MomShots

There must be something in the air because I have been asked about photo collages and storyboards quite recently by a small handful of people, including my mother. So I thought I’d try to answer your questions all at once and show you how I have been doing it and some options.

First off, I use the two terms, storyboard and photo collage interchangeably. I may be incorrect in this and if I am, please let me know. I think they are the same thing. What do you think?

The way I have been doing it is what I wrote about in this post, using the triptych, diptych and various storyboard actions from the Coffeeshop. I use PhotoShop CS3 and her actions work great and are super easy. If you have PhotoShop or Elements and are not familiar with how to install actions, Rita has a great tutorial here. You can also do a Google search and find many resources for this.

I also have been known to build my own collages in PhotoShop. I often use a grid view and use ruler guides to help me place and size my photos similar to what you see below.

I also do scrapbook style page collages that you have seen in my 52 Week Project posts. Similar to this one:

For these, I just use my digital scrapbook papers and elements to put them all together; sometimes helter skelter, sometimes with a plan.

Another option for photo collages is one that can be done without the aid of PhotoShop. Did you read that right? Photo collages without PhotoShop!!! Free!!!

Have you seen Picnik yet? If you use Flickr you might be familiar with their site. They offer tons of free photo editing options. You can upload your images directly to Picnik or you can pull your images off of your Flickr photostream. You can edit photos, make basic collages, make fancy scrapbook style collages, make a slide show and even put your images on various novelty items like grandma’s new favorite coffee cup!

If you like what you see on Picnik you can sign up for their premium service for a pretty reasonable price of $24.95 a year. Then you have access to lots of even greater editing and collage options.

Here’s an example of a collage I just created using Picnik.

So there are a few options of making photo collages. Are you super confused or are you excited to get out your photos and start making collages and storyboards? They can be so much fun. I am sure you will agree.

Let me know if you have any questions. I’m here for you!

May I introduce a two new words to your vocabulary?

Triptych - pronounced Trip-tick. Originated from the Greek words, tri- “three” + ptychē “fold”
Diptych - pronounced Dip-tick. Originated from the Greek words, di- “two” + ptychē “fold”

These words were introduced to me about a year ago from the Digital Photography School. They had an assignment that centered around Triptychs. I can’t remember what I submitted or even if I did submit anything. Prior to that I don’t recall ever hearing those words. Since then, I have really enjoyed putting together both triptychs and diptychs. They seem to speak to my indecisive mind. I don’t have to choose just one photo, I can go with all three.

Lately I have been making a lot of triptychs. I have been using this free action a lot instead of making them from scratch in PhotoShop. It’s pretty fast and I like the result. They also have a great diptych action as well; also free. I love the CoffeeShop site. Rita makes wonderful actions that are really fun to play with for storyboards and photo editing. However, you don’t need an action to make these. They aren’t hard to make and you may really enjoy the results.

This is one of my recent favorites. I couldn’t decide on these so I put them all together in one triptych. It makes making up my mind so much easier!

If triptychs and diptychs are new to you, I hope you give it a try and see how you like them.

So I just read this awesome post on a blog I follow and I wanted to lead you over in that direction. The blog is called Digital Photography for Moms and she often has great tips. This morning her post was about shooting in RAW vs. shooting in JPG.

If you are not sure what I am talking about let me explain a little bit:
These are file formats. I believe all digital cameras can shoot in JPG. You can usually choose how large of a file you would like it to use - small, medium or large. I believe most DSLRs have the ability to shoot in both JPG and RAW.
When your camera saves your file as a JPG, it compresses it and then runs the file through an algorithm that determines what the final result will be. Basically your camera makes choices for you like how blue or dark the image will be.
When you shoot in RAW, your camera doesn’t compress the file. It saves this giant file and then when you bring it into your computer you can make choices about how you want it to look. If your white balance was off or you have areas that are a bit blown out, you can often save those pictures and correct them to look better very easily.

So from that really simplified explanation, you can see that shooting in RAW gives you more control. There are a lot of benefits from shooting in RAW.

I have been shooting in JPG all this time and I just switched my camera to RAW on Saturday night for the Photocamp photowalk. I was really surprised by how much control I have in the editing process. I could lighten some of my images or change the white balance. It is pretty cool.

So I’m still experimenting with it and I’ll get back to you with more information about it. Don’t feel like you need to switch over this very second but it is a fun change and it opens a new level to my post processing.

On another note, I need to announce the winners of our giveaway from Friday and I need to put together that much anticipated catchlight post. I’ll get on those as soon as I can. Things have been a little crazy in my part of the woods lately. I was so obsessed with my presentation from Photocamp that now it is time to get back to reality! So the point of this little paragraph is that those posts are coming soon. So hold your horses! I’ll get on those items soon.

Obligatory MomShot:
A little triptych I made using images from a morning shoot after I gave Mag chocolate cake for breakfast (yeah, I’m that kind of mom too). I really liked how it turned out. I love the brightness of the colors and the lightness of the background. Even though you can see my brown chairs and cupboard behind him, there is a certain “airiness” or “lightness” about these shots that I really dig.

The shot on the left and the one in the middle was shot at 50mm f/1.8 200 ISO, the shot on the right was shot at 50mm f/3.5 200 ISO. All shot with natural light. I decided I’m going to start giving you my settings. I always like it when other people do that so I want to do the same for you.