How to make a post gallery for your sidebar!

Hello readers of Cropped Stories! I'm Alicia and I blog over at A Sweet Fragrance. My family and I are American-born but live as expats over in SE Asia. I blog about our life overseas, recipes I attempt to make while substituting lots of ingredients, projects I do around the house, "tot school" lessons I teach to my toddler, and lessons I learn through parenting and walking with the Lord. I hope you'll stop by my blog for a visit!

Just before the year 2013 came to an end, I decided I wanted to redesign my blog. I had a picture of what I wanted for the new design in my head but getting that design to appear on my blog required turning my thoughts into HTML coding.

Felt Pinwheel Flower Tutorial (great for the holidays)!

If you guys remember my free customizable photo gift tags post, I made a promise that a felt pinwheel flower tutorial would follow.  These pinwheel flowers not only make fabulous gift embellishments, but ornaments as well!  They are easy to make and fun to decorate.  The supplies needed are few, and the end result is one you and the family are sure to love!  So, let me get right to it then.

Locate an email for a noreply-comment with G+!

Before I go into how to locate an email address for that <noreply-comment@blogger.com>, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND LEAVING YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN ANY COMMENTS YOU LEAVE ON BLOG POSTS.  Not sure if you are a no-reply blogger?  If you are using Blogger/Blogspot, then assume you are.  Even if you’ve previously updated your profile settings to show your email address, which would correct your no-reply status, Blogger reverts you back to no-reply within days of your update.  And without your knowledge.  Now, I hate to be the bearer of bad news here but, reverting your entire profile back to Blogger from Google+ will not resolve the issue either (see screen shot below).  I know; frustrating right?

A tutorial for Studio Design: a free photo design app

Hey everyone, I'm Alicia and I blog over at A Sweet Fragrance. My family and I are American-born but live as expats over in SE Asia. I blog about our life overseas, recipes I attempt to make while substituting lots of ingredients, projects I do around the house, "tot school" lessons I teach to my toddler, and lessons I learn through parenting and walking with the Lord. I believe it's always a good time for coffee and I blame and also thank my husband for turning me into the coffee snob I am today.

 

Organizing your Workspace in Photoshop with these 6 Toolbars

Are you new to Photoshop or does Photoshop frighten you?  C'mon, you can tell me.  It frightened me terribly when I first opened it so trust me when I say I understand completely!  Can I tell you a little secret though?  It’s not as scary as it looks.  That’s right.  In fact, with a little workspace organization, you will be up and running in no time!  Promise!

HTML to insert images into your posts!

You know when my bloggy life changed?  The day I realized I should be using html to insert my images into posts. 

I was having some major issues with the insertion of images into my posts.  Whether I used my hosting server (Blogger) or blogging tool (Windows Live Writer), the image quality always suffered.  It used to drive me absolutely bonkers!  There is nothing worse than spending the time to process a beautiful image just to have it be compressed during insertion.  The scary thing?  I was even resizing my images and saving them as maximum quality .jpgs thinking it would make a difference!  You would think resizing them would negate the servers necessity to decrease the image file.  Unfortunately this is not the case and they were still being compressed.  Do you know what happens to an image during compression?  Pixellization (I promise, it’s a word).  In a larger image, the pixels are difficult to see since there are more of them and they are smaller.  With compression, you start to lose pixels and they become larger (and more visible).  This usually results in a block type appearance which can be confused as an out of focus image.  And let’s face it, there is nothing worse than a blurry/fuzzy image especially when your subject is a person.  Is it too much to ask that my blog readers see the beautiful, crisp, un-pixelated (okay, I’m not sure if this one’s a word) images I see in my photo editing software?  I don’t think so.

Make eyes pop in Photoshop! (video tutorial)

Are you looking for a quick and easy way to make eyes in your images pop?  If so, I have a great video tutorial for you today!

Duration: 11 minutes
Software: Photoshop CS6
Level: Beginner-Intermediate

Touches on the following topics:

- duplicating layers
- dodge/burn tool
- layer opacity changes
- using filters (unsharp mask)
- creating layer masks
- inverting masks (to reveal effects)
- brush tool (using white to reveal)

Tone your images in Photoshop! (a video tutorial)

I don’t know how you prefer your images, but I usually like mine to have a lot of contrast.  I’m not talking about so much that the whites and blacks in the image have lost their detail, but I do like to make the shadows and highlights really pop!

Then there are times that I just want to tone everything down.  Do you ever feel that way?  It was taking me awhile to figure out why I wasn’t completely happy with the processing of an image but then it was like a light bulb went on over my head and I was certain of the look I was going for!  I know toning can mean a different things when it comes to photography so the type of toning I am speaking of is when the overall colors/shadows/highlights of the image blend together to create a smoother appearance.  I guess the opposite of the toning I am speaking of would be less contrast. 

Want to make your own storyboard?

No problem.  Since I’m always creating storyboards/collages for my readers, I thought it would be fun to share my knowledge so that you can create your very own!  It’s actually pretty simple.  My recommendations for viewing this video tutorial at its maximum quality are:

1. Make sure the volume is up on the video.
2. Make sure the volume is up on your computer.
3. Change the viewing quality to 720p HD (the first button/icon on the bottom right side of the video).
4. Use the large player on YouTube (the fourth button/icon on the bottom right side of the video).  Viewing at full screen tends to look a little blurry/fuzzy.

Image Editing Tutorial 2 (Photoshop CS6)

See.  I told you I’d be posting another video tutorial.  I’m proud to say this one is only 20 minutes long!  I improved by a whole 10 minutes!  Go me!  In case you missed my last video tutorial, you can find it HERE.  Before I leave you, I have a few recommendations for viewing this video at it’s maximum quality.

1. Make sure the volume on the video is up (second icon/button from the right at the bottom of the video).
2. Make sure the volume on your computer is up.
3. Be sure to view in 720p HD (second icon/button on the left at the bottom of the video).
4. Viewing it with the large player, instead of full screen, comes in more crisp & clear (fifth icon/button on the left at the bottom of the video).

An image editing tutorial (in Photoshop CS6)

I’ve received some inquiries about how I am editing my photos and I’d love nothing more than to share my process with those that are interested.  Of course, this was my first time recording a video on my computer so it was quite the experience. And can I be totally honest?  I sort of hate the sound of my own voice on video.  I feel like it doesn’t even sound like me.  Also, I apologize in advance for the background noise.  I recorded in complete silence but for some reason my video contains a little white noise.  I’m not really sure what it is.  All I can think of is that it may have been caused by the microphone.  It is also a whoppin’ 30 minutes long.  I know what you are thinking.  Boy what a snooze fest.  I didn’t mean to go on and on and on but let me just tell you how easy it was.  Seriously, I had more to say.  Thank heavens I chose to leave some things out.  I also tend to be a little repetitive, but I wasn’t sure how familiar with Photoshop my audience would be so I wanted to be sure to be thorough.  Anyhow, here are few pointers to view the video at its best quality.

Selectively sharpening in Photoshop!

Yes, this is certainly true!  Do you want to know how?  I’d be happy to share it with you!

With your image open in Photoshop, right click on your background image to create a duplicate layer.  This will prompt a menu to open.  From here,  choose Duplicate Layer.  Let’s name it Sharpen. 

A perfect example of putting the healing brush to good use

Toddlers and boo boos.  It’s like you can’t have one without the other.  Unfortunately. 

This is Alivia on her birthday.  This photo was taken back in August.  At that time, my only photo editing software was  Photoshop Elements and the spot healing brush just wouldn’t cut it for removing these scratches on her face.  In Photoshop CS6, however, this picture was no match!  Hooray for the Healing Brush!  Are you guys familiar with this awesome tool?  It allows you to choose a clean spot on the face and sample it somewhere else.  A little like cloning.  Sort of.

Dodge & Burn

Can you see the differences between the following images?  They are pretty subtle so look hard.  Give up?

Okay, I’ll tell you. 

The dodge and burn tool in Photoshop can be used for so many different things such as brightening/defining eyes, which I published a tutorial on HERE, and other stuff like lightening your highlights and darkening your shadows to add more definition to the face.

Six things I do to every photo!

I watched this you tube video the other day about 5 edits made to every photo.  It was quite informative.  I love to learn how others are processing their photos.  It made me think of the 5 things I do to every photo I process.  I thought I’d share them here with you today (okay so I’ve shared six)!  Maybe we have common editing styles?  If not, maybe you can learn from me and me from you?  What do you say?

I’d love to hear your editing recipes!  Or maybe the one thing you can’t live without doing to every photo?

My editing process below is based on images of people. 

Brightening Eyes

I’ve been using a pretty awesome action from Paint the Moon to brighten eyes in my photos but have since found a great little tutorial online to create the effect myself.  Of course, wouldn’t you know, I can’t find it.  I could have sworn that I pinned it to a board on my Pinterest page but apparently not so much.  Thinking back, I don’t think I pinned it because it was so easy for me to remember.  If I’d a known I was going to do a post on it, I would have saved it especially so that I could give credit.

The Missing Link – Week 21

Have you ever felt like something was missing from your life? Well, it could just be one of the links below. Hence my post title! You may ask yourself "Is she serious"? Well the answer is "No, I'm definitely NOT serious”. I'm just feeling silly. Seriously though, I thought I'd share some of my favorite links with you in an effort to spread the love. What's better is that I thought I'd make this post a weekly thang! No that isn't a typo. I told you I was feeling silly. So the links below may not complete your life, but I'm hoping they, in some way, add to it. I separated them into categories for easy navigation. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

Google Tutorial & Back to School Printable!

Sometimes I take for granted the small resources that I use to make my blogging easier.  It’s only when I get a question from a reader that reminds me I really should share my resources.  So a BIG thank you to Natalie over at Growing up a NJ Wife & Mom for asking how I loaded a .psd file into a Google document.  I already replied to Natalie’s inquiry but thought I’d share with all of you incase you were curious also.

Removing objects from your photos

So, what’s on the agenda for today!?  I have a little tutorial for you from Becky over at Finding My Creativity!  What can I say about Becky?  Hmmmm, where do I begin?  I’ve been following and corresponding with her for quite some time now and she is just one sweet mama!  That’s right, she’s a mama to the beautiful little girl you see in the blog header below!  Adorable right?  She’s also one unbelievably talented photographer!  If you haven’t visited her bloggy site, you are missing out!  I hope you’ll take the time to hop on over and visit Miss Becky!  I’m sure you’ll find some fun posts to read and gorgeous pictures to ogle!  Enjoy!

Is it true about Google Friend Connect?

Has anyone else heard that Google Friend Connect (GFC) may be extinct and VERY soon?  You can find a post on this topic HERE.  The reason I ask is because I follow a lot of blogs through GFC and am wondering what I will do now to keep all of my favorite blogs in one place.  I feel so organized with GFC to be updated every time a new post is published on one of the blogs I am following.  It really is nice.  In an effort to be proactive, I signed up with Bloglovin’.  I figured this would be the next best thing.  For all of the blogs I follow via GFC, I am now following through Bloglovin’.  Also I have to, apparently, copy and paste ‘Follow my blog with Bloglovin’ code in a post to be able to claim my blog on bloglovin’ so here it goes:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I’ll eventually be adding a Bloglovin’ button to my sidebar along with my other contact buttons like Facebook, PInterest, Instagram, etc.