Emily Pitts and Photoshop...a great pair!

Good day to all our fabulous SCT readers! I hope you've been enjoying the day we've planned for you so far. I'm going to share a technique with Photoshop that allows you to print out a photo on patterned paper and get an artsy look. I don't have Elements, but I imagine the steps are pretty similar.

 

1. Choose a photo that has little background noise. This one of my kids in Vancouver had a lot going on, but I wanted to use it, so I cropped out all the "noise." This allows me to make them more the focus, something important in this technique.

 

2. Now you have to choose an appropriate patterned paper. Obviously you don't want one that is too dark or too busy, your photo is going to be harder to decipher with this technique so you want to take away as much of the guess work as possible.

I think text, tone on tone, or very soft colors work best. You don't want to have strong contrast, otherwise you end up with something unattractive coming out of your subject's face. I'll show you a few examples of what works and what doesn't at the end.

3. This is what happens if you just print the picture, not playing with it at all. Not terribly artsy or interesting.

 

4. So, to remedy that, you're first going to turn your photo black and white. If you print it you'll get this. Notice that it's not really easy to see my kids still. Time to play with CONTRAST!

 

 5. With your black and white photo, you'll go to CURVES and lighten the picture quite a bit.

 

6. If you print it out now, it's much easier to see my kids, and you could stop here, but I still want to play more with the contrast for a more artsy and vintage feel.

 

 7. I  go to LEVELS and make the dark parts of the photo darker and the light parts lighter. Every photo is different so you'll have to play with it until you like the results.

 

8. This is the result printed out, you'll notice that you can see my kids better.

 

 9. I love the contrast I've achieved, don't love the yellow in the paper, so I try it on a few other pieces of patterned paper and this is what I get. This technique is not really about printing off pristine prints for posterity's sake. It's more about having fun and experimenting.

 

10. This shows the progression of the photos in Photoshop from color to high contrast, for you to use as a reference.

I hope you'll try this fun technique out if you have a printer and a photo editing program. It's fairly easy to achieve a fun and vintage look. You can use if for altered projects as well, like I did on this canvas:

 

 Enjoy the rest of your day scrapbooking!  ~  Emily Pitts

There is no doubt for anyone that has attended one of our Crop & Create events that we just adore our friends at Maya Road.   We love how versatile and fun their products are and Caroline was very happy to put together this very special package for our NSD celebration...

 

Amazing right?  Don't you just love those amazing stamps?  To win this great package, leave a comment below by 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 11^th!  We know that Maya Road is also celebrating so be sure to join them on their facebook page and be sure to let them know we say “hello!”

 Next hour we have Marla Kress joining us with some great organization ideas and a great organizational “item” you DO NOT WANT TO MISS!  Did we say that loud enough?  Lol!   If you are just joining us, be sure to head back to the beginning of our celebration today!

~  Catherine

Comments

[Angela A]

Wow! Those were some great tips! What a pretty page you created!

[Patricia Nee]

Way cool page, but too much "technique" for me. It looks hard to do.

[Elizabeth L]

That looks like alot of work, but the way you explained it was very helpful! Thank you!

[Robin B.]

Thank you for teaching us some new techniques, love it!

[Sue Morris]

Oooooh!! this is wonderful!! I am new to Adobe PE 11. I have been wanting to get some inspiration and this is just perfect! Thank you!!

[Diana Soling]

what a great technique. I've never seen this done before and it looks so cool!

[Ina]

yipppieeee.I love those stamps! so cool! Thanks for the chance to win.

[Denise Bryant]

Cool technique! Love Maya Road... thanks for another chance to win a fabulous prize!!

[tammy K]

Wow, so many great ideas today!

[Keri Postma]

Awesome technique with the photos! Thanks for the great giveaway of Maya Road!

[Nancy L.]

so much fun!

[auntie em (emily)]

That is a great tutorial. Love your finished LOs. I think I am getting brave when I change a pic to B&W or print it in a different size. Guess I need to get a little braver and experiment a little more!
Thanks for the inspiration! :)

[Archana]

Thank you so much for sharing this fun technique.. Can't wait to try this.. and yes! we all are having a great time.

[Heather - housesbuiltofcards]

What creative techniques! LOVE these!!!

[HeatherH]

Interesting technique! Thanks for sharing it.

[Tracey]

Thanks for the photoshop tips!!

[mel]

Thanks for the ideas and to Maya Road too!

[Silvia Diaz]

The Photoshop tips are great and so are the prizes! Thanks!!!!!!!

[Andrea Williams]

Great tips!!! Maya Road is the best! I had a blast making a card with Caroline at Crop and Create Markham. Oh, good times.

[Marlene]

That is such an interesting idea. More inspiration for future reference. Thanks! I think the camera stamps are nifty.

[Lorraine Melin]

What a cool effect! Thanks for the tutorial!

[Theresa B.]

Very interesting idea and I love Maya Road.

[Michele]

The canvas / black&white / patterned paper ideas have given me inspiration to take another look at some photos from a special day - photos that did NOT turn out. But with your inspiration, some tinkering and patience, perhaps something good will come out of it! Thank-you, Emily!
Happy NSD, everyone!

[Chiara Kenny]

Thank you I am new to this so many great ideas and lots of fun !!!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful day :)

[Michelle]

Wow fun tutorial!