Get Your Camera Ready for The Fourth Day of Christmas!

Have you gotten your jingle on yet? Hopefully if you haven't, then I've got a great project for you! One of my favorite hobbies is photography and it's even better when you get to combine creative outlets with photos! The nice thing about photos is that they're multi-service. You can easily use your winter and holiday photos for cards, wall pictures, or just for admiring them. I've got a great idea though for taking your photographs and turning them into holiday masterpieces!

Each of the pictures you see above are my own personal photographs from a selection of my Christmas albums. I took each original photo and did a little enhancing using one of my favorite websites PicMonkey. If you haven't used this website before, I can honestly say it's very user friendly and a lot of fun! It's a great, FREE, yes I said FREE, alternative to programs like Photoshop. I used each of the four photos shown above with PicMonkey and each one has distinctive feature effects, that I'd like to share with you to give your pictures the "perfect touch".

This first picture was taken several years ago at a family Christmas Eve party. At this stage in my photography career I was just getting warmed up and still practicing with holding the camera straight. The unique thing about this picture was that even though it was a little shaky, it still turned out pretty nice to me. I mainly fell in love with color that showed up in the picture, sometimes it's hard to get the color temperature in a picture just right, especially when dealing with low lighting. In this case the Christmas Tree lights helped to give enough color support to really make the photo come to life. For this particular photo, I chose to do a Polaroid Make-up which turned my picture into a vintage Polaroid color shot, then I simply added the text "Merry Christmas!" for caption purposes. This is a great feature to use for those individuals who enjoy the vintage look of photographs. This a great effect to keep that vintage classic look alive without destroying the physical quality of the picture.

                            (Before)                                                                        (After)

This next picture is what's often called a "selfie". It features myself on the left, to my right is one of my best friends Colleen. We took this picture last year at the Wildlights Christmas Display at The Columbus Zoo (which is a lot of fun and really neat to see!). I love this picture so much because it reminds of the classic phrase "Awww, it's a Kodak moment". This picture simply captured a great moment in time where I shared a great night with a great friend. When I saw this picture blown up on my computer I was tickled by the lights in the background and how they made for the perfect backdrop for me and my friend. I didn't really do a whole lot of editing to this picture, but what I did change is very simple and perfect for fixing little issues in your pictures. I added a feature called "Frost" which is the white fog around the corners of the picture. This just gives my photo a little artistic touch and is perfect for creating the "winter feel." I also added a slight color boost because this was taken at night, and naturally the picture was slightly too dark and dull. The last thing I did was a favorite feature of mine and is quite popular in photo editing- the blemish fix. This is a simple brush technique that instantly removes your unwanted blemishes, cuts, and even zits! It's a great tool to ensure you have the picture perfect look!

                                 (Before)                                                           (After)

My third picture features the Christmas Tree found just outside of the campus Chapel at my college, Ashland University. Each year, there was a special celebration for the Christmas Tree and I happened to take a picture of the tree one night on my way to my room. Because this picture was taken at night, and it was extremely dark where I was standing, much of the picture was blacked out except for the tree and colors of the building around it. So I decided for my little editing trick that I would make the entire photo black & white, except for the Christmas Tree which pops against the black background. I used the reverse tint effect to color the picture black except around the tree. PicMonkey also has some Christmas stickers available to be placed on your pictures. I chose "Seasons Greetings" because, Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas can get old very fast- so freshen it up a bit! 

                                         (Before)                                                           (After)

              

My fourth and final picture I'm sharing with you is another Christmas Tree that I took a picture of at The Columbus Zoo last year. I loved how this tree was decorated and it was perfectly placed by the entrance giving all of the visitor that instant welcome feeling. I have to admit though, as pretty as this picture is I wanted to do a "silly" example of how you can take your photographs put a slight twist to them. This particular tree didn't have anything on top of it- no star, angel, not even a decorative bow! So, I found the perfect opportunity by placing a Santa Hat sticker at the top, along with a sticker of the Merry Christmas emblem which resembles an old-fashion stamp. This picture should give you the impression, do not be afraid to be a little "funny" in your editing. The holidays are meant to put a smile on everyone's faces, so make sure you really take the opportunity to have a little fun in your work! 

                                         (Before)                                                       (After)

      

So, do you think you can handle four festive photos? I'm sure you can! Even if you have access to more advanced photo editing programs, take advantage of free tools that can you can easily learn and have fun with. I always learn best when I can just play around with the tools given to me. Photo editing works the same way. It's a lot of trial and error, and experimenting with color, shades, effects, and designs. Creativity knows no boundaries, so find yourself some good pictures you'd like to enhance and you're off to the races! Don't forget to stop by tomorrow to see what special surprise the 5th Day of Creative Cabana will bring! 

Also, I'd like to ask my readers to please bear with me in getting my posts online in a timely manner. I am currently in the process of moving and have limited access to my laptop and the internet. But don't let my moving spoil your fun! I'll keep you updated on The Creative Cabana's social media sites. Check back each day for a new Christmas Activity! Have a fantastic night everyone and sweet creative dreams! 

*All photos used in this post belong to me and they are from my personal collection. Some of the photographs were edited through the online site PicMonkey. I would like acknowledge and thank the developers for the creation of this free editing tool. I do not own PicMonkey or have any connections to the company or owner(s). No Copyright Infringement Intended. 

Falling in Love With Photography

Courtesy of Bitstrips via Facebook

Hello dear readers! I have finally managed to return to the web after two days of miserable torture of fighting with my computer for search access! I briefly mentioned on Twitter (which you should follow @CreativeCabana) about having issues with my computer which in turn affects my post schedule. Sometimes I swear technology hates me and tries very hard to make life awful. However, I've managed to successfully fix the problem and I can get back to doing what I love to do, giving you wonderful creative ideas and inspiration! 

Today I'd like to spend sometime sharing the concept of photography editing. Now this is a pretty basic principle and can be done for any occasion, at any time of the year. However, I feel like Fall is really a great time to start working that photo-edit magic to create spectacular pictures for display. Hopefully you've managed to collect some great photos over the last month consisting of fall scenery, family events, and maybe even special Halloween pictures. If you haven't, RELAX! Any picture that you find special and needs some tweeking will be perfect for this activity. The great thing about fall pictures is that not only do they make for nice home decor, but they can also bring in the season's festive feel for dinners, parties, or other social events. Photographs make for a nice alternative to decorations, especially for Thanksgiving. I didn't get much chance myself this year to do some scenic photograph work like I wanted to, so I'll be using two pictures I took last year while vacationing in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. By the way, if you've never been to the Smoky Mountains (doesn't matter what time of year), it is beautiful and I highly recommend it for a trip! Anyway, last year I traveled to Tennessee with my family in an attempt to see some good fall color in the South. This was in early October and while some color was starting to come in through the mountains it was mostly green and lush still. 

   

These are just samples of some of the pictures I took, and while they are nice photos- I think I can pump them up a little! When you have pictures like these that seem a bit dull and can use a vibrant factor to really make subjects pop out, then you're in luck because there's a few simple things to try. Please note, for my pictures I'm simply using the editing functions found in Windows Live Gallery (on Windows 7), but you can also use the same editing tools found in Adobe Photoshop or use free editing sites such as PicMonkey to enhance pictures as well. 

Mainly what I want to do for these pictures is to enhance the fall color seen in the trees and add more nature flare to scenery. In the first picture, the thing that pops out to me is the blue sky. It was very sunny the day I took this picture which is great for lighting but can also hurt exposure. So when editing photos, be sure to check the brightness and exposure of your photographs. 

So now I'm currently happy with my adjustments in brightness, I've adjusted contrast to balance the trees and rocks with the sky so now they're not fighting for brilliance in lighting terms. Which ever program you're using for editing, I always recommend hitting the undo button occasionally so that you can see what changes are taking effect. In the early stages of editing you may not see (or think) there is much change, but comparing to the original product will be helpful to you. Next I'm moving on to color- here is where my goal will be to try to make the trees pop against the blue sky for a more visual influence. When it comes to colors most programs follow either the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) palette or CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key- Black). When adjusting settings like color temperature, saturation, or tint, if you move your sliders from left to right you'll clearly see your picture change in color spectrum. What to watch for is that you don't want the haze effect, burnt look, or too much blue effect. Something I learned in college from video production is to keep your eye on something white. In this picture I have portions of white in the road for me to refer to while I adjust the color. 

One last thing I want to fix! Look in the upper right hand corner. See those white lines? That's a reflection from the car window. No, I wasn't driving when I took this picture- DON'T TEXT AND DRIVE KIDS! I'd like to see if I can delete that from this picture. In the Windows Live Gallery there's a button known as "Retouch" which takes care of that problem for me. If you're using a program like Adobe Photoshop, you'll need to use the tool "Clone Stamp" tool to color over the spot you wanted corrected. Just make sure hit alt + click on the spot you'll be using for the cover up and then use your arrow to simply cover over the area you want fixed. If you're using programs like PicMonkey, you might want to see if there's a feature available that will allow you imitate this feature as not all sites offer this ability. This would be a specific edit feature and not just filter layouts so be careful when browsing. Finally, I'm happy with the picture and here is the result side-by-side.

The second picture required many of the same edits, but just looking at the original photo you could definitely see there were some exposure problems and too much lighting. Most of it bouncing off not just the windshield of the car, but from the post on the freeway. I had also cropped the image because in the lower left corner was a dark spot that I didn't want in the shot. Here is the result from that edit as well:

Big improvement right? I gave my pictures a rich, beautiful vibrant tone. Just be careful not to throw your viewers into a massive color explosion giving them headaches! Fall is great time to really exercise your color technique because you've got a wide array of colors in the palette to work with when it comes to digital editing. Spring is also another great time of year for pictures as long it's not too cloudy or humid during the warmer periods. Humidity can affect your pictures creating a lot of haze and distortion. The key in photography though, no matter what stage, is to have fun. Don't be afraid to test the limits of what you can do with your camera (or cellphone). 

I hope this little lesson about photo editing will inspire you to enhance your precious collection of pictures and share with family and friends, not just for the holidays but for anytime. Fall pictures make for a great showcase display in the seasonal period and it's an easy concept to do! All you need is a picture, editing program, imagination, and a good sense of creativity!

Make sure you follow The Creative Cabana on Facebook and Twitter for more content updates and the opportunity to share your ideas. PLUS The Creative Cabana is also available on Pinterest with a new Thanksgiving board to help you find ideas for your upcoming holiday celebration. 

*Animated picture is from Bitstrips available through the Bitstrip application on Facebook. I do not own Bitstrips, PicMonkey, or Adobe Photoshop. Use of application mentions were only for demonstration purposes- No Copyright Infringement Intended. Pictures of Tennessee landscape and Live Photo Gallery screenshots were taken by me and I have full ownership of these images. 

Vacation Pictures

Before I start, can I get a "HECK YEAH IT'S FRIDAY!". That's right Friday, Labor Day Weekend! Some of you might have today off and your getting to kick-start your long weekend a little early. Others may have just Monday off. However if you do have to work Labor Day, know that you and your work are appreciated! 

Ok, so I've titled this post "Vacation Pictures" because I want to spend a little time with you talking about people taking pictures on vacation. Summer is starting to come to a close and for many people this will be the last opportunity for a "Summer Vacation". When you go on vacation, what do you like to take pictures of? Or do you even take pictures? It's very neat seeing how we use photography now to portray what we see in a different location. I notice a lot of my friends will use Instagram to take scenic or family pictures while away. But usually I also see regular photos straight from a digital camera. Vacation pictures are one of my favorite types of photography because not only do you capture "once in a lifetime" moments, you also capture an environment you may never see again. 

When I was little, say about 5 or 6 years old, my family and I took a trip to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I don't have any pictures of that trip unfortunately, but let me tell you it looks NOTHING like it did when I was little. Pigeon Forge was a popular tourist attraction at that time (mid-90s), but if you go there now it's a pretty widespread area. I joke every time we visit because I call it the "Tennessee Vegas". There's no casinos, but everything is on one strip and there's literally a building in every spot. If I had a camera when I first visited there, I would've gotten some really beautiful pictures of The Great Smokey Mountains. Today you can still see them just a big and beautiful as ever, but it's hard to get a decent picture of the mountains unless you go outside of town. All of the entertainment buildings and hotels cover up a lot of the natural beauty of Pigeon Forge, but thankfully the mountains are big there's plenty of scenic routes to get pictures. Here's some examples of my "Vacation Pictures" in Tennessee

                                             

                                                           
                     These are just simple pictures I took on my digital camera and you can see how much beauty is subtracted from the picture on the right in comparison to the view on the left. Whenever you're on vacation whether it's at the beach, a park, the desert, a cruise, etc. If you're wanting to get good scenic or iconic pictures, no matter what camera you're using, always try to get the best view from the best angle you can. Vacation pictures aren't meant to be "award-winning" photographs. However you can still get that's magazine cover-worthy look if you take extra care in the picking the appropriate camera settings, view, and angle!

If you've got some really interesting Vacation Photos you'd like to share, don't be shy!!! Leave a comment below and I'd love to see your finest vacation photos are their best! Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend and if you're traveling, be safe, have fun, and always be creative!

Smile and Say CHEESE!

Courtesy of Bitstrips via Facebook

Photography is an extremely interesting field to get into because it opens a whole new world of what we can catch in time in just a split second. Unlike video where you're recording an entire event photography only gives you that one moment to reflect on. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then how many pictures will it take to come up with the perfect shot of life in action? Here I'll post some of my photographic with just a simple digital camera and occasionally my phone too because we can't all have standard-professional pictures, but sometimes we don't need all the fancy equipment to get "that one shot." Watch me capture those amazing pictures that really emphasize the world around us, all through the eyes of my camera.