The Amazing 'Content Aware' Tool In Adobe Photoshop CS5

Ever seen something distracting in a photo that you'd love to easily remove?  Well Adobe added Content Aware in Photoshop CS5 that I am absolutely in love with. It's so much easier, and far more intuitive than using the clone tool.

There are many videos on YouTube explaining just how to use it, some making it far more complicated than necessary, but I found the easiest way to remove an object is to use the lasso tool, surround the object, as close as possible, that you want removed, hit the delete button, enter in the "use" box content aware and then click okay, and you're done.  You can do the same thing with the rectangular marquee tool.  You can also use the spot healing tool, which will remove the object without having to press delete.  Remember that the closer to the object the better. The closer the object is to other objects, the trickier it gets.

Here is an example: I loved the photo of this poodle sitting outside a bakery in Old Quebec City, but I found the silver electrical outlets very distracting, so I decided to try the Content Aware tool.

unedited photo

This is the result:

Pretty darn amazing, and it was very easy.

For more detailed instructions and different ways of using the feature, check out the following articles and videos:

Photoshopessentials

Adobe

There are a ton more on YouTube.

"Wrong Way" Beatle's Abbey Road Photo To Be Auctioned

Who doesn't remember the iconic Abbey Road album cover photo of the beloved Beatles walking across a zebra crossing on, obviously, Abbey Road.

Apparently, Scottish photographer Iain Macmillan was only allowed ten minutes on August 8, 1969 to shoot six photos of George, John, Paul and Ringo while a policeman stopped traffic. Perched on a ladder he took 6 photos of the lads walking both forward across the road (which was the one that made it to the album cover) and backwards.

Now, one of the "wrong way" photos is up for auction on May 22 by Bloomsbury Auctions in London, and is expected to sell from £7,000 to  £10,000. Not that much, comparatively speaking, for a 'rare' limited edition signed photograph. Andreas Gursky's "Rhein 11" sold for 4.3 million. 

25 copies were made of the up-for-auction photo, and this one copy is being sold by a private collector.

Check out this blog for more details.

Life In Black And White- Etsy Treasury

Am in this striking black and white treasury, by Daffydownlillies on Etsy. One of my most popular photos of the Blue Ridge Mountains in black and white is featured.

Horst Faas Pulitzer Prize-Winning War Photographer Dies

Pulitzer Prize-winning German war photographer/photo-journalist Horst Faas, best known for his compelling mostly Black and White photos taken during the Vietnam War, died on May 10th at the age of 79. His Obit in the L.A. Times says of Haas:

As chief of photo operations for the Associated Press in Saigon for a decade beginning in 1962, Horst Faas didn't just cover the fighting — he also recruited and trained new talent from among foreign and Vietnamese freelancers.
The result was "Horst's army" of young photographers, who fanned out with Faas-supplied cameras and film and stern orders to "come back with good pictures."

He and his editors chose the best and put together a steady flow of telling photos — South Vietnam's soldiers fighting and its civilians struggling to survive amid the maelstrom

The photo above was one of many taken in 1964 that earned him the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for photography. He won his second Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for his coverage of the torture and executions during the conflict in Bangladesh.

He risked his life for his work, and was so severely wounded in 1967, that he was wheel-chair bound for the rest of his life, suffering many complications from his paralysis.

He died in his native Munich, leaving his wife Ursula and his daughter Clare.

Click here to see more of his photography.

"Best Job" P&G Olympics 2012 Ad Honoring Mothers

It's Mother's Day so I thought I would share this wonderfully fitting London Olympic's 2012 ad produced by Proctor and Gamble  honoring mothers:

"the hardest job in the world is the best job in the world."

The touching video is very well produced.

So, thank you to all the mothers out there for your love, nurturing, encouragement and all your the sacrifices you make for your children.

Should You Pay For Etsy Marketing?

Trying to get more traffic to our Etsy shops is an ongoing struggle. Face it, without traffic there are no sales, and with the thousands upon thousands of Etsy shop owners, and all the Etsy and google changes regarding SEO and relevancy it can become an incredibly frustrating task. So, many of us look to others to try to bring that traffic to our sites, and frankly I don't believe that's always the wisest investment.

I'm sure there are many companies that legitimately do help, but my experience with one that I found on one of the sites that many Etsy users depend upon, was a total waste of money.

Back in December 2011, I decided to really make an effort to increase sales by marketing my store. I'm quite computer savvy but SEO is like Swahili, so when I saw an ad for marketing Etsy shops to increase traffic I was intrigued.  There was a holiday half-price special for $25.00, good only if purchased within the next few days. I have since learned that that particular "offer" is actually year round, but I got suckered into buying the package without checking first to see if people indeed had benefited from it.  I stupidly fell for the few recommendations claiming they had received a huge increase in views, which of course mean nothing, and paid the fee.

The woman promises to get the reports to you within a few days, but  it took almost week before I received anything and that was after several emails with no response. Granted it was the holidays, but not responding to inquiries is not good business.  At that time I probably should have asked for a refund, since she claims she gives a 30 day money back guarantee, but I really wanted that increase in views and thought I would give it a chance. By the time I wrote saying how disappointed I was, it was over the 30 days, and I never did hear back from. Again, not good customer service.

I have received absolutely no increase in views, in spite of working on my SEO and tagging. I'm not even convinced she did the work, in spite of sending me a list of all the search engines I was supposedly submitted to.  In essence, I paid $25.00 for a list of search engines many of which I had never heard of and which I could probably have googled for.  She does link you to what turned out to be a poorly written, misspelled article, and a short e-book on Etsy SEO (which was somewhat useful), but one lives and learns. 

Before you turn to one of these companies that promises to sell you something they can't deliver, you should probably do a google search or a forum search on Etsy. Most people have had the same totally useless experience as I had.  I can't find the particular thread, but I recall reading about one woman who was frantic about her shop after she paid someone that turned out to be using a link farm.

What I paid $25.00 for I could probably have researched on my own. Google is a tremendous resource.  You can also look at how those who sell the most on Etsy are titling and tagging their items. You might also want to start a blog for backlinks to  your own shop.

I really have no idea whether this 'marketing person' actually did anything that she promised, all I know is that my views did not increase at all.

Here's a nice forum article on Etsy regarding SEO link building, and it's free.

Shawn Reeder's 'Yosemite Range of Light' Amazing Time Lapse Video

Photographer and musician Shawn Reeder spent two years photographing Yosemite and the Sierras, and created this amazing time lapse video, "Yosemite Range of Light". It took almost 7,000 photos to produce the 5 minute video.

What patience.

Enjoy!




H/T: Huffington Post