Study Group 34 Christine Pollard

Study Group 34
Christine Pollard

Leif Alveen

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October

'Spring'

How I did it -

This month I have had trouble with inspiration so decided to do something different.
It is Spring here in Melbourne and I took some photos of a visitor to my vegetable garden. I decided to do a Spring calendar and of course the template is from a U.S, site but although I could change the months as I am the only member from the Southern hemisphere I left it as it is.

Download a calendar template, compress and take into your editing program. You can use one or two images if you wish. I used one and used colour for the date part.

Choose your image and select-all and edit- copy. Go back to the template. There are three layers: the plain background, the date part at the bottom is the next layer and the top part where the photo goes is the top layer.

Make sure that the top layer is selected and next edit-paste to place the photo and then Layer- Create a clipping group to put the photo within the frame.

Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) T to bring up free transform and move and re-size the photo to fit where you want it.

Click on the second layer with the bottom template on it and Command or Control click on the layer to select the template background. Shift - Delete (Mac) or Shift-Backspace (Windows) to bring up the fill layer. Under content, change black to colour and either use the colour picker or as I did use the eyedropper to pick a colour from the photo. I chose
to sample the yellow from the flower and then deselect.

Next, click on the background layer to select it and bring up the colour picker again. This time I chose a dark brown from the bee as a dark colour worked best to show the dates.

Save as a PSD so you can go back and change the colours or photo. Flatten the layers and save as a JPG.

COMMENTS:

Steve Estill	A good idea. I'd like to see a bit more 'zing' in the image though. The bee and flowers can be made to stand out with the 'texturiser' filter. Copy the layer, save the file as a PSD then on the top layer use the texturiser, selecting the PSD as the texture source and adjust the controls to suit. I also used some motion blur on the wings, then used a layer mask to bring back the original calendar and border - I really like the border!
Candy Childrey	Nice bee and flower picture with bright colors. The bee and flower are framed well with the brown frame. The unevenness of the edges adds to the overall calendar.
Phil Coleman	Even more focus on the bee would help I think. Also, more contrast overall would be good; the bee seems to be too "flat".
Fes Parker	This a great idea and I might use it except I receive a good amount of free calendars every year. I think I would change the yellow cast but I love your borders.
Christine Pollard
Georgianne Giese	What a lovely calendar! Thanks for thinking a bit outside of the box with this resulting inspiration! I appreciate the ragged edge and wonder how you did that. What is a clipping group? I’ve never used that.
Leif Alveen

Member Bio

I was born in Sydney, Australia and moved to Melbourne 36 years ago. I am married to Ray and have a 30 year old son, Steven. I work in a bank and am looking forward to retiring in two years time and moving to the country.

My interest in photography was sparked when Santa gave me a little plastic camera when I was nine years old at my Dad’s work picnic. The view finder was a square metal frame which was flipped up and folded down again when not in use. I wish I had kept it.

My favorite film camera was an Olympus OM1 which I still have. These days I am digital and have a Canon 400D with various lenses 18 - 55 zoom, 75 - 300 zoom, 50mm fixed, 10 - 24mm and the only non Canon lens a Tamron Macro 90mm. My favorite lens is the wide-angle.

I belong to the Caulfield Photographic Society which was a small club but is growing rapidly now but still remaining a friendly and welcoming club. We celebrated our 30th anniversary in 2010.

I enjoy all kinds of photography but lately have been playing with HDR and I would like more opportunity to do landscapes and animals (Melbourne Zoo is a favorite haunt).

I have an IMAC and a Laptop Pro 17in and my photo editing software is Photoshop Elements 9 and Photomatix Pro. I have joined photoshopelementsuser.com and they have wonderful tutorials and a bi-monthly magazine and for anyone with PSE is a real help.

My web site is www.christinepollardframed.me and is a work in progress.

Webmaster: Robert B. Gorrill, APSA, MNEC