fantasy

So, I decided I would combine the things I love to do and edit my poems with the photos I take. Unfortunately, I am not a real photographer and so I have a serious shortage on models.

That’s why I model myself.

Well, I am not a model, but it doesn’t matter for the picture I make. With a nice background and a couple of wings, everyone can look like an angel. (either dark or light)

For example, this is me:

Just a regular girl with a bit of a rock attitude. Nothing special, just me.

But when making a photo shoot and edit the right way, we can create picture like this:

Pretty cool huh? 🙂 Today I would like to show you how to do that.

Need:

A place you can take photos. Outside in a forest or beach will be great, but I live in Holland where it rains all autumn, so I will just use my bedroom. 🙂
A background in one color. This makes it easier to cut out the picture later. Just use a big piece of fabric. (in my case, old curtains lol)
A photo camera. I use my Nikon D3200 for this shoot, but any camera who has a delay action shutter will do just fine.
A standard for your camera. (although a pile of books works great too) 🙂
Photo editing program IPiccy. (use for free on internet). Just go to http://ipiccy.com/ and start editing.
Photo editing program Paint.net (download for free at http://www.getpaint.net/download.html)

Part 1 – Making the photos.

Steps:

First of all, you need to make sure the place where you want to take your photos is in order. Watch the lighting and make sure that there are no things just lying around.
Second, make a photo from the background you are going to use. Check the photo for the lighting and position. Check if the photo is sharp and that there aren’t any shadows.
If you (like me) are kind of nervous when posing for a photo, practice a bit in front of a mirror. That way you can see which poses you can use later. (although I can’t help messing around when I do that! Lol)
When you are dressed up and ready, take a couple of photos using the delay action shutter.
After making a few shots, check them to see if your position is right and the lighting is good. If that’s the case then shoot away! If I do a photo shoot, I make a LOT of photos. That way I can choose the best out later. Don’t be nervous, you are in control here. If you take pictures you don’t like, you can just throw them away later. Try out different poses and styles.

Part 2 – Edit the photo

Steps:

You have taken the photos and saved them on your computer. Now you are just going to view them all and throw away the ones you don’t like or are blurry. When I do this, most of the times I will end up with around 10 photos I like and want to work with. So, don’t be alarmed when you delete about 75 % of your photos.
When you are finished, choose 1 photo to work on and save the rest for later.
Decided what you want to do with this photo. What kind of Background will fit? Would you like to have some additional fantasy things like wings? Search the web for png pictures or make more photos and cut those out to use with your self-portrait. I have chosen a background, a unicorn and angel wings for editing my photo.
After collecting the pictures I want to use I will cut out myself first. I will use Paint.Net for this. Just open the photo with the program. (pic.1)
Cut out the photo using the eraser and magic wand tools and save it as a png picture. (pic. 2) If you don’t know how to cut out a photo yet, take a look at the first 3 steps in the third tutorial on the How To…page: How to…make a fantasy photo met Paint.net
If you are done cutting out all the pictures you like to use and saved them, you collect all the pictures (the background, the photo of yourself and the png pictures) and put them in one folder. This makes it easier to work on them with IPiccy.
Open IPiccy by going to http://ipiccy.com/
Click on ‘Start Editing’. (if you’re not yet familiar with this program, check out How To use IPicci Part One and Two)
In your Photo Library you can choose ‘Upload photo’ and choose your pictures from the directory of your computer. Open the background picture.
In the next window you can start editing your picture. Just choose the ‘Layer’ button for now.
Here you can insert text, pictures and stickers. Choose the ‘add photo’ button and drag yourself into the photo.
If you already have uploaded some pictures, they will be displayed in the menu on the left. Otherwise, you have to choose ‘upload photo’ first. The picture you upload will be added to the menu. Click on the pictures you would like to add and drag it to the big picture. (pic. 3)
You can adjust the size of the second picture by dragging the lines surrounding it.

To replace it, just click and drag the entire picture.

When you are done adding pictures and you are satisfied about the composition, choose the Magic Want button in the top menu to add some effects.
You can choose various effects in the menu at the left. Click on different effects to see what it does with your picture and choose ‘apply’ to use that effect. I will add the ‘Shine’ effect. (pic. 4)
After adding the effects you want, choose the ‘Layers button’ if you want to add Stickers or Text to your photo. If you don’t want that, you can go straight to step 7.
While I was editing this picture a random sentence floated through my mind and I want to add that to my picture. Just use the Text button to add text. Choose the size and font you want in the menu at the left of the page. You can also adjust the color.
You can also add Stickers on this page. Just check them out some time. I have chosen to add a little Ornament to my picture. (pic. 5)
Almost finished! Just have to add a nice frame to our picture. (you don’t have to, of course. Just go to step 7) Click the Frame button in the top menu and choose a frame. (pic. 6)
IPicci will save the picture for you when you click the Save button (floppy disk) in the top menu (give your picture a name, chose where to save it on your computer and don’t forget to set the quality to a 100%) and then asks if you would like to continue editing the picture. If you choose ‘yes’, you will go back to your previous picture. If you choose ‘no’, you will go back to your photo library.

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Tips:

Save your work in-between.
Try different things to see what goes best with your style.
Pay attention to the readability of the text!
Be creative and Have Fun!

If you are trying this out, I would love it when you place a link by this post to show off your work! 🙂

Lots of Love,

Patty

Triple Diamond Duet Poems!

Posted by Just Patty on November 2, 2013

Posted in: dark poetry, Darkness, Diamond poem, duet, emotions, fantasy, fotobewerking, friends, Gedichten, photo editing, Poems, poetry. Tagged: dark poetry, diamond poem, duet, emotions, fantasy, fotobewerking, friends, frustration, gedichten, photo editing, poetry. 10 Comments

My good friend Saunved and I have been writing a couple of Diamond Poems together. I really love writing with this guy because it’s easy and fun! Saunved is very talented, despite his young age. Take a look at his writing here—> http://saunved.wordpress.com/ I promise you, you will not regret it!

Lots of Love,

Patty