Baby Photographer | Real Photography

Photoshop Fridays: Week 2: Creating a Border in Photoshop

Mar 21, 2008

One of the first things I wanted to do when I was a brand new photoshop newbie was make a border around my photos.

The thing about photoshop, is that there are as many ways to get an end result as there are people. Of course, all of those ways are not created equal, and my very first way was absolutely awful.

Want to waste time and lose a little bit of your photo when making a border? Do what I did and use the line tool to make four lines and then put them around the edge of your photo.

It took me a few days to figure out a better way: the “canvas size” way.

1. Open a photo. In this case, we’re going to open one of my faves from my recent session with baby Eli:

portrait of mother and baby

2. Go to IMAGE>CANVAS SIZE.

canvas size menu photoshop screenshot

3. In the pop-up menu, select your border color (you get to choose from white, black, grey, your foreground color (in this case, brown) or your background color (in this case, orange–both the foreground and background colors are seen in your tools window) .

4. Check the “relative” box.

5. Enter the size of your border.

And there you have it. Simple and fast! If you want to create a double border (like the white border with thin gray border I used), you just do this process twice.

Posted in Baby Photographer, Photoshop Tips

Photo Purse

Mar 18, 2008

I have been loving some of the photo purses I’ve seen in the world and decided to try sewing one myself. (When Nic heard the words “photo purse” he looked like he was going to throw up, and when I told my sister-in-law Heather about it, she said “like those things grandmas carry?” and even though it was over the phone, I’m pretty sure if I had been there she would have looked a little green, too.)

The answer is no. NOT like grandmas carry. Like awesome rockstar moms carry. (Or awesome rockstar grandmas.)

I finished it off on Monday and love it. I have plans and most of the fabric cut for a second that will hopefully find its way to completion this week. I wanted one purse that was fun/cute and one that was more vintage/elegant. I went with fun/cute first, because fun involved sock monkeys and I like sock monkey fabric very much.

photo purse

I’ve had the fabric for a long time, so I’m glad I finally broke it out and used it. If anyone is interested, I am happy to share specifics about the fabric/pattern/construction in a separate post.

The inside of the bag is lined with more sock monkeys and a little pocket:

photo purse inside

(It still needs to be ironed, so it’s a little loosey-goosey.)

Posted in Baby Photographer, Crafts, Products

favorites from denver

Feb 29, 2008

I love this latest storyboard for one of my favorite families (the black border is just for posting here on the interwebs). You may remember the little ones from Drew’s newborn session this past fall. He is now five months old and a complete doll. And Leia is the cutest big sister in the world. It’s hard to say who enjoyed blowing bubbles in Drew’s face more–Drew or Leia!

My own doll baby suffered some misfortune while I was taking these pictures. He was at our neighbor’s house, and accidentally got his finger closed in the sliding glass door. It happened to be at just the right angle and just the right amount to amputate his fingertip (I’m not even being melodramatic–our discharge papers actually call it an “amputation”).

We had quite the lengthy ER wait, but he is on his way to recovery now–the specialist seems confident that it should grow back more or less on its own. He is very brave about it, and now that it is a little more protected in a splint I feel a lot better about his “I’m going to jump off furniture cause I’m doped up on pain killers and you feel too sorry for me to yell at me” antics. Were it not for the giant bandage you would never know the kid was injured!

Posted in Baby Photographer, Family Photographer, Toddler Photographer