NEW BLOG!!

We're LIVE On the new blog!!!

PLEASE UPDATE YOUR BOOKMARKS!

NEW BLOG HERE.... IT'S LIVE!!!

Ohhhh yeah......

Almost forgot about today!

I am so excited, I have a very talented web designer who is making a rockin new template for the blog. I'll be transitioning over to wordpress when it is finished, so that the blog can be hosted on my own webspace. She's also matching the store to the blog, so it will be a seamless transition between the two. I can't wait to see it!

I also had Trish (Blue Fire Multimedia) design a few more blog/graphics for me, I just LOVE them! (She created the current blog header/graphics as well)

 Here's a sneak of what the new blog header will look like for Fall:

Ahhhhhhhhhh the cuteness is too much!!

Anyway,  I just needed to share my excitement. I'm hoping that will all be done this week, we'll see.  So.. how bout I share a few pics? Okay, good idea :)

First two are just some client pictures I was proofing this week. Just to show that I DO use these actions in my day to day workflow. That's how I started making the actions. I created them for myself, then figured I might as well see if anyone else could use them!

This picture was taken by Bonnie (Once Remembered Action Templates), it's her gorgeous 13 year old Daughter. I'm always bugging Bonnie on IM, so snagged this pic and messed with it.

And in case you aren't on any of the photography boards I frequent and missed this freebie, I put up a Softy Bleach action over the weekend just for fun. I uploaded it to the store (go to STORE and Freebies) 

The Bleach will just be up this week, so don't miss it. There's also still the Choco Coco Mocho (what was I thinking when I named that one??), the S-Curve, and the Artist Fave Brush in the Freebies section.

Oh, and before I forget, this weekend's winner......... Kaosong! 

Email me at info@phauntactions.com to claim your prize :)

And last thing, I promise.. Wanted to share this cool link:

I got up to about 1500 grains before my brain gave out. I can't seem to keep my vocab level above 34 though.

Go play and let me know what your score/level is! :)

Freebie Friday 11/9 S-Curves Made Easy

Today I'm doing a quick tutorial (under 5 minutes, that's gotta be a record!) on how to create an S-Curve. You may have heard of this referenced before, it's  a pretty basic and essential technique for manipulation in photoshop, so you've gotta get this down and know how to do it yourself!

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

It's a short one, I promise!

After watching the video, go to the STORE and download the quick S-Curve action from the Freebie's section.

I'm also going to leave up the Choco Coco Mocho action, because I've gotten a lot of feedback on it and it's such a basic action I'd like to leave it up for anyone to grab if they want. So be sure to snag that one too if you haven't gotten it already.

Remember to leave me a comment.. this week's winner will get a $35 gift certificate to the store!! Have a good weekend!

Tuesdaylicious

Happy Tuesday! How about a great coupon?

Use the code: tday1 in the store now thru Thursday and you can get $15 off any action set :)

Meggan sent me this great Before/After from her new Beautifiers set.. I love to see the set used to enhance natural beauty.. this girl was already gorgeous, the actions just helped put the finishing touches on the photo. Thanks for sharing Meggan!

I really love sharing pics that you guys are using the actions on, it shows that you don't have to be a PS guru to use them effectively. Honestly I usually end up liking your examples much better than mine!

A few links today.. This one is a personal friend of mine, Melanie. I've known her for going on 5 years now from the "Mommy Board" days, she has a son that is just a day younger than Lilly! She has a great blog about saving money and being thrifty.

The Adventures of Frugal Girl

Check her out and save a few bucks!

And ProPhotogs is having a great special right now on membership, only $50!! Usually the membership is $150! It's a great forum for info and inspiration if you're looking to learn more about photography and the business side of it.

Cold Monday

I'm late on this, I know, sorry about that! I have been so stinking busy these last few weeks. We are going to the inlaws for Thanksgiving and I'm hoping to be done with portrait clients before then, so after Thanksgiving things will calm down a bit and I can do a few things I've been putting off on the blog. I've got some great things in the works though, I can't wait to get it all done and going.

Anyway, on a personal note, Sam and I went to the 232nd Marine Corps Ball on Saturday. The Marine Corps birthday is actually on November 10th, but they have a Veteran's Day parade they had scheduling conflicts with so we got to go a week early. I always look forward to the ball because it's the one time a year I get to get a purty dress and get all dolled up. I'm pretty much the anti-thesis of anything "girly", but I secretly do enjoy doing it every once in awhile.

This year I actually went and had my hair "did" by my hair dresser, I haven't had it done since my wedding, can you believe it? I'm a very low maintenance person, my #1 requirement for a haircut is that it is easy to fix and will take me a maximum of 3 minutes to do.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few pics from Saturday..

Me with my done Did hair:

Me and my Marine :)

Sam was on sword detail, and I wanted to get some pics of it, but the light in the room was horrible. I didn't bring a flash, and already felt like a bit of a dork with my monster camera and huge lens, so I just made do with what I had. Cranked the ISO up to 1600 and kept it at 1/30th, and just prayed I got a few shots!

  

So, that's where I was this weekend. Sorry to those who I didn't return emails, I'm trying to take the weekend off from working. I have a bad habit of working ALL THE TIME, and it's been driving my family crazy, so I have self-imposed work hours now that I'm trying to stick to.. we'll see how that goes. LoL

Oh yeah, winner of the Actions?

I'm picking at random today.. and since my favorite number is 4, the 4th commenter wins it.. and that's Carla.. Email me at info@phauntactions.com to claim your prize :)

Tomorrow I'll be doing a post with a few quick tips and maybe a coupon or two, so be sure to check tomorrow.. Hope your week is starting out great! :) 

Freebie Friday 11/1

Can you believe it's November already? I swear I'm still not ready for it to be FALL, let alone Winter!

Before Freebie Friday, lets do yesterday's winners! The winner of the $25 gift certificate is... Erica! :) (email me at info@phauntactions.com to claim your prize)

And the winner of the $35 to Pink Ink Studios (I'm a bit jealous, I'd rather just use the $35 myself )

GEORGIA GOEKEN!

 

Congrats Gals.. Email me at info@phauntactions.com to claim your prize!!

Don't forget to visit Pink Ink studios today, they've got some great Blog Mixer fun going on every friday!

So.. On to Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeebie Friday!!

Today I'm going to be showing you how to quickly and easily apply a Brown tone to your B/W images. This method is easily adjustable, so that you can apply as much or as little as you want. Today's tutorial is really quick, so I'm just going to do it via Screen Shots..

First off, convert your image to B/W. I’m going to do a quick Channel Mixer conversion (see THIS tutorial if you don’t know how to do that). You can use whatever b/w conversion method that you want. Just leave a little LESS contrast than you would normally do, we’ll add a bit with our brown tone, so we don’t want it to be too over the top.

So, we have our B/W image that looks like this:

 

We’ve done a quick B/W conversion and then flattened our layers. Next step is to create a NEW layer and fill it with the brown color that we want.

So go to LAYER-->NEW FILL LAYER --> SOLID COLOR

Press Okay on the next dialogue box, then pick a Brown tone, a darker one will work best. I chose this one, but you can play with the tone to find one that you like the best.

 

Press OK, and you will now have a brown filled layer covering up your image. To apply that brown tone to the image we have to change the blending mode of the fill layer.

Do that by going to your Layers palette and clicking the fly down menu and choosing one of the Blending modes:

For adding a tone, usually the OVERLAY or SOFT LIGHT blending modes work best, but you can experiment with them to find what you like. Basically what Photoshop is doing is going to take the Hue/Saturation/Lumination of the Fill layer and depending on what blending mode you pick it will apply it differently to the underlying layer (our image).

I’ve chosen Overlay for this image, but you can pick what looks best for yours. Then all you need to do is lower the opacity of the fill color layer to intensify/lower the effect. I’ve brought my opacity down to about 60%..

And.... VOILA!

It’s that easy!! All you have to do now is merge layers and maybe do some burning/dodging to bring the color out more. Remember, this works with any color, so don’t stick with browns, go crazy, try some purple, blue, red, whatever! Change your blending modes and opacity to get varied effects.

So this week's freebie is a quick B/W conversion action that will add a Brown tone to your image at the end. Also included is an action that will let you intensify/burn/deepen the color after it's applied.

Go to the Freebie's Section of the Store to get the Action!

Remember.. the freebie is only up for a week, so grab it now! And Leave me a comment, Will ya? Cus This weekend's comments winner will get the NEW Procrastination Pak as a prize!! Have a great weekend everyone!

Short and Sweet!

Busy busy day today.. so I gotta keep this one short!

Comments winner from yesterday.. Toni, for pointing out the fact that it wouldn't be very fun to have to have a visitor in the bathroom for a year. LoL!

(email me at info@phauntactions.com to claim your prize)

Here's a pic that Tiz (scrapolla) sent to show before/after using her new Beautifier set.. Thanks for letting me share Tiz! :)

The thing I like about the new Beautifiers set is that it's easy to do heavy and light retouching. This is a great example of how the set can be used to do subtle retouches.

The winner for the template set of their choice from Tina Parker is

Tonya Nicel!!

 

Congrats Tonya! Email me to claim your prize :)

Last day of winning.. Last prize we're giving away is a SUPER Gift certificate for $35 to Pink Ink Studios

They have adorable templates, very customizable, and some awesome photo mask borders as well. Be sure to check out the blog on Fridays when they have their mixers!

Good Luck everyone!

Would you Rather??

Interesting title for today's post... I'll get to that in a second. First, wanted to share a cute pic of Katie and Jed. I used the Old School Hand Tinted Colorizer for the Vintagey look. The Border is from Jessica Ditmer (who I want to be like when I grow up).. and the Font is from Little Dreamer Designs.

And on to the important stuff... the WINNERS!..

The $25 gift certificate goes to........ ktinnco7 (Katie) because she's right.. she does have a cool name :)

And the Certificate to Little Dreamer Designs goes to

Amanda Hansen!!

 

Amanda and Katie, email me at info@phauntactions.com to claim your prizes :)

Tomorrow the winner will be getting a set of THEIR CHOICE from Tina Parker at My Lil Creations. The cards are SO amazing, I just sent a bunch off to be printed for my own clients.. Here's a few that I made in about 30 seconds using Tina's templates:

Remember, to get qualified to win one of Tina's Awesome template sets, all you have to do is to buy something in the store (I'm picking from the entire week's purchases, you don't have to have bought something today, don't worry).

GOOD LUCK! And THANK YOU TINA for your awesome templates :)

So.. for today's comment winner I thought I'd try something different.  One thing about me that my family knows all too well is my tendency to ask weird questions, namely ones that are a choice between 2 things that no normal person would think about in the first place.

So when I saw this game

At Target a few weeks ago, I HAD to get it.. I've been driving my husband crazy asking him the questions from it.

So.. For today's comments winner.. You have to answer THIS question:

Would you rather Be completely alone with nobody in the vicinity for one year OR never be alone even one minute for one year? 

Whichever answer is the best gets the $25! Good Luck!! :)

 

Ooops!

Sorry about that, I left the S off the email in the last post, it's fixed now.. The email is info@phauntactions.com..

Thanks for letting me know Patricia :)

Winners!!

Lets just get to the good stuff, right? The WINNERS!!

First off, I was reminded that I forgot to pick winners from a post back on 10/16 that I said I'd give away 2 of the new Extras (Procrastination Pak)... So those winners are Meggan (for reminding me, thanks!) and Beth Feigner (for being an awesome blog reader and posting regularly to the flickr group.. Thank you!)

Beth and Meggan, email me at info@phauntactions.com to claim your prize :)

And the $25 gift certificate for the store from yesterday's comments goes to: Patricia Stuever.. Good luck at your show this weekend! :) Email me to claim your prize :)

And the Winner of the Latest issue of Design Aglow is....

Jeanette!! (Jema Images)

(Email me and I'll tell you how to claim your prize :) )

So, with that out of the way.. what's the great prize for tomorrow?? Remember, someone still gets a $25 gift certificate from TODAY'S comments, so remember to leave me one!

And tomorrow I'll be giving away a $10 Gift certificate to Little Dreamer Designs!

They're mainly a store for scrapbookers, but Oh my GOSH they have the cutest stuff! Their designs are just amazing, and I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the style. The vintagey/old/grunged look is SO my style. GREAT Prices too, and you can buy seperately, so you get exactly what you want. I just bought THIS CARD and some fonts.. every time I go there I end up getting something new! Thanks to Michelle for the gift certificate.. you guys rock! :)

Oh.. had to add a picture of the girls from Sunday.. Kate is at the Don't-touch-me-I've-got-things-to-do stage, and will not sit still for more than 2 seconds. She was busy eating dirt and pumpkin innards (we were carving pumpkins), and didn't want to be bothered to sit for a picture. On a side note, don't you love Lilly's outfit? She gets her fashion sense from me (poor thing).

Contest Kick Off!

Hope everyone had a Relaxing weekend! I took the weekend off (mostly) to rest from  driving myself crazy... now I'm back and ready for more!

First off, THANK YOU for the awesome response to the new set! I've had a lot of positive feedback, I'm so glad people are liking them! If you've purchased the set and have ANY problems, let me know, there may be a few bugs in there that didn't get worked out, if you find one, I want to know so I can fix it asap!

The PS7/CS versions are in the works, I just have to find the time to get them finished. I'll be sure to post when they're done, don't worry!

Wanted to add a few more examples of some pics I edited using the new Pro Pak, everything in the pack CAN be done by yourself, but it literally takes me maybe 1/8th the time when I use the actions. The actions were all created because I was trying to save myself time, so each one is usefull, and not put in there just to beef up the set or take up space. I use literally EVERY action (not on every picture though, that may be overkill! LoL).

One of Katie that I took last week:

Used the Easy Texture Adder, Heavy Canvas Texture, Grunge it Up, and Grunge Border Adder (all from the Special Effects Set).

And a few more Beautifiers examples from people that have sent in pics to be glamourized:

I don't necessarily use the beautifiers this heavy on my retouching. I usually only use the makeup actions when clients request it.. or on my own photos. I wouldn't recommend using it unless the people KNOW you will be doing it. The Flawless actions get used a LOT though. If used lightly they really can help freshen up the face and get rid of skin imperfections. Your Client's will thank you for it, believe me ;)

Oh.. the winners, right? For comments on Friday, I'm giving out 2 $25 gift certificates... So angbrimwill and scrapolla... Shoot me an email at info@phauntactions.com to claim your prize!

And Today's cool prize (besides another $25 Gift Cert) will be

THE LATEST ISSUE OF DESIGN AGLOW!!!!

From the Design Aglow Website:

"Design Aglow is an online resource for information and products directed at professional wedding and portrait photographers. This site was created to inform, to teach, and to inspire.

We are an online collection of resources, including articles, Photoshop actions, templates, marketing ideas, interviews, and seminars for the boutique wedding and portrait studio. We consider ourselves a hybrid of design and photography and how they relate to each other.
We are completely reader supported, meaning we run no ads, accept no sponsors, and are not paid to endorse products. The products that we recommend are based strictly on unbiased experiences and research. There are plenty of places out there to look at ads - this is not one of them.

We are dedicated to an "art only" format. No technical stuff here! We are about artistic approach, photo enhancement, album design, marketing, branding, and creative technique.

We aim our resource collections at established photographers, already familiar with the professional portrait and wedding industry, who want to refine their skills and further their knowledge.

We are constantly looking for new ideas, writers, and talent. You do not have to be experienced to contribute to Design Aglow - only have fresh new ideas and an interesting take on your own business.

We are real. We listen and evolve. Our goal is to constantly grow and to create a place where talented photographers can come and be inspired. "

I have the latest issue myself, and it is amazing! There's a great article by Andrea Joki in there about texturing photos. She goes into detail about what is the best kind of textures to use for what photo, and how to decide how strong of texture you want with your photos.

I personally LOVED the article about Laura Novak and how she designed/opened her photography studio. Her style is amazing, and I was inspired that she didn't break the bank decorating her new space!

To win the latest issue of Design Aglow, all you have to do is buy something in the phaunt actions store!  Remember, the coupon for the new Procrastination Pak is: propakintro

It gets you an extra $10 off!

That's IT! I'll announce the winner tomorrow morning (along with the Gift Certificate winner). So check back! Have a great day!!

Have a photo that needs some Glamourizing?

I'm trying to find some more photos that I could use to demonstrate the new beautifiers set... Have a shot with not so perfect skin or that you forgot your makeup? If you send it to me (and I can use it) I will give you a $30 gift certificate to the PA store.

If you have a photo that you'd like glamourized, send it to info@phauntactions.com with the subject BEAUTIFIERS. Please note that by sending the photo you agree that I can use it on the website as an example before/after.. I will not take credit for the photo, however, you can put a watermark on it (small please and not on the face) if you wish. Please sent full resolution files!

If you want, will also send the photo back to you full resolution (and edited) so that you can use it as you wish. Thanks!

D-O-N-E Done Done DONE!!!

They're Here! They're done!! I may just be going insane but I'm FINISHED!

INTRODUCING THE NEW phaunt PROCRASTINATION PAK!!!

Finally, they're HERE!! The newest action pack designed to help you put all those finishing touches and special effects on your photos. Broken up into 3 seperate action sets, there is 72 ACTIONS total!!

phaunt Beautifiers- The last set you'll need to glamorize your photos and retouch portraits. Included is 2 SKIN RETOUCHING actions, as well as 4 actions to give your photos a high contrast/glamour/fashion effect. Next, there is the MAKEUP actions. Amazing actions that let you put the makeup on IN PHOTOSHOP. Be heavy handed or just add a light touch, it's up to you! Next are all the variations of soft focus effects that you'll ever need, perfect for every type of photo!

phaunt Special Effects- This set lets you jump into the world of Grunging/texturing with guns blazing! An action that allows you to add any texture you want (there are a few of my own personal textures included in the set as well), as well as 7 simple textures that you can use to put the finishing touches on your textured images. Next, an action that makes grunging up your photos easy and simple. Use any grunge brushes, and with the few clicks of a button, you have a perfectly "grunged" picture! Ever wanted to try selective color, but didn't know how to do it? Now you can just use the 3 selective coloring actions to easily and quickly selectivly color your photo! And lastly in this set, forget about making borders on your photos manually, the border creaters included in this set will do it for you! Simple White/black borders, as well as grunge borders, and the new Fuzzy Wuzzy borders can be created easily.

phaunt Details- The last set in the bunch, this set does the final exposure tweaks and color shifts that you need. Have photo that needs a warmer or cooler tint? Just use one of the 6 variations of color shifting included! Or, if you're feeling adventurous, go for a Golden Sheen and change the entire look of your photo! Your photo just about perfect, but needs that last little oomph? Use the exposure bumps to get it perfect! Burning and dodging driving you crazy lately? Use the action that will quickly help you do your dodging and burning in a few brush strokes.

With 72 actions included in this set, you'll have all you need to take your photos from fine to fabulous! Included is detailed instructions on how to use each action, as well as links to video tutorials that will help you visualize how to use them.

There is also included 4 of my own textures that I use every day to create textured images, as well as a set of Grunge brushes you can use on your own photos.

Last but certainly not least, for a limited time, everyone who purchases the Procrastination Pak gets a FREE template action set from Once Remembered Actions .. You can't get these template actions anywhere else!

I have got to say THANK YOU to a few great people for helping me test and retest, and listen to me stress out and whine!! Bonnie Creevy, Jodi Freidman, Kim Lobato, Denise Skelton, Elma, Deanna Hall, Jeremi Broadhurst, and ALL OF YOU for being such great readers and sharing the love! :)

So....... the new set.. Regular price will be $75, but for a limited time, to introduce the set, it will be just $60!!

And, this week ONLY for the first 50 people if you buy the new Procrastination Pak, you can get an extra $10 off, so get the whole thing for just $50!!.. you must use the code: propakintro at the checkout to get the $10 off

Want to see more before/afters on the shots? Go HERE to see more examples!

If you were one of the winners that got the Extras paK as a prize in the last few weeks, please email me and I"ll send it to you ;)

Because I've been trying to get these finished I've not got any freebies/tutorials up this week, so I'm leaving last weeks up for another week (brushes). But I've got something even better in store for this coming week!!

I've been forunate enough to have some AWESOME donations from some of the great online store that sell stuff to us photographers.. and I'm going to be doing a contest all next week. The prizes will be given out every day, here's what you have a chance to win:

Gift Certificates to:

Pink Ink Studios

Little Dreamer Designs

My Lil Creations

The latest issue of Design Aglow

And every day I'll pick a winner that will get a $25 gift certificate for the phaunt actions store.

To be eligible for the $25 gift certificate all you need to do is leave a comment on the blog that day. BUT to be eligible to win one of the gift certificates to the other sponsors, you have to make a purchase at the phaunt actions store. It doesn't have to be the new actions, it could be anything!

So.. that's it.... If you only knew the stress and insanity these actions have put me through (and my poor husband), you'd know why I'm SO glad to have them finally released. I can't wait to see all the stuff that you all will do with them. If you have ANY questions or problems, send me an email (info@phauntactions.com)! Have a GREAT weekend!!

*note.. the $25 gift certificate give aways starts TODAY, so leave me a comment!.. The other contest does not start until Monday, so you have all weekend to buy something at the store and get qualified!*

Sneak Peeks

Wanna see some sneak peeks of what is included in ONE of the action sets with the new extras? Here's a few of the demo videos that are INCLUDED in the extras.. These are all from the "Beautifiers" set, all you need for retouching and glamorizing your photos:

 Thanks to Bonnie for the example photo. Note: I normally DON'T do this heavy of retouching on portraits, but just want to demonstrate what is possible with the actions. :)

Flawless Actions-

Note: The videos may take a bit longer than normal to load, I'm leaving them larger size so that they are better quality. It's best to click the link, let them load totally, then play, or it may be kind of jumpy. I usually don't make the files this big, but I wanted you to be able to really see the retouching in action.

Makeup Actions

And a few more sneaks just for fun :) It's funny to see myself with that much makeup on, since I hardly ever wear it IRL.

 

And you better be ready..when these are launched I'm going to be doing a huge giveaway/contest week. I haven't got all the details worked out, but there's going to be a ton of great stuff to be won!

Attention!! Your Help Needed!

The new Extras sets are done! Can you freaking believe it???? Now all that is needed is to have one more round of testing.

I have all my testers I need now.. Thanks so much for the quick response! If you don't receive an email back from me, thank you for offering to help anyway. Everyone who responded will be getting a discount on the new sets (or anything they wish) for their generosity and I'll keep you first in line for any future testing I need.

Thanks again.. I have the best blog readers!

Warning!!

This is a Public Service Announcement:

DO not, I repeat, Do NOT give Fun Dip to a 4 year old and leave the room.

 

 You will find it not only GONE within 5 minutes, but it will also have been fed to the DOG.

 

I now have a hyper 4 year old child and a hyper 2 year old English Bulldog. Not a good mix. I would try to get a picture of it to illustrate, but she isn't sitting still long enough for me to even focus the camera.

Didja Know?

Happy Monday everyone! Hope your weekend was great!

First off, this weekend's winner is Jen D! Email me at info@phauntactions.com to claim your prize!

Today I wanted to start a new feature called "Didja Know".. sharing quick tips that make PS a little bit easier. They may be elementary for some, but they're essential to using PS to it's fullest.

First off, a shortcut:

CTRL+Z will undo your last step.  Press it again to undo the Undo (that make sense?) So pressing CTRL+Z repeatedly will let you go back and forth between the last step you made so you can quickly see before/after without clicking in your History Palette.

CTRL+ALT+Z Undo, but you can keep going back as far as you want. Similar to clicking backwards on the History pallete, but you don't have to click, just keep pressing until you get to where you want!

And another Didja Know: Did you know you can create Snapshots in your History Palette that allow you to "save" the state of your photos (with layers intact!) and go back to it at any time! THis allows you to save a state and do detailed tweaks. If you don't like it, you can always go back to your snapshot! Here's a few visuals:

You can make as many snapshots as you want, so can save a picture at a bunch of different states, then click through the snapshots to figure out which you like best.

Be SURE to save any changes you made though, saving your image (even as a PSD) does NOT save your snapshots.

Oh, and because I'm feeling giving today.. You can use the code: mondayrules TODAY ONLY to get $5 off anything in the store. Have fun :)

Oh, and don't forget to take the new poll :)