Tutorial: Don’t get tangled up with hair.
The poll said you wanted more tutorials, so here you go. Clipping hair has been the most annoying and disappointing project for many designers. You either spend way to much time getting each strand of hair, or your photo ends up looking like they have rubber hair. Well I have a very simple way to clip the most frizzy hair and have it look very natural. Below is a step by step guide to clip hair like a pro.
Step One: Set up your image
This style of clipping works best with a well contrasted image. If doing a photo shoot try and use a white background. Or if you are purchasing art find some with models against a white background. Once you have your image open it up in photoshop, and then duplicate the layer. You want to make sure you have an original layer, and a layer to extract the hair.
Step Two: Extract time
This is the fun part. Go to the main menu, choose “Filter” then “Extract”. This will open up a new window with the extract tools. Choose the Marker icon in the upper left hand corner. On the right hand side you will see the brush size option. You want to choose a size that will cover half of the image edge and half of the white space.
Step Three: Start tracing
Once you have the brush size chosen start tracing. You want to trace over the edge of the image. You will see that the brush size gets much larger on my image over the hair than it is on the skin. For the hair make sure your brush covers all of the hair, so that the white splits are covered too.
Step Four: Fill and preview
Once the image is fully traced, choose the paint bucket icon in the upper left hand side. With the paint bucket click inside the green traced image, this will mask out the desired area. Once that has been filled click on the “Preview” button on the right hand side. This will let you preview and edit the image to make sure there are no blemishes.
Step Five: Clean up
Zoom in on your image and use the “Clean Up Tool” and “Edge Touch Up Tool” on the left hand side as needed. Make sure there are no gaps or funky breaks in the image. These tools should fix any problems. Once you are done press the “OK” button on the right hand side.
Step Six: Clip the body
Your top layer will now have the extracted head and hair, but you will need to rock the body. On the original layer make a clipping path with the pen tool, and then mask out that layer. This will give you a top layer of the hair, and a lower layer of the body.
Step Seven: Add your background
Now you are free to add any background you desire. You will see that the hair looks natural and flows with whatever is behind it. This might take some practice, but will be well worth it for the final piece.
Don’t Get Burned, Put on Some Ferrell.
Please don’t ask me to find some biblical reference for this. Just look at it, laugh a little, and maybe buy one. What a great example of taking a serious cause and having fun with it. Learn more about Cancer for College.
Filed under other | Comment (0)the What You Want Poll!
I want to make sure that this blog is always useful to our readers, and for that I need your help. Can you take 5 seconds to fill out the form below?
Filed under other | Comments (2)Salvation like a prostate exam.
“Prostate Cancer? A Blood Test Will Tell You.”
What a amazingly shocking and descriptive ad. This ad with one image portrays not only a fear, but a solution. The fear is one every man has, part of a doctors hand going up his butt, not fun sounding at all. The solution is that all you need now is your arm, just take some blood. One is a easy procedure that is non-invasive. And the other is a terrifying one that will make life very uncomfortable. So what one will you choose?
What will you choose for salvation?
When I saw this add the first thing that came to me was salvation. There are two ways we try and gain salvation. One is very simple, and takes no toll on us, we believe in the work of Christ. That is it, nothing is added do this. The other is a hard road that none can finish, we try and earn God’s love. We work and toil day after day trying to make our father love us with our so called “good deeds”. We will never earn God’s love by our own accord.
So why do we fight this? Why do we all tend to have a doctor put his hand up our butt and feel around, rather than just give blood? Why do we work to earn favor, rather then trust the one true God to save us? I would much rather give blood.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. —Ephesians 2:8-9
Filed under scripture, theology | Comment (0)Do we chase awards or results
I just read a wonderful article by Jeff Goodby on Ad Age and it got me thinking. As churches, and those who market for churches, do we care more about the recognition of our peers than we do in the results of lives changed? Here is a quote from the article.
We’ve created a system that rewards work that is increasingly unknown to anyone outside the business. We have become connoisseurs of esoterica. And in the process, we’re becoming more about us, and less about changing the world.
We are becoming irrelevant award-chasers.
Sure, some of the best things we make nowadays are internet experiences with necessarily specific, limited audiences — that cab driver might not be expected to see them. But for the ones I’m talking about, the only intended audience is, well, us.
So have we become more about us and less about changing the world? Do we sometimes forget our job is not to create a buzz in the industry (the church) but to get people to see the free gift of grace from Christ. Next time you are working on a campaign or series keep this in the back of your mind, I know I will be.
Hit: Chase Jarvis & Ben Bender
Filed under other | Comment (1)What May Looked Like for Me
So we took a break last month on the blog, but I wanted to give you all a little peek into what it looked lke for me. It was one of the funnest weeks for me, but one of the most distcusting weeks for my wife. Hopefully next year I can juggle both, but for now enjoy my smallstache.
You have to check them all out! It was gross and non-impressive.
Filed under other | Comment (0)Me & Romans
For about a year now I have been blessed to be helping our community group study through Romans. This has been a wonderful and challenging endeavor for me, but I know God has blessed me with the wisdom in this book. Here are four things I took away from this years studies. They may seem simple and obvious, but every time I have a chance to understand this better I feel as if God is speaking in my ear.
- I am nothing
- Christ is everything
- God has his plan all worked out
- I am to be active in his plan
These four simple truths reassure me that I serve a mighty and loving God.
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