Pixels & Company

Hello, everyone, it’s Jennifer Valencia here with an article on how to write and use your own actions in Photoshop.

THIS IS EASY – I PROMISE! KEEP READING!

What’s an action?  It’s a little macro -  a mini program -  that runs and does stuff to your photograph or layout in Photoshop automatically. For example, I turn many of my photographs to black and white, and the technique I use is considerably more complicated than just selecting the “desaturate” command.  So I recorded the steps I usually take when I convert a photo to black and white. And now when I want my “usual” style of black and white, I just run the action on a color picture and it does all 27 steps for me.  Voila! Instant black and white!  If I have to convert 50 photos to black and white, that’s a large amount of time and mouse/clicking motion saved!  And because the results of the action can be edited, I can still tailor individual pictures to suit my needs.

You can also write your own actions to save documents for the web (smaller sizes for posting to scrapbook galleries, for instance),  for sharpening photographs, or changing the color cast. Here I’ll show you how to write an action to change the size and sharpen your  12×12 layout so it’s optimized for web upload.

First, open a .psd layout that you’re ready to share.  You have to create the action “in real life” as you do the steps on a particular layout or photograph.  So open a document that is similar in style to documents that will need the action.

REMEMBER – IT’S STILL EASY! KEEP GOING!   (<—totally subliminal hint to get you to keep reading)

Here’s an example of mine — a layout I made about my dog, Pablo, and how he likes broccoli. (Seriously!)  You can see that it’s a 12×12 layered .psd file with all the layers still intact.

Next I created an Action Set.  Every action needs to reside inside an action set, just like your homework is stored in a folder, or your spaghetti sauce is stored in a jar.  So before you can make the action, you need to make an Action Set for it.

You get to pick a name for your action set.  Pick something that describes what your actions will do.

After you’ve created the action set, now you can start recording your action!

Remember that once you hit the Record button, EVERYTHING you do will be recorded. So be sure to do just the steps you need. Of course you can delete steps later on, after you’re done.

While your action is running, just do all the steps to your open document that you want to save and do to future documents.  Here, we’ll start by flattening and resizing the document to 600×600.

Now that you’ve flattened the document, you can change the size. If it’s a 12×12″ scrapbook page, one of the most popular ways to resize is to change it to 72dpi and 600×600.  Sometimes I just leave it at 300 dpi and set it to 600×600, because that works too.  Hint:  If you want the page RESOLUTION  to be set at 72 ppi (dpi), set that FIRST.  So before you change anything else, go into the Resolution field and enter 72. This will usually automatically reduce your Width and Height already, and then you can go ahead and change them to 600 and 600.

Now the document is reduced in size. If you want, you can hit the Stop Recording button right now. However, let’s go ahead and add sharpening using the High Pass Filter. You could just as easily add sharpening using the Unsharp Mask, but I’ll use High Pass here because it’s come up quite a bit in recent discussions on the message boards. If you DO prefer to use the Unsharp Mask, our own site owner &  guru Gennifer Bursett says she likes to use settings such as 84%, 1.1 pixels, and threshold is at 4.  And our CT member Emilie Stevenson says that she likes to use Amount 150%, radius 0.3 pixels, threshold = 0.   (here’s a link to the post where we’re all discussing sharpening!)  Using the Unsharp Mask is one of the most popular ways to add sharpening to small layouts to make the “pop” in web galleries.  Thanks to our CT member Barbara Unzen for getting the topic going – there’s been some great discussion on that thread!

The first thing to do is to duplicate the background layer. It’s ALWAYS a good idea to sharpen on a duplicate layer — that way you can turn the sharpening off and on to see how it has changed, and you can reduce the opacity if it’s too sharp.

Now with that duplicate layer highlighted, select Filter — Other — High Pass. Add 0.5 to the radius box and hit OK.

Now change the layer mode of the duplicate layer from Normal to Vivid Light.

Now reduce the opacity of that top layer to 60%. And then hit the Stop Recording Button.

At this point, you have an action that does the following:

1. Flattens your multi-layer document into a single layer
2. Changes the image size to 600×600 pixels
3. Adds a High Pass Sharpening Layer to make the layout “pop” when you post it

It’s always important to test your action to make sure that you recorded it correctly!  So open another document that needs to be resized, and run the action.

The action we wrote here does NOT save your file as a .jpg — it just makes the image smaller and adds a sharpening layer –  so you can save it  separately when you are ready. Click the sharpening layer off/on to see if you like it, further adjust the opacity on the sharpening layer as needed, then reflatten the image and save it as a .jpg with whatever name you like.  I often name my small web files “XXX for web.jpg”.   So the layout entitled “Garden 4.psd” becomes “Garden 4 for web. jpg” after I prepare it for the web.

If you are sure that you ALWAYS want the sharpening included just as written in the action, and don’t need to review it, you can change your action to do more things. Instead of stopping the action after you make the sharpening layer, you could keep recording and add the following steps:

1. Flatten the image
2. save as .jpg (you can specifiy which folder it gets saved into)
3. close the file when done

I have a separate folder called “Images for Web” saved on my drive.  When I shrink my layouts for the web, I typically save them in that “Images for Web” folder for easy access later on when I need to upload them.

I hope that this tutorial helped you feel more comfortable understanding actions, and even trying to write one of your own. Please download the free action I created that does sharpening using the High Pass filter. Included in the download is a manual full of screen shots to help you use the action. Thanks for reading, and happy scrapping! (And action-using!)

Here’s the free action download link here at Pixels & Co, and below is a picture of the preview. I hope you enjoy it!

In one end of our living room is this cramped cozy little area that is my work space. Allow me to take you on a numbered tour of the premises.

1. Laptop – My little Compaq Presario is almost five years old, is missing several keys on the keyboard, and is one of my closest friends in Life.
2. Paper Epehemera – OK, so “ephemera” is an all too strong and romantic of a word, but I couldn’t bring myself to use the more accurate and all-encompassing word “mess”. This pile contains magazines, lists, notes, and physical items that I’d like to use for extractions. This is the pile of all my in-progress types of thingies.
3. In Perpetuity – This is my collection of things that are used over and over. There are CD-ROMs, textures, and scrapbooking magazines.
4. Tangibles Box – This box contains paper flowers, ribbons, twine, paintbrushes, paper, and any other thing I might need for creating elements. It also has my husband’s hat stored in it. He has no respect for my Things.
5. Scanner – You can see it there, can’t you? It shares turns with our printer (see #7 below) for the extension cord under the bookshelf that squirrels around the corner and plugs into an outlet in the master bedroom.
6. Tablet – Yay for my little Wacom Bamboo! Love using this thing for navigating the web or my computer files.
7. Cords – Charging your Barbie phone or hooking your camera up to grab those photos? We’ve got you covered.
8. Printer – This is our family’s printer. That is all.
9. To-do List – A folded paper that has my most time-sensitive requirements written down.
10. iMac – A new computer my husband brought home several weeks ago that neither of us knows what to do with. It’s been busy NOT fulfilling its destiny by humoring our children as they play NickJr. games and math flashcards on it.

There you have it: my work space. What does your space look like?

• For the ENTRY-LEVEL DESIGN challenge, use the provided template to complete your layout.
• For the MANAGEMENT DESIGN challenge, use a vertical title on your page, plus the provided template from the Entry-Level challenge.
• For the EXECUTIVE DESIGN challenge, use stitching & flair on your page, a vertical title, plus the provided template from the Entry-Level challenge.

• For the ENTRY-LEVEL PHOTO challenge, create a layout that includes one action shot.
• For the MANAGEMENT PHOTO challenge, you’ll need to add two more photos (for a total of three-no more, no less) and all three must be action shots to continue the theme from the Entry-Level challenge.
• For the EXECUTIVE PHOTO challenge, you must include a photo with a depth of field emphasis, plus three other action photos, and all four must follow the theme from the Entry-Level challenge.

• For the ENTRY-LEVEL WORDS challenge, use this song lyric in your page: “You can go your own way.”
• For the MANAGEMENT WORDS challenge, use at least 2 alphas and/or fonts in your title and include the song lyric from the Entry-Level challenge.
• For the EXECUTIVE WORDS challenge, use a map somewhere on your page (can be background, element or scanned), at least 2 alphas and/or fonts in your title, and include the song lyric from the Entry-Level challenge.

Don’t forget to complete the CEO challenge, by combining all three Executive challenges (and by default, all other levels as well!) in one layout. You’ll earn twenty extra points, and you could be a guest on our CT for a month!

My iPhone has become indispensable to me as part of my Project Life toolbox. It’s always with me, so almost 100% of my photos are taken with my phone camera. I quickly grab updates from my social media accounts, I refer back to my calendar to see what’s going on each day, and I’m able to get input from my kids through text messages and social media.

There are several apps that I’ve grown to love as well. Since everyone is super-busy with iNSD today, I thought I’d keep today’s post short and sweet and just share a few of those apps with you.

Instaweather for iPhone / Android

Instaweather lets you combine a photo with a weather-based overlay so that your photos can do double-duty. I love that digital scrapbooking means adding layers to my pages and Project Life pockets without adding bulk; this app is a great example of making the photos in your Project Life pages carry more of the story.

Dblcam (pronounced DoubleCam)

I love this app because it gives you a great two-photo look without having to do any of the work. Dblcam uses both the cameras on your phone, so you end up with a side-by-side comparison of the two. It’s great for grabbing a selfie and pairing it with the view from where you stand.  I use it for restaurant shots, so that I can get my husband and myself both in the same photo even if we’re sitting on opposite sides of the table. With a little creativity, you can get a “look up, look down” shot too, based on how you hold your camera. That’s how I grabbed this shot on our back deck today.

ScanLife

One of the things I do much more frequently with my smartphone is record video. It’s easy to hit record and grab the 30 seconds of my daughter running the 100m hurdles, or to capture my other daughter’s favorite musical number in her jazz concert. Those moments belong in your Project Life pockets too, and Scan Life can make that happen. This app allows you to create a QR code, which links to a video you’ve uploaded online. Just use a QR scanner on your phone to scan the code, and then you can play the video, right there on your phone. It’s a great way to add an interactive touch to your PL pages, and it allows you to preserve even more memories.

Welcome back to more iNSD goodness! The Creative Team couldn’t let the designers have all the fun, so we decided to host a bloghop too!

We made Journal Cards that are perfect for pocket scrapbooking, but can be used on any layout! And, you can get them for free!

If you joined the designers for their hop, you know how this works. But, if you are just joining us, here’s how it works:

Start at the beginning by visiting Sarah Hemmert’s blog. On her blog post, you’ll find a letter, the first letter of that special coupon code. Sarah will then link you to the next stop on the hop. Collect the next letter and continue until the hop stops. Once you have the entire code, it’s 30 characters, jump on our site, add the More or Less Cards to your cart, add the special code to the coupon discount during check out and  you’ve got a huge free set of cards for iNSD.

Here is the complete list of participants in order:

Sarah Hemmert 
Katherine Hansen
Mandi Buchanan
Kate Christensen
Rachel Alles
Anna Drozd
Jan Fortier
Carey Bridges
Emilie Stevenson
Ronnie Crowley
Amy Kingsford
Jennifer Hignite
Celeste Smith
Melanie Ritchie
Aria Andrus
Jennifer Evangelista
Linda Roos
Christy Carlson
Barbara Unzen
Mary Rogers
Arielle Gordon
Jeryn Carlisi
Indah Permata Sari
Melanie Call
Jen Papadimitriou
Erin Taylor
Kelly Mobley
Kim Hammond
Wendy Bretz

Don’t forget that we are just getting our iNSD celebration started, join us tomorrow for chats at 11 AM and 7 PM, MST. Following each chat, we’ll jump right into a Speed Scrap. Watch for instructions to participate in our Instagram Scavenger Hunt, and don’t forget to Pin your dream cart, you could win!

Hello Pixels & Company peeps! interNational Scrapbook Day 2013 is upon us and I’m super excited! And we hope you’ll be too because P&Co. has goo-gobs of events to celebrate iNSD.

HUGE Sale + Big Payoff + Win Your Dream Cart

First, the ENTIRE store is 35% off between now and May 5th. Make a purchase any time between now and the 5th and you’ll be entered to win a Big Payoff where we’ll reimburse you for your purchase. A new winner will be picked daily!

You can also win you your dream cart! Link us to your favorite products by pinning them on Pinterest — one product per designer. One lucky winner will get their entire “dream cart” order!

P&Co. Designer Blog Hop: More or Less

We’re also excited to announce our first annual designer blog hop! Want our gigantic More Or Less kit shared below?

Well, we’re giving it away absolutely FREE! All you have to do is jump on our blog hop and get the special coupon code shared on the hop. Here’s how it works!

Start at the beginning by visiting Jennifer Valencia’s blog. On her blog post, you’ll find a letter, the first letter of that special coupon code. Jennifer will then link you to the next stop on the hop. Collect the next letter and continue until the hop stops. Once you have the entire code, it’s 20 characters, jump on our site, add More Or Less to your cart, add the special code to the coupon discount during check out and bing-bam-boom, you’ve got one heck of a free kit for iNSD.

And just in case you bounce off the hop, here is the list of hop designers in order:

Jennifer Valencia Photography
Simply Tiffany Studios
The Queen of Quirk
JustJaimee
Mye De Leon
Dawn by Design
The Ardent Sparrow
Robyn Meierotto
Karen Funk
Crystal Livesay
Scotty Girl Design
Karla Dudley
Wild Blueberry Ink
Deena Rutter
Celeste Knight
creashens
Mommyish
Jeryn Carlisi
Gennifer Bursett

$1.00 Kits + A New Designer: Mindy Terasawa

And if that wasn’t enough, we’re excited to announce that Mindy Terasawa has joined our digital designer family! We know you’ll love her bright and fun illustrations, patterns, and clever kits.

Mindy says: I am happy to have my store here at P&Co.  I’m so excited to meet new friends and have a group of digital family. I want to thanks all the ladies that have been guiding me on how to set up my store, etc.” Mindy is a great fan of characters and color, she wanted us to tell you to check out Octonauts, her favorite, inspiring site.

One more thing! Did you know that ALL of our May Company Stash kits are $1 between now and May 2? Yeah, dude. Get on that because they’ll be back to regular price on the 3rd (well, with 35% off because of the sale).

We’ll be back on Friday with even more fun iNSD hoo-ha, but in the meantime have a scraptacular iNSD 2013!

Hi, it’s Janell here with our gallery highlights for April. It’s very difficult to choose layouts when our gallery is packed with beautiful work, but I managed to narrowed down my picks to five outstanding layouts.

1. Candid Camera by julfish.  I am naturally drawn to clean simple layouts that pack a punch with color.  This layout does that and so much more. It never hurts to scrap with one of my favorite kits by Just Jaimee: Storyteller April Digital Scrapbooking Kit

2. This is me by ElaineU. I am always inspired by layouts with heavy journaling combined with an All About Me theme. I want to be a scrapper who creates more layouts like this one. It’s very fulfilling to scrap and journal about oneself and this is so beautifully done. I love the filmstrip of photos and the banner that runs across the bottom. ElaineU scrapped with a kit by one of the Company’s newest designers Dawn by Design.

3. Me and You by mrphoto. I love how the title is a cut out in the layout and I also find the clustering of the top with elements and brushes to be simply gorgeous! It highlights the beautiful photo perfectly. I LOVE  how she chose purple to compliment the yellow clothing in the photograph.

4. Jacob Swings by beatricemi. Loving this color scheme and the use of all the layered patterned papers. The darling hexagon alpha adds the right touch of interest. The tiny details in the stars and cut outs makes this layout a true winner.

5. First Day of School by Skippyherron. I really loved the April Co. Stash this month, so many beautiful layouts were made from these kits. This layout make especially makes me smile, I love the cheery yellow background papers and the adorable way the photos are clustered in with the elements.

Wow, the gallery is full of inspiration! Would YOU like to featured as a gallery highlight? Upload your layout to our gallery using at least 25% of Pixels and Company products.

-Happy Scrapping.

Hi everyone!
Jaimee here with a bit of a long tutorial on using photomasks, altering them to make your own and saving them for later use. I go into a bit of detail on the different ways you can create a clipping mask, and I explain and show you how layer masking works so you can try distressing your own shapes, text and overlays!

You may use any brush to do this – I have a great canvas type brush that would work great here in shop and I also sell a number of brushes available at my personal shop.

The following products were used in this tutorial:

Greetings! It’s Jennifer Valencia with an article on Depth of Field.

Depth of field, or DOF in a photograph is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects that looks sharp to the human eye. In a picture with SHALLOW depth of field, only a small amount of the picture is in focus – usually the main subject. Things in front of and behind it look blurry.  In a picture with EXTENSIVE depth of field, nearly everything in the picture look sharp — the main subject and most things in front of and behind it all show crisp detail.

Aperture and Depth Of Field: The biggest factor that controls depth of field, or DOF, is the aperture of the lens.  The aperture is the opening that lets light into the camera. A large aperture gives less DOF, and provides that blurry background that many photographers love.  A small aperture provides more extensive DOF and can deliver pictures that are sharp throughout. A small opening, like f/22, gives more extensive depth of field. At f/22 below, the flower is sharp and the background is sharp.  As the aperture widens to f/11 and then to f/5.6, the background gets blurrier and blurrier.  At the widest aperture of this batch, f/3.5, the background is extremely blurry.

What controls depth of field?   Depth of field is controlled mainly by two things:  the aperture of your lens (how wide it is open), and  the distance you are from your main subject. In addition, the distance of your subject from things in front of & behind it will change the look of the photo, and using a different focal length (zoom lens) will also change the look.  This is because focal length affects the apparent depth of field, because it magnifies the out of focus areas of the image. But here I’ll concentrate on aperture and distance from camera to subject.

What is aperture?  The aperture is the opening inside the lens of your camera that lets in light.  If it’s wide open, it lets in more light for a given amount of time. If it’s closed down, it lets in less light for the same amount of time. It turns out that leaving the aperture WIDE OPEN results in pictures with shallower depth of field.  A smaller aperture results in pictures with more extensive depth of field. Photographs use this knowledge to control the blur factor in their photographs.

Using DOF: In many cases, portraits look better when the background behind the subject is blurred. This draws attention to the subject and minimizes distractions. This can be achieved by using a wide aperture, such as f/2.8.  However, landscapes often look better when nearly everything is in focus.  The “almost everything in focus” look is achieved by using a much smaller aperture, such as f/12, f/22 or higher.  Keep in mind that shutter speed and aperture are reciprocal; when one changes, the other must change to allow the correct amount of light in to expose the picture.  When you use a small aperture like f/22, chances are that the shutter speed will become so slow that you can’t hand-hold the camera without having motion blur (which will ruin your shot!)  In this case, you will need to use a tripod or bump up your ISO substantially to a point where you can hand-hold the camera without motion blur.   Because high ISO often means grainy pictures, and because the use of flash is not always desired (or even helpful for a landscape picture), a tripod can be necessary for certain shots.

Below is an except from my eBook called Captivating Candids. It explains the basic of aperture and shows pictures of what a lens looks like with different apertures.

Quick Summary:  When you want a blurrier background, use a wide-open aperture, like f/2.8 or so. Your lens might not open up to f/2.8, and that’s OK. Use the largest aperture you have, whether it’s f/3.5 or f/5.6.  Different lenses have different maximum apertures.  Lenses that open up to a value of f/1.8 or f/2.8 are generally much more expensive than lenses whose maximum aperture is f/3.5 or f/5.6.  If you don’t want a blurry background, use a smaller aperture, which corresponds to a f-stop of f/12, f/11, f/18,  f/22 or greater.  Experiment with your aperture to find what works best for your shot. Below is another excerpt from my book Captivating Candids, which shows examples of photos taken with wide and small apertures.  You can easily see the difference in depth of field.

Distance Affects Depth Of Field:  The distance from the camera to the subject changes the depth of field, too. The farther your camera is from the subject, the more extensive the depth of field will be.  Even if you are using a wide-open aperture of f/2.8,  a photo of far-off mountains might look pretty sharp through-out, if there are not objects in the foreground.  And if you’re taking a close-up of a flower, even an aperture of f/12 might not get you a crisp background (although it will probably provide enough depth of field to allow all parts of the flower to look sharp.)

Here is another pictorial example of how distance from subject affects depth of field, this time using a smaller aperture of f/7.0.  As you can see, the closer the camera is to the subject, the shallower the depth of field becomes. The farther the camera is from the subject, the more extensive the depth of field becomes.

Where To Focus?  Sometimes it’s obvious where to focus. If you’re shooting a portrait, you focus on the nearest eye.  If you’re taking a picture of a flower, you focus on the part of the flower that is most critical to the photo.  For these photos, you choose your aperture and distance from the subject as appropriate to control depth of field.  However, if you’re taking a landscape shot, determining the focus point can be more difficult.  As you can see in the pictures below, changing the place where you focus the camera can dramatically affect the location of your depth of field in the photo.  Sometimes it’s important to experiment and see what looks best to you. Other times, if you want to maximize DOF and get the most extensive DOF possible for your camera & lens, you will need to use the hyperfocal distance.

If you want as much as possible  in a landscape to look sharp and focused, you have to focus a certain distance into your picture.   This distance is called the hyperfocal distance. It is more thoroughly  defined as *” the closest distance at which a lens can be focused while keeping objects at infinity acceptably sharp. When the lens is focused at this distance, all objects at distances from half of the hyperfocal distance out to infinity will be acceptably sharp.”  *(Wikipedia). 

Some photographers use a VERY rough rule of thumb and focus on something that is about 1/3 of the way into the frame when shooting landscapes.  Although this is not a perfect method, it usually gives a picture that has extensive depth of field at a given aperture like f/12.  To do this, you might set the camera onto a tripod and manually focus on something that is about 1/3 of the way through your frame, like a rock, tree, or grass. Then  recompose without changing focus, and snap the picture.  To get the “real” hyperfocal distance for your camera & situation, you can also rely on your lens if it has the right kind of markings. And if it does not (as many modern lenses no longer have them), you can download apps to your phone that let you plug in variables and determines the hyperfocal distance for you. There are also printable charts on various websites.

Here’s an example.  Let’s say that you’re shooting a landscape using an aperture of f/8 and a focal length of 24mm on a Nikon D700 camera.  You could use an app (or a printed chart) that lets you plug in the values of f/8, 24mm, Nikon full frame 35mm  DSLR. Then it would come back with an answer in feet or meters telling you how far out to focus to get the most extensive DOF for your picture.  If the number you’re given is 8 feet, you need to focus on something that is 8 feet away from you and then take the picture without changing the focus.  The resulting picture will give you the maximum depth of field for your situation.  And everything from 1/2 the hyperfocal distance to infinity will look sharp. For our example, if you focus on something that is 8 feet away, then in your resulting picture everything from 4 ft to infinity will look sharp. The hyperfocal distance will change with every camera / focal length / aperture combination.

DOF and Camera Phones: Small digital cameras and cell-phone cameras add an extra layer of complexity.  You may have noticed that you seem to  get very extensive depth of field when you use a current cell-phone camera, and that even when you try,  you don’t seem to get a very blurry background without using some kind of special app.   This is because on most small point-and-shoot type cameras, the aperture is TINY – much smaller than the aperture on a SLR camera.  Some people describe it as a pinhole aperture.    In these  phones, the hyperfocal distance  can be as close as 4 feet away. That means that everything from 2ft and  and further beyond will be sharp.  In order to get a shallow depth of field on a cell phone camera, you may have to take photos of subjects that are very close to you, like 6-18″ away, in order to get the background to blur.  This is not good for portraits, because taking a picture of a face that close makes the nose look too prominent, and widens the face.  However, you can take advantage of the extensive depth of field in these small cameras and capture shots with lots of detail from near to far.  You can also purchase apps for the iPhone that simulate depth of field blur by taking shots from videos and combining them, or you can blur the background using Photoshop.

To summarize:

• Depth of Field in a photograph is the part of the picture that looks acceptably sharp to the human eye.
• Depth of Field is controlled mainly by the aperture of the lens, and the distance from the camera to the subject.
• A wide aperture gives a shallower depth of field with a blurrier background. A wide aperture is f/2.8, f/3.5 or similar.
• A narrow aperture gives more extensive depth of field and shows sharp detail throughout much of the picture. Smaller apertures are f/12, f22, or similar.
• The farther the camera is from the subject, the more extensive the depth of field will be. Closer = blurrier background. Farther away = sharper background.
• Want the maximum possible DOF on a landscape?  Find out your hyperfocal distance and use it.  There are apps and printable charts that tell you the hyperfocal distance for every combo of camera, aperture, and focal length.
• Want pretty good DOF on your landscape, even if it’s not as good as what you’d get from hyperfocal? Focus on something 1/3 of the way into the picture and shoot.
• Cell phone cameras, due to their very tiny apertures (as well as very short focal lengths and smaller sensors) deliver extensive depth of field for nearly all of their pictures.  However, there are some new apps available that can use combinations of different shots, sometimes from a video that you take, to create a shallow DOF effect on your cell phone photo.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article on depth of field. Thanks for reading! If you’re interested, you can check out my various eBooks for more information on basic photography and black & white conversions.

I’d love to see your examples of photography using DOF deliberately. Please post your depth of field examples in the gallery and share them with us!

Cheers….from Jennifer Valencia

I find that I use strokes (aka outlines) on many of my scrapbook pages and on practically all of my digi Project Life pages. They can be used in so many different ways! I thought I’d show you a couple of ways I use strokes/outlines on my pages.

1. Photo frames

2. Offset outlines

3. Stickers (same as photo frames)

4. Outlining/Highlighting Alphas/Fonts

Photo Frames

I really like to frame my photos on my scrapbook pages. Sometimes I use the frames that come with kits but lots of times I like the look of a simple white border. To create a white border/photo frame I use a stroke layer style (along with shadowing layer styles). Here’s how:

1. First, select the shape you are masking your photo to in the layers pallet.

2. Click on the Styles Button (it’s a little “fx” button the bottom right of the layers pallet). This will bring up the layer style menu.

3. Choose STROKE.  Here are the settings I like to use:

• SIZE: 30 px. (I tend to range from 15-45 px)
• POSITION: Inside. (Choosing INSIDE will ensure that the edges on a square/rectangle shape remain crisp.)
• FILL TYPE: This will default to Color
• COLOR: You can use any color you like. I like to use white for my frames.

(NOTE, you can also make a PNG image, alpha or font into a sticker with these same steps!)

Outlines

Another thing I like to do on my pages  (particularly on my Project Life pages) is add a stroke that overlays a photo/card, but that is somewhat smaller (contracted) than the photo/card. Here’s an example:

FYI, to create this look (and to maintain flexibility after you create these strokes), create the stroke/outline on a NEW LAYER above your image. Here’s how:

1. First create a new blank layer ABOVE your photo.

To do that, click on the photo in the layers pallet to make it the active layer. Then click on the New Layer Button at the bottom of the layers pallet (it looks like a folded piece of paper). This blank layer is where you are going to put the stroke you create.

(NOTE … if you CMD-Click (CTRL-Click on a PC) on the new layer icon you will get a new layer BELOW your active layer.)

2. Now you want to CMD–Click (CTRL-Click on a PC) on the layer thumbnail of the shape you want to stroke. (Note, If you have masked your photo to a shape, you are going to CMD-Click (CTRL-Click on a PC) on the shape layer, not the photo layer.)  You will now see marching ants around your shape.

3. Now you are going to contract the selection. To do this select MODIFY > Contract. For my image above, I contracted by 30 pixels. You will see your marching ant selection get smaller.

4. Now, with your newly contracted selection, make sure the new blank layer you created in step 1 above is the active layer. This is where you are going to put your stroke.

5. To create the stroke. Go to EDIT > Stroke

Here are the selections I used:

          Stroke Width:    8

          Color: White (you can choose any color)

          Location:  Inside (again if you choose Inside the edges will stay smooth)

          Blending Mode: Normal

          Opacity: 100%

Here’s what you get:

Now … since the stroke is on its own separate layer you can play with it! Here are some of the things I like to do:

1. Erase away parts of the stroke to accent items lying above it.

2. Nudge the stroke (using the arrow keys), twist it, turn it. Whatever you like!

Using the steps above you can also do some of the following:

Outline an Alpha/Font  (same steps as creating a photo frame/sticker).

How about offsetting the alpha? (remember … the stroke would need to be created on its own layer!)

How about using just the stroke and not the alpha/font? (You would create the stroke on its own layer and turn off the alpha/font layer so you only see the stroke.)

The sky’s the limit! Play around! It’s fun!