#might redo this digitally so i can add some much needed color and fix some anatomy issues
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I notice when you do your comics, it applies a certain level of toner. I ended up deciding on the route of using paint brush india ink, and charcoal for toner instead. Does this aesthetic difference change the marketability of graphic novel, compared to just using toner? In the context of the prologue in this web comic, it is used to denote a fog atmosphere. In the upcoming chapter, I might use it for graveyard fog.
I think first I need to establish that what you mean by âtonerâ is âshadingâ?
I do use tones, but tonER is the stuff used in and by physical printers. Print tones refer to the dots, lines, etc. that are present in the majority of my work and that Roy Lichtenstein emulated in his paintings. Tones are dots because thatâs how printers print; Thousands of dots. The closer together, the more solid the shade or color is. Iâm not trying to correct you on terms, but knowing this difference will help you later because I promise, if you buy toner online and expect to get tones, youâll be disappointed by what arrives in the mail!
So, I think youâre falling into a common trap webcomic artists make in the beginning, which is focusing on the wrong parts of the project. You asked me if this changes marketability; But you didnât tell me:
What medium do you want to publish in? Do you want to ONLY have your comics online, or do you want to print them?
Who is your target audience and age group?
Do you want to sell or profit off your webcomic?
The first question is important because far too often, webcomic artists design for the web/screens first, foremost, and only; Later, they decide to print a book, and this is when all hell breaks loose. Lots of media (Charcole, watercolors, etc.âmedia is the art term for materials) can look both better OR WORSE on a screenâthis is where technology comes into play, like the scanner you have, the DPI (dots per inch) its able to scan things in at, and the size of scannable area. A lot of my favorite media and mediums (I like pencil on paper), are really delicate drawingsâand like a lot of artists who favor these materials, scanners just never seem to do them justice. Lots of fine artists I talk to admit that they feel their work looks best in person, and no matter how high the quality scanner, small, delicate details get lost. Part of it can be a cheap scanner, the wrong DPI setting, but the other part can be the wrong medium (Thatâs the term for things like canvas or paper), or the wrong SIZE medium.
Size matters; Both in terms of the scanner surface area AND the size of your medium. A lot of people (And I did this myself for a lot of the first book), work on standard size paperâ8.5 by 11 inches; But professional artists, print or not, are always better off to work at a LARGER size than the end result will be. When I printed my book, I didnât come out too terribly for the size I worked in, because manga book page sizes are smaller than their American counter parts. I also knew I planned to print from the first page onward, so everything was designed for print first and web secondâthis is much easier and less time consuming to do than the reverse, because a lot of print errors can occur that donât appear on screensâand literally canâtâand can take hours, days, weeks or more to fix, depending on how bad and common the issue is and how many of your pages have this problem. A big one is called moire, which DOES NOT show up on screens; This happens when an artist applies on tone directly over another. Because most of us work digitally these days, itâs even easier for artists to start doing this and not realize the consequence until you print a book. . .and discover all places where tones overlap create this weird square pattern within themâwhich is called moire. This is why itâs critical to use separate tones for different shades and such, because unlike solid color printing, you cannot overlay tones like you would layers in Photoshop or other such programs. Ignore this at your peril!
My first suggestion before you go to far is; Of you want to ever, EVER print this, print out a copy of a page at home. Even if youâre happy with it, consider how you may be printing or mass producing these things; If youâre going to make them via a copier at Kinkoâs, take a page down to a copier at Kinkoâs and see what quality you get. If you donât like it at full size to the ratio you worked in (In other words, printing on the same size paper you created it on), you can get some improvement by using smaller pagesâbut going UP in page size will cause quality to drop. I now work on paperâdigital or notâthatâs always 11 by 17 inches AT LEAST. For anything I make, I try to work in a size 3 to 4 times larger than the end result will be.
When I first began, I made my comics with a copier at Kinkoâs, and discovered while my ink wash method looked good, it looked better with color printing; Color printing is ALWAYS more expensive, hence why when digital comic creation tools (Like Clip Studio) got invented, I was an instant convert! It saved a lot of time and money (Tones and such are all expensive), the environment (No trees died for my drawings), effort (Tones are REALLY tricky to work with by hand), and itâs no wonder that manga artists now are nearly ALL working digitally.
Also, for the disabled (Like me), digital allows us to work from beds, at home, etc. instead of in front of a desk, all hunched over. I donât accidentally smudge ink, my cat doesnât drink my ink (Yes, itâs a thing cats do!), and if I mess up, the power of Undo/Redo/Copy/Paste/Transform CANNOT be understated. Iâve mentioned it before, but I believe in working smarter, NOT harder. This is why I draw out a lot of backgrounds (Which you canât see on the free copies online, but you can if you buy a physical copy or the Amazon eBook), separately, and I can just drag and drop them around as I need. That way, I can focus on drawing the characters and not on drawing a giant cathedral for every damn appearance it makes or scene change I do.
As for marketability; A lot of this depends on your target audience and age group. Even so, people tend to grow to like something even if it may be atypical of the general stuff they like. Iâm generally not a fan of shoujo-aiâbut many of my favorite anime and manga ARE in this genre! Turns out, if the story is good, I donât care about the sexuality of the characters!
A lot of people expect or want color comics these days though, which is odd to me, since the manga produced in Japan is in black and white (Color printing is expensiveâeven for a major publishing company!) People still read it, and those who expect an artist to make a free webcomic with color pages and update several times a week or month arenât aware of the time, effort, or consequences. Generally; No, they will NOT buy a book theyâve read for free online (As much as people love to say to support us creators, they rarely actually do), and they damn sure wonât pay for the extra cost of color printing. If you want to see the difference, check out Ka-Blam comic printers and do a price comparison between printing pages in color versus black and white.
Yes, there are people who do a Kickstarter and such and get these funds up front; They are exceptions, not the rules. Consider themâand most artists who make comics or art they make of their own choosing (Not commissions, but only originals), the same as you might someone who plays a sport and decides that they are GOING to play professionally for some orginazation or teamâwhich is, they are counting on being in this LESS THAN 1% of their field. Yes, some people pull it off; The vast majority donâtâand skill isnât the biggest factor in the end. Just like an athlete with all the promise in the world can have their career ended before itâs begun by an injury that never heals right, art itself is a career path with MANY hidden pitfalls and problemsâand health is a major one. Too many of us donât eat right, donât exercise our bodies and minds, and so on; It adds up. I personally really recommend a diet with a caloric/carb intake ratio that works within your activity levels; In other words, if youâre determined not to work out (Which���donât make this mistake), you canât eat as much as youâd likeânot only will you gain weight, but it impacts your health health, your blood sugarâit can be a recipe for an early, but preventable, grave or a LOT of suffering that could be avoided. I try to jog at least two miles a day, meditate daily, and really put my health as the main focus in my lifeâeven before my art. I canât draw anything or write more stories if Iâm dead, after all, and I canât produce my best work if Iâm not in the best condition I can manage. With an autoimmune disease, thereâs only so much I can do or control and Iâm often still very sick and in a lot of pain; But I still do all I can to run or walk two milesâat least, and even if it takes me an hour or moreâand to keep my heart rate at 120 beats per min. when I do. Thereâs a lot of days where this is about the ONLY thing I can manage and where my pain is so bad I cry and cryâbecause right now I donât have a lot of means of relief; This doesnât happen to everyone, but it means that healthâno matter what you do in lifeâcan make or break you at times. Audiences arenât always understanding of these circumstances and yes, ones career can dry up as a result. Just because someone manages to play for the sports team of their dreams doesnât mean their health canât or wonât turn on them, or a serious injury will end their career; We do not live in a world where people will continue to support you because of a series of or singular unfortunate event.
This brings me to the last point, which is if you plan to sell or profit off your work; We all want to, but often making sales can come at the cost of producing something that we, as the creators, really love or are passionate about. I decided from the jump that, while profiting was nice, Iâd much rather make the title I wanted to make rather than the one that sells the most copies; If I were concerned with it, trust me, Eternity Concepts would be a wildly different story, with different art, etc. Iâd have written a formulaic story that was entirely predictable and changed so many aspects, youâd never recognize it; Manga fans tend to be teens, so Iâd have made the cast all teenagers! Itâd be set in school! Someone might magically transform to fight evil or some such thing.
I didnât want that; If you do, thereâs no shame in that, but audiences will keep buying and reading what we keep producing, and if weâre too afraid to take a risk on a chance that our story wonât make a dimeâbecause making a dime is the most important part for youâthen we canât be surprised when itâs what people keep buyingâbecause we arenât even attempting to sell anything else.
Publishing houses (With novels and such) can be really guilty of pushing for changes based on market research; The thing is, the research is often based off past sales of whatâs already in the market. Plenty of novels that became classics and best sellers got rejected for years and years until a publishing company was willing to take a chance and discovered that people can, will, and do enjoy new and different things. They might also do market focus group testingâbut these are small sample sizes of average peopleâand your audience may NOT be average people.
All creative pursuits involve risks, at the end of the day; You just have to decide what rewards you want or are willing to sacrifice if you take them.
As for aesthetics, thereâs no accounting for taste and Iâve seen plenty of paintings I hated sell for insane amounts of money, plenty of art styles I hated become popular titles, etc.
I will say this; When I, PERSONALLY, see a comic with tones or color, usually thatâs digitally produced (It cuts out the need for a scanner!), it looks to me like itâs professionally madeâby someone who is on their way or already at such a level.
While a lot of newer artists try to make do with other materials, again, the world is not a kind place and making do is just thatâmaking do. Yes, there are a million and one reasons why one canât get their hands on better or more professional materialsâbut sadly, people donât want to hear excuses, and many successful artists got their tools by working jobs they hated, saving up, living in their carsâmaking major sacrifices to get to where they are now. Thereâs no easy road or shortcuts to the end; Yes, I do, sadly, think the mixed media approach youâre trying wonât be favorable towards your marketabilityâbut I could always be wrong (Look at how many MS Paint comics made it big!) Thereâs a first time for everything.
Comics, though, is also about production speed, and traditional materials can come at the cost of working quicker. Iâm a big fan of suggesting people save and wait and invest (And it IS an investment) in serious materials and tools if they wish to be seen and taken as seriously; This means making sacrifices and at the end of the day, plenty of people still wonât like what you make, no matter what tools you have or plot you employ. The person who NEEDS to like it most? . . .Is only you.
You cannot please all of the people all of the time, and the faster you accept that, the happier youâll be with what you make.
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How to Use Photoshop to Create Milestone Photos of Babies
Buried deep in my parentsâ basement are boxes of slides with pictures of my siblings and I, when we were kids, all taken with my dadâs Minolta DSLR that has long since been lost to the ages. I have a few scans of those early photos but most of them wonât see the light of day anytime soon. Thus the images that marked the passage of time for me, my sister, and my three brothers are few and far between.
This picture taken with a pocket camera and the fabric was purchased at a thrift store.
Thankfully modern technology and the prevalence of digital cameras means babies born today will likely have no shortage of images to mark their early years. One of the most common methods of documenting milestones is to take pictures at weekly or monthly intervals. Often these are augmented with some type of decoration or adornment to indicate the passage of time (e.g. a small chalkboard, a giant sticker on the kidâs tummy, or a number stamped in the corner of the picture).
There is an incredibly easy, fun, and highly effective way to do this in Photoshop. It only takes a few minutes and produces great results, even if you have never used this program before you should be able to figure it out.
Preparing for the photo shoot
My wife and I got this idea after reading a post on the popular do-it-yourself blog Young House Love but have tweaked it to fit our style. To get started you will need a few things, many of which you probably already own:
Fabric with big colorful prints; Finer-detailed prints are okay, but the bigger and more prominent the pattern, the better it will look when paired with your baby. Donât spend much money on these since youâll need a lot if you do a different fabric each week. Pro tip, let the grandparents know youâre in need of fabric. Ours were thrilled to go shopping at thrift stores and send us what they found.
White onesies;Â A t-shirt works better after the first year, but until that time onesies are best because they stretch nice and even across the babyâs body leaving you with fewer wrinkles to contend with in the post-processing phase.
Blue painterâs tape;Â Â Used to hold the fabric down to the ground.
A big window;Â Or a glass door, or another similar surface to let in a lot of light.
A step stool; so you can get a higher angle.
Tape to hold the fabric in place; Blue painterâs tape will work but I like to use Gafferâs tape (I recommend this brand which is stronger and leaves no residue on the carpet when you pull it off.)
A reflector;Â Â We didnât buy one of these until well into our second child and itâs amazing how much a reflector helps get nice even lighting.
It doesnât take much to prepare for this type of photo shoot.
The session
The process works best with two people; one to take pictures and someone else to do multiple jobs like hold the reflector, smooth the blanket, and soothe the baby. Position your child with his or her feet near the light source (i.e. giant window or glass door) and have your helper hold the reflector by the babyâs head to bounce light back. Then get up on the stepstool and start taking pictures! Babies wriggle and squirm around a lot so donât worry about quantity. Itâs better to have too many good ones than to have to redo everything because you only took three shots and the baby was frowning in all of them.
Photoshop time
After your pictures are done itâs time to head to Photoshop where the real fun begins. You will need two fonts: Fyra for the numbers and one that you want to use for the letters. I like Fertigo Pro, but almost anything will work, itâs largely a matter of personal taste here.
Open your photo in Photoshop and it will appear as the background layer. You can leave it as is unless you plan to do any editing such as color adjustments or retouching, though my advice is to keep it simple and avoid all that if possible. Youâve got a newborn and you canât spend hours editing your photos every single week when there are diapers to change and clothes to wash!
Add the text
Click the âTâ button in the tool palette to activate the Text Tool, then click anywhere in the picture to create a new text layer. Use the Fyra font and type a letter which will show up as a big circular number â perfect for marking the weeks or months of time that have passed.
Use the toolbar at the top of your screen to adjust the size of the number, and if you donât get it perfect you can always change it later using the Transform Tool. Press [enter] to lock in the number, then repeat most of the process for âweeksâ by clicking the Text tool, selecting a font, clicking on your baby, and typing the label (weeks, months, etc.) you want.
At this point your picture might look like something the neighbor kid made in Microsoft Paint, but youâre just getting started. The finished version will look much better thanks to the magic of Photoshop.
Resize and warp the text
The next step is to customize the size and position of each of the elements. Using the Layers palette select the layer with a single letter, which is actually the number in the picture, and choose âEdit > Transformâ. You can now reposition the number where you want it, and resize it by clicking and dragging on one of the corners. Hold down the [shift] key while doing this to maintain the proportions (shape) of the number or else your finished product will look all stretched out. You can even rotate the number by hovering your cursor near one corner until it turns into a cornered arrow and then click and drag.
Repeat the same process for the word youâve used then with that layer still selected, click the Text tool in your toolbar and manually select the word (in this case âweeksâ) itself. Then choose; Layer > Type > Warp Text⌠and add an Arch style. (You can also click the âWarp Textâ toolbar button to do the same thing, see red arrow below.)
I like to use just a couple of degrees here, which helps the text simulate a more natural curve that you might see if it were printed across the white onesie directly. Usually, +5 gets the job done just fine.
Text color
After that, the next step is to change the color of the text so it complements the fabric on which your baby is laying. Use the Text tool to select either the number or the word (weeks) then click the black box next to the Warp Text button to change the color of the text.
Use the eyedropper to select a color from the fabric and tweak as necessary. you will also see the color of your text or number, whichever is selected, change as you try out different options. When you find one you like you can click the âOKâ button to lock it in place.
But, before you do that select the six letters and numbers in the # box at the bottom and press [ctrl+c] to copy it. This is the hex code that tells your computer what color is in use, and you will use it again in the next step.
Repeat the same process for the other layer of text. To get the same color you can either hover the eyedropper over the newly-colored text on the picture or paste the color code (6-digits you copied) into the box at the bottom. When you are finished you will have an image that is close to the final product, but youâre not quite done yet.
Blend mode
Two final editing steps remain before your image is done, the first involves blend modes. These have to do with the way in which layers work together and how one layerâs color can be altered based on how it is combined with the layer below.
Use the Layers palette to highlight a text layer and change its blend mode to âmultiplyâ with an opacity of 75%. This will allow some of the texture of the white onesie to show through, and make the text seem like it naturally printed on the fabric instead of just pasted on afterward in a computer program.
Masking
At this point, you may be thinking about using the eraser tool to fix parts of your image where the babyâs hands obscure the number or text. But trust me, this is not what you want to do!
Photoshop has a fantastic feature called layer masks that let you hide (erase) parts of a layer and even recover (show) them again later if you erase too much. In the example above, you will note that the babyâs arm should be covering up the 20, so the solution is to use a layer mask to remove (hide) that portion of the 20.
Click the text layer that you want to edit then choose âLayer > Layer Mask > Reveal Allâ. Now you will see a white box next to the layer that you can use to show and hide different parts of the layer itself. When you add anything dark to this layer mask it will erase (hide) that part of the layer, and when you add anything white to the mask it will show that part of the layer. This is an incredibly useful feature in Photoshop that you can use in all sorts of ways to edit your images, not just snapshots of your baby with milestone stickers.
Click the brush tool and start painting over the portion of the layer mask you want to erase, but keep one finger on the âxâ key of your keyboard to switch between erasing mode and adding mode. If you accidentally brush over something that you want to keep, press âxâ and add it back by painting it back in white! Then press âxâ again to go back to deleting (painting with black).
Press the âzâ key to zoom in on your image (and option-z to zoom out) and then âbâ to go back to the brush tool. After a few strokes of your brush, your image is ready to share with family and friends!
When to stop
Right here is where I like to stop because the image is, as I like to say, good enough. There are some imperfections that could be cleaned up like using a displacement map to alter âweeksâ so it follows all the contours and folds of the fabric, but I have found that these are just not worth my time. To be honest, most people wonât even notice.
You can easily spend hours using warp transforms, color tweaking, and spot removal to get each picture looking pixel-perfect and ready to print in Baby Cosmopolitan. But parents of newborns have to find a balance between time spent on the computer and time spent with their families.
After 52 weeks of doing pictures we used a slightly different setup and reduced our images to once a month with our child standing or sitting instead of lying down.
Conclusion
If you have an infant or are expecting one, pictures like this are a fantastic way to mark the passage of time. My wife and I did shots like these with our two boys every week for the first year of their lives, and then every month until they turned two.
At the time it seemed like a huge hassle to get out the fabric, put a white onesie on, and try to soothe a fussy infant long enough to snap a few pictures every single week. Looking back through them we are so glad we did. When shown in an album side by side these images provide a priceless way of seeing how our kids both grew so much during those early times of their lives.
If you have a small baby and give this a try, please share your images and/or questions in the comments area below.
The post How to Use Photoshop to Create Milestone Photos of Babies by Simon Ringsmuth appeared first on Digital Photography School.
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How to Use Photoshop to Create Milestone Photos of Babies
Buried deep in my parentsâ basement are boxes of slides with pictures of my siblings and I, when we were kids, all taken with my dadâs Minolta DSLR that has long since been lost to the ages. I have a few scans of those early photos but most of them wonât see the light of day anytime soon. Thus the images that marked the passage of time for me, my sister, and my three brothers are few and far between.
This picture taken with a pocket camera and the fabric was purchased at a thrift store.
Thankfully modern technology and the prevalence of digital cameras means babies born today will likely have no shortage of images to mark their early years. One of the most common methods of documenting milestones is to take pictures at weekly or monthly intervals. Often these are augmented with some type of decoration or adornment to indicate the passage of time (e.g. a small chalkboard, a giant sticker on the kidâs tummy, or a number stamped in the corner of the picture).
There is an incredibly easy, fun, and highly effective way to do this in Photoshop. It only takes a few minutes and produces great results, even if you have never used this program before you should be able to figure it out.
Preparing for the photo shoot
My wife and I got this idea after reading a post on the popular do-it-yourself blog Young House Love but have tweaked it to fit our style. To get started you will need a few things, many of which you probably already own:
Fabric with big colorful prints; Finer-detailed prints are okay, but the bigger and more prominent the pattern, the better it will look when paired with your baby. Donât spend much money on these since youâll need a lot if you do a different fabric each week. Pro tip, let the grandparents know youâre in need of fabric. Ours were thrilled to go shopping at thrift stores and send us what they found.
White onesies;Â A t-shirt works better after the first year, but until that time onesies are best because they stretch nice and even across the babyâs body leaving you with fewer wrinkles to contend with in the post-processing phase.
Blue painterâs tape;Â Â Used to hold the fabric down to the ground.
A big window;Â Or a glass door, or another similar surface to let in a lot of light.
A step stool; so you can get a higher angle.
Tape to hold the fabric in place; Blue painterâs tape will work but I like to use Gafferâs tape (I recommend this brand which is stronger and leaves no residue on the carpet when you pull it off.)
A reflector;Â Â We didnât buy one of these until well into our second child and itâs amazing how much a reflector helps get nice even lighting.
It doesnât take much to prepare for this type of photo shoot.
The session
The process works best with two people; one to take pictures and someone else to do multiple jobs like hold the reflector, smooth the blanket, and soothe the baby. Position your child with his or her feet near the light source (i.e. giant window or glass door) and have your helper hold the reflector by the babyâs head to bounce light back. Then get up on the stepstool and start taking pictures! Babies wriggle and squirm around a lot so donât worry about quantity. Itâs better to have too many good ones than to have to redo everything because you only took three shots and the baby was frowning in all of them.
Photoshop time
After your pictures are done itâs time to head to Photoshop where the real fun begins. You will need two fonts: Fyra for the numbers and one that you want to use for the letters. I like Fertigo Pro, but almost anything will work, itâs largely a matter of personal taste here.
Open your photo in Photoshop and it will appear as the background layer. You can leave it as is unless you plan to do any editing such as color adjustments or retouching, though my advice is to keep it simple and avoid all that if possible. Youâve got a newborn and you canât spend hours editing your photos every single week when there are diapers to change and clothes to wash!
Add the text
Click the âTâ button in the tool palette to activate the Text Tool, then click anywhere in the picture to create a new text layer. Use the Fyra font and type a letter which will show up as a big circular number â perfect for marking the weeks or months of time that have passed.
Use the toolbar at the top of your screen to adjust the size of the number, and if you donât get it perfect you can always change it later using the Transform Tool. Press [enter] to lock in the number, then repeat most of the process for âweeksâ by clicking the Text tool, selecting a font, clicking on your baby, and typing the label (weeks, months, etc.) you want.
At this point your picture might look like something the neighbor kid made in Microsoft Paint, but youâre just getting started. The finished version will look much better thanks to the magic of Photoshop.
Resize and warp the text
The next step is to customize the size and position of each of the elements. Using the Layers palette select the layer with a single letter, which is actually the number in the picture, and choose âEdit > Transformâ. You can now reposition the number where you want it, and resize it by clicking and dragging on one of the corners. Hold down the [shift] key while doing this to maintain the proportions (shape) of the number or else your finished product will look all stretched out. You can even rotate the number by hovering your cursor near one corner until it turns into a cornered arrow and then click and drag.
Repeat the same process for the word youâve used then with that layer still selected, click the Text tool in your toolbar and manually select the word (in this case âweeksâ) itself. Then choose; Layer > Type > Warp Text⌠and add an Arch style. (You can also click the âWarp Textâ toolbar button to do the same thing, see red arrow below.)
I like to use just a couple of degrees here, which helps the text simulate a more natural curve that you might see if it were printed across the white onesie directly. Usually, +5 gets the job done just fine.
Text color
After that, the next step is to change the color of the text so it complements the fabric on which your baby is laying. Use the Text tool to select either the number or the word (weeks) then click the black box next to the Warp Text button to change the color of the text.
Use the eyedropper to select a color from the fabric and tweak as necessary. you will also see the color of your text or number, whichever is selected, change as you try out different options. When you find one you like you can click the âOKâ button to lock it in place.
But, before you do that select the six letters and numbers in the # box at the bottom and press [ctrl+c] to copy it. This is the hex code that tells your computer what color is in use, and you will use it again in the next step.
Repeat the same process for the other layer of text. To get the same color you can either hover the eyedropper over the newly-colored text on the picture or paste the color code (6-digits you copied) into the box at the bottom. When you are finished you will have an image that is close to the final product, but youâre not quite done yet.
Blend mode
Two final editing steps remain before your image is done, the first involves blend modes. These have to do with the way in which layers work together and how one layerâs color can be altered based on how it is combined with the layer below.
Use the Layers palette to highlight a text layer and change its blend mode to âmultiplyâ with an opacity of 75%. This will allow some of the texture of the white onesie to show through, and make the text seem like it naturally printed on the fabric instead of just pasted on afterward in a computer program.
Masking
At this point, you may be thinking about using the eraser tool to fix parts of your image where the babyâs hands obscure the number or text. But trust me, this is not what you want to do!
Photoshop has a fantastic feature called layer masks that let you hide (erase) parts of a layer and even recover (show) them again later if you erase too much. In the example above, you will note that the babyâs arm should be covering up the 20, so the solution is to use a layer mask to remove (hide) that portion of the 20.
Click the text layer that you want to edit then choose âLayer > Layer Mask > Reveal Allâ. Now you will see a white box next to the layer that you can use to show and hide different parts of the layer itself. When you add anything dark to this layer mask it will erase (hide) that part of the layer, and when you add anything white to the mask it will show that part of the layer. This is an incredibly useful feature in Photoshop that you can use in all sorts of ways to edit your images, not just snapshots of your baby with milestone stickers.
Click the brush tool and start painting over the portion of the layer mask you want to erase, but keep one finger on the âxâ key of your keyboard to switch between erasing mode and adding mode. If you accidentally brush over something that you want to keep, press âxâ and add it back by painting it back in white! Then press âxâ again to go back to deleting (painting with black).
Press the âzâ key to zoom in on your image (and option-z to zoom out) and then âbâ to go back to the brush tool. After a few strokes of your brush, your image is ready to share with family and friends!
When to stop
Right here is where I like to stop because the image is, as I like to say, good enough. There are some imperfections that could be cleaned up like using a displacement map to alter âweeksâ so it follows all the contours and folds of the fabric, but I have found that these are just not worth my time. To be honest, most people wonât even notice.
You can easily spend hours using warp transforms, color tweaking, and spot removal to get each picture looking pixel-perfect and ready to print in Baby Cosmopolitan. But parents of newborns have to find a balance between time spent on the computer and time spent with their families.
After 52 weeks of doing pictures we used a slightly different setup and reduced our images to once a month with our child standing or sitting instead of lying down.
Conclusion
If you have an infant or are expecting one, pictures like this are a fantastic way to mark the passage of time. My wife and I did shots like these with our two boys every week for the first year of their lives, and then every month until they turned two.
At the time it seemed like a huge hassle to get out the fabric, put a white onesie on, and try to soothe a fussy infant long enough to snap a few pictures every single week. Looking back through them we are so glad we did. When shown in an album side by side these images provide a priceless way of seeing how our kids both grew so much during those early times of their lives.
If you have a small baby and give this a try, please share your images and/or questions in the comments area below.
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from Digital Photography School http://digital-photography-school.com/photoshop-create-milestone-photos-babies/
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