correctmyphotos

Did you get snowed in recently? There certainly were a lot of people around the USA that were treated to record snow falls these past couple of weeks. In the Twin Cities area we were blessed with another 10-12 inches over the last week and the piles are getting pretty high with no melting in site. If you are like me you can’t resist taking “snow photos”.  And, you will probably want to send a few shots to your friends in the warmer parts of the country to show them what they are missing.

Yesterday morning we were treated to one of those beautiful winter spectacles called Hoar Frost. (Frozen dew that forms a white coating on a surface. It is also called white frost.). I took the above shot out of my car window (I did stop the car) on my way to the store.  After cropping (16×9 TV format) and color correcting the photo I clicked on the sepia tone button in CorrectPhoto to create the above image.

Here is the color version for comparison. You can decide which version you prefer.

Snow photo was cropped and color corrected using CorrectPhoto Editor.

Here is another example of a snow shot that was cropped (4×6 portrait), color corrected, and converted to a sepia tone photo.

For the most part, snow photos are pretty dull color wise.  So, turning a few of your favorite shots into a sepia tone images might just make them a bit more interesting. And, it is easy to do.

It seems that much of the US has been blessed with snow and bad weather over the past few weeks. Maybe taking a few photos and applying some creative touches to them will ease the problems the weather has created.

Wayne http://www.correctphoto.com/index.html

Merry Christmas Greeting

Earlier this week we woke up to 7 inches of new snow in Burnsville, MN. This was our first real snow this winter and while it created a miserable commute for many it certainly help put us in the holiday mood. And, of course, I couldn’t resist taking a few photos of our house which I recently decorated for the season and creating a greeting card. I wrote about creating greeting cards a couple of weeks ago so I won’t go into detail in this post. Of course I used CorrectPhoto and ImageTitler to quickly edit the photo and add the text. Here is another card using a different shot of the house.

Christmas card greeting created with CorrectPhoto and ImageTitler

 As I have said many times, virtually all digital photos need to be cropped, color corrected and this is particularly true of photos you might want to use for a greeting card.  The above greeting card examples are no exception.  Both need to be cropped and color corrected and here is the before and after of the above house photo. Note how dull and lifeless the original photo is. I took the photos on a cloudy morning and the color is typical of snow photos taken under those conditions. But, as you can see, they can be easily turned into a good looking photo with a photo editor like CorrectPhoto or Photoshop Elements.

House photo was cropped and color corrected with CorrectPhoto

The greeting text was added with ImageTitler.

Add greeting text to photo with ImageTitler

 Why not use one of your photos to create a unique greeting card to send to your friends this holiday season. It is easy and fun to do and anyone can do it.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

Wayne www.correctphoto.com

Happy Holidays from Dickens
You can create your own holiday greeting cards in a few short minutes. Well, maybe we’ll start the timer after you decide on the photo you want to use. That might take a bit longer. For this example I chose a photo I took of Dickens last Christmas wearing his Santa outfit. (He really wasn’t crazy about wearing it, but was a good sport about it.)

Create your own greeting card-Dicken's had some help creating his

 Step 1-Edit the photo
As I have said many times, every photo needs to be cropped and color corrected and this shot is no exception. I used CorrectPhoto to crop the photo using the 4×6 cropping format. I chose not to center Dickens so I could add the greeting on the right side of the photo. Using the OneClick color correction feature I clicked on the white portion of his hat and I was done.

Crop and color correct the photo-I used CorrectPhoto Editor

Step 2-Add Greeting Text to Photo
To add the text I used PictoColor’s ImageTitler because it is so simple (I still have difficulty using Photoshop Elements to add text to photos and it takes too long.)

Add Titles and Text to Photos with ImageTitler by PictoColor

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I am writing this post in Elmore, SD watching Spearfish Creek rush over a small dam in front of my friend’s cabin.  Elmore is an early 1900’s ghost town in Spearfish Canyon in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It was the spot from which the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy logging railroad began its narrow-gauge climb up the east side of Spearfish Canyon along Annie Creek.

Elmore, SD is a ghost town that is now a community of summer homes in Spearfish Canyon

 Today, Elmore is a group of summer and year round homes and is where our friends have a “cabin”.

Bill and Mary Kay's Cabin was built on the foundation of the old family cabin

The Old Cabin that was but is no more.

My wife and I have been coming to Spearfish Canyon with Bill and Mary Kay for many years and we often hiked by an old log cabin built in the early 1900’s. After thinking I should take a picture of it I finally did this past February. It was a good thing I did because it is now gone.

Elmore Log Cabin built in the early 1900s was one of the original homes in Elmore, SD

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Is the Color the Best it can be?
The other day while picking up some printing a neighbor, Rich, was picking up a nice glossy photo poster of a house he is selling. Rich is a realtor and a very good one. He showed be the poster and while I was impressed with the layout and the composition of the photos I was struck with how “dull” they looked. Of course, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and said, ‘Nice layout, but the colors are wrong.” Rich actually agreed with me (or humored me) but said he really didn’t have time (or knowledge) to do anything about it. He is like the majority of real estate professionals that use their own “point and shoot” digital camera to photos to post on the web and for promotional material. They don’t or can’t afford to use a professional photographer and, as a result, most of the  real estate photos you see on the web are not very good.  That is really too bad since the first impression most people searching for a house is made from the photos posted on the web.

You don’t have to be a pro to take good real estate photos.

Better Color Makes the House More Interesting

 Here is an typical example of a home listing in the Minneapolis area. Using CorrectPhoto with OneClick color I made the color better in less than two seconds. The composition of the photo is pretty good so I did not crop the photo. Interior shots are generally the worst both from a composition and color standpoint.  The house lights and camera flash make for a bad combination for good color.  By getting rid of the color cast and boosting the brightness and saturation a little make the kitchen much more appealing. (continue reading…)