Those Pesky Hairs! A Photoshop Tut

Troubled by those unsightly hairs that sneak into your bead photos?

I know the story... You're sure you dusted off the bead before you took the picture - but gasp! There it is, another bead fallen victim to a bad hair day! What's a girl to do? Spend another 10 minutes re-taking the photo? It's too late to pluck with tweezers!
Relax... if you've opened the photo in your Photoshop program, just select the "Smudge Tool"!

Here is a photo of a bead that I dusted with a ridiculous amount of lint for dramatic effect:I open the photo in Photoshop and select the "Smudge Tool." I'm using Photoshop CS2 here:Starting with the background of the bead, I'll tackle the areas in the circles first:
How to erase the lint:

1. Select the Smudge Tool and make the tool radius small. I'm using the size "7" and the strength "100%" here.

2. With your cursor, place the Smudge Tool just to the left of but not touching the lint you want to erase.

3. Click and drag left to right across the lint to erase it, using the shortest drag distance necessary.

4. For large pieces of lint, only erase a little bit at a time, lifting and moving the Smudge Tool to the next section of lint until the whole piece is erased. This will give you a better looking smudge than if you try and erase the whole big piece of lint in one drag.

Here is the photo now with the background lint removed:Now I'm removing some of the lint from the bead surface. This part is trickier because I don't want to smudge the details of the bead:And here is the final outcome of the virtual lint removal:Not perfect by any means! But you get the idea. If this were a bead photo I wanted to use in a listing, I obviously would have first questioned the unusual level of dust in my house, then re-taken the picture. I must have spent a half-hour in Photoshop getting rid of all that lint.
I hope this helps. Have fun!

Tutorial: Gradient Background for Bead Photography

I was asked recently in an email what I use for a backdrop/background in my bead photos. The answer is simple: a white-to-black gradient printed on glossy photo paper.

I know many beadmakers already use this technique, but for those who haven't tried it yet, I've made a short tutorial on the process.

I have a Mac computer and I use Photoshop CS2. I think the Photoshop interface on a PC looks similar to the Mac version, so this tut will work for PC Photoshop users. If you don't use Photoshop, perhaps you can adapt this tutorial to the program you use for photo editing or graphics.

The instructions below include text followed by a screenshot of the step in Photoshop. Click to enlarge the images.

How to Make a Gradient Background in Photoshop

1. Create a "New Document" in Photoshop with the following attributes:
- Name: "gradient" or whatever suits you
- Width: 8 inches, Height: 10 inches
- Resolution: 200 pixels/inch
- Color Mode: Grayscale, 8 bit
- Background Contents: White


2. With your new document open, choose the Gradient Tool from the tools palette. Also, make the background color white and the foreground color black.


3. Using the Gradient Tool, click at the top of the document window and drag straight down about 2/3 of the way and let go. A gradient that fades from black at the top to white at the bottom should appear on the document.

It should look like this:

4. Save your document as a .psd or something that will preserve the high resolution. DO NOT save it as a .jpg, that is too low-res and will make an un-even, pixelated gradient when it's printed.

5. Printing the document
In the print options, under "Print Settings" choose:
- Media Type: Premium Glossy Photo Paper
- Color: Black
- Mode: Advanced
- Print Quality: Best Photo
(Or whatever the similar settings are on your software)

Here is the kind of photo paper I've been using recently. I bought it at Office Max:

A note about printing:
I have noticed that some brands of black printer ink are not truly black. It's similar to how Effetre Black glass is not really black, but a very dense transparent purple. The same must go for when ink companies try to manufacture the ever-elusive black: they have to make it a densely pigmented version of some color or colors. Because of this, my gradients sometimes turn out with a greenish or reddish cast in the "black" area. This is very frustrating. There are a few things that can be done:
- Try a different brand of black ink next time you need to change cartridges.
- Take your photos anyway with the slightly tinted background, and make the adjustments to the tint when you are doing your bead photo editing.
- Scream, lament over the expense of the wasted photo paper and ink, give up completely, and go make beads.

If anyone knows how to solve this vexing black ink problem, I'd love to hear what works.

Variations on the gradient:
- Try clicking and dragging the Gradient Tool half-way down or all the way down the document window to change the length of the gradient, which will either add more black or more white area.
- Instead of a white-to-black gradient, try white-to-green, white-to-purple, or some other color combination to make a colored background for your beads.
- Place the beads near the center of the gradient page when you are photographing them, where it is fading from white to black. Or, put them on the white part for a pure white background or on the black part for a darker background.

Care for the printed gradient:
Gradients printed like this tend to scratch and stain easily. Take care with it. Expect that you may need to print another one up every few months or so when the old one gets too many scratches.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I think it's the first one I've ever made. I had fun. Good luck with your bead photography!

:)

I've been interviewed!

For several months I've been working on an interview with Adobe, and it's finally live! You can view it on their kuler website at http://kuler.adobe.com. Click on the "Spotlight" link on the right side menu bar. You may need the latest version of Flash to view the site.

Adobe's kuler website allows users to create and share color schemes, then download them to Photoshop for use in designing print materials, web sites, etc. I use the site just for fun because I love color!

A few months ago I wrote a blog post here about kuler which caught Adobe's attention and led to the interview: http://beadabundant.blogspot.com/2008/01/kuler-kolor.html

For this interview, I've used a new feature on the kuler website which allows me to upload a photo from my computer and extract several color schemes directly from the colors in the photo. From these color schemes I created bead sets. Here's an example:

Photo of Diamond Head on O'ahu:

The color scheme I extracted from the image:

and the resulting bead set I created, inspired by the photo and the color scheme:

The kuler site is lots of fun to play with, so if you love color stop on by and be inspired!

"Water" Beads

Another beautiful day in paradise. I have been working on photography, and thought I'd share this photo of some of my favorite beads from my "Water" series. Enjoy!

Etsy Offerings

I have some new beads for sale in my Etsy shop. This one is my favorite, it's a set of 8 beads in olive-colored glass, etched, with fine silver dots around the circumference:

Yesterday I was busy beadmaking. I have some beautiful new sets now to clean up and photograph that I'll be putting up for sale on my website and in my Etsy shop.

It strikes me as funny sometimes that beadmaking is what I do, yet with all the photography and computer work, etc etc, the actual making of the beads takes up only a small portion of the total time and energy spent on the business.

It's all fun, though. I absolutely love what I do!

Spirit in the Bead

A friend of mine just pointed out to me that there is an image of a woman in a bead photo I posted to this blog last month.
Here's the photo:

and here is a close-up of the section with the image:

:-)

Tutorials for Photography and Photoshop

Here is a link to some great lampworking tutorials: Evan and Dawn's Tutorials
I recommend "The $5.00 Photo Studio." Though I don't use Evan's exact type of photo setup, it's a great tutorial for anyone wanting to set up something simple and inexpensive. I learned a lot during the second part of the tutorial, where Evan walks you through editing a photo in Photoshop.

Sarah Hornik's Photoshop tutorial, combined with Evan's, will teach you almost everything you would need to know about photographing and Photoshopping your bead pictures.

If you want a more detailed description of how to set up a small photo studio, complete with diagrams and discussions about lighting and background set-ups, visit this website: Building an in-house photo studio.

Here's a photo of a bead I've just put up on Etsy:

Obstacles: The Learning Opportunity

This past week I've been consumed with finding new equipment for my studio. I'm still working on getting a new digital camera and new parts for the kiln controller. So, still no beadmaking... instead I've been engrossed in technical manuals and on-line product searches.

In the meantime I've borrowed my daughter's digital camera to photograph my beads. She's out of town on vacation for three weeks, but just so happened to forget her digital camera in the car before she boarded the plane. Bad luck for her... good luck for me! :) She's so generous and loves Mom so much, she's letting me use it for a few days and then I'm going to mail it to her.

All was dandy for a day while I used her camera, until one of my three professional photoflood bulbs burnt out! They can literally last for years with occasional use, but mine had to choose this week to go. And I didn't have a back-up bulb. Hah!

I crumpled into depression for an hour, then decided I'd try taking a photo in lower light using only my two remaining bulbs. You know, I actually liked the results! In fact, I think I'll use two bulbs from now on.

The things we learn from adversity, wow!

Here's an example of a photo taken with my daughter's camera (Sony Cyber-shot 7.2MP) and two photoflood bulbs. The bead is for sale in my Etsy shop:


I really like the Sony Cyber-shot after having the opportunity to use it. It's gotten great reviews. I've ordered one for myself, along with four new photoflood bulbs!

Have a great day everyone!

Too bad, so sad!

Yesterday I had both my kiln and my digital camera conk out on me. At first my kiln died, so I went to get my handyman sweetheart to fix it. He'd done such a great job changing out the relay in the controller a few months ago.

As he was taking out parts and changing around wires, I decided to take a picture of him in action. When I went to take the picture, the LCD view screen on the back of my camera was black. I could still take a picture, but I couldn't see what I was taking a picture of! Unless I used the viewfinder, which is practically useless on a point-and-shoot anyway.

After getting some wires and parts fixed up on the controller (obviously I have no idea about this kind of stuff), he went to plug it back in and give it a try. Out went all the lights. I did know that was not a good sign!

I'm going to need a new controller for my kiln, and a new digital camera. If any of you are astrology buffs, you can lament with me about Mercury retrograde. Of course the positive side is that I get new tools for my business and soon I'll be back and brighter than ever. Another positive aspect is that I will be spending more time blogging and working on my website. I still have plenty of photos to work on and upload.

Here is a photo of my Toaster kiln made by Brian Kirkvliet and the Paragon controller (which is the small box on the left).



I'm sure that grand things are on the horizon. Have a great day everyone!

Photography

I pulled some more great Kronos beads out of the kiln this morning, and today I've been cleaning those and doing photography. I have amassed a large collection of beads over the past few months that need to be photographed for my website and online store.

The best tutorial on photoshopping bead pictures that I've seen is from Sarah Hornik's blog. It's an excellent guide for anyone who wants to get great looking photos for the web. Here's the link:
A Few Words on Photoshopping

Coming soon: a photo of my latest Kronos beads.