Special Effects for Collage Using Photo-altering Software #1

Today, I salute the wonderful worlds of photographs and technology. How great is it that we can not only scan, enlarge, restore, share, create, and alter photographs old and new, but we can also share them by phone / computer/ websites /blogs / iPod / CD / DVD / flash drive. Sometimes I think this is all so wonderful that I hardly know what fun and creative technique to try next.

Of course it is one thing to work in Photoshop on a project for a client; quite another to "futz" around (or is it "phutz") and lose two hours of the day altering a photograph of your aunt and uncle so they now have the legs of the family dog and the ears of Mickey Mouse.

As a book designer I've given perfect skin, thin thighs, whiter teeth, younger eyes and thinner upper arms to many authors whose photos were about to grace a back cover. But I also like to use photographs, old and new, to create altered books, artist trading cards, collages, and whatever the heck pops into my mind. Technology has given us access to a pandora's box of visual treasures.

If someone had told me when I graduated from college that I'd use a phone, without a cord, to take photographs of my artwork to place on a computer that others would visit, I would have shook my head in bewilderment. Kind of like I do now when my younger son, a web developer/IT person, explains new software to me.

Anyway... today I was assembling things for an altered book. I decided to unify the many photographs by making the colors all a bit faded and "old-timey" looking. (see three photos at top of this article). This was accomplished by opening the photos in Photoshop, then going to IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > HUE/SATURATION and changing SATURATION to 50%. In some cases, I also used IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > PHOTO FILTER > SEPIA 50% to give a warm tone to the photographs. The roses above, for instance, were beautiful, deep pinks, yellows, etc., but for the project I wanted to use this photo for, I needed something more muted. I didn't want pastels, but just less saturation of color.

By doing this, the project which incorporates many pieces from a variety of sources, will hold together better visually. I used Photoshop, but any photo altering software will have the same capability, though the terms may be slightly different. At the left, you can see an example of the various effects you can get with photo-altering software.


In the first photo, nothing was altered...it's just as the photo was taken (this is Mark and me on our wedding day last year...yes, we had lunch at Smith and Wollensky's).
>In photo 2, I've put a "cool" filter on the photo.

>In photo 3, I've reduced "saturation" to 50%. I love this effect!

>In photo 4, I've gone crazy...The saturation is increased to full effect...100%.

>In photo 5, I've done something but don't remember what. Oh yes, I used "film grain" which is an "artistic" filter in Photoshop.

>In photo 6, I've "posterized" it using a filter in Photoshop as well.


This is a lot of fun and, depending on the original photograph, you'll get a variety of results. It's best to use photos that are simple, have few elements, or are close-ups.

I print my photos out on Epson Premium Presentation Paper, matte, 40 lb, to use in collages, atcs and altered art. For photographs to share or put in an album, I use Epson Photo Paper, glossy, at 4 x 6 inch size.

Happy creating!
Janice

Creating a Great Display of Your Photographs

As Mark and I pack up our framed photographs, loose photographs, photo albums, paintings, and photo negatives for our move (whew!).... and as I keep looking through decorating books for new ideas in our new-to-us home (with, thank goodness, a lot more wall space)... I was thinking of something I read about in a book on displaying photographs.

If you're like me, you've ended up with a hodge-podge of favorite photos, all different sizes, styles, some in color, some in black and white. Perhaps you'd like to display them together on the wall, but need something to unify them...

If you have photo-editing software (like Photoshop), you can scan the photos (or pull up your digital files) and saving under a new name (to preserve your original) start playing around with adjusting the color. By working several photographs with the same treatment (described below), you will unify the photographs visually and with similar frame, achieve unity in your arrangement on the wall. (This technique is also helpful in creating collages/memory books.)

Consider these photos and their treatments:

Here is a photo of my friend, David Pike. It was taken outside on a sunny day at The Inn at Cedar Falls in Logan, Ohio. There is a lot of color in the photo, but I wanted to focus on my friend...

...so...I have gone into Photoshop, cropped it a bit, and chosen "image" > "adjustments">"photo filter" and "sepia." Which do you prefer?
Next, here's a photograph of my beloved dog, Buster, from years ago. The original photo was in black and white (taken with film) and scanned into my computer. Though I usually love black and white, this seemed too harsh to me. It must have been a sunny day or perhaps the scan was just set at too high of a contrast.

So, I decided to alter this in Photoshop. First, I made sure the "mode" was changed from "grayscale" to "RGB." Then, under "image">"adjustments">"photo filter," I chose "orange 70%" and warmed up Buster's photo. But, in this case, I ended up preferring the original black and white photo. That's why it's important never to work on the original, work on a copy of it.

Mark and I had gone to a Japanese steakhouse with my sister, Joan, for Mark's birthday in May. It was a lot of fun and we had the waitress take our photo. Unfortunately, their camera setting was off and we ended up looking like we'd been out in the sun too long. Also, Joan's eyes were closed.

Still, I wanted something to remember this night by in our photo album, so I scanned the file, converted it to "grayscale" in Photoshop, and cropped Joan out of the photo.


Ugh, it looks like a poor newspaper photo... Not really an improvement at all.

I tried sprucing it up by going converting it back to RGB and then going to "image">"adjustments">"hue saturation"> and fooling around a bit with the color. I like this version better. But, it really shows that you have to start with a good photo to get anything worth hanging on your wall. I think I'll save this for the photo album only.



Using photo-editing software, you can tint the photograph to match the warmth or coolness of the room where you are going to display it.


Here's a photo of my bird, Bailey, taken a few years ago. Bailey, like Buster, passed away, and this is one of my favorite photos of her.

I changed it to sepia and actually like it better. If I were to do an arrangement of photos using the one of David, shown earlier, and this one of Bailey, they would look well together. Let's see...

If I work a bit more on Buster's photo (changing to "sepia" and also adjusting the brightness), AND, if I add in a photo of Buddy and Puck (David's dogs). Their photo was in color, but I've altered it to match these. I then put frames around these, still in Photoshop, and could move them around and see just how this arrangement might look on my wall. This sure beats pounding a bunch of holes in the wall as I changed my mind---back in the olden days before computers.

Of course, there is still an art to arranging photos on the wall, once you've got them the way you want each photo to look--and a unified theme or style. Check out Decorating with Pictures by Stephanie Hoppen for tips on that subject (available on Amazon), as is Decorating with Family Photos by Ryne Hazen and Teresa Hazen.

Here is a good article: "How Should I Frame and Display My Photographs" from the National Archives.

And another "The Meaning of Family Photographs" by Charles Williams (no relation).

Here are tips from "Mom Central" on displaying family photos.