Kristan Franco Graphic Designs and Web Resources

The Top Emerging Influential Blogs of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 04:23:00 +0000

Indeed, Blogging had now become mainstream. From random personal posts to business strategy, blogging had been a medium of communication, an information, knowledge, and anything you could ever think of.

I just had the list of Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs. It's unquestionable why I nominate these blogs in this year's Top 10 Emerging Influential Bloggers. The content, layout, and the bloggers themselves. Check out their blogs to see they're worth it!

1.) Eat's Terrific
2.) Kikay Much
3.) Mother's Instincts
4.) I Am Ariel Lalisan
5.) Pinay Travelogue
6.) General Joana
7.) Libotero
8.) Jinky's Kitchen World

See! I just had my list. What's yours?

This event is made possible by the following sponsors: Cyber Monday Deals, TRIbeca Private Residences, How To Videos, Palawan Beaches for Sale, Green and Natural Lubes Philippines, Philippine data center, Philippine online shopping, Singapore Jobs, and Pinoy Party Food.

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4 Best Websites for iPod, iPhone, and iPad Wallpapers

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:55:00 +0000

In case you are updating and synchronizing your iPod, iTouch, or iPad, can I suggest a "re-beautification" (if such term exists) of your standby menu with this sites I have used as resources for my wallpapers, and creative juice too.

You may want to visit these 4 Best Websites for iPod, iPhone, and iPad Wallpapers which offer quality wallpapers for your Apple products. Enjoy browsing!

Sample wallpaper from POOLGA.COM

1.) Poolga

My top of the list belongs to Poolga, it offers abstract wallpapers and some retro and modern caricatures. Besides, the site layout is also clean, which gives users a quick glance on the wallpapers showcased by Poolga.

2.) iPOD Touch Tricks

Feast your eyes with their nature wallpapers along with the abstract one for your iPad! They have apps too!

3.) Free iPhone Wallpapers

Another set of abstract wallpapers down here. This time, its for your iPhone. Keep diggin!

4.) All iPod Touch Wallpapers

Pure iTouch wallpapers. Includes abstract wallpapers, and brand logos.

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Free Wallpaper: The World is Still Round (Abstract)

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 08:29:00 +0000

I entitled this piece as "The World Is Still Round", it means, out of every negative things we ought to perceive, we should still remember that the world is full of beautiful things, things that are enough to give reason that life must still go on.

As we can see, the different things on this piece, living and non-living, such as, bananas, luxury car, flowers, and many more (including my favorite retro icon: Marilyn Monroe, and the face I use is my face, I just manipulated it to make it dull and spooky.

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Build Your Own Photo Timeline with LIFE Timeline

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 04:45:00 +0000

If you are having problems in remembering the history, or you have trouble remembering what you did in the last couple of years? Then, good news! You can now create a photo timeline of worth-remembering events with just a click away

LIFE Timeline is an online timeline builder which helps users organize photos in a chronological order. Photos are either from your own Flickr account or you can just search it on the LIFE photos. LIFE Timeline builder is as easy as uploading bunch of photos. The only difference is, you can picture out the exact date the picture was taken and basing it from that chronological point, you can remember every important milestone.

You can check out featured photo timelines on LIFE Timeline's site. Believe me, you'll get to know Marilyn Monroe's life better than before, Muhammad Ali's legendary career, or even the Memories of the Yankees Stadium. ENJOY!

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5 Reasons Why You Should Watch Disney's Tangled

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 02:47:00 +0000

Disney's Tangled - a classic tale of Rapunzel with a twist of spices (you know what I mean). Imagine, it was like Shrek + classic Rapunzel + Robin Hood = Tangled.

I was given the opportunity to watch Tangled although it's quite late.

I must say that Tangled became one of my favorites 3d animation of Disney. We all know that it's an old Rapunzel-like approach, but guess what? Flynn Ryder - Rapunzel's love interest, and what Disney really wanted you to know, is the major "new" in the film.

“Tangled” jumps off with the classic story of Rapunzel – a princess whose mother nearly died during pregnancy. She is healed by a magical plant, stolen from the evil Gothel, who has been using the plant as a fountain of youth, of sorts. The child – Rapunzel – is born healthy, and the healing powers have been transferred from the plant to the baby. Gothel kidnaps Rapunzel, raising her as her own daughter locked in a tower.

The major twist picks up when Rapunzel finally decided to ask her "mother" to go out in the real word just to witness the "lights" coming out from the palace during her birthday (held every year in her honor). I wouldn't spoil it to you dear readers, so it starts there, and just before you know, Flynn Ryder is already in the scene - with Rapunzel.

I can give you 5 major reasons why you should watch this film:

1.) It's a DISNEY - of course, it's Disney's trademark to impress people with its animated films. Anything larger than that? It's Disney! Anything Disney is just like anything delicious.

2.) A classic tale with a major twist - like I said, the film was like Shrek with a hint of Robin Hood plus the major spices of Rapunzel. Seriously, Flynn Ryder, being a thief (im afraid I spoiled it), reminds me of the Robin Hood catch-me-if-you-can scene. Why i'd say Shrek? C'mon, it's a magical world - this includes the rivalry of Maximus (the genius horse who acts like a dog) and Flynn Ryder who later became friends in the film, just like Donkey and Shrek.

3.) Musical! Really really musical - Would you freak out? Plainly, no. I mean, there's so many Disney films that are musical, but this one is quite of a modern. Songs like, "I See the Light", "When Will My Life Begin" and of course the evil "mother", Gothel, would also catch up with, "Mother Knows Best". Any reasons why you watch this film? Knowing that its musical? In fact, the casts includes Mandy Moore as Rapunzel, Zachary Levi would be Flynn Ryder and Donna Murphy for Gothel. It doesnt' bore you, it is BROADWAY WORTHY!

4.) The Major Frying Pan - Their weapon would be frying pans. Just don't ask why. Watch the movie and laugh why frying pans were the issue!

5.) For everyone - When I say, "For everyone", you know what I mean. Adults would love to laugh with their youngsters as well. Now, go now, go, go!

So, i'm done with me reasons. Would it encourage you? I just hope so. Go watch Tangled now in cinemas near you.

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Concept for Suspense/Thriller Movie Poster

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 16:11:00 +0000

4 months ago, our school's (NDDU) held its 4th MassCom Short Film Festival. This annual event showcases short films originally made by NDDU's Mass Communication students.

I happened to have a MassCom friend and I was given the chance to design and conceptualize their film, AL LILAW. Without hesitation, I took the request and design them a poster that would match the films scheme.
AL LILAW is a thriller film which the story mainly revolves around 5 characters haunted by a psychotic killer in a dark isolated island.

So what I did during the development was to review different suspense movie posters and conceptualized a unique idea from them. The movie posters from Sorority Row and Nightmare on Elm Street helped me build up the proper concept of the short film.

I just applied the basic approach to the poster - the killer on top of the victims. By enlarging it, the emphasis on the "killer" is greater. It would really catch the attention of the ones who view the poster. Font style is also important. You wouldn't try Comic Sans in a thriller movie poster, do you? I searched for free horror fonts and came up with those. Textures are also important. It gives a crispy detail on how a thriller movie poster would look like.

So that's it.

Just in case you would like to learn some basic tips on how to create suspenseful movie posters, just check my blog post HERE, this would be of a great help.

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The Evolution of Adobe Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 11:56:00 +0000

"Every great thing comes from a humble beginning". I guess this would be the most appropriate phrase I can picture out with Adobe Photoshop. What started out as an instrument just to display grayscale images into monochrome display ended up being the most popular image-editing program.

From the name Display, it changed into Image Pro before settling in with the official name, Adobe Photoshop. With a hint of humor, Adobe Photoshop had been helping the uglies since 1988.

THE EVOLUTION OF ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ICON

TOOLS PALETTE

So, CS5 is on the latest reel! Much more versions to come.

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Free Kobe Bryant iPod, iPhone, and Desktop Wallpapers

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 06:15:00 +0000

Are you a Laker fan? If so, then we could talk about it over a coffee, if not, then I bet you still knew Kobe Bryant. I've been a great fan of Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant since I knew.

What I got here are Kobe Bryant wallpapers for iPod, iPhone, and for your desktop (iPad version - coming soon). Basically, I just plainly started from scratch and let my juice wander how to layout these wallpapers.

Here's your five-time champion, Kobe Bryant:

ONE GOAL:

iPhone, iPod Touch (320x480) - Download here
iPhone 4 (640x960) - Download here
Desktop (1024x768) - Download here
Desktop widescreen (1280x800) - Download here

DARK ROOM:

iPhone, iPod Touch (320x480) - Download here

iPhone 4 (640x960) - Download here

Desktop (1024x768) - Download here

Desktop widescreen (1280x800) - Download here

Back to Blogging (Fingers crossed)

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 05:46:00 +0000

1 year ago today, I would find myself blogging and showcasing a "LOVE" typography wallpaper. Believing it is love month, that's it.

So what's in the highlight reel now? I think the "going-back-to-blogging" thing makes up this blog post. Lately, I've been busy with stuffs about school (Oh no! Not Facebook and Twitter - but its the opposite) that I find it hard to create worth-reading blog posts. So in that sense, I decided to temporarily drop my blogging habit. Come to think of it, I just can't blog about no-creative-juice entries. I just want my readers to feel comfortable with my blog entries. So everything goes along after I dropped and decide.

Dear readers, so I guess we're back in business (Fun) again. I guess I have to posts designing-related stuffs here and some random personal experiences too. Cheers to graphic designs!

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Wacky Font Effect (Very Basic)

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

The "basics" of a good concept of a wallpaper are the fonts and colors. So this is the most simple way to establish a rhythmic wallpaper. In this blog post, i'm going to share to you a very simple font effect which can be of good use in certain graphic concepts.

Let's call it the wacky font. Chug, chug, chug. With just 5 Photoshop steps, you can create a font effect like this:

THE 5 HOLY STEPS (LOL):

1.) After opening Photoshop, decide for the colors you want to use. In my case, I decided to set a dark background and neon colors for the font. Or the other way around, just don't make the background and font colors the same, otherwise, your output will look like a Chamelion.

2.) Choosing a good font. In my output, I used Franchise Font.

3.) Type in a word to start effect. I used the statement, "Light Peace Love". Voila! Your doing good this time.

4.) Duplicate, 0-fill, and adding a stroke. Duplicate the font layer and be sure to make the Fill 0 (not the opacity). After doing this, you will see nothing, it's all right. Right click the text-layer and select Blending Options, go to Stroke and set the size to 1 (if its not already visible, then go for 2), set the fill color same with the color of your font.

5.) Align, Tilt, and Tilt the Duplicates. Now we're almost done! Align the duplicated layer to your original text-layer, and tilt it ti add the effect. Duplicate these many times, and see the output. Play these layers by tilting them in different angles. Now we're done! Simple! Now you can create your own wallpaper by just using this. Goodluck!

FINAL RESULT:

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Beautiful iPhotos of Philippine Colors from North to South

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:33:00 +0000

Recently, I came across Philstar's article about the beautiful and catchy iPhotos of Philippines' North to South vibrant colors. The shooters, equipped with a a photographer's arsenal, showcased the very unique sunrise, sunset, flavorful foods, and eye-catching beaches in the country.

"Makulay" is a tagalog term for "colorful". As what the article emphasized, the word "Makulay" has been the very appropriate word that could sum up all these beautiful iPhotos.

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The World in Fish-eye

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:17:00 +0000

One of the many interests I have in Photography is distortion. Distortion is art, and it gives a more dramatic effect to a simple and dull photo. Wide-angle and fish-eye lenses are the main reason why distortion exists in photography.Equipped with a basic DSLR and a good fish-eye filter lens, I was able to apply distortion to my shots.

This is a very simple definition of Fish-eye in Photography:

Of or being a wide-angle photographic lens that covers an angle of about 180°, producing a circular image with exaggerated foreshortening in the center and increasing distortion toward the periphery.

I've got so many fish-eye shots, and I think one blog post won't contain all photos, so I just select some clear shots.

1.) Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage. A shot during our parade. I zoomed the lens that's why the distortion is just low.

2.) RD Plaza, Gensan. Another shot from our parade. Since I zoomed-in the lens, the distortion lessened. One thing, the sky was overexposed.

3.) Sunny Highway. A shot from last month. I was riding a public-utility vehicle when the highway became an interesting scenery to shoot.

4.) Hope Springs. A shot taken from the place of a firework incident. The tree was half-burnt. You could see less distortion here because of zooming in, see the clouds.

Shooting in fish-eye is quite exciting. You get to see distorted sceneries. So, go, give it a try!

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Free Hi-Res Bokeh Textures for Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:24:00 +0000

Apologies for the delayed blog posts, I've been dealing with a slow computer in the past 2 weeks since my laptop crashed. So many wonderful ideas popping from my mind now, and this time, i'm going to share to you my own set of Bokeh shots which could be useful for Photoshop as textures.

Just in case you don't know what Bokeh means, then here's a simple definition:

In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light. Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field.

These three Bokeh shots taken using an Olympus E-500 dslr were mostly from leaves and figs I found during a stay at the school. Armed with only a 45mm kit lens, I was able to capture these colorful Bokeh shots. I was thinking of trying out Bokeh shots on night lights.

Meanwhile, you can download the 3 hi-resolution Bokeh textures for Photoshop here. These textures would serve as good background for any Photoshop canvas you'll make. Enjoy!

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Monthly Wallpaper - LOVE Typography Wallpaper

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:28:00 +0000

Woah! February had began, and time flies so fast. To start off this love month, I'm going to showcase my 4th wallpaper filed under Monthly Wallpapers. Most of us knew that February is the love month, and seems like I'm in the mood playing with Xara 3D this time, and the creative juice is flowing freely. This time, I got to create a LOVE Typhography wallpaper.

Now let's talk all about this wallpaper. It is basically made out of Xara 3D and Adobe Photoshop CS4. Aside from the usual color red for Love, I tried playing with different color combinations and eventually came up with this output.

I got the cool grungy background from Inspiredology. The background gives much more contrast with the Insaburger font, and the theme colors.

This wallpaper is available in wide screen (1280x800) and full screen (1024x768). You can download the jpg files here:

L.O.V.E. Typography wallpaper Full Screen (1024x768)
L.O.V.E. Typography wallpaper Wide Screen (1280x800)

Set them as your dekstop background now! Enjoy watching the colors burst into your eyes!

P.S. Wanna put rock n' roll madness into your desktop? Check out the School of Rock wallpaper series here.

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Top 5 Cool Sites that Provide Free Plurk Themes and Layouts

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:57:00 +0000

With only 2 years and running,Plurk today is now one of top social networking sites. Aside from it's interactive GUI, you can also reflect your personality and creativity through customizing your timeline and dashboard themes.

Well, let's admit the fact that having our Plurk profiles tweaked inspires us more to Plurk. Trust me, I'm one of those.

Since most of the Plurk users don't have the knowledge on CSS coding, mainly used to create Plurk themes and layouts, here are 5 cool sites that provide Plurk themes and Layouts:

1.) Layout Freak

2.) Plurk Doodles

3.) Plurk-Layout

4.) Plurkocity

5.) Layout Monster

Choose from these wide variety of Plurk themes now, and see your Plurk profile shine!

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Update Plurk and Twitter Account with your Phone using gladlyCast

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:07:00 +0000

I've been a Plurker and Twitter user for about a year now, and losing Karma Points in Plurk might be the very heartbreaking news you'll ever get from Plurk. Tweeting on the other hand, is a must, updating my followers to check out my new posts.

In desperation for Karma Point, I became a frequent user of Phplurk's gateway just to update my daily activities even though i'm afar from keyboard (AFK). Just by texting to a Phplurk's associate gateway mobile number, one for Globe, and one for Smart, you can already update.

Later on, Phplurk became a major diversion for plurking in most of the Filipino Plurkers, since it is only locally available. Meanwhile, Tweeting has been casual in most of the mobile phones with browser.

After quite some time, Phplurk had been experiencing frequent delay of Plurk posts. After these delays, Plurks won't arrive in the user's dashboard anymore. That was the time when Phplurk gradually lost it's essence.

In solution to this, and for Karma's sake, a new Plurk gateway had been create. Make way for gladlyCast and their services for Plurkers and Twitters. gladlyCast provides Plurk and Twitter gateways for SMS. Just like Phplurk, you are required to sign up and test a certain procedure to complete the registration.

gladlyCast's features:

Available for 3 countries, Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia. Each country has a unique gateway number
Local SMS cost/charge for each Plurk or Twitter update
You can type in different language based on your phone's specification
Unlike Phplurk, gladlyCast don't promote their url in every Plurk made through the gateway
Very easy registration process

Oh yeah! How does it feel? Your KARMA POINTS won't drop anymore, if you constantly send SMS through this gateway! Impressive.

Sign up now, and be able to update your Plurk and Twitter accounts in just the rule of the fingers.

Be sure to follow them on Plurk, and on Twitter to receive the latest updates on their service.

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Free 10 Sketched Cartoon Squids Photoshop Brushes

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 04:11:00 +0000

ZAP!!! I got to play with my drawing pen again and this time, human-alike cartoon squids buzzed my creative juice. Just in case you wanted some sketched elements in your Photoshop canvas, you might want to use these as BRUSHES! Yes, brushes! This is my second brush set made in Photoshop CS4.

These sketched cartoon squid brush set approached in a more humanistic way are ideal and can be matched with scribbles and doodles, since these are pen-made.

If you want to use these brushes, you can download the Free 10 Sketched Cartoon Squids Photoshop Brushes set here. Since any Photoshop brush or brush set has a file extension of .abr, this HI-RES brush set should be compatbile with all versions of Photoshop

Terms of use: The brushes can only be used for personal and non-commercial purposes. Since these brushes are for free, no redistributing is allowed. Please do refer to this original blog post in order to share it to others.

If you liked this brush set, then you might also like downloading the Left 4 Dead Photoshop brush set. ENJOY!

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Faking Infrared Photo in Photoshop Using Actions

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 12:50:00 +0000

Infrared Photography refers to the area of photography in which photos are taken with film sensitive to infrared light.

When these filters are used together with infrared-sensitive film or sensors, very interesting "in-camera effects" can be obtained. false-color or black-and-white images with a dreamlike or sometimes lurid appearance known as the "Wood Effect," an effect mainly caused by foliage (such as tree leaves and grass) strongly reflecting in the same way visible light is reflected from snow.

In real IR processing, infrared filters could be very expensive to obtain. In solution to that, the use of Adobe Photoshop and its certain features such as channel mixer and RGB and LAB colors, photography hobbyists and even professionals can obtain the results close to a real infrared-processed shot.

Download my free Photoshop 2 versions of Fake Infrared action sets here and here.

With various tools and resources available in the web, I managed to create sets of Photoshop actions in faking the infrared processing on photos.

Here are the results of the photos I processed fakely in Photoshop. Hover your cursor in the images to see the result.

Are the results close enough? Download my Fake Infrared actions sets now and study the steps on how to fakely process your photos. Goodluck!

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Create a CD Album Cover Out of a Sketched Canvas

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:22:00 +0000

I found myself doodling and sketching while being admitted to the hospital for some medication, and after a week, examination took its toll on me. It's great to be back blogging again after a week of examination. One new post after a week or two!

Since i've been admitted for almost a week at the hospital, I was able to design two sketched canvas, with just pure sign pen. Anything out of imagination, 2 abstract drawings were made. Sketching is exciting, do you agree?

So, as you may notice that this drawing is so dull and looking at it might be uninteresting. To optimize this drawing, I decided to turn it into an cd album cover.

Music has been an inspiration to me. I've been into a band and making Album covers must be fun and exciting. With the use of certain splatter brushes and textures found around the web, I was able to make this hoax cd album cover.

Here are some tips in making awesome CD Album covers:

1.) Prepare your drawing.

You have to scan your drawing. In my part, I just shoot this drawing on a clean floor, with the highest quality as much as possible.

2.) Prepare the brushes and texture.

I was able to find some splatter brushes around the web, so go help yourself. In the texture, I've been a reader of Inspiredology and the author offered high quality textures.

So go download them.

3.) The genre of your Album cover.

You wouldn't want to entitle your album cover as "Lovely Hearts" when you notice that the design is pure grunge, would you? So decide for an appropriate theme for a title of the album.

For example, I just choose Chicosci's previous album title, "Method of Breathing" for my hoax Album cover. It is somehow related because my drawing is abstract, but can be seen and can be percept as people. Life is related to the album title.

4.) Setting the blending options to MULTIPLY.

You may notice that when you try to overlap your drawing into the texture, the texture will be covered with the canvas' white background, mainly the bond paper you scanned.

So the solution to this problem is, set the blending options of your drawn piece into MULTIPLY

5.) Splatter brushes over the layers.

To add a more dramatic effect, we use the splatter brushes. Complimentary colors are brilliant to see, so we get hold of these colors.

Be sure to create a new layer over all the layers, and brush as much as you want. After brushing, now you're almost done. Set the blending options to Linear Burn and see for yourself a good transformation out of the drawn canvas.

6.) Album Title has the impact.

For the finale, add your album title in a simple or complicated way. In my piece, I just use a very basic font in order to contrast with the grungy background. With this, contrast became an impact.

So here is my final work:

Credit for PSHero for the awesome slick cd container.

See? Just viewing your own work makes you want to be a rockstar!

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Tilt-shift (Miniature) Photo Effect Using Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:26:00 +0000

Recently, I posted my 15 Brilliant Tilt-shift photos, and just in case you don't have any idea on what a tilt-shift photo is, this is a shooting technique in photography that makes a scene looks like miniature.

Without using a real tilt-shift lens, you could turn a simple photo into a tilt-shift photo by using Photoshop. Photoshop is the most conventional tool.

In this basic tutorial, you can now make your photos look like miniature. With a knowledge on quick masking, filters, and saturating, your photo will now look like a real miniature!

To start of this tutorial, choose a suitable photo for this effect. Buildings are the best examples for this photo effect. I found this photo from Google.

1ST STEP: Quick Mask Mode and Gradient

Enter quick mask mode by clicking the icon just below the foreground and background colors, or simply hit "Q" in your keyboard.

After setting your workplace in Quick mask mode, hit "G" in your keyboard to select the fill tool, be sure to use the gradient fill. Just like in the screenshot, drag a straight vertical line to fill the photo with the sample gradient. Since we are in Quick Mask mode, the gradient will be a quite transparent red.

2ND STEP: Standard Mode

Now, we have created a gradient into the photo. We we'll do now is to exit the quick mask mode, by hitting "Q" again. After exiting the quick mask mode, you'll notice that the gradient you created is now transformed into a marquee, or simply what we called in Photoshop "the marching ants"

3RD STEP: Filter

To start applying the miniature effect, go to Filter>Blur>Lens Blur. Set the values.

4TH STEP: Saturation

To make the miniature effect look more realistic, set the saturation to 40, to pop out its the colors.

FINAL OUTPUT:

There you go, a tilt-shift photo effect processed in Photoshop!

Here is an other photo I use in applying this photo effect tutorial:

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15 Brilliant Tilt Shift Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 09:14:00 +0000

Tilt-shift shooting is one of the most interesting photography techniques wherein a life-size photograph is manipulated to give an optical illusion of a miniature scale.

Real Tilt-shift photography is all about changing the angle of the camera to give a different perspective and to make something look bigger or smaller.

There are camera lenses that specialize in tilt-shifting. If you haven't got a tilt-shift lens, one way to turn a photo into a tilt-shift shot is the use of Photoshop.

I viewed photos from Flickr and these are the 15 brilliant tilt-shift photos I choose:

1.) Toy Kuala Lumpur - Timmy Toucan

2.) Nice, France - Jason Ruff

3.) Joe's Crab Shack, Nashville - Shawn Ide

4.) Toy Bridge - darktiger

5.) Oasis Miniature - roevin

6.) Seattle Waterfront - sonek321

7.) Tilt-shift Tram - teppistella

8.) King's Island Tilt-Shift - jsrcyclist

9.) Canoe - Jeff Rogerson

10.) Market Street - Reven.

11.) Airport - pattagon

12.) Shangri-la Mall - Daniel Y. Go

13.) First Tilt-shift shot - Daniel Ashton

14.) Yosemite Valley - Ryan jay

15.) Shoshone Falls - Wookieslayer

After viewing these brilliant tilt-shift photos, I wanted to try! Taking photos and processing it in Photoshop afterwards must be fun. I'll be posting a tutorial on how to fake tilt-shift photographs. So be sure to keep track on this blog.

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20 Amazingly Designed Album Cover

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 06:52:00 +0000

In designing there are a lot of things to be inspired to. One very good inspiration is music, it is the best inspiration in life. Do you agree?

For designers, scanning album covers is good way to be inspired.

I had a hard time choosing album covers that were amazingly designed. Some covers were stunningly simple, while some were beautifully designed with grungy looks and scribbles. These 20 stunning album cover I got were based from my perceptions on each album's concept. So here's my list:

Inspiredology is a great site for designers who wanted to be inspired. They got a huge list of The Best Designed Album Covers.

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Free Left 4 Dead Photoshop Brushes

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 03:43:00 +0000

Recently, I've found myself shooting zombies by playing Left 4 Dead, and it's latest version, Left 4 Dead 2. After the release of Left 4 Dead 2, I started playing the game all over again.

Later on, I eventually enjoyed the 2 versions of Left 4 Dead. From a usual zombie game, it rocked a lot of gamers by featuring zombie bosses such as Boomer, a fat-spitting zombie, and a Smoker, infamous for its long tongue.

With this, I was inspired to create a zombie-related movie poster and turn some Left 4 Dead wallpapers and screenshots into something essential to Photoshop, more particularly, brushes.

In case you're not so sure about the brushes I made, I tried using them in a plain canvas, and here's how they look:

1.) The Left 4 Dead Bosses (Boomer, Hunter, Smoker)

2.) Tank (Another L4D boss), Zombie Hand, and a screenshot on one of the Safe rooms

3.) L4D Logo, Horde Logo, 4 Survivors, and a splatter brush of the L4D Bosses (witch included)

DOWNLOAD MY FREE LEFT 4 DEAD PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES HERE.

You might also like creating your own Photoshop brushes, click here.

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15 Amazing Light Painting Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:18:00 +0000

Light painting, also known as light drawing or light graffiti is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera. In many cases the light source itself does not have to appear in the image. The term light painting also encompasses images lit from outside the frame with hand-held light sources.

For more knowledge on this photography technique, I'm gonna share this 15 amazing light painting photos I found in Flickr that will definitely inspire you:

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Fun with Light Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Kristan) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:25:00 +0000

Aside from a week full of school stuff, I also experienced frequent brownouts. Since brownouts are boring, perhaps, the very best thing to do during "electricity-less" nights is to play with a camera! A very fun way to do this is to paint using light!

Light painting is a fun digital photography technique which gives you great results. Since this technique is freestyle you don't need to experiment much of it. You'll just need to learn shutter speed, and aperture, and be sure to have this following items:

1.) a camera capable of long exposures. DSLRs are the appropriate example.
2.) Tripod. Since we use slower shutter speed, probably 15 to 30 seconds, we should make sure that the camera will stay still, or else, your output will be a crap. If you don't have one, create your homemade tripod!
3.) Source of light. Flashlight is the best example. You need this to paint with light.
4.) Dark location. In my trial photos, I used the living room as the location because there is no moving object with light that could ruin my output.

How I started it:

I set a slower shutter speed, ranging from 15 to 20 seconds. I set the aperture to f14, with 300 ISO.

The output:

Within 20 seconds, I drew a stickman sitting, and if your perception is the same with mine, then good, but if it was not like mine, then the output must be crap.

...and this? It seems like an after-effect of 2012 movie. The walls are cracking, and the lava will spill!

Lastly, the most freestyle output, STICKMEN! If you perceived these as stickmen, then highfive!

So, start painting with light now! You'll enjoy seeing those clumsy and perfect shots you got. Let your imagination work!

P.S. I'll be posting some of my latest light-painting outputs next time.

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