Star Wars - Uncut

My kids, 2 & 6, are hooked on the original Star Wars trilogy. They can't get enough of it. I'm going to have to cut their consumption because I don't want them growing up to be nerds.  They don't just sit and watch through the whole trilogy. They watch an episode each weekend, once Saturday and once Sunday. 

Textures: From Image to Artwork

As you may have noticed, we have lots of textures for sale in our lbobi shop. These textures are useful for adding depth and a more unique feel to your images. In fact, we use textures on all of our gallery wraps (which is why we sell them with our Gallery Wrap action). When used appropriately, textures and patterns can really enhance the beauty of your image.

Oh, and clients love seeing that extra bit of work transform their image into something truly special.

You can find lots of tutorials across the web on how to use textures and patterns in your images, but to save you some time I'll hit the most important points in this post.

1. Pick a good image. You want to compliment an image that is already good, not try to cover up places in an image that is bad.

2. Blending Mode and Layer Masks: In the image below, you'll see two screenshots of the layers palette. On the left, the Blending Mode is underlined in red. Choose one that you like (my favorites are Overlay and Soft Light). Next are layer masks. These allow you to use the Brush tool to "brush away" the texture in spots you don't want it (like skin). Get to know these two features, they'll take you far.

3. Experiment. Use just one texture to compliment a vignette. Use seven textures and three flourishes. Use one hundred and thirty-seven layer masks. It's all about practice and seeing what feel you want your images to have. And most importantly, it's about subtlety (so maybe don't use that many layer masks). But experimenting is really the best way to get these techniques down, because the more you practice the faster you get. And the faster you get, the more money you make.

Here's a little inspiration from texture wrangler Jeff Rodgers:

Alright lbobians, go forth and conquer textured finishes. But before embarking on that adventure, check out the Texture Packs in our shop. The Imaging show special is still available, so you can get the biggest texture pack we offer for 40% off. Just enter discount code IUSA2012 before checking out to get the deal.

Be sure to leave any questions or tips you have about using textures in the comments!

- Calvin

Even my Twitter account has texture.

No Easy Button...

As said so eloquently by Mayor Jeff in this post, there is no Easy Button in the photography business. But that doesn't mean that everything has to be done the hard way.

We've created these shortcut actions for you loyal lbobians because there's just no sense in wasting your precious retouching time by clicking a million times. A friend of mine recently tracked his clicks for a whole day at work, and he managed to amass 10,500 clicks. That's a lot of work for your fingers, when they could just be pressing a couple of shortcut buttons.

Here's a list of my top five favorite shortcuts that we offer:

1. Flatten - This one does exactly what it says: it grabs all of your layers and flattens them. That may seem like a strange first choice, but it's just so handy. I add a slight vignette, then flatten. Adjust a dark area with a layer mask, then flatten. Add our Cocoa Butter finish, then flatten. It's pretty wonderful.

2. Soda Pop! - Instead of toggling those levels, hue/saturation, and color balances until you're heart is content (or your eyes are shot), just run Soda Pop and adjust the opacity of the group. I usually go with somewhere between 45% - 60%. It's like magic.

3. Facebook Me - This one just arrived on the scene in the shop, but I've been using it for awhile now. Facebook is difficult to work with when it comes to image quality, but this action helps me keep the uploads looking sharp and my file size down.

4. Good vs Evil - This is part of our lbobify me action pack. It's one of my favorites because it reduces the difficulty of Dodging and Burning to practically doodling. Just lower your brush opacity way down, and brush some light (or some darkness) onto those trouble spots in your portraits.

5. Gallery Wrap - It's nice to know that no parts of the image I'm working on will be lost on a canvas wrap. This one is simple: after you crop your image, it will give you a 2" border around it that you can fill with a flat color or a nice texture. Saves mucho clicks. Check out this video of it in action (pun way intended):



You should definitely grab these actions now while we're giving everyone the IUSA discount. In case you didn't see yesterday's post, the code is IUSA2012 and it will take 40% off your cart total. Go get 'em!

Living on easy street,
Calvin

Save a click for this link to my Twitter.

Creative Actions from lbobi

This is the first in a series of posts highlighting the time-saving tools and products in our shop here at lbobi. Remember, you can get a 40% discount on everything in your cart until January 17th at midnight. Just enter the discount code IUSA2012 before checkout.

We have 33 actions in our shop to help streamline your retouching process, and 26 actions to help make your workflow more efficient. Today I want to focus on the retouching actions, and show you guys a few examples of our favorite custom finishes. We use these actions at ARP every day, and our clients really dig them. In fact, we have a few clients that are so in love with a certain finish that they request it by name for all of their prints.

Here are some of our favorite images from a recent session at our new studio to show off how unique and useful these finishes can be.

Head on over to the Action Shop and grab these packs before the discount expires! And check back tomorrow for a post about our shortcut packs (I'll have a couple of tips on how to use those most effectively as well).

Facebook Me: A new action from lbobi

We've got a handy little action to introduce today: Facebook Me. This action will help those images that you upload for clients to your Facebook page look a little more crisp online. It will also make them look a good bit worse if someone tries to download and print them... but who would do such a thing?

Here's the best way to use this action:

Open Photoshop and go to File > Scripts > Image Processor

In the first section of Image Processor, make sure Select Folder is selected. Click the Select Folder button to find your files.

In the second section, make sure Save in Same Location is selected. This will create a subfolder of processed images in the folder you selected earlier.

In the third section, enter 1000 in both boxes labeled Width and Height.

In the fourth section, make sure that Run Action is checked. The two boxes beside it need to have Facebookin and FBme in them, respectively.

Imaging USA 2012 is here!

To celebrate this week of teaching and learning, we're giving our loyal lbobi readers a 40% discount on anything they want in our shop. In case you haven't been to our shop in awhile, we're going to be posting about some of our favorite products on the blog each day.

Here's what you'll need to do to get the discount:
    •    Add as many items as you want to your cart
    •    Before you click Check Out, enter the discount code IUSA2012
    •    Click Update Cart. A 40% discount will be applied to your cart total.
    •    Click Check Out and enjoy your downloads!

Be sure to spread the word on Twitter and Facebook. Don't forget to use the #imagingUSA and #lbobi hashtags, and we'll be sure to give you a friendly retweet when you do!

Here's what you can be expecting from Allison and Jeff this week at imaging:

This year at IUSA, Allison is teaching a three day pre-con class for PPA's Studio Management Services. She might even tweet a few tips while she's there, so you should make sure that you don't miss out on those by following her.

Josh Garrels - Love & War - Free Music