Adding a stroke, border and logo!

I received an email the other day asking how I created my blog proof action that adds the border, keyline and logo to my images that I post on the blog. So here is a step by step tutorial on how I do it.

I want my blog proof to end up as 600 pixels on the long side. To do this, we will need to set up two actions, one for vertical and one for horizontal. Record this as you do it.

1. Open a horizontal image
2. Create a new Action called "Horizontal Blog Proof"
3. Resize the image to 500 pixels wide
   
4. Duplicate the layer - you can do this in the layers palette by dragging the layer called "background" to the new tab, which looks like a miniature blank piece of paper, at the bottom of the palette
   
5. Resize the Canvas to 600 pixels and choose the appropriate color for your background (I chose black, of course). This will create a large, even black border all the way around your image.
   
6. Select the top of your two layers and add a stroke of the color you like by clicking on the circled "f" at the bottom of the layers palette and choosing stroke. The image above is a one pixel, white, inner stroke.
7. Now stop recording and create a snapshot of your file.
   
8. It is time to set up your Logo file, so open your source logo.
9. Resize your logo to slightly larger than you expect to use it on your image.
10. Drag the logo to your image, this will create a new layer with just your logo on it. There should not be a background on your logo at this point. If there is, you may have to go to a different version of your logo that you received from your designer.
11. Drag the logo to where you want it on your image.
12. Resize the logo to the right size by using the Free Transform tool (Cntrl+T). Make sure to hold down the shift key as you drag the corner so the logo does not get warped.
13. Delete the layers besides the logo (to delete the layer titled "background" you will have to rename it first)
14. Create a blank layer and drag it to underneath the logo. You should now have two layers, one with your logo on it, and one blank below it.
15. Save this in a location that you can find it again as a photoshop (.psd) file with the name something like "horizontal logo file for blog"
16. Now look at your history palette and choose the snapshot of your file that you created before you started working on your logo.
17. Go to your action and start recording again
18. Choose the Place command (File-->Place) and choose the Horizontal logo file for blog.
    
19. If it does not automatically put the logo in the right place, you may have to make sure all the corners line up.
20. Flatten the image (Layer-->Flatten) and stop recording, you are done.

You will have to repeat this for the vertical action. It is also then possible to create a script that tells whether the image is horizontal or vertical and run the appropriate action on it. Once it is set up, you can always modify the action as your tastes change. Also, once it is set up, all you have to do is run the action and it does all this work for you automatically, every time!

Interesting B&W Conversion

Sean Flanigan has a fun b&w technique to play with over on his blog. Below is the photograph I took of Leslie recently. I played with the technique Sean talks, modified it a bit and added a slight sepia tone to add to the vintage feel.

One Image from start to finish

This is an explanation of how an image was created from start to finish.

This image was taken during the couples first dance. I saw the fantastic hard light coming from the far side of them and positioned myself to point the camera directly at the light so I could work with the flare. I find working with flare to be pretty unpredictable, so I was just playing, trying to get the look that I wanted. Then I saw the brides daughter watching them dance and thought it was perfect.

After I had the shot, I brought the image into Photoshop. First I cropped the image. Then I duplicated the background layer and changed the blending mode (found at the top of the layers palette) to Overlay. I adjusted the opacity to 70 per cent. Next I added a Guassian Blur to the Overlay layer to give it the glowing look.

My next step was I made a black and white conversion layer (my favorite method is via gradient map). I adjusted the layer opacity to about 60 per cent.

My final step was to add curves adjustment layer. I pulled up on the middle of the curve until the daughter was the tone that I wanted her. Then I inverted the layer and painted only the little girl back in using the attached layer mask to the adjustment layer.

Flatten, save and done!

Cory Parris is wedding photographer in Seattle, Washington. He loves his wife, his kids, owning his own business, and photography. He is constantly mixing them together to see what he comes up with!

You can find Cory on the web at www.coryparris.com and here!