Well, it was a mystery to me anyway. I'm not really a expert level photoshop user even though I've been using it for around 10 years. For me, it was always just a high powered retouching tool with some cool effects but I never really had time to get that concerned with it. As I became a little more serious about my photography, I learned that nearly every serious photographer retouches their work. I started using layers in photoshop to do a little more but the idea of masks was something my slightly ADHD self just didn't want to take on.
Enter the eyes. Yes the eyes. I noticed a lot of photographers put out portraits where the eyes just seemed real. I always thought, "It must be nice to have such expensive lenses to work with.", knowing that the good lenses range from $1,200 to $6,000! But then I noticed that even when I rented expensive lenses, my shots lacked that clarity. I finally asked one photographer her secret- turns out it's photoshop layers and masks with a high pass filter effect. It's hard to explain and maybe that's why I always avoided masks when reading about them because the written versions of tutorials complicated the actual use which isn't that complex after all.
Here's my video tutorial, mistakes and all (I think that actually helps to see the process visually with corrections) The picture I chose is actually one I figured was a nice "captured moment" but with too many flaws for it to be shared. This technique made the picture "sharable".
If you're a Gmail user, you probably know that Gmail Doesn't support embedded graphics in your signature.
There are two ways around this.
Method 1. Use an email client like Thunderbird by Mozilla or Outlook/express to create an HTML signature. Thunderbird, in particular will let you choose an image as your signature or create an HTML signature that also embeds a graphic with the IMG tag.
CAVEAT: You need a server of some kind somewhere where you can call up that image in the image tag. Any server that will allow you to embed it is fine, even say, twitpic or flicker or a Google blog or site.
Method 2. This method is a one-at-a-time approach when using the Gmail web interface. It also requires a hosted graphic.
step 1. Compose a new email.
step 2. Open a new browser window and go to the graphic you'll use. Drag it from the browser window into your Gmail compose window to the point (like your signature block - above or below it) where you want it placed. It simply appears embedded in the email.
I find the Gmail interface so useful in other ways including its new "labels" feature that it's hard to consistently use a mail client just for the signature, but there's no sign that Gmail plans to add this feature yet.
Contact Gary Hansen if you're selling or buying: Yorba Linda homes for sale
I'm using this time to prepare a video assessment of a real estate agent's blog on ActiveRain.
His area is easily leveraged for page one results, I estimate within 3 to 6 months, with some immediate results for long-tail keyword searches.
I'm showing him how to create a blog entry for something such as "Affordable Real Estate Web Designers in Orange County" for long tail search results.
I wish Activerain was as fast as Wordpress so I could show him the result at the end of the video!
In the process of evaluating a website for a client, wasn't it about time I caught an error on one of my own backlinks? I had gone just a bit fancy on my signature and thus cut the word "orange" off the rest of Orange County Web Design.
Well- that's fixed!
Meanwhile now I'm off to complete this evaluation.
Van Jones - like him or not, at least he finally created a green job!
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Orange County Photography, Orange County Web Design, SEO, Web Marketing. Brea, CA and Fullerton, CA Virtual Tours - Technology Solutions with a focus on Real Estate Marketing in Orange County.
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