www.adigitalmind.com is up and rockin...

Finally!  Its "done".  Is it?  I guess it will never be done.  I saw a good friend today!  A designer and production artist who's career I truly admire.  He's been a mentor in my career and thinking back to our conversation today, if I was "done" with my website, then I should get out of the design business. 

Websites today need content.  You can never be done with your website.  If so, sales slow and the phone will not ring.  Once you get your site up or are "done" with your website, that is when the fun can begin.  Consistently adding new content to your site is somewhat addicting.  Photo's, information, tech specs all equal content and help your site grow in terms of SEO and search list popularity. 

I'm sitting here thinking of it.  My website is up.  Content is king and its there for the world to see.  Will anyone search for my website?  Sure.  People looking for local designers in the area or other artists who will come to my site for ideas.  I'm excited that www.adigitalmind.com is up and running!  Like i said before, now the fun begins.   Adding content and further teaching myself about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Blogging, Flicker and other Social Networking Sites.  I used to be scared to death of the web, but its not that hard.  Nothing is difficult if you have a passion to learn... and the link to my brain is www.adigitalmind.com

Connect With Life

Sometimes its time to reconnect with life.  Maybe its just time to reconnect with an old friend or friends.  In my case i need to needed to reconnect with a couple of buds i haven't seen in well over 10 years.  I don't know why.  I just did.  I just happened to.  I didn't force it.  I just fuckin happened.  And ya know what.  It was great.  I haven't laughed so hard in..... well... probably 10 years.  And i thank them for that.  I miss those guys.  Just for that reason.  Laughing.  Just fucking laughing.  When was the last time you just laughed.  I mean seriously just laughed? 

I just wanted to say that if you think you've laughed, think again.  I did, and I was wrong.  Thanks guys.  I needed that and I look forward to laughing again. 

The layering of the b/w image with splash of color

I wanted to post the layering involved in yesterdays post (8/24/10). 

A black and white image with just a spash of color.

The image will show there weren't many layers used, but much of my times was spent in the masking of the color i wanted to show through. 

I am very anal retentive with a process like this and the high res image would show that.  Only the flowers and specific spots on the cap show color through and i had to get real close into the image and erase the color that wasn't part of the flower. 

Overall took me just about an hour to do. 



More to come... Stay tuned :-)

I am currently working on some family photos in my spare time and just thought i would post one that really impressed me.

"Yes, sometimes, not to often however...I do impress myself".

Anyways, if your interested in how this was created, i will break it down as easy as possible.

Design time ( Approx 1 Hour)

1.  Open image in photoshop.  Immediately duplicate the original image.
2.  Turn the duplicated image black and white, but going to the image tab, adjustments and choose desaturate.
3.  Dublicate the new b/w image and turn one of the b/w images off
4.  Adjust the brightness / contrast to the b/w image to desired settings.  Adjust brightness / contrast by going to the image tab > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast
5. Go to the original image and duplicate it.  (The Color one)
6. Adjust the levels of the image to brighten the highlights of color.
7. Duplicate the image again and turn one of the color images off.
7. Erase all of the color you do not want.  For example you will see in the image i only wanted the color of the cap and flowers. 
8. Upon doing so, you will notice all of the image is black and white, except for what you've left in color. 
9. You can choose to erase the color image or use a mask.  I prefer to use an image mask as you can simply erase part of the mask if you want to get some more color back. 

This is the quick / down and dirty way to do this. 

In my photo, there is a lot more work done to the image to make it look perfect.  Well, perfect for me :-)

For example, i have (2) Black and White Layers on.  The Top one is adjusted really dark, and the bottom one has the highlights adjusted on the high end.  This gives the photo good contrast and provides the dark circle effect.

The color is also duplicated twice.  The bottom layer of color is normal and the top layer of color is set to overlay with an opacity of about 30. 

It also helps to adjust the sharpness of your images.  My standard settings are 150, 1.5 & 5. 

Finally i do a little hand panting of highlights and shadows to bring out the chair and bench in the background. 

These are all intermediate/advanced photo tricks that really take time to master, but you have the easy way to get this look started. 

I hope you will try it and pass the post along to your friends. 

Thanks

A Digital Mind Online

My 1st Blog

Not that anyone is going to follow this, but I've stated a blog.  I will be posting information pertinent to design, marketing and new and upcoming projects and clients.