I have worked through the next section of Chapter 1 of the "Layers" book.  Some of the tips and tricks Matt emparted were upgrading a background to a layer, using a gradient and reducing the opacity of the layer above the gradient layer to give depth to the background/layer.  Pictures were added and adjusted in size and bordered.  Stripes were added and reduced in opacity to blend a little with the background.  The "Layers" book is written for the full blown version of Photoshop so I had to search a little for how to do somethings and other techniques weren't available in Elements.

PSE 9 version

Corel Photo Paint   

In the lesson Matt didn't cover lettering, but in Corel I added Jeep Man. 

  



The Background layer

 

I changed the background into a layer. 

This is the gradient layer that is under the background layer.









This is the background with the gradient underneath.  The background layer's opacity was reduced to 85%.  When compaired with the original the center is slightly paler.

These are the 3 pictures, selected parts, and resized.

White frames were added to the pictures.  In the book Matt added a layer above each picture's layer.  This way there would be absolute control over the white frames. 

In PSE9 there was a little automation.  When I located the stroke function in the Edit menu it added the white frame to the same layer as the picture layer I had selected. 

In Corel Photo Paint I couldn't find a stroke function so I used the rectangle tool and made a white rectangle just slightly larger that the picture I selected.  This rectangle was represented in the layers list at the top of the list and covered the picture it was to frame.  I moved the rectangle layer down the list to just under the picture's layer and now I had a frame.

 There were a couple of stripes added (the blue and red translucent stripes in the middle).  Their respective layers were moved from the top of the list to just under all the pictures, but above the background layer.  In the Corel Photo Paint version I added white Stencil font lettering to complete the composition.  I hope my husband likes it.

The next Chapter in the book handles some blend modes. I look forward to it.

I am still learning about the page layout for this blog so I ask for your patience as it developes.

Until next time

lacyjayne2010

My First Digital Collage

I realize that it has been almost a year since I posted about printing on fabric, and since I don't have followers yet it might be a good time to try blogging again.  I am new to the blogging arena and I have much to learn on how to upload pictures, link to other blogs and Facebook.  If you are just joining me I ask for your patience and thank you for it ahead of time.

I have been learning the vector drawing side of the Corel Draw X5 program for a few years now and have only scratched the surface, but I am comfortable with the tools I need to accomplish my tasks.  So now I turn my attentions to the photo editing side of the program.  I also own Photoshop Elements 9 and since I don't have classes near me I have to collect my own library and cull YouTube for videos.  There is so much information written about Photoshop that I figure if I can learn terminology and principles of graphics here I can translate them into the Photo-Paint.  Call me crazy, but my mind seem to work this way.  I find commonalities of both and the differences and use them to their advantages.

I started the book "Layers" by Matt Kloshowski.  It is written for Photoshop, but it will help me understand layers and the different things that can be accomplished when using them.  I got through page 14 and created my first digital collage.

I took these 3 pictures:

Glacial Bowl in Glacier Park

Mom and I

Fall Garden

I layered the pictures in the order you see them here with the Glacial Bowl on the bottom and the Fall Garden on top.  Matt said to use the eraser tool at 30% opacity, which means that the eraser is almost transparent, the object being is to blend the three pictures together with very soft edges.  I realize the lights in the pictures are coming from different sources, but I wasn't going for realistic but a blended collage of pictures.  Here is the result:

I really enjoyed the process and look forward to the next lesson in the "Layers" book.  For the last few years my photo subjects have been about texture and what might make interesting fabric.  I think I will now widen the subject matter to objects and maybe people.