A Beautiful Mess

Homemade Photo Filter DIY

We've fallen in love with dreamy photo filters! It's common to find colorful filters you can add to your photos in iPhone apps. They can also be added using Photoshop. We thought it would be fun to do it the old-fashioned way, though! Here's how we made our own filters for our DSLR cameras...

First, cut pieces of transparency about 1 inch (all the way around) larger than your camera lens. Then draw on them with sharpie (or any permanent marker). We experimented a lot and found that large, bold shapes work best. Small doodles and drawings do not show up. Above are a few of our favorite homemade filters.

To use your filter, simply hold it over your lens when shooting. (with auto focus enabled) Move the filter around over your lens as you frame your shot. You'll be able to choose which part of your photo is in focus and which part is blurry and colorful! 

Here are a few examples of photos we snapped using our homemade filters... 

The results are a little unpredictable, but that's what we love about it! What do you think? Do you plan to create your own dreamy filters? It's a fun and easy way to spice up your next photo shoot. xo. elsie

How To Make Product Collages For Your Blog

We often get asked how we create the collages we share here on the blog. Honestly, there are a lot of different ways you can make a collage. They are super fun to make! Today I want to share a basic method that you can use with Adobe Photoshop Elements. 

Step 1. Shop! My favorite part of the collage making process is the shopping part! For this collage I picked our some items from my favorites list on Etsy to share. As a general rule, white backgrounds will make your process much easier. Don't worry, you can erase the background if you need to it's just a little bit more time consuming. 

Step 2. Save images and links. As you are gathering items for your collage keep them organize. I like to keep mine together on my desktop, for quick referance. Be sure to also save the links as you go along! 

Step 3. Open all your images in Adobe Photoshop Elements. 

Step 4. Begin a new file. Choose File>New>Blank File. This pop-up menu will appear. You can choose the size you want your file to be. I generally make my images 1000 pixels across for web stuff. If you plan to print your file out in the future, you will need to make it larger. 

Step 5. Crop & Resize. To crop you select the crop button. (Seen here in the left hand column, it's the third one down to the farthest left.) Then simply crop around your photo, freeing your image of any extra white space. 

To resize: First, be sure you have checked the buttons pointed out here. Then, change the width or the height. (the other will change automatically) Press OK and you're good! 

6. Copy/Paste. To copy your product image first crop around it, then press Edit>Cut. Next, move over to your new/blank file. Press Edit>Paste. 

7. Use key pad arrows to move your item. First select the top left button. Then, move your item with the arrows on your keypad until you are happy with it's placement. 

Tip: I usually place the larger items (or focal points) on my collage first. This makes it a little easier to create a balanced design. 

8. After you are finished pasting images choose Layer>Flatten. 

9. Erase the backgrounds. The tools pointed out on the above image are 1- The eraser tool. Choose this to erase the background. Also make sure white is the bottom color selected on your color swatches below. 2. Brush menu. You can choose from different brushes on this drop down menu. Choose something basic for this step. 3. Brush size. This is important. I use a very large brush to erase most of the background and then switch to a small brush to clean up the edges around a product. 

You can see that my pink arrow is pointing to a section I had already erased. This process is a little bit tedious, but much quicker than a lot of other methods! 

10. Add Fonts. 1. Select the font tool. 2. Choose a color for your font. (top swatch- I chose mustard yellow) 3. Choose a font. Adobe Photoshop Elements comes with fonts. You can also download fonts from the internet and install them. 4. Choose your font size. After you have done these things, click anywhere on the photo and you can start typing. You can move your font around with your mouse until you like the placement. 

I used a different font and color to add numbers. This time I typed my numbers out, normally I use actual numbers. When you are putting the numbers on your collage be sure to open a new layer for each number. This is helpful because you can go back and move them around while you are still adding. After you are happy with the placement of all the numbers you can flatten your image. 

11. Use periods to point to products. Before I had a tablet to draw arrows I made dotted lines on my collages using periods (or dashes). It's simple and cute. 

If you want your dashed lines to curve, simply rotate the photo to add more! 

Done! Now you're ready to save your photo and post it on your blog with links! Maybe a little something like this- 

THINGS I LOVE:one.two.three.four.five.six.

Cool! I hope this has been helpful. Like I said before, this is just one method. Collages are really fun to make and the more you practice, the more creative you will become! XO. Elsie 

Thanks so much to Adobe Photoshop Elements for collaborating with me on this article! You can follow them here...Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/Pinterest

The Perks Of An Insta-Obsession

You guys, I really really like Instagram! I can't remember the last time that a social networking obsession lasted this long for me... it's true love. Maybe you share the same feelings as me? 

As I scroll through the saved photos on my phone, I'm amazed by the number of meaningful moments that my phone has captured. Sure, there are a lot of photos of cupcakes and new shoes too, but even those make me smile. But really, there are so many photos of Jeremy and I from our first year of marriage that literally would not exist were it not for this silly iPhone app.

After our first year of marriage I started archiving our photos together and a shockingly large number of my favorite photos came from my phone. At that point I had a perspective switch. I started to think of my SLR camera and my phone as equals. Sure, the quality is not equal... but the accessibility makes up for it. They both have serious advantages. It's exciting. Now I find myself taking my iPhone photos more seriously, saving full size versions and printing them out. I love this. 

Not only am I taking more photos than ever before in my life, but it's EASY. I'm a huge fan of being able to create images that I am proud of literally anywhere we go. I find myself getting more creative due to the limitations of a phone camera. This is fun. It's a hobby that doesn't demand much time at all. Along the way I am documenting life.

Have you noticed this transition in your life? Do you think of your phone as your "real camera"? Do you print photos in albums or keep digital albums? What about family movies? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I know it's a little geeky but I find myself thinking (often) about how mind-blown my 16 year old self would be to have a digital "camera" with this many options. We're living in the future, y'all! Elsie

PS. Follow us on Instagram @elsiecake + @emmaredvelvet

Totally Rad Actions Demos

Lately I've been getting lots of questions about the Photoshop actions I use. I put together a super quick demo of some of my very favorite Totally Rad Actions! for you. For those of you who have never used a Photoshop action, it's basically a shortcut and a way to save time. You press "play" and the action runs your photo though a pre-made list of Photoshop steps. It's super helpful for people (like me) who want most of their photos to look similar and for people who edit lots of photos every day. You can create your own actions and save them or you can buy and install them. I have owned and used this set of actions for a few years and it's one of my favorites. ETA: To use these actions you need to have Photoshop CS2 or later. 

Below you will see before/after photos and which action(s) I used. Some are more dramatic and some more subtle. The best part is, all of these photos were edited from Before to After with just a few clicks. There is an action for pretty much any look you want to achive, but these are a few that I often use...

For this photo I used Claire-ify + Punch Out!!! + Greetings from Paradise. This is a normal action routine for me to help muggy photos pop in just a few steps. For this photo I used Punch Out!!! + Lux (hard). I love Lux (hard + soft) because they give photos an airy look, without being too faded. 

For this photo I used Punch Out!!! + Crush + Flare-Up (golden) at 40% opacity. I love all of the golden actions that TRA has, but they are usually a bit too yellow for me so I always lower the opacity before flattening my image. For this photo I used Punch Out + Greetings from Paradise. This is a basic combination that brings out color, while still keeping a natural look. For this photo I used Milk & Cookies (B+W). It's my favorite black and white. It's super crisp and bright. I really like using this one on photos of people. 

For this photo I used Punch Out!!! + Greetings from Paradise + Brooklyn (B+W). Brooklyn is my second favorite black and white. It's a little bit more natural looking with some warm tones. For this photo I used +Contrast (Luma) + Pross Crossessed #1 at 20% opacity. More severe actions work for photos with landscapes or objects. For this photo I used Punch Out!!! + Wish You Were Here + Greetings from Paradise. This is another great combination of actions to run when you want your color photo to pop! For this photo I used +Contrast + Warm It Up, Kris! 

All of the examples above are done with the TRA1- The Original and TRA2- The Revenge sets. If you'd like more info about Totally Rad Actions! hop on over to their website. They have Q+A and lots of examples, plus lots of helpful video tutorials. 

Here's an example image from their site of the actions they offer... Here are a few of my personal tips... 1. When you get a new set of actions take the time to run every single action on a human photo and a landscape photo. This will help you learn which actions are your favorites and for what scenarios. When I get a new set I always make a list of favorites (with notes and nicknames) so that I have an easy reference until I memorize all the names. As you can see from my examples above I have a few favorites that I use on most photos and then special ones that I only use once in a while. 2. You can still tweak your photos before and after running actions, they just help speed up the process. 3. Even though I use my Photoshop actions every single day (they save tons of time) I sometimes take a break from them just because I don't want to forget how to do everything from scratch. :)

I hope that was helpful to those of you who have been curious about the actions I use. I remember how intimidated I was when I bought my first set, but now I could never go back! XO. elsie