Well many photographers are anticipating the announcements of the successor to the Canon 5D, which many rumors say could happen this week. Not holding my breath, but as soon as I hear confirmation from Canon, I will post it here.
One thing I do know is that Adobe is set to announce their Creative Suite 4 on September 23rd. What will be knew for the suite? And most importantly to me, what is in store for Photoshop CS4? They will be doing an announcement on this date and hopefully we will learn the “what” and the “when.”
What an exciting upcoming few weeks. To sign up for the “announcement” from Adobe, click here.
September 14, 2008 |
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MCP Actions Website | MCP Flickr Group | MCP Reviews
MCP Actions Quick Purchase
This is the MCP Suite for a Sweet Contest. Contests do not get any SWEETER!
GRAND PRIZE: OnOne Software Plug-In Suite 4 for Photoshop CS2 and CS3. This SUITE of products includes 6 photoshop plug-ins to help you mazimize the benefits of Photoshop. This combined with MCP Actions products and you have incredible editing tools in your hand.
The Plug-In Suite 4 consists of Genuine Fractals Print Pro, PhotoTools Professional Edition, PhotoFrame Professional Edition, MaskPro, PhotoTune and FocalPoint. $1,300 worth of products packaged in a $499 bundle. But Free to the SWEET winner!
1st PRIZE: Your choice of any one Tell a Storyboard Template Actions Set for Photoshop 7, CS, CS2 and CS3. Choices are 10×20, 20×20, variety pack, or rounded up collection
HOW TO ENTER:
Each photographer can enter once. Send photos to jodi@mcpactions.com. Send the photo 650-700 pixels wide. In the email include this phrase, “MCP Actions has full permission to use this photo on their site, blog, and in any promotional materials. I certify that I took this photo and have the rights to this photo.”
WHAT TO ENTER:
A photo with a “SWEET THEME” – can be anything from candy, to ice cream to cookies, to gum, cake, etc. Anything that portrays, as my 6 year old daughter Jenna said, “THE EAT KIND OF SWEET.” It can have other subjects and environment too, as long as the message is “yummy and sweet.”
The photo must be edited using at least one MCP Action. Please indicate which you used in your email (but not on the photo). You may use any of the actions including the template actions and/or blog it boards. So be creative!
It also must include one of the following phrases somewhere in your photo (can be photographed or typed) but remember creativity counts. (MCP and MCP Actions can be switched around in the phrases):
- MCP Actions are the sweetest
- Satisfy your sweet tooth with MCP
- MCP is a sweet treat
- MCP Actions help my photos look sweet
- MCP, all the sweetest, none of the calories
- Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice, that’s what MCP Actions are made of
- Anything else you think of with the words, MCP or MCP Actions and Sweet or Sweetest
WHEN TO ENTER:
All entries must be received by Monday the 22nd at 6pm eastern time.
HOW WILL THE WINNER BE SELECTED:
My twins, Ellie and Jenna, insist on picking the winner. I prefer voting to decide. So I am compromising. I will have them narrow down to their favorite 10 submissions. These will be voted on for the Grand Prize.
Then I will have them pick their favorite one. This will be the 1st Prize Winner.
The winners may be the same entry or may be two different ones.
VOTING TO START ON:
Tuesday September 23rd
You may spread the word on your blog and on photography forums once voting begins but you will be disqualified if you ask people to go vote for your specific photo. Do not make this a POPULARITY contest. It is a photo contest.
MCP Actions Website | MCP Flickr Group | MCP Reviews
MCP Actions Quick Purchase
One of my readers recently wrote in asking how to make her photo into a pencil sketch.
So here is a tutorial to teach you how. I am using the photo I just made into a blog header. Check out a variety of other ways to edit this photo by watching the top of my blog.
*** HINT: And if you want to “cheat,” keep watching, I may pop up a free action to turn your photos into a pencil sketch next week ***
Pencil Sketch Drawing – THE TUTORIAL
Start by picking a photo you want to use. Not every photo will get amazing results with this technique, so you may need to do some trial and error.
Original:
You need to desaturate it – you can use any method to get rid of color – from desaturating in hue/saturation to using channel mixers or gradient map. I will use a gradient map for this example.
Next duplicate the layer by holding the “ctrl” or “cmd” key and “J” – then hit “ctrl” or “cmd” and “I” to invert your selection. And then change your blending mode to “color dodge” as shown below. Your photo will look white or mostly white. It is suppose to at this point.
The next step is to use the “gaussian blur” under the “filters menu.” The higher the blur, the deeper and darker your pencil sketch will be. There are no exact numbers – it is based on the individual image.
For the image below, I did a blur of 5.8 pixels. If I wanted thinner lines, the number would be lower. If I wanted thicker lines, I would increase the number.
Lastly, if you want the lines a little darker or lighter (but not thicker or thinner), you can use a levels adjustment layer as shown below. Move the midtone slider to the right to make the lines darker or left to make it lighter.
Here is the final sketch:
