Mike DelGaudio

Picasa has a very convenient one-click effect to create a Sepia tone image. Sepia tone images are great for creating an “old-time” photo effect. It is also nice to use Sepia tone as an alternative to pure black and white images.

You’ll need to get Picasa the photo editing software from Google to complete this tutorial.

In my opinion, the one-click version of Sepia that Picasa creates isn’t perfect.

Here is the one-click Sepia.

The images are too low on contrast, and the Sepia tone isn’t quite right for me. The one-click version is sort of a works-pretty-good-in-most-situations type deal. However, with a little tuning I think we can do better.

Here is the Sepia Tone image we want to get to:

Follow these steps to a better Sepia tone image:

1. First Start with the image you want to sepia tone.
   
2. Use Filtered B&W to create a pleasant B&W image. If there are people in the picture you might choose a yellow or Orange filter to improve skin tones.
   
3. Then apply the sepia filter.
   
4. Switch to the tuning tab, slide the highlights up one quarter of the way, and the shadows up to the mid point — these are approximate. The idea is to have a nice range of tones from deep rich darks to nice bright highlights.
   

5. Switch back to the Effects tab, choose the Saturation effect and slide to the right approximately halfway between full desaturation and the midpoint.

   

Here is a comparison of before and after:



So, My parting questions for you are:
Do you like this kind of higher contrast “sepia”, or is the one-click better?
Can you think of where this kind of effect would work?

[tags]Mike DelGaudio, Picasa, Sepia, photo editing[/tags]

Another great technique in for livening up your pictures is to use Focal Back and White. This is a simple technique thanks to the simplicity of Picasa.

You’ll need Picasa, the photo editing and management software from Google to do this.

This is so easy, and such a great effect.

Here is the before picture:

And After

Here are some other examples:

Tips to consider when applying the Focal Black and White Filter:

1. Use the Saturation Effect before the Focal Black and White to desaturate your image. This makes the transition between color and b&w more subtle
2. Think about applying the effect to non-circular items, using large soft focal areas.
   

[tags]Mike Delgaudio, Picasa, technique, photo editing, black and white, photo[/tags]

Photojojo has a great project where you take a picture and make a mailable mosaic. Essentially this project takes one picture, blows it up to poster size then prints out a bunch of pages that get cut up into postcard size chunks.

However, in the project they use Photoshop and a whole mess of steps to get the picture divided up into a bunch of sections that make up the individual postcards. I don’t know about you but I don’t have the manual dexterity to create a grid of perfect 4×6 prints using the Photoshop grid lines. I guarantee I won’t get it right the first time — and ink ain’t cheap, y’know?

If they only knew that this is a drop dead simple operation in Picasa. Oh well, it’ll just be our little secret.

Here is all you need to do:

1. Select your photo.
   

2. Click “Create” then “poster”
3. Set to 400% (or larger for more prints) on 4×6 paper
   

4. Picasa will create 16 (or more) prints, conveniently numbered with row and column in the File name
   

5. Select the images and Print.

   

Viola! 16 postcards that just need a stamp, address and a nice little message to have a great project with lots of anticipation.

Even if you have Photoshop, It’s still worth it to use Picasa to create your mosaic, if only for simplicity’s sake!

[tags]Mike DelGaudio, Picasa, Poster, Photojojo[/tags]

Sunrise on the Pier, originally uploaded by delgaudm.

Photos like this are one of the reasons I chose a Digital SLR camera. In my case I use a Nikon D70. When I want it to, It can really be used to create some stunning effects.

While you probably shouldn’t buy a camera based on one photo, here is a link on Amazon for more about the camera itself.
More About the Nikon D70
(This is an affiliate link, If you buy something after following this link, I get a tiny commission)

How this Shot was made:
This shot requires a bit of preparation. It is a sunrise shot, so I took it pretty darn early in the morning. The thing about sunrise shots is all the drama occurs BEFORE sunrise. Starting about 30 to 45 minutes before-hand. Choose a spot beforehand, and get there early.

What you’ll need:

1. Camera (duh) — with fresh batteries. cold winter mornings suck down betteries.
2. A Tripod
3. A pen flashlight, a little mag lite is perfect, so you can see the buttons on your camera. If you can work your camera with your eyes closed, this is optional.

About 45 minutes before sunrise, set your tripod up and make sure all the settings are correct. Make sure your ISO is turned all the way down (to 100 or 200 — whatever your camera has) Look through the viewfinder and make sure the horizon is level.

Know where your “Exposure compensation” button or dial is, and how to change it.

I set my camera to Aperture Priority (and a wide aperture, something like f5)
I also switched the focus to Manual on the lens, so that I just set the focus on infinity, and never changed it.

When you start taking pictures, try all different ways of setting the exposure compensation. In this case it was a
+2 — so the camera wants to make the scene brighter than it thinks it should be. The light changes fast, so try variations from -2 to +2 and places in between.

In the aperture priority mode, the shutter will open for various lengths. I prefer this when taking shots of the water, as the linger the shutter is open, the glassier the water looks.

Take LOTS of pictures. Different angles, different zoom lengths. Try to get some silhouettes of objects on the beach or in the water. This creates some visual interest.

[tags]Mike DelGaudio, photo, flickr, picasa. [/tags]

Have you ever seen that “Marilyn” poster by Andy Warhol?

I like the pop-art feel of this poster and wanted to see if I could do it myself. Here is what I created:

Turns out, with Picasa — the photo editing software from Google — this is pretty doggone easy.

If you don’t have Picasa, you should.

Lets see how to do this!

First we’ll start with a portrait. Here is one of my daughter, that would otherwise be a throwaway pic.

First thing we do, is crop it to a square, in true Andy Warhol style.

Then we start creating our different quadrants. This is the fun part.

Take your cropped image and go to the tuning tab. Crank up the highlights and shadows slider. Then, slide up the Fill Light slider until you have something like this:

If you like the way this looks, choose “File” then “Save a copy”. This will make a copy of the picture into the same folder. This is your first quadrant:

Next, Apply a tint to the picture.
Go to the Effects Tab, then Click Tint. In the color chooser, choose a color that you like, then slide the Color Preservation slider all the way to the right. Like this:

Again, do a File | Save a copy. This is your second quadrant.

Ok, Undo All those changes except the crop. Once you are back to the image, change it to a black and white picture. (Effects tab, B&W)

Go back to the tuning tab and again, drag Highlights and Shadows all the way to the right. Drag Fill Light up until it looks good. Go back to the Effects Tab and Tint it again. Do a “File” then “Save a Copy”. This is your third quadrant.

One more time, undo all those changes except Crop.

This time Go to the Effects tab and go To “Saturation” then slide the Saturation slider all the way to the left. Switch over to tuning and slide those sliders the same way again. Repeat the tint effect with another color.

Do a final “File” | “Save a Copy” and you should now have four images in your folder that we created.

Select each of the 4 images, CTRL + CLICK each one. The four images should appear in the photo tray in the lower left hand corner of Picasa. Now we will create a Picture Grid Collage:

Go to “Create” then “Picture Collage”. In the “type” pull down menu, choose “Picture Grid”.

If you want to rearrange the pictures in the grid then click the Thumbnail of the image.

Voila, as they say. You have you’re very own pop art! Why not upload yours to Flickr and show us what you created!

Here is another version:

[tags]Mike DelGaudio, Picasa, photo editing, technique, warhol[/tags]

At the Rivers edge, originally uploaded by delgaudm.

This was a picture I took over the summer. At first I was only lukewarm on it, But after applying a little Picasa magic, I think it is much better. The key for making this a better picture for me was to apply a few subtle changes.

1. I cropped the picture using the Perfect Square Cropping methods (which is holding down Shift while you drag a cropping box)
2. I brought up the saturation just a bit to enhance the separation between the sky and clouds.
3. I sharpened once to enhance the tips of the tree.
4. I added a little soft focus around the tree. This smoothed out some camera noise and some artifacts from the sharpening.

So there you have it, a few subtle changes, and the picture as a whole is better.

[tags]Mike DelGaudio, Photo, Editing[/tags]