Color Match

Inner Glow

Very often after you put your selection from one image on to another (which creates a new selection layer on the later), depending on the original image's background you will see something called "halo" along the outline of the selection layer.

To remove the halo, we can use the Inner Glow tool. My understanding of Inner Glow is - it is a technique that uses a glow along the inside of the selection layer and let it "glow" and cover up the halo color from the original image's background.

Set the blend mode to Color (reduce the opacity a little bit afterwards). Use the color swatch to select a color closest to the major color of the selection layer. Select "Precise" from the Technique dropdown box to trace into the cornors of the selection layer and cover up all the haloing color. As for the "Size" value of Elements section, set it to a small value to keep the glow small.

I wish I am making sense here. But if not, at lease the phrase "Inner Glow" is kind of poetic. ;)

Match Color

Image -> Adjustments -> Match Color lets you bring the colors in one image or layer in line with those in another. Here "another" doesn't have to be the immediate layer beneath this layer. It could whatever layer that you want your current layer to match color with. In the "Match Color" window, set the layer that you want to match with (source layer) as the background. Adjust the Luminance and Color Indensity value accordingly to achieve better results. Finally, raise the Fade value to blend the two layers to make it more natural.

This technique is very useful in blending layers (obviously). Look at the following examples:

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God Gave Us a Rainbow

It's been raining most days of this month, as if the sun went on vacation to let the rain dominate for a while - this is unheard of in Texas since we have had years of drought. Yesterday it poured in the afternoon and night. This morning it was raining pretty heavily again. Interestingly, when I took the dog out for a few minutes, the rain stopped. Afterwards it started to pour again. But look at what I caught in my back yard during those few precious minutes ...

What's made it even more interesting is, my husband and I took the kids to see Evan Almighty last night. I think God just gave us a rainbow...

The Power of Healing and Patching

Here is the magic of the healing and patching tools...

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I really need to write down the key points of the practice I have been doing. But every time when I finish my photo editing practice it is almost midnight or there are other things I need to do take care immediately. I guess I'll have to add them later.

I forgot to mention ...

the photoshop book I used is: Adobe Photoshop CS2 One-On-One by Deke McClelland.

Since now the CS3 has come out, I guess you might want to get the updated version (book and software).

I learned Dodge, Burn, Sponge, and Smudge today. Here is the homework I did: (I will take the pictures off in a few days.)

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Hobbies

My husband John always had a hobby - playing guitars. I cannot really say it is a hobby because he played it for a living when he was young. Now he is passing it to our daughters. Now they "gang up" together trying to get me into playing instruments. I laughed - they don't know, I have already had a hobby! A good one! It is photoshopping!

Here is one of the products of my hobby. I followed the book step by step. Looks easy, actually hard for me - because it required a lot of patience, which is what I usually don't have...


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Inclement Weather in Texas