Photo catalog

Down and dirty “tutorial” for the image catalog system I created…

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I’ve been trying to prepare some photos for backup and archival, and had seen the Contact Sheet II. But it wasn’t what I wanted.

I really wanted a little system I could sort through my photos electroincally by keyword and have thumbnail views, but not have them stored on my hard drive. And ta-boot, I’m quite broke right now – so nothing expensive for me…

After tinkering for a while, I found a solution I am happy with. I create a pdf contact sheet with keywords for each shoot or day I have in my photos directory. Then I merge them into one pdf file. Wa-lah, a searchable catalogue of my images. I can leave the cataloge on my hard drive or burn it to a disk with my archived files.

Here’s how I did my catalog sheets on Photoshop CS2:

• Contact Sheet II on an 8×10 image. I use the source images from a folder, and try to keep the folder contents limited to a few pages (< 10), so I don’t bring my poor machine to it’s knees. I put 16 thumbnails to a page so I can easily see which photos were the best as I browse through them. Then let it chug through the photos.
• Change the canvas size to 8 x 11.5, with the extra being added to the top of the contact sheet page.
• Then in the space at the top, I have room to write a brief description, the date(s), and keywords at the top of the page for the photos. I use vector text. But I’m not sure if the text would be searchable if you didn’t use vector text.

I saved this in an action and made sure to leave the dialogue on for the Contact Sheet II step. Not quite perfect yet, because if there’s more than one page of in the contact sheet images I have to go back and do the 2nd and 3rd steps on the additional pages. But that’s just a click on the 2nd step of the action I created.

Then I create a pdf of each page. Nothing fancy (as in the image below), but usable.

I’ve been using the trial version of PDFCombine to combine each of the pdf contact sheets into a catalogue.

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So there you have it – how to create your own image catalogue, with searchable keywords.

I’d love to hear feedback on if this works for you or if you have another system you use to catalog your photos.

Work around: print with preview borderless printing…

Today I discovered a possible glitch in Photoshop CS3 or an inability to work with my HP Photosmart 8250 printer.  But I also discovered what seems to be a work around for it.

When I try use “Print with Preview” and print on a “borderless 4×6 with “scale to fit media” and “center image” selected, strange things happen to the print.   It either prints it too big or does not center it for me.

But if note what percentage scale to fit media was set at when selected, and I manually set it to that or a bit smaller then I get a nice print.

Who knows if this odd little note will help anyone else, but it’s atleast here for future reference.

Lightroom Beta 4

I’ve been curious about this program since Ghostrock first pointed it out to me. My first thought was, “I have enough to learn right now!” But, I’ve been finding that Photoshop with a camera that doesn’t take raw images isn’t an efficient work-flow for me. Granted I’m an amateur at photography, but I still want to get the most out of my time. (I’d rather take photos than edit them, unless doing something crazy and creative to them. I’m trying to take at least 1 good picture a day (<- idea from photojojo.com) for a record of the year in photos. We’ll see how long I can keep this up…)

When using Photoshop (and Bridge) I would pick one or two images and edit them and put them in my daily photos. I tried tinkering with Lightroom with the 30 photos I took at a local park that had Christmas lights. I learned basically how to use Lightroom and edit all those, then upload them to my flickr account. (No major changes like masking areas out, granted. That’s not what Lightroom is about.) That all took me less than 2 hours. (Not a speed record, but infinitely faster than I was doing in Photoshop. AND I was learning it at the same time! I think I wanted to tinker too much in Photoshop.)

Besides the increased speed in “work-flow”, I like the Lightroom for:

• Straightforward and easy to pick up, especially if you’ve done image editing from Photoshop for photos. Intuitively designed.
• Keeps note of the changes you make, but does not edit them destructively (i.e. you still have the original in tact).
• You can save sets of settings in presets. (I love this in Lightroom AND Photoshop.)
• You can apply the same preset to multiple images at a time. SPIFFY!
• Side by side comparisons for multiple photos and for change and pre-change on a photo.

Concerns:

• The current beta release of Lightroom has an expiration. (To get us all hooked on using it…) But a pricing scheme for the program hasn’t been announced. I hope to be able to afford it when it comes out. (I JUST got myself out of hock after purchasing the CS2 upgrade. Am I willing to do that again in the near future? No.) I’ll happily use the beta until the time runs out and watch for the pricing to be released…
• No red-eye removal. (Though they say here that it will be in the version 1. YAY!)

If you’re interested in Lightroom, Using Lightroom is a nice 3 part overview of using the program. I’d recommend reading this first, then going to the Lightroom Killer Tips page for more in depth info in small bits. (Granted I learned what I did with the first batch of photos from watching the import clip on Killer Tips then tinkering. But I’m went back and read the article. It would have helped!)

Orchid brush set 1

Orchids are my favorite flowers and I thought I’d share the joy they bring me.   The flowers for the brushes below (except for the one on the left) are from my collection.  Credits go to PD Photo for the lovely side view.

Download here.

–Avlor

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Usage: My brushes are linkware, so I ask that you link back to http://photoshopthings.wordpress.com if you use them. The site address is in the brush name, so it’s easy to remember.

Two Monitors

My hubby let me borrow his monitor, after giving me a spiffy new video card that can handle multiple monitors for my B-day. Ohh, I could get used to having two monitors, especially while using Photoshop. (Though his is a 15 inch and mine is a 17 inch so there is a bit of eye adjustment when moving between the two.)

Benefits:

• Oh the joy of having most of the screen to edit an image, and not scrolling constantly. I throw all the palettes on the 2nd monitor and oh what space there is for the acutal image!!!!
• While waiting for Photoshop to fireup or while thinking about what I want to do next, I can just use the next screen over to surf the web, hunt through photos, etc.

Negatives:

• It takes some getting used to using the slider bars on the sides of programs. I keep running into the next monitor – annoying. I’ve learned to make my app windows slightly skinnier so I have a gap before going into the next monitor screen.
• I can’t see around the set of two monitors. (My desk isn’t up against a wall. We’d situated it so I could see what the kiddos are doing in the family room and what is on TV.)
• My desk is not built for two monitors. I don’t want to balance a screen on a box or anything to get them to match up.

The benefits outweigh the negatives, but I’ll have to save up to have this setup for much longer… (Ghostrock, can I start a “get Av another monitor donation fund? Just kidding!) Maybe someday I’ll have a whole wall of monitors?

–Avlor

Tutorials Tested and Recommended – week of Nov 26- Dec 2

How to create your own planets using panoramas: Oh wow – this is one of the funnest little tuts I’ve ever done. I will have to play with this one more! Use a panorama photo to create exaggerated little worlds. (Credits for example below: Original photo by Stahlkocher, under GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.)

Design your own Christmas Cards: Found this referenced on photoshopsupport.com. Wish I had seen this a few weeks ago! Drat – too late for Christmas for me this year. But not for Birthday and Christmas thank yous! For those of us whose handwriting is awful, this may be the saving grace for getting the dreaded task done. I took a simpler route than they presented – a simple photo that I modified and used as a thank you and you get that personalized feel.

Cut Out Objects Using Channels:Very nice and quick alternative to the trace it with the lasso tool. I used the idea and chose the white area instead of the black for my cutout.

original image

cutout sample

 

–Avlor

Tutorials Tested and Recommended – week of Nov 19- Nov 25

Vector starting tutorial: I KNEW there had to be a way to use paths to draw lines – and lo there is. This handy-dandy little tutorial got me going, and had some spiffy tips on using paths in your work.

Saving Photoshop Brush Sets: Wonderfully simple directions on how to save a set of brushes. (Love the keyboard shortcut for deleting the other brushes.)

Making Prop Swirls: Very simple little tutorial. Handy in other situations too. (I felt like trying a celtic type swirl, with 3 lines and polar coordinates.)

Mountain Gorge: Pretty mountains from a terrain map/overhead view in just a few steps. (Still not fjords like I’m striving for right now, but still learned a few things.) No example graphic from me – the ones on the tut site are better than my fjord tests with this technique.

 

–Avlor

Circuit board brush set 1

I’ve been wanting to do some circuit board brushes for a while now. It’s been fun tinkering with them. (Just sections of the scan of the motherboard, scanned at over 300 dpi, weren’t clear enough for my tastes. So I used paths and shapes as much as possible.)

Download here. (Trying out a file host for downloads, we’ll see how it goes.)

–Avlor

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Usage: My brushes are linkware, so I ask that you link back to http://photoshopthings.wordpress.com if you use them. The site address is in the brush name, so it’s easy to remember.

Designing with color? Try Kuler!

Ok, this is a Flash(tm) thing but it works very well and gives great results. Check out:

http://kuler.adobe.com/

When you go to the site, you will be prompted to update your Flash player to the latest version (there is a link right on the page), and you will need to shut down your browser while you do the update. Then you can take a look at the color editor. It’s basically a color wheel and a lightness slider, but you can also pick several options for the combinations such as “Analogous”, “Monochromatic”, “Complementary” and others. Then you can drag any or all of the points on the color wheel to any different postion and see the results in the color swatches below. Below the each of the swatches is a RGB slider to manipulate each color (want more red in your main color?). Then below each of the sliders are the HSV, RGB, CMYK, Lab, and Hex values for the color swatches.

You can also see color combinations that other people have put together or add your own. Go there and check it out. My words can’t do it justice.

I can think of a lot of aplications for this. I know a few people who are weavers and fibercrafters (one of the first combinations that someone else had made I saw was “My New Sweater”). Remodeling a room in your home? Designing costumes? The uses are endles. (I almost wrote “The ends are useless”, but that’s not right.)

On a personal note, I think I have solved a very large technical issue with my laptop and my internet connection at work. I’ve discovered the wonders of Open DNS (opendns.com). By changing my DNS settings on my laptop, I can now connect to the internet all the time. It would take more time than it’s worth to explain it here, but I could only browse the internet for a few minutes at a time (oddly enough I could stay on Skype all day). If you want further technical details, let me know. The practical upshot of all of this is that I can now read the blog (and maybe even post) a lot more often. Hooray!

My next planned post is on monitor calibration.

-Ghostrock

Tutorials Tested and Recommended, and Smart Objects Investigated – week of Nov 12-Nov18

I decided to change this to a recommendation for tutorials, since I refuse to try or even review a tut I don’t like. (Don’t have the time.)

Posting a day early. Tomorrow is my son’s B-day – no time to play with Photoshop then.

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Teddy Bear Photoshop Tutorial: Fun and short tutorial. Gives the steps simply with good pictures. I didn’t have to follow it step by step, instead just looked at it to understand the basic concepts to see if I could tinker on my own. From what I learned, I was able to create this little fox character.

Plastic Wrap Effect: I adore this simple and clever little effect. The last step (“Finale”) is the actual plastic wrap effect, with the key being the outer glow being just a pixel or two larger than the stroke.

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Smart Objects: I’ve heard these mentioned a several times. Thought I’d try to learn more about them. The Smart Objects — Photoshop CS2 (Photoshop 9) Video Tutorial shows how to bring an object in from another program (i.e. Illustrator) in a layer so that it will be scalable and fully editable. Neat tutorial, but I’m still a bit fuzzy on smart objects are. So I did some hunting around to see if I could find more explanation and found: Smart Objects, Smart Guides, Layer Enhancements in Photoshop CS2 and Work Smart with Photoshop CS2’s Smart Objects. The two things I thought were the neatest about these are

1. if you make a copy of a smart object layer, it remembers the orignal size of the object and
2. you can transform and play with the size of these repeatedly without having to undo.

No little projects to go with these tutorials and explanations, but I hope to cook up a tut using smart objects for a next tutorial of my own…