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I feel bad that I have been so busy, that I have not had the time to post tips lately. I see most people wanted to have actions and tips on skin smoothing and watermarking. SO… Stay tuned. The magic skin action is available already.

But I plan to share a FREE watermark action with you soon. The action will actually walk you through making a watermark and then place it in photos and turn embossed.

So watch for it in a week or so…

Thanks - Jodi

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My husband’s grandmother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer at age 85. When I initially found out, I felt as if someone punched me in the gut. It seems our initial reaction is to equate cancer with suffering and death. That has been my experience with my own grandparents in the past.

Fortunately, she did not have an aggressive form of cancer and it was fairly isolated to one area. She had a mastectomy a few weeks ago and no chemo or radiation was required. She bounced back very quickly and she seems better than ever. She was back playing with her grandsons the day she was released from the hospital.

We are thankful that everything turned out well. And we thank God for the gift that is Grandma Julia.

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Click on the photo to see more examples - this action set will help you achieve smooth, creamy skin.  It will reduce acne and wrinkles and help smooth out and color correct skin tones - all at the click of a button in Photoshop!

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I am going to soon have a Skin Retouching Action for sale. Details will be coming soon.

But for now - I need SKIN! I am looking for 5-6 photos that I can use for before and after shots. I need closeups of the face, or head and shoulders, but not full body.

I need a variety of ages and skin colors, to test it on and use as examples.

If you are interested in submitting an example, I need an edited photo in high res (not web resized). You can do all your favorite editing, BUT LEAVE the skin to me (and if it needs color correction - leave that alone too as the action has some built in color correctors. If you prefer get me a SOOC shot, that is fine too. And I can edit 1st and then do the before and after.

My email is momoftwins@comcast.net. I am looking for these this week.

When you send, please make a note that I have full permission to use it on my site, and your web address and studio name so that I may give you credit on my actions front page.

Since I need variety, not all photos will make it in. But I thank everyone for sending me ones to choose from.

Jodi

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Here is a very touching story from a woman named Becky:

When I hear the word cancer so many emotions come flooding into my head. I think of my Grandmother whom I never had the chance to meet. I think of all of my relatives who, due to a rare gene that runs in our family, have had their colons removed to save their lives. And most often I think of my mother. She was diagnosed with colon cancer in early 2002, ironically just after we celebrated her 5 year breast cancer free mark. If only we knew C was hiding elsewhere. They removed her colon, but unfortunately it had metastasized to her liver and the tumors were inoperable. She went through round after round of chemo, and all the while I was so certain she’d beat it because she had beaten it before. Months went by and she was getting noticeably sicker and sicker, but we all still held on to hope. Then one day in October my sister-in-law and my cousin took me out to eat to break the news to me, my mother was dying and my dad was in denial. I got engaged that summer and we were planning on getting married after I finished school in a few years, but my relatives wanted me to know the truth so we could move up the wedding if we wanted to. We got married three months later, and a little more than a month after that mom was gone. My world crashed that day and it would take me years to pick up the pieces again. This past year my husband and I welcomed a beautiful baby girl into this world and I can’t help but think of my mother when I look at Alice, I know mom would have spoiled her rotten. Then I think about when Alice is grown and has children of her own and how much I want to meet my own grandchildren. I’m bound and determined to break this cycle by being proactive and my own best advocate. I’ve already had 3 colonoscopies and 1 endoscopy and eventually, when I’m ready, I’ll get myself tested for the gene that runs in our family and if need be get my colon removed. I’ll gladly chug body cleansing solutions, spend a whole night in a bathroom, get cameras shoved in places no one would want, and go under the knife if it means I’ll get to see my grandchildren.

This picture is of my grandmother (who died of colon cancer before my parents even met) and my mom when she was around 11 years old. It’s one of the only pictures my mom had of her and I cherish it greatly. I used the blue colon cancer overlay over the whole pic and a touch of the pink breast cancer overlay on my mother as well for she fought both.

Thanks for the wonderful action, and good luck to your father in law!

Becky Bathje

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I was in the mood to create and I had a few of my blog readers ask if I would make a vignette action. So your wish is my command. Click below to download this set. If the link expires here, visit my site for an ongoing link to download it.

To download and enjoy this action, click directly on the photo below.

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Here is my new action sets that do selective color.  If you like having one part of a photo in color, but the rest as a black and white or vintage, you will LOVE how easy this is to do in Photoshop with my new set.

Click on the examples to go see this set on my site:

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This action is not yet available, as I still need to write out detailed directions on using it.

I need some examples on for my site.

It is two different selective color actions: one does selective color all on its own - without you having to paint on the photo, and the other uses a great B&W conversion and easy way to paint on the color. They are fun actions for those who like (or who have customers who like) black and white photos with color brought back in.

So I am looking for photos that lend themselves really well to this style of black and white with something brought back in color. Please email me at momoftwins@comcast.net if you have such a photo that you would give me permission to use on my site. Some ideas are weddings with a bride with roses, a person in camo clothing with flag, little girl with a flower, baby or kid with a toy or doll, kid with a tee (where you want to emphasize part of it, etc… You get the idea. I know many photogs do not like this style. But I also meet many who love it when used properly. Anyway, thank you!!!

Just let me know if you have the “PERFECT photo” for this. I will be selective since this type of colorization can be overused…

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I was trying to write my post for this week to explain exactly how to best get good skin tones and correct color from your photos. I happened to be on a website reading photography info when I ran across the perfect explanation. So rather than reinvent the wheel, I emailed the author, EDDIE TAPP, and asked if I could post a link to his article explaining skin tone and color management, and he said YES.

So click here to read about Eddie’s 90% method. It explains what I would have, only much more well written. Enjoy and thanks Eddie…

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This week’s story was sent in by Crystal. Here is her story and a photo of her mom, run through the action. To get this action set for free, visit my website.

“My Story is about my Mom, she past away 2 years ago at the age of 44 from Brain and Lung Cancer. The doctors didn’t think that she would make it thru the first year after her diagnoses, but she fought it for 2 and 1/2 years, I also have a little brother still at home who just turned 7 so he was 5 at the time, and I was 25, she was my very best friend, and I still catch myself wanting to call her and talk to her but I know that I will never be able to again until we meet in Heaven again one day. She was such an inspiration during her illness, she always was uplifting everyone else, and I admire her so much for that! I miss her so much and Im sure I always will. She went thru so much just to be able to have more time with us, her family, that was her, always putting others before her own self. Thanks for allowing me to download these actions, I found a photo of her that I cropped, it was after she finished her chemo and her hair was coming back in slowly, but one of the actions I used just made it even more precious!!!!! Thanks so much again!!!

Crystal”

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The main thing people who read my blog have been asking me about is how to balance color/color correct. I will be discussing this in the weeks ahead. To start, I want to explain skin tone/coloring. Much of this information was from reading books and articles on skin tone. This information is not something I came up with on my own…To measure your skin tone colors, go under window and then info. It will bring up a dialog box with RGB and CMYK values. You just need to look at the CYMK (cyan, magenta, yellow).

The main goal with skin is to keep the yellow % higher than the magenta %. Fair skin can be as low as 15-20% magenta and 20-25% yellow, while a person with a tan or deeper skin color may be 35-45 magenta and 60% yellow. Magenta should rarely ever go past the 45% mark.

Now for cyan. Usually for a nice skin tone, you will want the cyan to be 35-45% of the magenta %. So if magenta if at 40%, cyan could be around 14-18%.

*** To measure skin tones - take the eye dropper tool, and click on the skin. It will then put the numbers in the info box.If your skin is off, I will be showing ways to correct color in upcoming weeks, so stay tuned.

I will be explaining: color balance, selective color, hue/saturation, and using levels and curves to adjust color.