Archive for the ‘How To’ Category

Easy panoramas using iphone & photoshop

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

So last week I was visiting The Art Institute of Chicago, ( Best museum & school in the world! It’s my alma mater, so I’m allowed to be biased.) and I totally spaced- left the camera at home. Needless to say there were tons of great photo op’s but I was only armed with my iphone.  So if life deals you lemons,  try making a panorama.  I decided to snap away on  my little camera phone. The following series of shots were taken  simply by standing in one place, shooting, turning, and repeating. Nothing special, or technical at all.

panoramashotsSo what I’m going to show you next is truly one of the coolest features in Photoshop. I downloaded all the photos from my camera to my computer. Then I opened all the photos in  Photoshop. Be sure to have only the photos you want to use open. Next go to File> Automate>Photomerge. This little window will open.

photomerge

Next simply click the “add open files” button, and then click OK.  Photoshop begins to work it’s magic. In about a minute Photoshop merges, blends, masks, and adjusts the photos into a panorama. A process that could take hours to perform manually.

Your left with an image that looks something like this:

panoramamergeThe next step is to simply crop the image.

panoramacroppedYou can do any color adjustments you like, but what you see here is “as is” & adjustment free. Pretty amazing! What you probably can’t tell from the photo is that this image is actually 20″ x 86″ in size. I did absolutely zero size adjustments. That will make for really nice sized canvas print. All from a iphone! YAY!

Posted in Canvas Art, How To, Photo To Canvas Printing, Tech & Gadgets | No Comments »

Tips for photographing kids & pets

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

By far some of our favorite canvases that we have printed have been of kids and pets. When photographed well there is always a wonderful level of honesty in the shot. Children & pets both hold such a special place in our hearts, that it’s hard not love these photos. Here are few tips to help take some amazing pictures of your little loved ones.

Photograph them at play. Have them play with toys or each other. Capturing a child and their pet in action makes for very compelling shots. The get the shot you’ll need to take a fast picture. Try setting your shutter speed at 1/250 a second or faster. Most digital cameras have a “sports” or “action” mode that freeze the action and provide a nice clear shot.

kidspets

Try not to force a good time. Make the experience as fun as possible. Be as loose and spontaneous as your subjects. Just remember to keep snapping away. Every shot is not going to be amazing. But that’s OK, odds are a few are going to be fantastic.

Shoot from your subject’s level. Try sitting or lying on the floor. Also consider zooming in to capture the details. A close up of your puppy’s wet nose or a child’s hand can make for a magical canvas print.

To capture your pet’s attention try using a squeaky toy or a treat. These will usually produce that charming tilt of the head, or a eager and happy reaction.

For a more formal child’s portrait, try providing some activity before the shoot to settle the child’s nerves and reduce their need to fidget. Share your shots on your camera’s LCD as you take them. Letting them see the results usually engages the child and you’ll get a happier subject. Some kids may not respond to “cheese” being said to them over and over. So try something silly and a little gross that will make kids laugh… “Stinky Feet”.

Most importantly remember to be patient and have fun. It should be a good time for everybody. And if it is the proof will be in the print.

Posted in How To, Photo To Canvas Printing | No Comments »

How to use Photoshop to prepare a photo for printing on canvas

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

In this post were going to show you how set up your photos for a canvas print using Photoshop.  It’s actually really simple to do, and should only take a few minutes once you get the hang of it. You can use other photo editing software to achieve the same results, however we use Photoshop at theprintedcanvas.com, so we’re going to  keep the instructions limited to what we know.

Let’s get started.

1) Adjust your color settings.
Open Photoshop. Then go to Edit > Color Settings. Change your working spaces to RGB: Adobe RGB(1998), & CMYK: U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2. Be sure to change your Color Management Policies to the working space for both RGB & CMYK

Why do this ? Our printers are set to convert files to certain color spaces before the file actually prints. So what this means to you is that if you are using a different color space edit than we are using to print, chances are your prints may look a little different in person than what you may see on screen.

Set your color space in Photoshop

Set your color space in Photoshop

2) Create a file. File > New.
Here’s where we enter our file settings. For demonstration purposes we’re going create a file for 12″x12″ gallery wrapped print that will be using our thick 1.25″stretcher bars. The file should be 15″x15″. This gives us enough image space to ensure that our final print wraps entirely around the sides of the stretcher bar. We have added 1.5″ of space to each side of the image. Set your resolution to 150 Choose a color space of CMYK and a background color of white. Then click OK.

Create a new file

Create a new file

3) Drag guides.
Go to view > show rulers. You should now see rulers on the top and side of your window. Now simply click drag a guide from the rulers to 1.5″ from each edge. These guides will help you show you what parts of you image will be cropped and visible only on the edge of your canvas print.

Drag your guides

Drag your guides

4) Open your photo, then drag the photo into the new file you just created.

5) Edit, Edit, Edit - Resize, adjust colors, levels, or apply whatever filter(s) you like at this time…This your time to be creative, so let it rip!

6) Save As…
Once your happy with your image go to File > Save As. Choose .jpg or .tiff as your file format. Be sure to UNCHECK the Layers box. Click Save. That’s it. Your ready to submit the photo to us for printing onto canvas. BooYah!!!

If you have any questions we’d be glad to help. Email us a support@theprintedcanvas.com

Posted in Canvas Art, How To, Photo To Canvas Printing | 2 Comments »

Help with hanging your canvas print

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

If you have received one of our canvas prints you  may be wondering how & where to hang it.

Here are a few tips:

1) Hang items at a comfortable eye-line. People often hang art too high or too low, depending on their height. Shoot for about 5 feet from the floor. Make sure you do not hang your art too high. You and your guests will be craning your necks to see it and it will not be as enjoyable as closer to eye level is

2) Protect your canvas print from too much sunlight. Place you canvas prints in a place where you have control over how much light hits them. Our canvas prints are printed with extremely durable inks, but any item that is exposed to lots of sun for long periods of time will eventually begin to fade.

3) Look into specialized lighting. It will bring out nuances in your print that might not be visible otherwise.

4) Equally important is finding a center for your placement.Often there are many factors of how to “center” your art. You may have your couch situated against a wall with a side table to its side and the couch may not be centered. You will need to decide if you must have the art centered on the wall regardless of the couch, or use the couch as a centering tool. It may be tricky because you may have beams in your ceiling that throw the placement off, but that is once again a judgment call.

We hope these tips and techniques have been helpful. Good luck!

hangingpicture

Posted in Canvas Art, How To | No Comments »

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