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@Sue My original post seems to have disappeared into the ether. So I’ll do it again.
In my photography class, the first question the teacher would ask when one of our pictures appeared on the screen was, “What does the person want us to look at?” So that’s my question to you: do you want me to look at the herd or the mother and calf? If it’s the mother and calf, you’ve succeeded–first, because of where the picture’s placed and, second, because the colors are more saturated than those on the rest of the page. According to my teacher, the right vertical axis of the rule of thirds grid–where mother and calf are–is supposedly the axis people have a tendency to look at first. And that’s right where my eye went.
If you wanted the herd to be the main focus, maybe you could recompose the page. What if you lifted the herd up just a bit so it lies in the middle of the top horizontal axis? Then, how about shifting mother and calf to the left vertical axis? And, instead of cropping them so that grass fills much of the frame, why not drop them down a little and place their frame under, instead of over, the herd?
Enough of my ideas, and it’s important to note that they’re mine, not yours. I believe that what we create is uniquely ours and, if we’re at peace or feel good with what we’ve made, that’s all that matters.
Barbara
@Sue: In my photography class, the first thing my teacher would ask as one of our pictures came up on the screen was, “What does this person want us to look at?” So that’s my question to you: what do you want me to look at, the herd or mother and calf? If it’s the mother/calf, you’ve succeeded, because that’s what my eye is drawn toward immediately, both because of where it’s placed and because the colors are more saturated than anything else on the page. According to my teacher, the right vertical line on the rule of thirds grid is the strongest axis on which to place an object because people have a tendency to look, not at the center of a picture, but to the right of center–where the mother and calf are.
If you wanted me to look at the herd first, then maybe the page should be recomposed. What if you lifted the herd up a bit so it lies in the middle of the top horizontal axis and then place mother/calf on the left vertical axis? And, instead of cropping the mother/calf with the grass taking up so much of the lower portion of the picture, why not crop the image and bring mother/calf down a bit and then place the frame under the herd’s frame instead of over it? I’m still going to look at them, but my eye will go to the herd first and then drop down.
Now, after all of that, I think it’s important for me to say that I believe what we create is uniquely our own and, if we’re at peace with what we’ve made, then it doesn’t matter what someone else thinks.
That’s enough–
Barbara
@Sue: I love-love-love the top picture of the pronghorn herd–and the color palette you used is perfect. The paper is beautiful. I know this forum is more a show-and-tell rather than a show and have others evaluate your work. That being said, I recently took a photography class and our photos were displayed on a screen for the whole class to look at and critique. That was invaluable because it helped me know what I was doing well and also gave me ideas about how I could improve on what I’d done. I’m really impressed by your page though I also see a couple of things I might change. I don’t know if you’re interested in that kind of feedback, so I won’t give it unless invited.
Today’s assignment: Making masks is getting easier and easier. The kaleidoscope instructions weren’t quite detailed enough for me at the beginning. I made the selection and copied it with control c and then I was supposed to paste it as a new image but the directions didn’t tell or show me how to do that. I had to go to help.corel to find out what to do. I made the design really small which adds a kind of knitted texture to it. I didn’t do it for that reason-I was just trying to lessen the “busyness” of the design-but I like the way it turned out.
In case anyone’s interested, the theme of my pages is what my never-still granddaughter loves to do…e.g.,jump, hang upside down, climb, jump, flip.
To Cassel: Thank you! With only two days of tutorials, I was able to take a template I downloaded from the loulou site, make four masks (for the water and the three head shots) AND add the striped background paper. I’ve used the texture part of the color palette, but not the pattern part until yesterday when we made plaid paper. I was amazed and delighted to find out that I can open any paper I want in my work space and it will appear in the pattern part. All I have to do is choose it and then “pour” the design onto the background layer. More digital magic!
I was really happy to find out that I can use templates in PaintShopPro. I’ve grouped the pictures I’ve taken of my grandchildren over the past eight years by subject, e.g. swimming or riding bikes, and then I have put them in chronological order–I think it’s fun to watch them doing the same thing at different ages. I want to make each grouping into cohesive scrapbook pages and that’s where I’ve run into trouble–the cohesive part. I veer all over the place in my designs. I think using templates and sticking to a limited number of papers and embellishments–and a consistent font–will help me reach my goal.
About the kind of weird-looking pictures: When the photos I take aren’t up to par, I sometimes play with scripts to see what effects I can get. These were done with a comic script I had loaded into one of my earlier versions of PaintShopPro.
Barbara
Re: Challenge tutorials
Will I still have access to the tutorials once the challenge ends? If not, how can I save them? I’d like to think that I’ll remember how to do everything, but I know that’s unrealistic.
Barbara
Well, I learned a lot today . . . making plaid paper is ridiculously easy–who knew? In the process of playing with plaids I learned a useful image command I didn’t know–free rotate. I’ve struggled with ribbons when they load in one direction and I want them to go in another. I’ve been doing all the turning with the pick tool–never again!
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that this is my fourth version of this challenge. I could probably make plaids in my sleep, I’ve done so many! This is it, though. No more re-do’s on this one. (Well, maybe one more from at template I got at loulou. I left the words-in French–on it so I’d know where to put my own narrative.) I’m leaving words off until I finish day 7 so that I can compose a coherent narrative for the series. I’m not sure what my granddaughter is doing in the bottom corner.
That’s it for today–
Barbara
@Sue: Your photograph of the deer is lovely. I love photographing wildlife too. I mostly photograph birds, though I will take pictures of any wildlife that I see . . . nutria, alligators, turtles. . . but I can’t imagine doing it in subzero temperatures. How do you keep your fingers flexible enough to push the shutter button? (I live in southern Louisiana and our “winter” has been so mild that I’ve only worn a heavy coat once or twice so far this year, and my fingers feel numb just thinking about going outside in that kind of cold!)
Barbara
Hi–I have so much to learn, but I love digital scrapbooking. I don’t have to go to the store to buy albums, papers and embellishments (or stop working on a project when I run out of something because stores are closed), I don’t need extra space in my house to store everything and, best of all, there’s no mess to clean up when I’m finished!
The first thing I learned today was that psd files will open in PaintShopPro. That’s good to know. I was also able to follow the directions to make a mask. I really don’t understand layers all that well so, while I was able to make the mask, the whole process seems kind of magical to me. I know how to open and delete layers, and rotate and flip objects and that’s about it.
For this project, I flipped the mask layer and moved it to the bottom left. I also deleted some layers: both small picture openings, the word art, and the flower doodle. I don’t know how to add or change papers when using a template, so I used the color changer tool to make the background a soft blue. The heart balloons (Janet Scott) and heart scatter Sheila Reid) are from PixelScrapper.com (I changed the color of the balloons). The One Stroke Script LET script got some depth with the bevel style in the layer properties.
