Hi Expectant Parents!

I am offering a limited number of FREE newborn mini sessions in order to add more variety to my portfolio. This is a completely free offer with no obligation to purchase anything from me. However, because these sessions are specifically designed to expand my portfolio and provide artistic stimulation to pass the long winter, there’s some important information you should know.

Instead of a full 2-3 hour session, your session will be considered a mini session and I will shoot mostly what I need for my purposes — this may only take 30-45 minutes but we’ll play it by ear. I will prepare about 5 images for you and you will choose 3 of those images, which you will receive in a secure location for download along with full printing rights (no DVD). This is a $360 value, free to you in exchange for your time and letting me meet your brand new little one! I do not want you to feel obligated to purchase anything else from me, so I am making this offer very generous.

Your baby must be no older than 14 days at the time of our session. This session offer is only available for newborns and does not apply to siblings or other family members outside of the possible addition of mom or dad’s hands, mom kissing baby, etc. These sessions will mainly focus on baby alone. Baby will be nude for the session but will of course be modestly posed in the style of the other newborns in my portfolio. The session will take place in your home. I will bring everything we need and I will leave your home just the way I found it, even if I have to move furniture to shoot. Other people in the home should be kept to a minimum so baby can sleep soundly during the session. If you are an aspiring photographer, I’m more than happy to shoot your baby, but please inform me in advance so there are no hard feelings or misunderstandings.

You must sign a model release giving me permission to use these images in my advertising and promotions. I would absolutely love it if you have Facebook with local friends so that I can tag your images to get my name out there, but it’s not necessary. Please pass this offer on to any friends who may be having babies soon. Remember, baby needs to be no older than 14 DAYS at the time of our session, so please don’t contact me about your 3 month old. I do love 3 month olds, but this offer applies specifically to brand new newborns.

To schedule your free newborn mini session, just send me an e-mail!

… since almost one year ago. Unfortunately, almost a year of blog posts were lost in a tragic blog accident last night. Let’s call it spring cleaning and get right back up and dust ourselves off! Here’s to 2010!

It warms my heart when she says it, but unfortunately it does nothing to warm the weather, which is still putting up a good winter fight. The kids are desperate to get outside (and so am I), but Bailey and I filled some time with a little indoor magic. Bailey says “abracadabra” when asked to use the magic word — some summertime reprogramming might be in order.

Another new web-sized storyboard for my collage action set. Next on the agenda — more print-sized collages.

Download the PSD: Collage – 4 Image – D.psd

Sample:

I am so excited to share the actions I’ve been working on.  I’ve created a set of templates and actions that automatically (with a little setup) create storyboards for use on the web… I even added in an 8×10 that can be used for print..  The process may seem a little complex the first time, but I think it gets easier after you’ve done it a couple times.  There are very specific instructions or the action will fail, so I’m going to try to be very detailed.  At this time, these are PC Only because I don’t have a Mac to use to make the changes that would be needed to make them work.

Here are the templates that are currently available.  The possibilities for configuration are endless, but I am starting with a few basic pieces. Templates could be a lot more fun, but I didn’t want to use brushes, papers, and graphics that weren’t designed by me… so if anyone wants to donate templates, I will try to set them up to work with the action.

All outlines and drop shadows can be turned off or on, the color can be changed, or other effects can be added. The background is solid white, but can be filled with any color or texture. The templates don’t follow a specific width, because I wanted there to be a variety of sizes. Not all images will work with every template, so some experimentation might be needed.

UPDATE 2/24:

I’ve added a 3 image action and 3 new templates. These are less plain, but the backgrounds can be turned off and replaced with white or another color.

FULL INSTRUCTIONS:

1.  Download the template package and place the entire “Collage Images” folder and its contents in your C: drive.  The “Collage Images” folder must be in your C: drive for the action to work.

1b. Download the Action Set and install it in PS with your preferred method. Either by dragging it to your actions panel or dropping it into your Actions folder and loading it.

2.  Save 4-5 images into the “Collage Images” folder with the names 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg, 4.jpg, 5.jpg.  The web storyboards are probably best used with images you’ve already resized for the web.  Watermarks may get cut off in odd places, so unwatermarked versions are probably best — you can always add your watermark to the finished file.

Full size images will work, but it will be harder to transform them because they’ll be so large.  The 8×10 collage frame should be used with full size images since you’ll need the extra size for print.

3. Open your desired PSD template from the “Collage Templates” folder and make sure it is the only thing open in Photoshop.  This step is important.  If anything else is open in PS, the action will fail.

4. With your chosen template open, choose the correct action for your template.  If it’s a 5 image template, run the 5 image collage action.  If it’s a 4 image template, run the 4 image action.

5.  When the action has finished, you’ll see all of your images crowded into the center of the stage.

6. Now you just need to select them and move them into place, transforming if needed.  Make sure that you click the tiny thumbnail of your image and NOT the white square in the layer.  With your image selected, use V (move tool) and Ctrl-T (free transform) to move and resize your image so it fits within its space.  You should see a double black line around your image, not around the mask.  Do not click where you see the red X.

Once you’ve moved and transformed your images into place, decide whether you will leave the outlines and shadows off or turn them on, change their colors or leave as-is. You can deactivate the shadows and outline independently of each other by using the eyeball icons in the “Outlines” layer.

The PSD templates are marked “read only” so that they are not accidentally changed. When the action is complete, you’ll need to save your finished product with a new name.

The template package is available here: Andrea’s Collage Template Set>

The associated action is here: Andrea’s Collage Action Set>

A few from a recent newborn session.  What a fun session this was, with little one sleeping the entire time!  Newborns are definitely a favorite for me.  I hope to see a whole lot more of this little guy as he grows.  If we’re lucky, it might even warm up enough to do this 3 month portraits outside!

This is a copyright banner action. It’s designed to run on 300dpi web sized images and the copyright PSD should be around 95px high.

Download the copyright.psd file to your c: drive and edit it with your own information, logo, etc. This file must be placed in your c: drive in order for the action to work. Mac users will need to re-record the place command.

If you want to batch it, add a flatten command to the end of the action.

If your web-sized images are 72dpi, you just have to make the copyright.psd 72dpi, too.

This is what the action does:

Here are the associated files:

Copyright Bar Action

copyright.psd to be placed in the c: drive

It came, it came!! The new mini card frame from moo.com It was a bit of a pain to put together. The pieces fit together like a puzzle, but they aren’t perfect, so when you snap the last one into place, another one pops out, then you get that one back in and another one pops up. It was comical. I finally got it figured out with the help of a couple heavy jar candles. There is no adhesive or slot on the mini frames, so the images most definitely will shift if they are not affixed to something eventually (either the frame itself or the mini frame pieces).

The end result is too cool to stay mad about the somewhat poor implementation. I love the Mac monitor look. The quality of the printing seems a little different this time around, heavier is what I’d call it… more saturated. The quality of the cards is still top notch.

And for good measure, a shot of the rest of the cards in my order. Isn’t that just nifty?

This tutorial will help you create a name collage. All images have larger counterparts. Click the thumbnails to see the images larger. Note that you may also have to click them again once they’ve opened in a new window to zoom in on them more.

I chose a 20×10 canvas because it’s a frame size I’ve seen in stores. You can choose any size, but it’s probably a good idea to stay around 240-300dpi if you intend to print.

Here’s a sample of how your finished collage might look:

The first step is choosing your font and setting up each letter on a separate layer. The font I chose is called “Boris Black Bloxx” but any chunky font will work. Start by working in black so you can easily see the letters and arrange them:

Next, select all of your letter layers and go to Layer –> Rasterize –> Type. Once you do this, you can no longer edit your letters as text so make sure they are just how you want them before you do this step. You will be able to work with them as if they are images instead of text.

Next, select a layer and use Ctrl-i to invert the black letter into a white letter. Do this separately for each of your letter layers. When you’ve done that, your image will look like this:

Next, select the layer of the first letter you’d like to work with (I highlighted the B layer). Then open the image you’d like to use, tap the ‘v’ key to select the move tool, then drag the image to your collage canvas. The image will appear on the layer directly above the letter.

Now, move your mouse cursor so that it is situated right on the line between the letter layer and the image layer. Hold down your ‘alt’ key and you’ll notice a double circular cursor with an arrow. Click right on the line while that cursor is on the screen to create a clipping mask (your letter layer then becomes a mask for that image, showing only what is in the white area).

You’ll continue this process for each letter. Make sure you select the letter you want to work with, then open the image you want to use to fill that letter and drag the image directly on top of it. Hold down the ‘alt’ key and click right between the 2 layers with the image above the letter layer. When you’ve finished all the letters, your layers palette will look like this:

Now you can be creative. First, add a background layer. I prefer white, so that’s what I used. You can use any color. Just add a layer all the way at the bottom and use the paint bucket to fill it with your color of choice.

Select a letter layer to add effects to the letter. You can access the effects panel by double clicking the layer. I used a stroke and a drop shadow. Once you have the effect the way you want it, right click the layer and select “Copy Layer Style” to copy the effect, then select the next letter and right click again, this time selecting “Paste Layer Style” to paste the same effect on each letter layer. Remember to do this on the letter layer, not on the image layer.

When I finished with that, I created another text layer for a name. I also applied effects to the name. I also created additional layers where I used a free brush I downloaded from one of the many PS brush sites (google) to both sides for a little extra decoration.

That’s it! The finished collage is ready to be printed and framed at 20×10! Remember, you can click the thumbnail to see the image larger.

I had almost forgotten about being asked by moo.com to use my mini cards in their promotion of their new mini card frames. I won’t lie, it does give me a bit of a warm fuzzy to see my stuff popping up in places like moo.com and Midwest Living Magazine. It is certainly validating to know that others think it’s worth showcasing!

I highlighted the places my images appear in red and used some arrows on the thumbnail. Click the thumb to get a better look at the screenshot. And if you want to order some moo cards, go to http://www.moo.com! They really are great quality and great fun to hand out!

Update! I just noticed they’re on the front page slideshow nice and big, too!