Photographer: Jody Miller

I "know" Jody Miller through Utata. She seems to be a woman of few words, letting her photographs speak for her, and man, do they have a lot to say. They're full of color and a play of light and shadow that makes me sigh and think I will never be an artist, ever. She paints with pixels and emulsion. Go see.

Pictory: Life Before Your Eyes

This gallery of Pictory members' most meaningful images is touching and beautiful, from the seemingly mundane to the majestic. Don't miss it, and be sure to read the captions under each image.

Brooke Shaden

Brooke Shaden, is a local Los Angeles photographer who I totally dig with her evocative self portraits. Three of my favorites, entirely too hard to really pick a favorite in my opinion, as she defines her work as exploring death and surrealism, are "deceasing", "ballet:vacate", and "retention".

Her blog.
Her Flickr stream.
On Facebook.

Photographer: Angela Ward Brown

We are proud to say this beautiful woman with the talented eye is our friend.  For a few years, now. :)  She rules.  And so do her photos.  The tea-stained image of poppies that heads her blog and is on the index page of her website just takes Katie's breath away. :)

Here's her blog.  Go check her out.  And if you live in  Hampshire in England, call the woman right now for a portrait, wedding, or commercial shoot.  It will be one of the best decisions you ever made. :)

Tutorial: Creating a Watermark (and Brush)

Creating your own watermark is a really simple process. We'll be discussing doing so in Photoshop (PS) or Fireworks (FW), but you can probably do it just as easily in GiMP or any other image editing program with any sort of real toolset.

There are two ways to lay a watermark over an image. The first, and pretty much easiest, method is to lay a text layer directly over the image. To do that in either Photoshop or Fireworks, you select the text tool, select a nice, easy-to-read font, set the size and color of font, and just type what you want it to say. Then you adjust the opacity of the layer - usually between 10 and 15%, move it to wherever you want it to be on the image, and you're done. The only "problem" with this method is that you have to type out your watermark every time. I'm too lazy to do that, so this tutorial will address the slightly more complicated (at first) method of making a brush to use as your watermark.

So, first thing you have to do is decide how large you want your mark to be. I make mine 2500 pixels wide, so that it can be stamped across large images with no problem. You can make things smaller easily, but larger...eh, not so much.

Next, decide what you want the watermark to say. Mine is the copyright symbol and my name. That pretty much works, but you can also add "all rights reserved," or whatever else you like. I've seen them with business phone numbers in addition to business names. Try not to go too crazy, though, since the watermark detracts from your image, no matter how light you make it.

So now that we've decided how big we want the watermark to be and what it's going to say, open your photo editing program, and let's go.

1. Open a new file. From the top menu bar, select File > New. In the resulting dialogue box, set the new file for 2500 pixels wide x 1000 high. Set the background contents (PS) or canvas color (FW) to white.

2. Choose the text tool. Choose your font, and then set the color to black and the size to the largest available. In PS, that's 72. In FW, it's 96. Type what you want your watermark to say. In PS, you will have to go up to the top of your window and click the checkmark icon to accept your input.

3. Neither of those will be large enough, so we have to adjust them.
In PS: with the Text tool still selected, go to the top of your PS window, and in the little dialogue box next to the large and small T's, set the font size to 300. To do this, highlight 72 with your mouse and type 300 over it. Hit enter.

In FW: select the pointer tool from your tool set. If your text is surrounded by a red box, click to select it so that it's surrounded by a blue box. In the Properties tab at the bottom of your window, there's a dropdown menu with the name of your font, and to the immediate right of that, another box/menu with your font size in it. That should read 96 right now. Use your mouse to highlight the entire number and type 200 or 250 over it. Hit enter.

Your font should now fit across most of your canvas, depending on the font you chose. Since all fonts are not created equal when it comes to the space they occupy, you may have to adjust your font sizes up (doubtful) or down. Just repeat the steps you took above until you get a font size that fits comfortably inside your image, with a little room to spare on either side.

4. Center your text.

5. Flatten your image.
PS: From top menu: Layer > Flatten Image
FW: From top menu: Modify > Flatten Selection

6. Sharpen your image. Filter(s) > Sharpen > Sharpen

7. Save the image
PS: Save as jpg.
FW: Save as png

If you use Fireworks or another program that does not use brushes, you've finished. When you want to watermark something, just open the png you just created and drag the text on top of the image you want to watermark.
A. At the very top of your layers box, change the mode from Normal to Multiply.
B. Adjust the opacity (the little number box between the mode and the little checkerboard icon) to around 20 or any level that you're comfortable with.
C. If you need to resize the watermark layer, choose the Scale tool from your tool set (immediately below the Pointer tool, it looks like a box with another tiny box inside the lower left corner and an arrow pointing to the upper right corner) and then just click and drag one corner of the black box around your watermark until it's the size you want.
D. If you want the mark to be white instead of black, go to the top menu and choose Filters > Adjust Color > Invert. Fireworks only adjusts what's there (the text) and ignores everything else (the background).
You're done.

For Photoshop, we now convert the watermark image we just made into a brush. With the watermark image you just made still open:

8. Go to the top menu and choose Edit > Define Brush Preset

9. In the dialogue box that pops up, you'll see a thumbnail of your watermark image, all squished up, and to the right, a box to name it. I'd suggest "watermark," but that's the way I roll. Type in whatever you want to name it and click Okay.

10. Open an image you want to watermark.

11. Open a new layer by choosing Layer > New > Layer from the top menu, or clicking the Create a New Layer icon in your Layers palette. It's probably the 5th from the left at the bottom and looks like a tiny piece of paper with one corner turned up.

12. Select the Brush tool from the tool set.

13. In the brush menu at the top of the window (just under the main program menu), just to the right of the word Brush, you'll see an image of whatever brush is currently selected, a number representing the size of the brush selected, and a tiny little triangle pointing down. Click the triangle.

14. In the dialogue box that pops up, you have 3 main choices: Master Diameter, Hardness, and a menu of brush selections, probably the default presets that come with Photoshop. Drag the slider all the way down to the bottom, and you should see your watermark brush there. Select it and then adjust the Diameter (width) to whatever size you like by dragging that slider left. Click the tiny little triangle again to close the box.

15. Go to the background and foreground color selector in your toolset and choose either black or white for the color in the top square. (you can choose a color if you like, but white or black are most common)

16. Reselect the brush tool, mouse over your image on the new layer, and left click. Your watermark will stamp across your image.

17. Go to the layers palette and move the slider for that layer to adjust the opacity until you're happy with it.

18. If you want to move the watermark to a different part of your image, all you have to do is select the Move tool and drag it to wherever you want it to be.

19. You may want to sharpen your watermark again. At this point, if I decide to do that, I prefer to use Unsharp Mask. I will assume you are able to figure this part out on your own.

20. Voila. You have watermarked your image. And scene. :)

Sometimes when I close Photoshop, it resets all my tools, for some reason. If that happens to you, just open your watermark image and repeat steps 8 and 9 again. I have not yet figured out how to save it as an abr file. Sorry!

Just FYI, you can follow the above directions to create any brush you want. All you need to know is that whatever is black will show up in the brush, and anything white will not. Shades of grey will be much lighter, but they will show up, as long as they're not too light a shade.

Now go make some brushes and stamp stuff. :)

Free Texture: Bordered Grunge

I'm working on a texture pack, and this one will be in it. I really like it. Took me a ridiculous amount of time to get the outside edge right, but I think it was worth it. I think the smaller one is better. I ended up having to do it twice, and I just could not get the hi-res version the same as the lower resolution. Oh, well. C'est la vie.



Free for personal, non-commercial use ONLY. You may not sell or package the image with other items for sale. You may not repost the image or transfer it to another user. You can, however, post the link for those who would like to use the image themselves.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Introducing K&C's Big Damn Flickr Group

We now have a Flickr group, so if you've used one of Katie's textures, or if you grab one of hers or Calli's in future, please come share it in group!

Photoshop Tutorial: Doll Faces

The following tutorial is my own method for achieving the doll effect I learned from fellow Flickrite Parée (pareeerica).  It is based on her tutorial, which you can find here.  Parée does some really beautiful work.  You should totally add her to your list of places to go for eye candy.  She is entirely self-taught with Photoshop (CS3 Extended) and also posts tutorials from time to time. :)

Parée's tutorial had images.  I am far too lazy to include images, so if you need them for clarification or what have you, you should definitely go look at hers.  You should probably do that anyway.  I think my method is a little easier, but I did it the way I work.  Your method may be better suited to Parée's.  For the record, she also links to a GIMP tutorial for the same effect.

Okay, so here we go.  For comparison, I started with this image: 

 

 And ended up with this one, which I also cropped from square:

 

This will not work for every photo.  You need to start with a good, large image which is nice and clear, without a lot of background, preferably with the subject turned straight on into the camera and with very little head tilt, if any tilt at all.  

1.  Choose an appropriate image and open it up in Photoshop.  I use CS, but this should work for all versions from 7 thru CS3.  I don't know about versions prior to 7, since that was the one I learned PS with.

2.  With the image you want opened, select the Rectangular Marquee tool from your tool palette.  Select the top half of the head, from just above the tip of the nose up.  Right click inside the selected portion and choose "Layer via Copy."  Photoshop creates a new layer with just the top portion of your image in it.  Click the eye icon to turn off that layer and return to the background layer.

3.  Using the Rectangular Marquee tool again, select the bottom portion of the image from about the middle of the forehead (or at least just over the eyebrows) all the way down.  Right click inside the selected portion and choose "Layer via Copy" again.  Photoshop creates a new, 3rd layer with the bottom portion of your original image in it.

-> You now have 3 layers to your image.  Starting at the bottom, you have your background layer; Layer 2, containing the bottom half of your image; and Layer 1, containing the top portion.  If they're not in that order, please click Layer 1 and drag it to the top of the list so that it is your topmost layer.

4.  Click the little eye icon to turn off your background layer.  We keep it in case we make a mistake.

5.  Click Layer 2 to make it the active layer.  Go to the Edit menu at the top of the Photoshop window.  (Click Edit)  Choose "Transform" and then choose "Scale."  Now go back to the top of the Photoshop window.  Under the menu bar, you have a list of values for the current selection.  The first 4 values are labeled X, Y, W and H.  Between the W box and the H, there's a tiny little chain icon.  Click it.  (That locks the aspect ratio into place, but unless you're a graphics wiz, that doesn't mean a darn thing, so just remember you have to click the chain.) :)

6.  Go to the W box immediately to the left of the little chain icon you just clicked.  It says 100.0%, which means that right now, the width is set to the same scale as the height of your image, which is full size.  We're going to change that, so over the 100.0, type 65.  You will notice that the entire layer shrinks.  Do not worry.  It's supposed to do that. :)  Now hit your "enter" key twice.  (It's possible some versions of Photoshop don't change the size of the layer until you hit enter, so don't freak out if nothing happens until you do that.)

7.  I left out this step and shrunk the body, but Parée gets rid of it, so with Layer 1 still selected, use the Rectangular Marquee tool and select the head and shoulders of your subject.  Right click inside the selection and choose "Layer via Copy."  This will create a new Layer 3, just above Layer 1 in your layers palette.  Click the little eye icon to turn off Layer 2.  (Parée says you can delete it, but I like to play it safe.)

-> At this point, you should have 4 layers.  From the bottom: Background, Layer 2, Layer 3, and Layer 1.  You should have the Background and Layer 2 turned off, so that all you can see are Layers 1 and 3.

8.  Click Layer 1 to make it the active layer.  Go to the Edit menu at the top of the Photoshop window.  (Click Edit)  Choose "Transform" and then choose "Perspective."  A little box outline will appear around the outside of your layer.  Click one of the lower corners - it does not matter which one - and drag it inside until it roughly matches the width of the smaller face in Layer 3.  You can also click one of the upper corners and it to the outside, away from the image.  That will lower the top of the head and make the top of the head wider.  When you reach the shape you want, click the little check mark at the top tool bar to lock in your changes.  (If you don't like what you've done and want to start over from scratch, instead of clicking the check mark, click the international sign for "no" icon, and the layer will revert back to the way it was.

If you choose not to drag out the upper corners of the transform box, you might find the top of the head gets a bit high.  If that happens and you don't like it, choose Edit > Transform > Scale to grab the upper line of the box and drag it downward until you get the forehead shape you want.  You can also drag the bottom line downward, if you want to make the forehead longer than it is.

9.  Click Layer 3 to select the image layer containing the bottom portion of the face.  Choose Edit > Transform > Perspective and again drag the bottom corners inward (and/or the top corners outward) until you get a shape you like, and then click the check mark to accept the changes.  Remember, you can also click anywhere inside the transform box to move the layer around and match it up with Layer 1 to see what works and what doesn't.  

If you need to, go back to Layer 1 and Edit > Transform > Perspective that layer again to make it wider or more narrow to match up.  You might also want to Edit > Transform > Scale Layer 3 to make the faces fit together more easily.  Nothing here is carved in stone. :)

10. When you have to 2 halves of the face shaped as you like and as smoothly matched up as possible, it's time to blend them together.  Choose Layer 1 so that it's the active layer.  At the bottom of the layers palette, there's a row of icons.  Click the one that looks like a rectangle with a circle inside it.  That adds a layer mask to the layer, which I just discovered, and it's completely awesome, because if you mess up, it's really easy to fix.  Up in Layer 1, you will now have a tiny thumbnail of your layer image and an equally tiny white rectangle next to it.  Click the rectangle once.  You are now working with the mask.  

Go to the tools palette and choose Paintbrush.  Choose a round shape and set it for about 13% hardness.  Near the bottom of your tool palette, there are two little squares, one black and one white.  The black one should be on top.  If it isn't, you can click the little 2-way arrow icon in the corner to switch places so that the black is on top.  Now here's the cool part: in layer mask mode, black erases the layer while white puts stuff back in!  So if you make a mistake and erase something you didn't mean to, you can just go click the little arrow so that white is on top of black in the tool palette and then paint over the mistake, and it's like it never happened.  Nifty, huh?!  So  with black on top, erase all the parts of Layer 1 that don't match up with Layer 3, so that tge two layers blend nicely together.  If you erase something and make a mistake, just select white and paint back over it.

-> If you did not delete Layer 2, you should still have 4 layers, two of which are visible and blended nicely together so that they look like one (oddly-shaped)  image with no line going across it where the two layers meet.

11. Click the eye icon to turn the Background layer back on.  Click the eye icon on Layers 1 and 3 to turn those layers OFF.  

12. Go to the tool palette and choose the Lasso tool.  Choose the oval Lasso icon so that you can just draw a circle around one of your subject's eyes.  Right click inside the selected area and choose "Feather."  In the little dialog box that pops up, type 10 (pixels).  Right click again and choose "Layer via Copy."  You now have a new Layer 4 just above the Background layer. Click Layer 4 and drag it to the top of your layers list.  Right click on Layer 4 and choose "Duplicate Layer."  You now have a new layer called Layer 4 Copy just above Layer 4.

13. Turn off the Background Layer.  Turn back on Layers 1 and 3.  

14.  Click Layer 4 Copy to highlight it.  Go to the Edit menu and choose "Transform" and then "Flip Horizontal."  The image of the eye will flip over.  Click the Move Tool in your tool palette and drag the eye over to the other side of the face.  Position both eyes where you think they look good.  (If you want them to be even bigger, click Edit > Transform > Scale and drag one of the corners out diagonally until you like how big they are.  Click to accept the change.)  Click Layer Mask for each layer and use a black brush to erase around the eyes so that they blend with the layer beneath them (Layer 1).

15.  Now we need to merge the layers into one cohesive unit.  Click the topmost visible layer in your layers palette.  (in this case, Layer 4 Copy)  Hold down the Alt button on your keyboard and go up to the Layers menu at the top of your Photoshop window.  Choose "Merge Visible Layers" from near the bottom of the dropdown list.  You will have to hold down the left button of your mouse until you've hovered over Merge Visible Layers.  Let go of the Alt key and the mouse button.  You now have all the layers blended together as Layer 4 Copy.

16. Go into the Filters menu at the top of the Photoshop window and choose "Liquify."  Photoshop will open a new window with a new set of tools.  

Now, this is where Photoshop gets fun and kinda freaky.  Liquify is sort of like the Smudge tool automated and on steroids.  Along the left side of the window is a tool palette with functions from moving something over to plumping it, puckering it, spiraling it, and more.  I still don't know my way around all the functions of Liquify, and this isn't a Liquify tutorial.  For our purposes here, all you need is step 17.

17. Use the Forward Warp tool (at the top of the palette, looks like a hand pointing a finger) and a fairly large brush size (move the slider until you get a circle about the same size as the length of the face from the tip of the nose to the tip of the chin) to push the lower part of the face in (or out) to shape it the way you like it.  I personally think in looks better.  For the image above, I gently moved things here and there a tiny bit in so that the chin was kind of pointy.  If you make a mistake, you can Ctrl-Alt-Z or paint over the affected area with the Reconstruct tool (second one down, looks like a paintbrush).  If you want to start completely over, click the Restore All button.  The Reconstruct button will undo the last thing you did, but you can't put it back, so I rarely use it.  Ctrl-Alt-Z is a better option.  When you have it like you like it, click Okay in the upper right corner.  

Remember, with Liquify, less is generally more.  It's better to start small and then add a little more if you don't think you did enough.  It's really easy to go overboard with Liquify and end up with something really freakish.  If you return to your image and find you don't like what you just did afterall, click undo in the Edit menu.

18. When you have the bottom half of the face the way you like it, click the Pucker tool (4th down) and click the tip of the nose to shrink it a little bit at a time until you're happy.  Click okay.

19. Return to Liquify and choose the Bloat tool (5th down).  Place the crosshairs in the middle of your brush circle over the center of each eye and tap your mouse button.  The larger your brush circle, the greater the change, both in area and bloating.  Don't overdo it.  One or two clicks is probably enough.  Click okay.

If you want to do anything else to the face in Liquify, go for it, but aside from also plumping the lips if they're too thin, that's all I do.

20. Dolls have funky eyes, so go back to your layers palette and click the little icon next to the trash can at the bottom.  The one that looks like a page with the bottom left corner turned up.  That will open a new layer.  Go to your tool palette and choose the paintbrush.  Make sure white is the active color and that the brush is set for 100% opacity.  (it should still be set to 13% hardness)  Set the diameter of the brush so that it just covers the iris of each eye.  Center it over the iris of each eye and click one time each.  Go to your layers palette and set the mode to Overlay (the little dropdown menu just under the layers tab. it probably says "Normal").  Adjust the opacity of the layer until you like how it looks.   (click where it says Opacity 100% and a slider will pop up for you to move)

21. You've tweaked the heck out of your image, so you'll need to find a background to set it against.  Maybe lay a texture over it.  That's not for this tutorial though, so you're on your own with the whole cutting and pasting or however you choose to do it. :)

If you liked this tutorial, please go visit Parée and tell her so.  All I did was change a little bit of the process to streamline it.  The nuts and bolts of this tutorial are hers, and she deserves the credit.

Free Texture: Rain in Dust

This is taken from a piece of dust-covered slate that had been in a light rainfall.  The darker spot is where the dog scraped his paw across it right before I took the picture. *sigh*

Free for personal, non-commercial use ONLY. You may not sell or package the image with other items for sale. You may not repost the image or transfer it to another user. You can, however, post the link for those who would like to use the image themselves.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Free Texture: Vintage Stains

I experimented with different color combinations and settled on this one because it gave a vintage feel to the images I layered it over to test it.  I also have a b&w version, but this one was cooler.  Especially if I set the layer on color burn.  You can also use color balance to change the highlight color by adding a little red and less blue, and that makes it look like bruises at about 53% opacity.

Free for personal, non-commercial use ONLY. You may not sell or package the image with other items for sale. You may not repost the image or transfer it to another user. You can, however, post the link for those who would like to use the image themselves.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Free Texture: Gold Wash

I'm working on a set of textures for purchase.  These are lo-res of a couple (or 1) that may be in the set. I'm not entirely happy with them; they're too dark, I think. I can't quite put my finger on what it is that's bothering me. Let me know if you try them, please. I'd appreciate the feedback.

This is kind of a mottled gold wash:


This one is sort of like wallpaper:

This one is sort of woodgrain:

These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Photographer: Tamelyn Feinstein

I've been a huge fan of Tamelyn Feinstein's photography for quite some time now.  I first discovered her on Flickr sometime in the latter half of 2006, and fell in love with her cheeky sense of humor and oh-so-pink bathroom. :)  Her images range from completely adorable, to beautiful and thoughtful, to darkly brooding or moody pieces that really make you think, and all of it is utter eye candy. :)  The fact that Tamelyn herself is a thoughtful and genuine person comes through in her work and adds to the enjoyment of it.  I could not be more pleased she has moved into the professional realm and is offering prints of her work.  I wish her the best of luck. :)

The site will be finished soon...we think!

Calli's hubby is going to design a snazzy site with all kinds of kickin' functionality. :)  Hurray for features!  And stuff to read!  And galleries!  We are stoked, because I haven't had the time to put into design that I wanted, and Calli's been pretty busy too.  Plus, I hate java.  And flash.  And, to be honest, I almost kinda hate web design.  Actually, I don't mind it that much, but it's time-consuming, and I don't like that, especially with two demanding dogs and another website to design for my jewelry and accessories, and all the other stuff going on right now.  So Mr. Calli said he'd be happy to help out, and we are more than happy to have him do so.  Hip hip, hooray! 

Whew. I think I need to sit down, now.

Tweet Stuff

Katie & Calli also tweet. :)

You can find our "official" tweets under @katieandcalli .  Be the first to learn of new textures, brushes, and finds!

Calli also tweets under @calliean.

Add us to your follow list, and don't forget to say hi!

Flypaper Textures: Update

So, Paul over at Flypaper Textures tells me he and partner Jill have tutorials planned for their site/blog, and that they do texture giveaways, so you should add them to your blogroll, if you haven't already. :)  I'm betting that once you use one of their textures, you'll want the whole set.  They're marvelous, subtle textures, so they blend.  ...And now I feel like Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny.  ("Oh, yeah. You blend.")  Point is, the texture isn't what people will see when they look at your photographs.  Textures are a delicate thing, in my opinion, and they don't always enhance an image so much as distract, but anyway.  Flypaper Textures are really nice textures!

Since I know everyone doesn't read the comments after posts - which you guys should do here, since the people we highlight sometimes comeback and comment with more information and stuff - I wanted to post again so everyone is aware. :)