My turn again.

[BigAlz1]

Almost everyday I look through the CC and often offer my C&C. So everyone once in a while I post some of my own work.

I have changes color profiles since I edited these pictures so I am looking for more of a C&C about the "framing/vignetting" and maybe the over all angle/crop. I know her skin tome may be a bit off just let me know what yall think about the over all presentation.
Thanks
http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu185/BigAlz1/1.jpg
http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu185/BigAlz1/2.jpg

[Soliz387]

I rather like the vignetting more myself. The crop looks good. The two white posts in the back are quite distracting. Edit them out and you have a very nice overall capture. I do like the colors in #2 better. Good stuff.

[beano]

I too prefer the 2nd shot. I've recently calibrated my monitor, and not 100% sure it's right, so i could be wrong about the colours... The 1st looks like it has a green tint, the second looks good though. ;)

I like the frame more than the vignette, as it's a little heavy.

[BigAlz1]

Thanks Soliz387 and beano.
Ok I have had a request, via private PM, to show how I did the "framing", if you will, of the second photo. It is something I have only did once so I will pull out Photoshop and try to retrace my steps. I don't think I saved the project file, but I remember how i did it so shouldn't be to hard. Also I am 99.9 percent sure that it can all be done with Elements. It's just a couple of layers and one mask and a 2 MP border. ( I think )

(edit) oh and DUH one text layer!

[BigAlz1]

Ok I'll make this as detailed and as short as I can. I know if you’re the one wanting to learn something you don't need the tut to be unclear in an area you're not familiar with so here goes my first step-by-step with follow along screen shots. All the steps should be able to translate to Elements as well.

Open Photoshop then open a picture you took of a friend’s daughter at another friend’s daughter’s Birthday party! This step is a must ;)

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu185/BigAlz1/step1.jpg

Next do some really, really, fast editing Oh and remove that dang ash tray!

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu185/BigAlz1/step2.jpg

Now for the easy stuff before we move on, Duplicate the background layer, I use Ctrl + J and you should too! Now in addition to the copy you just added, add a new BLANK layer too. Now we enter the tech portion of this little exercise. Use a Gaussian Blur filter on the background copy. Bump it way up to where you can not make out what’s what. (Somewhere between 25-35), and after that add a reveal all layer mask (nothing special to do, this is the default mask when you hit the mask button.) Everything should look blurry at this point because you masked the underlining layer.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu185/BigAlz1/step3.jpg

Now, this is the tricky part, grab the rectangular marquee tool and make a selection approximately 1/2" along the inner border of the picture. Since you are still on the layer mask (you should be 'cause Simon did say to move) take out your brush tool and color with black all inside the marquee selection. Don't worry the marquee selection will not let you go outside the lines. Now this next step is the most important one, it's the key to bring it all together. After painting the inside of the layer mask go immediately to select/modify/border. Select whatever size border you would like (I chose a border pixel of 3 for this exercise). Now click on the blank layer and use the same black brush and paint all inside the dancing ants to make a black border, it's hard to see at first but there is two marquee borders at this point and they are 3 pixels apart and you are filling in the area between them with black so make sure you have a hard brush and you cover every bit of the border. Everything should look like this. Edit, to get rid of the marching ants simple hit Ctrl+D but make sure you do not do this until you are done painting boarder.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu185/BigAlz1/step4.jpg


Getting warmer now, almost done. Create a text layer by simply hitting the T on the keyboard or clicking the Text tool on the tools pallet. Get the font and the size/color you want and type in the subject’s name. After I type the name I position it in the lower right had bottom where I feel it looks best alone the black border. Now go back to your blank layer that has the 3 pixel border and grab your rectangular marquee tool and drag over the text (the wider you go the more of the border you will make disappear) and hit delete. This will delete the entire border inside the selection.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu185/BigAlz1/step5.jpg

[BigAlz1]

And here is your results. If you have any questions just ask. You can do this a thousand different ways and mix it up and have something totally different, but here is a good start.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu185/BigAlz1/final1.jpg

[Soliz387]

Great frame process. Thanks for sharing.

[dcad10]

appreciate the how-to... I will have to try it one of these days.

[mav496]

Can I just say a massive thanks to BigAL for taking the time to show us all how to create the border and the step-by-step process he went through...

I know that sounds a bit suck-ass, but it was myself who wanted to know how to do it, and Big AL said he'd hunt me down if I didn't put a great review back on the thread!! ;)

Cheers Big AL,

Mav

[Broncobear]

Great colour and skin tone, I like number 1

[BigAlz1]

Mav469, first time I have laughed out loud in a while! Thanks man.
Oh and you're welcome. Did you actually try it? Did you remove the ash tray from your picture too.
Oh and also thank you Broncobear.

[Metalstrm]

BigAlz, I would personally be a bit careful about posing a young girl like that. I feel it might be a bit too adult-looking for a what, 9/10 year old? Don't know about the others, just my 2c...

[BigAlz1]

Yeah, that image did show just a bit of leg. A pure accident I assure you. The rest of the series was good as well I just personally liked the over all feel of this one just wish her dress didn't come up on this one. I didn't even notice till I had get home from the shoot. I will have to look at those type of details from now on.