Ideas needed....

[carolinagirl05]

Hello all --

I need to get a good quote for a picutre that I have of my father gazing at some flowers (the picture is from a trip that we recently took to Helen GA). Thought that if I attached (uploaded) the picutre that maybe someone out there would have some great ideas.

You guys seem to have all kinds of wonderful ideas, and before I started working on a page I wanted to get some advice. I have not done anything to this picture yet.....so if you have any ideas (besides a good quote) I would really love them. I just downloaded the pic from my camera.

By the way this is the first trip that we have taken since my dad had open heart surgery......he had to have a triple bypass. (anyway I know that is more information than needed, but hopefully someone can help me.)

Thanks in advance.!.

[Chevellegirl]

This is the first thing that came to my mind...

Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. ~Hans Christian Anderson

[carolinagirl05]

I like that one.....I have written that one down, to consider using on this page......

THanks!

[Emma]

Well, since you don't have a lot of experience, I'll try to keep my suggestions simple.

First, the photo is very nice, good unique composition and good flow, good texture with the wooden fence.

The car is ruining the "Old World" feeling, so either clone that out with the grassy portion (there's a PS tutorial on using clone/patch tool in the Quick Class section). Or you might be able to just crop off the top of the photo completely and take off a bit of his head, that might look bad or it might look fine.

Another option would be to overlap the journaling box to cover the car but not the house or his head. Add some nice journaling about the visit, surgery, etc, how you feel about him. Make the letters large, but digi journaling is more involved than paper because you have more room to make legible small letters. Paper style is usually just a one liner, but digi usually has a little more and looks a little nicer, so bear that in mind.

Might want to adjust the levels to brighten it up slightly, it's a little dark on my monitor.

A good floral background with the photo and a journaling box is all this really needs. The title could be your quote, with the text in the box. Don't forget the date and place!

Look forward to seeing your results! Ask more questions at each step, but the most important thing is to open your software and get started! Try one thing, and if you get stuck, post here. Don't try to get all the answers before you start, just dive in. You can't ruin the photo, and playing around is the best way to learn.

Good luck!

[carolinagirl05]

Thanks for all the help and great information that you have given to me in the past two days. You have been a wonderful help, and I am going to work on this as soon as possible. (I probably will not get to do anything with it until Friday -- pretty busy today). But I will keep in mind -- just to dive in and work with it. You are totally right -- that is the only true way I will learn.

I will post the picture in steps to see if anyone has suggestions -- like you said.

Thanks again Emma......sorry if I sound a little dumb when it comes to the Digital Scrapping -- it's just all new to me. :)

PS - Will keep you posted on the progress with this photo. THis will be my first project. :o Looking forward to working with this.

[Emma]

I was just giggling at myself remembering the way I sounded a year ago on the Yahoo list! The nice thing about these forums is that there's a Beginner Place, and we expect beginners here! So you or I or anyone can ask all the questions we want without worrying about bothering anyone!

You're doing great, thinking, figuring, there's a lot to learn. If you're anything like me I tend to watch and ask and think before I actually DO, and then I wonder what took me so long to just try it! Just hoping you don't overthink like I used to and put off while asking questions. I redid all my first 10 or so layouts because I thought they were ugly, but I learned more with those than I have with anything since! They're so important, even if you chuck 'em later!

Good luck! And there really is no dumb question! If I was learning about woodworking or electronics I'd sound like a total fool, but people would be more than gracious to help me, I'm sure. We're here for ya!

[carolinagirl05]

Emma -- hope you get this message.

I wanted to let you guys know that I started playing around last night with my software and the pic of my dad.

I took your advice Emma -- cropped the car out, which I kind of like it like this now -- but I am going to try using the clone tool also.

I also added an antique look to it. I am also going to play around with different effects before I make my final decision on this look.

Thanks again.

[Emma]

Yes, the missing car does make it "easier" too look at! You might try cropping it out to leave more of his head and then clone the leftovers. Cloning small areas is easier, and using the monochrome colors make the cloning even easier.

I like the colors it had with the weathered wood, did you try just desaturating the colors rather than completely elimnating them? The sepia tone is fun too. It looks pretty washed out on my monitor though, what process did you use? Maybe you brightened too much or lost too much contrast when brightening?

Hope you're having fun! One way to make a nice layout with this that just occurred to me is to extend the background, or fade it out, then put a vellum journaling block next to the photo over the faded out portion, on the right.
That way you'll have a landscape orientation and no background paper. Make sense? Maybe I'll make one real fast, should be easy, for you to look at.

Keep at it! YOu'll be addicted before you know it!