Edge Effects

"The Boys". 10/17/10, 10:17 am. Lorenzo, Idaho. f/4.2. 1/400 sec. - Nikon D60.

For this image I changed the exposure, brightness, and contrast in RAW. In Photoshop I cropped the image to 9 x 7 and rotated it slightly. I then increased the canvas size to 8 x 10 and used the eyedropper to select the brown color from the image for the canvas extension color. Next I set up some grid lines so I knew were I wanted my inner border and selected the rectangle tool and drew a white rectangle to fit my grid lines. I then added a layer mask to the shape layer and with the fill pixels option of the rectangle tool I drew another rectangle inside the white shape; this left the white strip on the image. Next I reduced the opacity of the layer and then added a motion blur to the layer at 45 and 90 degrees with a 45 pixel distance. Last I used the text tool to add the caption, using a color from the background for the color, double clicked the layer which brought up the layer style guide, and added a drop shadow to the caption.

"Geologist". 10/23/10, 8:32 am. Mill Hollow Road, Rexburg, Idaho. f/25. 1/4 sec. - Nikon D60. Tripod.

For edits in RAW I raised the blacks, lowered the clarity, and painted some color into the sky. With the image in Photoshop I then cropped the image to 6 x 7.5 at 300 ppi. I then increased the canvas to 8 x 9.5 and used a blue color from the subject's sleeve as the canvas extension color. I then added an additional half inch on the bottom of the canvas by extending the canvas to 10 inches high by clicking on the upper center arrow in the canvas extension box. I then drug a guide into the center of my image from my side ruler. Then in the Character palette I chose Gil Sans as my font, 18 pt, smallcaps, and for the color I used the eyedropper to get the light blue of the sky. With center alignment I held down the caps lock key as I clicked on my guide below the image and titled my image. Last I added another layer and used black paint at 65% opacity to make my border darker.


"Run Zombie Run". 10/23/10, 5:28 pm. The Riot Zone, Rigby, Idaho. f/9. 1 sec. - Nikon D60.

This is my favorite image of the week. My husband ran a Zombie 5k last weekend. He was so excited about it so we painted his face and destroyed his green shirt to look like he'd been eating brains for a few days. It was a lot of fun, and he improved his 5k PR by almost two minutes!

Edits on this image started out in RAW with recovery, less blacks, brightness, contrast, and saturation. In Photoshop using the paintbrush tool I added more blue to his iris' and more red/bloodshot to his eyes. I also painted his neck and eyes a little more gray to match the rest of his face, and intensified the red around his mouth. I then used a dry brush filter to give him an animated feel.

Then I saved the image with layers, and flattened the image and saved it as a .jpg. With the .jpg open I hit Ctrl+A to select all the pixels, deleted the image, and made sure that black was my background color. Then having selected the box next to before I erased my image, I used my history brush and three of the thick heavy brushes to paint back the image. The brushes were at varying sizes and about 70% opacity. Next I added canvas space around the image, using the eyedropper tool to get the color from his grayed skin, one inch on each side except the bottom edge, which was one and a half inches. Last I added the caption with the text tool, and put a drop shadow on it as well.

I really like this edge effect on this picture in particular because it makes me feel like he's scratched and scraped his way though a wall or something to get at your brains . . . I love it!