Branded

Finally got some photo editing software in the form of Adobe photoshop elements 10, its typical just when you think you are learning something else slaps you in the face and puts you straight back on your back side. I have never found learning from books or videos very easy so now im in a whole new world of pain but i am slowly but surely picking up the basics. Maybe im a prime example at this point in time of biting off more than you can chew, working a 45 hour week coming home to my beautiful family getting my son ready for bed studying an online diploma and trying to learn to use photoshop. But hey grab the bull by both horns and surely things can only start to get easier.

But any way heres what i learnt this week on how to make your own logo/watermark in photoshop elements 10:

Firstly you need to open up a new blank file in elements editor.

Make the file 5 inch wide 3 inch high with 300 pixels per inch, set rgb colour mode and set background contents to transparent.

To easily locate this file when needed name it “Photography logo” or something to that effect.

Now select the text tool and add your desired wording, keep the name separate from the business type in my example one box read “Paul Hoaksey” the next read “Photography”. This is so that you can make your name stand out from the business by enlarging each box individually and having separate fonts and text colours.

When you have the desired effect save as *PSD file but do not flatten the image as this will give you a slid background colour (unless of course thats what you want).

Now leaving the logo open in your project open the photo you want to add your logo to and simply drag the logo from the bin over your photo and your logo will appear on it. You can now move and resize your logo till your happy and even change this opacity on the layer palette if you wish, hey presto your very own logo

If at any stage you find i went wrong or dont understand what i was trying to achieve please let me know like i say i find learning hard as it is never mind trying to teach lol I very much hope you do understand and enjoyed reading this i will attach a couple of my photos which are freshly branded and id love to know if you have any tips on how to improve it.

Thanks for reading. Paul.

A productive day

As you can probably see im new to blogging and not he best at keeping up to date, i havent taken many photos in the past couple of months since my blog until now. This week i decided to buy a background stand and backdrop this has made a big difference whilst trying out portrait photography, slowly but surely i am seeing the quality of my photos improve although i still have a long way to go. I still find metering and exposure quite difficult with flash on and off the camera. At the moment i dont have any decent editing software so im only able to do basic level adjustments so im having to adjust the brightness of the full photos to get the background to look pure white instead of just being able to single out the background. Im attaching some product photos which i have taken, hopefully soon ill have some portraits of my fiancee to upload i have already taken them just need her permission, Goodnight and thanks for reading.

Project gravatar

Well who knew how awkward it could be to take a self portrait!!

As the title says i decided today to have a go at making myself a gravatar for the site and putting a face to the name, as unfortunately it didnt fitting to find an old blurry mobile phone photo on facebook i decided to try my first ever self portrait (right laugh). Since i was going to try this indoors but didnt want a cluttered background i decided to do it in the dark using my sb600 speedlight flash ( used as slave commanded by the pop up on my D7000).

Setting up the shot i placed the camera on a tripod at full height with a mirror behind it, this way when i flicked the live view switch i could see in the mirror if i was in the frame or not. Unfortunately it wasnt so easy to set the focus and as of yet i dont have a remote shutter so began trial and error, i used auto focus with the lights on the find a point where i was happy the switched to manual focus so the camera wouldnt be searching in vain in the dark.

When i had the shot set up roughly how i wanted it i brought in the off camera flash quite awkward to hold pointing it at your self when you dont have a stand but on the plus side you can make adjustments very quickly. Unfortunately with this shot i have fallen into a pit fall that many magazines warn about and the focus point is the end of my nose because i havent focused on my eye and recomposed the shot. All in all the shot isnt great and could do with some more practice but its getting late and tomorrow is another day, thanks for reading.

Paul

Every journey starts with a single step.

Hi guys this is my first ever blog and not to sure at this point in time but a i guess ill start with a little bit about me and why i have chosen to start this blog. The main focus of this blog is going to be my attempt to self educate myself in photography, ill be using the internet, magazines, books and asking anyone in the know for tips and advice along the way. From a young age i have been interested in photography and have lost hours pouring over other peoples work.

A couple of months ago i took the plunge and purchased a nikon D7000 with 18-105mm kit lens on finance, since then i have had a clear out through Ebay and have been able to buy a 50mm 1.8 lens ( lovely to use and very light and compact ) and a second hand sb600 speedlight flash.

With having a genuine passion for photography im still finding all this very daunting as i hate to see myself taking bad photos which i do more often than not, but then i suppose practice makes perfect i just have a whole lot of practicing to do. Hope to be posting soon with some of my photos for your opinions and critique so for now for anyone who has taken the time to read my first blog i thank you and goodnight for now

Paul