Caringbridge

They have now set up a caringbridge site for Chris. In less than one day it has had almost 5,000 hits. Make sure you sign his guestbook if you visit! They have been updating it a lot.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/chrisdewey

Please Pray!

http://www.startribune.com/local/39787082.html

This is Matt's cousin Chris. Please pray for him, and his (Dad) Mark, (mother) Poppy, (Brothers) Phillip and Danny.

At this point we are all so shocked, and I don't have much else to say.

AMBER AND THE BOYS

I guess my blog name is so creative! I have (finally) been blog hopping and their are LOTS of ________ and boys. This bums me out. I am going to think of something else...WOW I just thought of it!!!!!

Personal Question...I stink!!!

Question:

If you could "unknow" one thing you know, what would it be?

Ok Kim, I have thought about this for days...in the car, at work, in the shower, before I go to bed, all day pretty much. I have no answer for you, I wanted to sound clever and deep. I got nothing! Sorry to let you down. Try again! Love <3

Strangers Question

Question:
I am just about to buy Photoshop. It is very exciting, but very daunting. Do you have any recommendations for how to get started (books, online tutorials, classes, etc.)? Any other beginners tips would be helpful for me. I know many others already know how to do lots of the basics, but for those of us who are new, anything you want to share is greatly appreciated.


I am assuming since you have used the word "daunting" to describe your photoshop feelings you must be purchasing Photoshop CS4??
There is a program I recommend you buy along with Photoshop and that is the Ron Nickels Pallate (google search: RNDS retouching). This is a VERY easy program that can show ANY one how to use photoshop. For instance let's say you wanted to brighten someones eyes...all you do is go over to "brighten eyes" on the palate and it pick the perfect brush and opacity to "brighten eyes." It's amazing. Every tool has a video instruction that explains (VERY WELL) how to use it. It's amazing. Other than that I have watched a lot of tutorials on Youtube, and that has been really helpful to me, but I am a visual learner. I think there is a photoshop for dummies if you are the kinda person who needs to learn from a text book. Did that help?

What are you using photoshop for?

Kurt Cobain was my best friend last night.

I had this crazy dream that I was shopping for oil paints, and around the corner came Kurt Cobain. I was totally confused because I kinda thought he was dead. Anyways he walked up to me and was like, "how about these Amber?" I was thinking to myself how in the world does he know my name. Of course I was like yeah those are great (anything would have been...it's Kurt Cobain!!). Then he started saying things like..."remember that really sweet painting we did together for such and such art show??, " and "You better call your mom back, she told me you have been avoiding her." I played along even though I knew nothing more about him than I do right now! Then while walking to the parking lot we solved a murder mystery. I love my brain...Oh yeah and he really like my glasses.

This is me with glasses

ANY question!

You don't just have to ask me photoshop questions, you can also ask me personal questions. So go ahead...ask! 

More Questions!

Ask me more photoshop questions! I have answered them all!

Glasses

Tomorrow is the big day! I am going to pick up my specs! Wait did I not tell you folks the story>? Well I guess I will have to start from the very...well....start I guess. 

When I was 9 I completely failed half of my school wide eye exam. Only half is right. The right half.  My folks took me to the eye doctor and discovered I am almost blind in my right eye, and that my left eye had taken over....way over. I have you see what they call a stigmitisim....or something spelled similar to that. Among many other goofy things. (I bet you never knew that about me huh?). 

   From the age nine until 12 I wore glasses all the time, but they never really helped me see any better so I decided to stop wearing them. I take that back I did wear them quiet a bit in 11th grade because I thought maybe they would help me sit still in school (they didn't..and I am not sure why I thought that?). 

   NOW I sit in front of the computer ALL day long, and that does a real number on my eyes. It has been really hard, because my eyes start to hurt. So now once again, I have decided to get my eyes checked out. Having no insurance I needed to do this cheap..real cheap. Americans Best won the cheap battle. I was somewhat nervous that they wouldn't do a good job, but they actually explained to me what was going on with my eye better than any other eye doc has. He explained that My glasses probably won't make me see any better (than whats the point right>>??), but that I am straining my eyes all the time. I guess that is really bad for my eyes, and the glasses will make me relax my eyes and they should stop hurting! YAY! Plus I might get a little more depth perception which is always a good thing. So I will post a photo as soon as I get back with the glasses! 

A song for Madeline on Valentine's day!

My husband is the best man that I know. 

He is so helpful all day everyday. He has been gone for 3 days and I am going crazy. You never know what you have until it's gone. Those words are so true. I guess I have overlooked my wonderful man a time or two. And today I decided to make a LOVE list for him. 

I LOVE- that he is goofy. 

I LOVE- his sense of humor.

I LOVE- his values.

I LOVE- that he teaches me how to be a better person just by being himself.

I LOVE- His name.

I LOVE- watching him with the boys. They have such an amazing relationship. If you have ever seen him with our boys you would know what I am talking about. He just connects with them.

I LOVE- that he loves babies. 

I LOVE- that he doesn't pretend to be macho.

I LOVE- how he smells.

I LOVE- in the morning when he just lays looking around with out moving or making a sound. It is the best 5 minute start to a day. I just sit and talk, and talk, and talk...and he listens. I don't know why I love that so much, but it's really cute. 

I LOVE- Watching tv shows with him.....Curb your enthusiasum (mind the spelling), Arrested Development, LOst, The Office......

I LOVE- when he cries at movie. 

I LOVE- how he looks. His face is so interesting. Big pouty lips, soft brown eyes, his CUUTE freckles!!

I LOVE- that he suprises me a lot. 

I love- when he picks me wild flowers. 

I LOVE- how he comforts me when I am in pain or sick. 

I LOVE- that is seems like he always thinks about me.

I LOVE- that he can make me laugh (when i am not taking myself to seriously). 

I LOVE- that he stays home with the boys. 

I LOVE- the way he supports me.

I LOVE- when he encourages me.

I LOVE- listening to him pray.

I LOVE- when he draws. 

I LOVE- his hair...it's so think and curly.

I LOVE- that he knows everything about most things....except manly things like cars and how to fix stuff. 

I LOVE- How he shows love. 

I LOVE- that he cherished my purity, before we got married. 

I LOVE- that he loves JESUS! 

I LOVE- him, him, him!!!!

I fell!

I fell flat on my butt twice this past week, and boy oh boy am I hurting! 

I am totally stiff, and in SOO much pain. In fact I didn't even go to work today! Please pray for me! 

The first time I fell I was running back to work to pick up my laptop around 8pm. I was in a HUGE hurry because the boys were in the car crying wanting to go to sleep. I locked the door turned around and starting to walk through what I thought was a puddle. Actually it was completely CLEAR ice. I slipped and fell very hard. So hard that two people pulled over and ran across the street to help. Meanwhile Matt is still in the car oblivious to what is going on. Finally I screamed his name and he rushed out to help, along with the two other strangers. 

The next time I fell I was with my boss Steve in the cities for a photography convention. During the ride down I was talking to him about my car accident and how I have to be really careful not to fall or get hurt, literally 5 minutes later I was on my butt again. Man did I feel dumb. He thought I was trying to play some weird joke. 

So now here I am laying in bed SORE, sore, sore. Please pray for me, it is kinda hard to chase boys around when I am in this much pain. Thank you! 

Melissa's brush question!

Loading brushes into photoshop is similar to loading actions, but there is one less step. By the way Melissa did my tutorial help you with that?? Ok so here is the play by play on brushes.

1. Download the brushes onto your desktop.
2. Extract all files (right click on the folder and hit extract all). When you extract you will see a bunch of normal looking files and then you will see one that is a blue and white square and it will have the name of the brush on it....remember that.
3. Go to my computer...and double click on your harddrive....it will be named like (s) or (c) or something like that.
4. Double click on programs
5. Double click on Adobe
6. Double Click on adobe photoshop (cs3 or cs4 whatever you have)!
7. Double click on Presets.
8. Double click on brushes....are you sick of double clicking yet>>>??
9. Now you want to drag that blue and white icon into this folder.
10. Your done! Now you have to close photoshop and open it again for the brushes to show up!

Yay!! You are your way to a beautiful brush love affair!
Hope that helped! PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS if I didn't explain this well!

Jess's Question....!

Disclaimer: There are many ways to do EVERYTHING in photoshop and I am going to show you the easiest way to do them.



how do you adjust the background color and not screw up the colors in the main subject...aka documenting art pieces. i always have too dark of photos so when i adjust the exposure in photoshop i lose all the detail and wash out the drawings. help!


Hey Jess, very good question. This is an issue many people have. Using a mask will solve your problem. Here is the step by step.

1. Open your image and make a copy layer of your background.
2. Now adjust the exposure to whatever you want your background to look like, it won't matter what your subject looks like.
3. Then create a mask. Look at Kim's question if you are not sure how to do that.
4. Just like in Kim's Q you grab a soft brush and paint back the background layer using black at 100% opacity.

You should be set to go! Please let me know if you have anymore questions! Love you Jess!!!

Brushes!!

http://www.brusheezy.com/brushes

I really like the brushes on this website. I will explain tomorrow how to load them into photoshop!

How to load an action....explained by someone much better at explaining! Heehe!

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tools/actions-tutorials/photoshop-actions-for-photographers.html

This is a really good tutorial I found about loading actions. What is great about the internet is that you can find anything for free. You just google free photoshop actions and you have just about every choice of action you can think of.

Kim's Question

For a clean magazine/model-like-perfect-soft focus look......I have always used smart blur. (after selecting the eyes and then inverse-ing to select everything else). Is that right? And how much? I am always afraid I am using too little or too much. Is there a different route I should take?

This is a very good question and will very a tad with every photo. The more complicated way to go about this is to use the channel system (I am not sure if you are familiar with that), but really it does almost the same effect just doing it the plain and simple way.

Here is what I do.....

1. I open my image.

2. I duplicate the background layer, and name it Blur.

3. Go to filter....scroll to blur and I usually use Gaussian Blur. So hit that. I would bring it to about 20, but in preview you can decide what is best for the photo you are using.

4. Then on your Blur layer create a mask....it's on the bottom of the layer box...kinda by the adjustments. This mask will show up right next to the little photo on the blur layer and it will be white. Click on it.

5. Then grab a soft brush, and change your opacity to 100%.

6. Select the color black to paint with.

7. Then go over the eyes, lips, eyebrows and nostrils.

This is VERY fast once you get the hang of it, and I find it works almost exactly the same as the WAY more complicated methods. It is very important to paint back the eyes, lips, teeth, eyebrows and nostrils. Your photo will look strange to the untrained eye.

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Alicia's Questions!!

Thanks Alicia for your awesome compliment. It really means tons to me!

So your questions....

The prayer cards that I made for my cousin Sammy came from a template that my co-worker had made in Digital Image Pro (DIP). DIP is a super user friendly program geared for graphic design. If you are not already used to photoshop and don't want to invest in it that is the program you should use.

My header was made in photoshop and I will try to break it down into steps the best that I can...with lots of side notes! :)

1. I used a photograph for my background image. So once you decide on the photo you would like to use open it with photoshop. When you open the image it will automatically make this your background layer.

2. Next you need to duplicate this layer. So highlight the background layer and right click (on pc) and hit the option "duplicate layer."

3. Oops...first you need to download some brushes (the flowers in my photo). But I will just explain it like you have the brushes and at the end will tell you how to get them.

4. Now that you have duplicated the layer you can start to brush on your flowers (or whatever brush you want to use). Really the brushed should be called stamps because that is more like how they really work. So select the brush tool...(on the left bar going down). Then on the top of that screen you will see the word brush with a little dot next to it and a number below it click on that the "master diameter" will change the size of your brush. Then just to the right will be a little arrow you need to click on that to select what brush (stamp) you want to use.

5. Next you want to change the opacity which is just to the right of the mode bar. The opacity will determine the density of your brush and really that is up to you.

6. Now make sure you are on your duplicated layer...and select whatever color you would like your brush to be and start to stamp.

To add text:

VERY easy...just hit the text box and click where ever you want the text to be and write. I think you can figure that part out but if not let me know.

To add another image:

1. Open the other image you want to use.

2. Click the minimise box so you can see both images at the same time.

3. Grap the curser tool (the first tool on the left bar).

4. Then grap the image you want to be smaller and drag it to your background image.

5. Now this image will be sitting on top of what you have already done.

6. MAKE SURE YOU HOLD DOWN THE SHIFT KEY>>>and just like you would make a web box smaller you would go the corner and drag. Drag it down to whatever size you want the image to be and place it where ever. If you don't hold down the shift key while doing this it will warp your image.

Once you have your text, photo and stamping done you want to flatten your image. You can either just hit "save as" and saved as a jpeg (which will automatically flatten your image), or you can go to layer on the top bar and hit flatten and then save.

AHH>>>>Did that answer your question. It is probably better to teach this in conversation so you can ask question. BUT PLEASE ASK me questions if you have any!

Anything you want to know.

So my friend Melissa who is an amazing photographer is answering whatever question anyone want to know about photography on her blog. While photography is her area of expert photoshop is mine. I am opening up my brain for you to pick!
I will answer any question about photoshop (that is if I know it).

So go ahead ask away......



Here is her blog:
http://billmissandbrood.blogspot.com/

Header

I don't have any idea what I did to my header....Oh well! Do you like it??