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If ever you find Photoshop or Elements is acting quirky, doing really weird things, freezing, or seems really really slow, it may be time to delete your preferences.

It is very simple to do. You hold down ALT, SHIFT, and CTRL at the same time right when you click on Photoshop to open. You will get a message asking if it is ok to delete the preferences. Accept it and the program will do the rest.

The preferences will rebuild as the program opens.

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MCP Actions Quick Purchase

This week’s blog is all about cropping in Photoshop. Have you ever had a photo or even a snapshot that you liked but did not love. But you wanted to love it?

Well one great tool that can quickly effect a photo is the crop tool. Here is an example. My daughter Ellie was “holding herself.” She had to go to the bathroom mid shot. Oops. But I loved the feel of the photo. So I played with cropping and it changed the whole look of the photo. Here is the before and after:

Pre-crop:Post crop:

Here are details on using the crop tool. I get asked all the time how to crop and forget it may not be common knowledge to all. There is one error in my lesson below - you can actually crop to a specific size with the marquee tool. If you go to the drop down box where it says normal - change this to fixed ratio and type in the size. Thank you to a blog viewer for that tip.

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This may not be a tutorial, but if it can save you from the STRESS and SLEEPLESS night I just had, this tip may be more valuable than most.

TIP: SLOW DOWN, TAKE YOUR TIME, and MAKE SURE TO SAVE YOUR ORIGINALS…

Uggh, I had heard that a million times. But until last night, thought I was invulnerable. I had spent hours editing photos of my kids with 2 of their friends at a scenic, historic area (we walked for miles to get all these pictures). I took some incredible ones of my friend and her kids. I was so excited to give them to her. I edited them all with care. And finished at 12:30am.

I then deleted all the originals, as I always do when it is personal stuff (not enough room to store them on. BUT since I shot RAW (which I never usually do) and the files were so big, I emptied the recycle bin before exiting too.

Anyway - turns out, when I selected the originals to delete, I accidently grabbed most from the session too. I am dizzy and tired. All night I stayed up trying to retrieve these from the computer. And when that did not work, tried getting thr deleted RAWs back from the CF card. NO LUCK. I have to call my friend. These were amazing shots of her with her daughters and of my kids with hers. UGGH….

I got lucky and a few of my one daughter Jenna escaped this fatality. Here is one to share. You will never see the rest - as they are gone.

Please learn from this terrible MISTAKE!!!!! Slow down, take your time, and save your originals… JUST IN CASE.

I just noticed that I forgot my usual frame and watermark… Guess that is the lack of sleep talking.

Jodi

I was just on the a Photography Vendor Review site - and saw that they just added my site. So if you have any of my actions, I would appreciate you going here and writing a sentence or two about how you like them.

Thank you so much!

Jodi

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MCP Actions Quick Purchase

I typed this one up in a JPEG, so here it is. Enjoy! If you have ideas for more topics or tips, send me a comment or email.

Oh and a hint - I use softlight layers in most, but not all photos I edit…

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MCP Actions Quick Purchase

We have been on vacation this past week. And are driving home today. Sorry that I have not taken the time to do a tutorial this week. I will resume this upcoming week.

Here is a link to our vacation photos. Many are just snapshots since I did not want to miss any moments. Here is a sneak peak at a few of them.

Ellie riding a horse:
Both girls riding together:

Ellie flirting with our friend’s little boy:

Jenna on a hay stack:

Ellie and Jenna strawberry picking:

Ellie at the beach:

Jenna at the park:

Mackinac Island - we went here for 1 day of the trip:

The girls eating Super Man Ice Cream:

My tries at a silouette - the girls were asleep before sunset so these were outside the condo we rented, before they went to bed:

And my Artistic Playground shot: