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Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Tuesday April 4th, 2023
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Tuesday April 4th, 2023
Quick Trick: Select SUBJECT
Gradually, oh-so-gradually, Adobe is adding more functionality to Photoshop Elements and bringing it closer to Photoshop itself. Today I’ll show you one of these game-changing tools. It’s one that I’ve used a LOT in the last few weeks. For this tutorial I’m going to selectively edit a photo by lightening and brightening the sculpture while making other adjustments to the rest of the image.
Introduced in Elements 2020, there’s now a Select>Subject option! There are two other ways to access this function: CTRL/CMD>ALT/OPT>S is the keyboard shortcut. I’ll show you the second way in a moment.
Elements uses AI to decide what the subject of the image is, and that takes a few seconds. It’s not always perfect, as you can see here – it missed the lower corner of the sculpture. But that’s easy enough to fix.
Here’s another back door into the function: the Quick Selection (aka the Magic Wand) Tool. See the Select Subject button? This is also where you can add or subtract the parts Elements didn’t get right. There’s a lot of power in these Tool Options, but we don’t need them for today’s purpose.
I’ve discovered it’s a good habit to develop to shift the edge of my Selection by a few pixels to make sure all the tiny details are included and to keep the actual edge of the Selection from being too visible later. Select>Modify>Expand is the choice I make most often. 5 pixels is usually enough.
Here’s and extreme close-up of that 5 pixel shift.
The next few screenshots will show the specific adjustments I made to my image. There are as many other possibilities as there are Edits: blurring the background, changing the background, removing the background, moving objects in the image around, copying the subject onto another image… wherever your imagination takes you. But let’s see if we can bring out the detail in the sculpture a bit using Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Brightness/Contrast…
Oh THERE you are!
Once I had the sculpture looking better, I turned my attention to the background. The tweaks it needs are different from the sculpture. All I needed to do was Select>Inverse (CTRL/CMD>SHIFT>I).
This time I used Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Shadows/Highlights…
It really didn’t need much.
Once I was satisfied with the separate adjustments, I hit Select>Deselect (CTRL/CMD>D). I subsequently made a few more slight adjustments using some of the things we’ve talked about previously: Fill Selection>Content Aware to remove the fire hydrant and the light on the wall in the background, Shake Reduction… and Haze Removal…
Here are the Before and After images. Thoughts?
See you in April!
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Monday April 3rd, 2023
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Sunday April 2nd, 2023
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Saturday April 1st, 2023
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Friday March 31st, 2023
Happy Friday everyone! Hope your week has gone well!
Remember, spend $10 in the store and get this great kit for free.
Let’s see what we have new in the store for this week.
Have you started the March challenges? Remember any 10 completed challenges gets you this great kit.
Don’t forget since it is the Scrap-A-Thon during the month of march you will get DOUBLE REWARDS! If you complete 20 challenges you will get the {you are your own rainbow} AND {best of friends}! Get those challenges done scrappers!
Remember, the download is kept up for 5 days, and then it is taken down. If you miss pieces, the kit will be available for purchase on the first day of the following month.
Post expires at 10:00am on Thursday March 30th, 2023
Challenge Spotlight: Color
Wow, you ladies are totally rocking the Challenges for the Scrapathon!! Every one of the Challenge Galleries is brimming with new layouts. Incroyable! I’m trying to shine the Spotlight on a different Challenge each month until all of them have been discussed but I also don’t want to keep y’all here all evening so I had to make a decision. Rather than showcasing every layout posted to the Challenge I chose for this month – there are 58 of them – I opted to go with every fourth layout, beginning at the beginning. So the layouts I’m sharing with you today from the Color Challenge Gallery are (sorta) randomly selected. As usual, each layout is linked to itself in the Gallery so you can provide your own feedback to the GingerScrappers; just click on the scrapper’s user name.
First, let’s talk about the Challenge criteria. For the Color Challenge, hosted each month by the inimitable Aimee Harrison, we’re provided with a color or color swatch for the Challenge palette. Because this is also Scrapathon, Aimee added a theme: My Scrapping Friends. So each of the Challenge layouts must have the same palette and the same theme. How did they do?
Our first layout is from pjm117. Full points for the colors, but she seems to have missed the part about the theme. That photo though! So CUTE! I like that she added some dusty mauve and white to the palette, and her clusters are gorgeous!
Next up is this pretty one from pizzaz. She went with a softer, brighter green, and more pastel blues and yellows, Those pops of orange are very eye-catching. But alas, she too missed the theme.
SusanSays has the color, 100%. And her photo is so sweet. The banners really move the eye around the layout. Theme? Um. No.
Here, snickels has also used the palette with an almost perfect tone match. The blue stucco on the house is front-and-centre, contrasting nicely with the palette. Theme?
Tamsin McAtee met the first part of the Challenge quite ably, but again, the theme is missing. (Maybe random selection wasn’t the best way to go?) I do like how she’s tucked her elements behind the photo to anchor them.
Windswept‘s layout is beautifully created. The green is muted so the blues and yellows really pop. Her title is cleverly arranged.
I think Kristi Martin has hit both targets. Somebody in her craft circle has to be a scrapper, right? I like that she’s added some brown to augment the rustic aspect of the retreat’s location.
Now we’re talkin’! Flighty-188 has the theme fully locked down. Her cluster hits just the right notes. And those colors are definitely there.
Lucky lawyerlyn got to meet one of her favourite digiscrap designers. She kept her layout simple so the photo could take centre stage. Palette? Check.
The palette chigirl used is muted but ticks all the boxes. The theme? Maybe. Whatever they were doing, they clearly were having fun!
I absolutely LOVE the papers lilholmes6 has used, and how they showcase her photos. (I also love tulips!) Now, if only the theme was “spring”. <sad trombone>
Yes! This layout from macsandy scored ALL the points! They’re scrapping the old-school paper way and all the elements she used are related to the theme.
AlyciaIN has also ticks all the boxes. Makes me nostalgic for the crops I used to enjoy so much… although I brought my laptop, not a bag full of paper and glue.
Is there anything better than having friends who share your passions? KatherineWoodin is surrounded by them. I see several laptops in her 2011 photo too.
What a clever take!! AJsRandom plays with words, but still hits the mark. Her simple layout really captures the essence of the Challenge.
Hazel’s learning the ropes at day care so she can become honeybee‘s scrappin’ buddy. This layout is simply beautiful. The way the patterned paper is masked behind the photos leads the eye around and the scattered beads accent everything.
Purple71 brought the color, but not the theme. I like the cutouts behind her photo and use of the journal card though!
This layout by hichchei makes me smile, although I’m not fond of Irish stereotypes. She’s got the main color palette nailed, and added a rainbow of other colors to the mix.
The last layout of the day is from digiscrapmomma. Colors? Check. Theme? No check.
Okay, now I have to go back to the Challenge Gallery and take a closer look at the ones that fell in between the every-fourth-layout to see if I could have gone with a different randomizer… I feel like I was scoring a figure skating or gymnastics competition!
I hope you’re seeing signs of spring where you are (northern hemisphere peeps). The golf course behind our house is currently hosting a large flock of cobra chickens and the racket they make is unreal. I think our resident coyote might have fallen into the water hazard trying to catch supper last night.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Are you celebrating with any special Irish foods today?
Remember, spend $10 in the store and get this great kit for free.
Now, let’s see what is new in the store.
Make sure to check out the March Bake Sale.
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