Tilt-Shift Photography in Photoshop Tutorial

Hi friends! Sorry for the lack of post yesterday. I have still been feeling 'blah' lately and I really just needed a day to rest. I hate feeling less than 100%, especially when I don't even have the energy to blog. To make matters worse, I have family here too and I hate feeling run down while guests are here. Just as family leaves I'll probably start feeling better...what a pain.

For today I have a fun tutorial for all you Photoshop lovers out there. I was inspired by Instagram actually (do you Instagram?) and their tilt-shift feature. What is tilt-shift photography? It is a selective focus photography where pictures have a shallow depth-of-field...meaning there is a small part of the image in focus and the rest is out of focus or blurry. Tilt-shift can produce some very dreamy images and I like how Instagram has added that feature into their app. It is fun to play around with. There are tilt-shift lenses you can buy but I looked around online to find a way to fake it in Photoshop. I followed this guide on Tilt Shift Photography but I've included my own steps here.

I found a few favorite pictures that I took in Capri, Italy. They were perfect for experimenting and now I'm going to show you how to tilt-shift your own images in Photoshop. The above image is the 'before.'

First, open up your image in Photoshop. I have version CS2 so depending on your version, your screen might look different. These steps are pretty simple though so regardless of version, you should be able to follow along.  

Next you want to enter into Quick Mask mode. Just hit 'Q' on the keyboard. Or click on the icon I've pointed out in the image above which is the Quick Mask icon. 

Then select the Gradient icon (or press 'G' on the keyboard). At the top you have a few options for different gradients, choose Reflected Gradient. Then in Gradient mode you will want to draw a straight line on part of your image. I drew a vertical line in the center of the image which I represented with the black line above. The location of your line will be the in-focus area of your image. Once you draw the line, this red mask will appear which also represents the in-focus area.

Then you will want to exit out of Quick Mask mode. Just hit 'Q' again to exit. You will then have parts of your image that are selected. The areas with the little lines around them (selected areas) will be the out-of focus parts of your image. Above I depicted the in-focus area in white and the out-of focus area in blue.

Next go up to the top menus to Filter, then Blur, and then Lens Blur. You will enter into this dialogue box that you see above. The default settings are pretty good so I usually just adjust the 'Radius' button. Adjust buttons yourself and see what you like. When done, just click 'ok' at the top to apply the blur. Then just deselect your selected areas and your image is complete.

And you should get something like this! A really nice tilt-shift blur don't you think? You can go back and adjust the gradient to vary the placement of the in-focus area and tweak different settings until you get the right blur for you. But with just a few steps, you can transform your normal pictures into tilt-shift photographs quick and easily.

Instagram also has the option to do a radial (circle) tilt-shift and you can create that same effect in Photoshop too.  When you're in the Quick Mask Mode, make a circle with the Elliptical Marquee Tool and then apply the gradient just within that circle. Follow the steps the same as above and you will get something like this:

The before.

And the after.

This is a pretty quick and nifty Photoshop feature, one which I'll be experimenting with on all different kinds of images. Have you made tilt-shift pictures in Photoshop before? Do you like the look of tilt-shift? Let me know if you start experimenting. I'd love to see your results. 

Have a great Thursday everyone.

My Week Through Instagram: Week Seven

Happy Saturday friends! Do you have the day off? Are you relaxing and enjoying it? My aunts are staying with us so I've been catching up with them, reading, and working on a few personal creative projects. Out-of-town family members are a great excuse for putting aside work that needs to get done. A little procrastination never hurt anyone, right? Especially in the name of family.

Here is what the seventh week of 2012 looked like for me...

Sunday: I got to go to Unique LA for the first time for their Local Love event with my brother and friends. I shared some pictures on Wednesday. It was a great show and I can't wait for the next one. I should start saving up some money now.

Monday: I spent part of the day working on a custom burlap banner for a bride I've been working with. Her bridal shower is today actually and I hope she has a fantastic time. I'll share pictures of the entire banner soon.

Tuesday: Tuesday was Valentine's Day! I packaged up this card for my Mom with a pretty doily and red heart.

Wednesday: On Wednesday night I got to watch my brother and his band Mojo Stone perform live. They always give an amazing performance. They are releasing a new album soon and hearing some of their new stuff got me super excited for what they have coming up. 

Thursday: I finished up another role of film on my Diana Mini. Excited to send it in and see how my pictures turned out. I love the anticipation factor in waiting for film.

Friday: I started working on a sewing project on Friday. It felt good to use my sewing machine again. Danni from Oh, Hello Friend gave me these cute mini scissors and they were perfect to have nearby for snipping threads. Mini things are the cutest.

Saturday: Spending more time working with my sewing machine. I love the underside of sewing and embroidery projects. The threads get all twisted together and it's kind of a mess but there is something beautiful about it.

How was your week?

Follow me on instagram if you like. My username is laurenelisecrafted. Or see all of my pictures on the computer through Followgram. Happy weekend! 

Behind the Scenes: Mini Studio Setup

Happy Thursday friends! Yesterday I was shooting pictures for my February Whisker Graphics DIY (which I will share soon). It was cloudy and rainy all day and trying to find good natural light to shoot in was a challenge. I had to create a make-shift studio on the fly to capture my images. I decided to snap a few images of my setup and then share them here so that you could see how I deal with challenging light situations. As you will see, my setup is very primitive, nothing professional and I use whatever materials I can find on hand. 

I find that natural light is really the key. I always want to shoot in it. Pictures just look better (in my opinion). Like I said, it was very dark yesterday and all the ambient light was streaming in through this large window. I knew I wanted to shoot on this desk because it was near the light. In my experience light-colored surfaces photograph better too so that was another reason for picking the desk. Finally, I propped up two foamcore boards to bounce light from the window back onto the subject, my craft I was styling. Without the foamcore to reflect light, the subject would have a really bright side (the side closest to the window) and a heavily shadowed side. Sometimes you want a moody picture with that harsh contrast between light and dark but that was not my vision for this shot. The foamcore boards bounce the light and eliminate shadow.

The Key to Better Product Shots:

{1} natural light

{2} white foamcore to bounce light & eliminate shadow -

could also use a white sheet or large white posterboard, anything large & white

{3} light-colored surface - helps in bouncing the light

These are the three keys to my product photography and I implement each one in every shoot. I am still learning and with each picture I take I learn a bit more about lighting and styling and photography. I find these work the best for me. They are also cheap options. Foamcore is super inexpensive and you can use the same boards over and over again. Natural light is free! And light colored surfaces aren't too hard to find either. I have a few favorite go-tos in my home.

Do you setup mini studios for your product shots? What are some of your techniques for capturing light and making your subject look great? I would love to hear tricks of the trade that other photographers have picked up. 

Unique LA Local Love Event

On Sunday I was lucky enough to go to my first Unique LA show with friends. I am such a fan of Renegade (I've talked about it countless times here on the blog) and shopping from local, independent artists so I knew I would enjoy Unique just as much. This weekend was the first 'Local Love' event which featured LA area vendors only. The show was smaller than normal and I must say I liked the size. It felt very manageable and I was able to see all the artists without having to rush. I saw a few familiar booths but a lot of new vendors too. I was impressed with everything I saw and only wish I had more money to spend on nifty handmade finds.

Unique is held inside, in a loft-warehouse space. It is on the 13th floor with windows all around the perimeter so you get a great view of Downtown LA. Similar to Renegade, the rows of vendor booths are the main focus but Unique also had a DIY station, a photobooth, lounge areas with chairs, a DJ, and plenty of food vendors offering free samples. The food and wine samples were quite the treat. My brother came along, his first LA craft fair experience, and each time I looked up he was at a different vendor partaking in the tasty samples. He came hungry.

It was a cloudy day in LA but we still enjoyed the Downtown views.

David checking out Pocket Square bowties. They had a beautiful collection with a great mix of fabrics and textures. On the right is a sampling of the vintage-inspired, pocket watch necklaces by Love Nail Tree. I've seen them at Renegade before. They have some watches where you can see the gears and internal mechanisms moving. Very cool! Kind of steampunk. I like it.

A wide array of posters from The Poster List. I've bought things from them before at Renegade. I love all the color.

The tins on the right are all candles from the Topanga Candle Company. This company repurposes vintage tins, containers, boxes, crates, kitchen accessories (anything really) into new candles. I'm a big fan of finding new uses for old things so this booth was fascinating.

There were cute decals up all over the walls, including this pink one in the elevator.

It was such a fun show and I was so glad to make it. Sadly I got called away sooner than planned so I didn't spend as much time there as I wanted. But I think they do another show in the spring so hopefully I don't have to wait too long to return. I purchased a really cute scarf that I'll share in a Crafted Fashion post soon. It was such a good find.

I still love Renegade but Unique is a fabulous show too. They are different but I think there is a place for both shows in LA. I look forward to future craft and handmade fairs, including Unique and Renegade and any other new ones that happen to pop up! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! It's a day filled with love (and chocolates!) and I hope everyone is blessed with a lot of both. Do you have any special plans or sweet surprises? 

Today I wanted to reblog some pictures I shared last year at Valentines. I styled a love shoot for friends Brancoprata as a guest post and I couldn't help revisiting those images today. I can't believe a year has flown by! For this project I defined keywords for what love is like: fun, heartfelt, friendship, and sweetness. I then represented those words with small gifts. Fun was heart confetti, sweetness was candy hearts, and heartfelt was a little stuffed heart I made.

The idea behind the project was to focus on the things that really matter at Valentines, love and friendship and not just gift giving. It was fun coming up with the little trinkets that would represent the words. And of course I love the pink, red, and white colors. Getting something heartfelt and handmade like this would be my ideal Valentine's present. I could skip the heart-shaped box of chocolates and roses.

To each and every one of you: have a day filled with love!

See the post on Brancoprata and my original post last year for more pictures.