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I played with the suggestion Carole made in a comment about repeating the Selection/Modify/Select Selection Borders.
In the one with the smaller borders (using her suggested 25 then 10 then 3). For illustration only, I filled each section with a different color. (Look at the ‘full size’ image – they do show up as smaller borders). Unless I did something incorrectly, I could only fill every other selection. I think the software looks at each action as a separate, discrete border.
The process seems to work best with relatively small values for the process. When I tried larger values (100/50/25) I got a different looking border. The small corners could not be filled. However, the larger area filled with one color with a opaque border and slightly less opaque fill. A happy accident as the border provides a different effect that may prove useful. And, I’ll play with the process more.
To all – I enjoyed looking at all the projects. It appears we each learned skills we can use down the road. Be proud of your results.
My humble advice is to continue playing around with PSP (or any software). Just play with the settings (like I did with the borders). If something works, and you can repeat the process: celebrate. If what you try doesn’t work: then you learned what not to do (or can try a different approach). If your process provides an interesting, unexpected result, keep it in your hip pocket to be used in the future. (As pointed out, keep notes on what you did.)
To Carole – Thank you for running the Boot Camp. Having spent many years as a professional trainer, I know the amount of effort it takes to create a course. Then there’s the time you spend during the sessions and answering individual questions. I appreciate your work on the campus. Anyone who does this kind of work has drive and commitment to helping others. In today’s world, those attributes are important. Again, thanks and appreciation.
Good luck to all.
Carole – Yes, I do import abr files into PSP2020. But creating files via abrMate gives me a quick way to select the brushes I will use instead of importing 100 brushes.
On this project, it serves as proof you can teach an old dog new tricks. I never used the Selections/Modify to add a border to an element. Great short cut process.
For inspiration, I looked around my area (literally) and spotted one of the model boats I built. Well, I’ve established my near obsession with nautical history. I do belong to the Nautical Research Guild.
I present the results…
Hello everyone,
Cassel – I tried to edit my post but it disappeared. Just a heads up. Easy enough to do it over.
A bit of explanation for this project. At the Cincinnati Airport you will see several displays from the Cincinnati Museum. Lots of them show travel methods used through history (trains and boats specifically). Over the years I’ve take several pictures of the displays particularly the river boats. I have an interest in things nautical.
Cassle will support this statement that what we she presents apply to any use of imagery we modify, create, and design in PSP. Using a recognizable format, like scrap booking, may catch someone’s attention. So, I used that approach for this project. I still used items outlined in the video.
But, I am not big user of glitter. ;D
Hello all,
A bit of explanations for this project.
At the Cincinnati (Ohio) Airport you can see (or could see a couple of years ago) displays provided by the Cincinnati Museum Center. I’ve taken many photos of the displays over several years of traveling there on business. (I have an interest in things nautical.)
As Cassel will point out, I am sure, the skills we learn here are not necessarily restricted to scrap booking. But using that format may help with communication to specific audiences. So, I created this advertisement that would promote a specific exhibit at the museum. I still used the techniques in the video.
But I am not a ‘glitter person’.
Faye – Thanks. From the look of your latest project you may have jumped ahead to the next project. I look forward to more of your projects.
Tip to others: Taking Faye’s observation about the latest video, you may want to remove guides. (I tend to put too many on my work space and they sometimes get in my way.) There is a ‘handle’ for each guideline on the ruler. Just slide that handle all the way up (for horizontal lines) or to the left (for vertical lines). They ‘disappear’ back into the ruler.
Cassel – my sharing what I do is the trainer in me. Before retiring, I trained people (engineers, sales, etc) in motor and automation control. When teaching software, I always encourage people to ‘play’ with software. That’s even more so with graphic and art programs (and even when I taught PowerPoint). As I told my students: “If what you do doesn’t work…there’s always CTL-Z.) Let me know if I go too far with sharing.
Good catch (or bad throw on my part?) on the picture shadow. Here’s re-post of image with the shadow. As part of my work flow I add effects affecting multiple layers as a last set of steps. I must have missed the layer with the photo.
As a tip for others, if you add a shadow to an element and then rotate that element, the shadow also rotates and doesn’t match the other shadows. That’s why I do things like shadows and other effects to layers as a group of steps so they all look the same.
As for conversion: ABR format. Many times I just need one (or two) PNG files from a brush set to import into PowerPoint, PSP, DAZ Studio, etc. I came up with my process years ago (long before finding your tutorial – which covers the same process I use). You got me curious, so I googled the software. I see abrMate has been updated. I’ll look to see what’s improved. I think it is a nice conversion utility.
BTW, thanks for the shout out on your blog.
Greetings all,
I have flowers and other photos from the same San Francisco trip as my ship images. This is resized and cropped for the project. No changes to the image. The depth of field was done in camera.
I went with simple rectangles as the design elements. I added noise to the rectangles to give it that cloth-like look and, of course, drop shadows. (I never do things the easy way…like use a kit. But adding noise is not too difficult.)
And, yes, I added a triangle using the Symmetric Shape in the Rectangle Tool fly out over top of the flower. Using the pick tool I rotated and resized the shape. I then reduced the layer’s opacity to around 30 percent to give a hint of the shape and relate to the flower. No noise added to this element.
The line drawing comes from one of Ron Deviney’s brushes that I converted for use in PSP. (Too technical to discuss as a Boot Camp topic. But PSP has grown over the years and the process is not too cumbersome.)
All this was to play with concept of geometry in nature.
As a post script: Kudos to all. The projects look very nice. Great sense of color and balance by all.
Cassel: Yes, it makes sense. As with art, it’s the eyes of the beholder. I agree with you that the photo should be the focal point. So, another ideas for ‘boot camps’, image/page composition and using lines and embellishments to draw the eye to the photo. Since PSP uses the basic forms of rule of thirds, golden spiral, diagonals and such in the crop tool, it might be good starting point.
Greetings all,
Here’s my Project 3. Another ship from the SF Maritime Museum.
I went for a ‘post card’ look on the image dimension-wise. A couple of backgrounds of blue prints for the paper.
I think the image meets the intent of the assignment. But a question:
How much ‘bling’ is too much? I know it’s a judgement call, but when does adding embellishments start detracting from the overall effect?
Here’s my sandwich. Like others, I played with some color aspects by ‘toasting’ by bread [both slices changed colors, added an adjusted halftone effect], changed colors for most of the elements [used fill for various colors on the bread layers] and – using my best Jean Luc Picard voice : Tea, Earl Gray, hot.
(Catch my play on words? I know Earl Grey isn’t gray (or grey). And, yes, I am a big Star Trek fan.)
I already took a drink of tea hence the cup is off center. Added a layer for the tablecloth with a texture fill from the standard, resized slightly. I toyed with adding some drop shadows, but thought they may be going too far.
Cassel – thanks for offer to help with posts. Hopefully, I won’t need assistance. Further, I never discount PICNIC problems. (Problem In Chair, Not In Computer)
As for starting with PSP, my work required creating/editing images for training and technical manual purposes. We scanned images to bitmaps and edited them (talk about tedious – but it worked well for the need). PSP was ‘shareware’ (another term that ages me). I think it was $5 at the time. PSP has been my go to photo editor for a very long time.
Looking forward to the boot camp sessions.
For whatever reason, I posted a response. I edited it and resubmitted but it didn’t re-post. So, I try again.
I’ve used PSP since Version 1.0 when it was basically a bitmap editor and owned by JASC. I’m attending this boot camp to force some discipline to do a project rather than just working on some random images.
As for preferences I use the dark gray settings with medium gray background. For palettes I tend to keep the ones I use most often open and docked. For the image area I tend to tab the images as I ‘lose’ images behind each other. (I find it tedious to get some to re-dock when I accidentally grab one and it ends up floating. (I also, as workflow process, open an image and save it as a new project. Maybe it’s old school thinking, but I have seen issues with JPEG artifacts with multiple saves of a file.
The image below is of a ship named the Balclutha, a steel-hulled sailing vessel. It’s at the San Francisco National Maritime Park. The image was taken during ‘Fleet Week’ in October 2014. Other than cropping and reducing the image, no other effects, corrections or adjustments were used. (Yes, it was that clear and bright an afternoon on the Bay Area.)
I look forward to following this thread and the projects that will be shared.
I am using this boot camp opportunity to discipline myself to work on a ‘project’ rather than random playing around with images. I’ve been using PSP since V1.0 when it was owned by JASC and was little more than a bitmap editor.
I have used ‘dark’ colors for as long as that option has been available (I’m not sure which version that option showed up).
I do a mix of docking and auto hiding tabs. The beauty is that you can auto hide some of the tabs, float some of the tabs and auto-hide others.
In image area, I use the tabs. I find I easily ‘lose’ one image behind another.
I offer this for your consideration of work flow.
A lot of people open an image and use duplicate layers to work on an image. Usually, the concept of saving often is critical. I work on a copy of the image. That way if I want to use the same image for a different project, I always start from the ‘original.’ This also avoids issues with JPEG artifacts than might show up after multiple saves of an image.
Cassel requested the images be sized to 600 pixels. I don’t want to steal Cassel’s thunder. But if you are truly new to PSP and don’t know how to accomplish this, here’s some help. (I’m not showing screen shots. Look around the dialog box that opens. You should find this task fairly intuitive.)
Open your image. Go Image/Resize… in the command list as the start. In the window (dialog box) that opens select ‘By Pixels’ (at the top of the window). Make sure there is a check beside the “Lock aspect ratio” option near the bottom (ignore the numbers in the box to the side of that option). In the area that shows “Width” and “Height” change the largest number there to 600 (the other dimension will change proportionally. Then click ok.
That sets the larger dimension to 600 pixels and keeps your image from becoming distorted.
The image I include here is of a ship named the Balclutha. It’s a steel hulled sailing vessel currently part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park. I shot the image in October, 2014. I cropped the original image but have done no other effects or changes to the image. (It was a gorgeous autumn afternoon during “Fleet Week.”)
I hope you got something from my long winded post. I was an instructor before I retired and tend to go into a lot of details out of habit.
Looking forward to future sessions.
