Sepia Scenes #11

~COLORIZING SEPIA PHOTOS~

I desaturated the color photo, then I duplicated the layer using Adobe Photo Shop 7. I then used the History Brush to color in the snowball flowers and the vase. I adjusted the Opacity to a low below-50% level.

Since I only "desaturated" the photo and didn't discard the color information, it's still there, so I was able to "paint" it back in with the History Brush.

Please don't be intimidated by the process. There are several online photo editing programs that would allow you to do the same thing if you wanted to.

As you can tell I love to experiment!

maryt/theteach

My new header is based on Mojo's suggestions in his Sepia Tutorial.

The flower is a RED zinnia.

Mojo's Sepia Tutorial

Mojo of Why? What Have You Heard? has prepared a tutorial for all of us to enjoy! I meant to tell you about it on my last Sepia Scenes post but somehow got distracted by holiday stuff.

Please go over and visit Mojo. Part 1 of his tutorial discusses

"how do we go about getting a good sepia image" and "when is sepia the best choice?"
Two excellent questions that I sure want the answers to.

So go on over and let's learn something!



Josh McKenny

maryt/theteach

Sepia Scenes #10

Welcome to Sepia Scenes!

These are architectural details of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, NY

Do you notice that there is a very fine netting covering the capital of the column? I didn't notice it until I enlarged the photo. My guess is that it's there to protect the decorative detail.

I'd like to wish everyone

A VERY HAPPY HOLIDAY AND A HEALTHY NEW YEAR!

Please sign with Mr. Linky and leave a comment.

maryt/theteach

Sepia Scenes #9

This is one of the benches at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, NY. The Botanical Garden makes a big deal of Christmas with all kinds of wonderful things for kids and adults. They decorate all the benches in the Garden with big RED bows, greenery and pine cones.




On that same day the Garden was showing Henry Moore sculptures outdoors placing them strategically around the acreage. The sculpture above is called HILL ARCHES 1973. It is made of bronze and has the typical green patina. I experimented with a sepia tone and then bronzed it in photobucket. I then used a neon yellow-orange color and faded it til the pale green color showed which reminded me of the patina. I don't know if Mr. Moore would like it but I do. :)

I wonder what you think of the effect?

Please sign with Mr. Linky and leave a comment. I'd really love that.

Next Thursday is Christmas Day as well as Sepia Scenes Day. I will be posting that day wishing you all a very happy holiday.

maryt/theteach

Sepia Scenes #8

Hi everybody! Welcome to Sepia Scenes for this week!

I'm sure you recognize these items I found on the shelf in Target. They are nutcrackers! They may not look like the typical nutcracker, the one in the Nutcracker Suite, but these are from that ballet by Tchaikovsky.

You have the Mouse King on the left and a Sugar-Plum fairy on the right. The fella in the middle is, well, I don't know. He's not the Nutcracker. And he's not Drosselmeyer, who is the toy maker. He must be a minor character in the stage presentation.

How I made the picture above: first I changed the color photo to sepia. Then I colorized the photo by using layers and channels in Adobe Photoshop.

Here's some interesting trivia about nutcrackers:

Nutcrackers were especially popular with Germans who coined the phrase, “Gott gibt die Nü sse aber knaker mü ss man sie selbst (God gives the nuts but we have to crack them ourselves)”. This story was intended to teach children that life was hard but rewarding. This little verse made it a favorite toy, possibly because it enabled children to reach one of life’s rewards more easily.

According to German folklore, they were given as keepsakes to bring good luck to your family and protect your home. The legend says that they represents power and strength and serves like a trusty watch dog guarding your family from evil spirits and danger. A fierce protector, they bare their teeth to the evil spirits and serves as the traditional messenger of good luck and goodwill.

Don't forget to sign Mr. Linky (hopefully we'll have no trouble!) and leave a comment.

And visit your fellow participants. They love to have you!

maryt/theteach

Sepia Scenes #7

A simple gazebo in my sister-in-law's condo development. It's lovely in the Spring and Summer when there are all kinds of grasses and flowers. But in Winter it looks sad and lonely.

Thanks to everyone who have been participating in Sepia Scenes. I love experimenting and I encourage you to try all kinds of thing with sepia tone or tones.

Don't forget to sign Mr. Linky (hopefully we'll have no trouble!) and leave a comment.

And visit your fellow participants. They love to have you!

maryt/theteach

Sepia Scenes #6

This is a photo from many years back, the 1990s. A robin laid these eggs in a nest she built on my backyard fence. I scanned the color picture and used Photobucket Online to get the sepia effect. The in Adobe Photoshop I colorized one of the eggs blue.

I want to wish everyone

A VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING, GOOD EATS, AND HAPPY FAMILY MEMORIES!

Please sign Mr. Linky and leave a comment if you can.

maryt/theteach

Proximity award

“This blog invests and believes in ‘proximity’ [meaning that blogging makes us 'close' - being close through proxy].”

Jan of The Prytz Family gave me this award today. Here's what she says about it: "The award is not only beautiful but so is the sentiment behind it. We share our thoughts, our families, our hopes and our dreams.

Thank you so much Jan, we DO have a lot in common besides loving to post photos. It's a pleasure to have gotten to know you! You are a dear friend.

I'd like to pass this award on to every one who posts to Sepia Scenes. In a few weeks I've come to enjoy posting my photos in sepia and describing how I've done it. I get the impression that a lot of you appreciate my doing this. Thank you all for participating.

Feel free to take the award and post it to your sidebar. Just make sure you link back to me here at Sepia Scenes and to Jan at The Prytz Family.

maryt/theteach

Sepia Scenes #5

The bench

The broken sundial

“Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made. Our times are in his hand who saith, 'A whole I planned, youth shows but half; Trust God: See all, nor be afraid!'”

~Robert Browning~

Share our Sepia Scenes #5 if you like. We welcome all who would like to participate.

All we ask is to sign Mr. Linky and leave a comment.

Feel free to be creative!

How to create the effect on The Bench:

In Adobe Photoshop, first make sure the 'Styles and Effects' panel is visible. If it is not, go to 'Window - Styles and Effects' to show it. It may be a minimized panel. If so, click on the white triangle to show it.

In the 'Styles and Effects' panel, select 'Layer Styles' in the left-hand drop-down box, and 'Photographic Effects' in the right-hand drop-down box.
Now all you need to do is select the layer which contains the image you want to Sepia tone, and then click the 'Sepia Tone' layer style. The image should turn brown, as if it was a Sepia photograph.

Layer styles can only be applied to layers, and sometimes you will have a document where the only layer is named 'Background' and is not strictly a layer. If this is the case, Photoshop will display a message box saying "Styles can only be applied to layers. Do you want to make this background a layer?". Click 'Ok', then name the layer, and click 'Ok' again to apply the Sepia effect.

How to create the effect on The Broken Sundial:

In Photobucket online apply the Bronzing Effect and fade the effect. Apply the Sepia effect and fade it.

maryt/theteach

~NOTICE~

There was originally trouble with Mr. Linky this week and then, it seemed, things were all right. But, no, Mr. Linky put up all the signers from my Ruby Tuesday meme under Sepia Scenes. I'm SO sorry, Annie, and others who had trouble finding Sepia Scenes postings. Thanks Annie for telling me about the problem. Let's hope this week will be better... :)

Sepia Scenes #4

Hi Everyone today is the 4th post of our Sepia Scenes meme!

I wanted to render this little yellow flower of the clover family in sepia today.

First I chose to get rid of all the color information using Adobe Photo Shop 7. Then in Photobucket online I used the Old Photo filter and then the Bronzing effect. I then used the slider to Fade the effect.

I hope you like it!

Please sign Mr. Linky and leave a comment after you've posted your Sepia Scenes on your blog.

Don't forget to visit your fellow participants.

Remember you can post as early as Wednesday at 5:00 PM EST

maryt/theteach

Sepia Scenes #3

I thought I'd try a SEPIA portrait today. I cropped the photo very close and then I uploaded it to Photobucket and used the bronze effect. I then moved the FADE slider to the left to lessen the effect quite a bit. I then chose to frame the photo with a black halo. I faded the halo as well.

I think many of you may know that this is my dear grand-nephew. A sweetie-pie, if I say so myself!

Why don't you try a portrait next week. You can take one of your own or find one in your archives.

And I'd love to hear HOW you applied SEPIA to your photo.

Don't forget to sign Mr. Linky and leave a comment! Try to visit as many of our participants as possible.

theteach

Sepia Scenes #2

Welcome to our second posting of SEPIA SCENES!

A warm, pinkish sepia applied to a color photograph using Photobucket photo-editing software. I faded the effect a bit because at first glance I thought it was too pink. The sky was blue in the upper right in the original.

I think as we go on you'll see that there is a lot of variety in sepia tones.

Here is the same picture using another method of creating sepia:

This was done entirely in Adobe Photoshop 7. The effect is browner with less pink.

Which do you prefer? Let me know in the comments. Don't forget to sign Mr. Linky and to visit the other participants.

Thanks for joining us in this new exciting meme!

Oh and BTW, Mac users can used iPhoto to edit their photos.

theteach

New Badges for the Sepia Scenes Meme

Choose any of the new badges above to use on your Sepia Scenes post.

Remember you can post at 5 0'clock Wednesday Evening EST for Thursday.

theteach

Sepia Scenes # 1

Hey, bloggers, it's our first SEPIA SCENES post! Here's my contribution:




Boston Massachusetts, July 2008*

Don't forget to link back here from your site and to sign Mr. Linky.

Please leave a comment if you can.

Use the SEPIA SCENES badge if you like.

*Color photo, applied black & white effect, then bronze effect in Photobucket. Then I used the FADE slide to tone down the bronze effect.

Thank you Elaine for the new "Sepia Scenes" button. Feel free to take it and post it on your sidebar.

theteach

How to apply a sepia tone to a photograph

Black & white photo changed to a pale gray sepia



Color photo changed to a warmer sepia

Above are some examples of photographs I gave a sepia tone. As you can see sepia can look differently depending how you apply the effect.

Like black and white film, sepia toning also adds a sense of class and timelessness to photos. In fact, the brown scale allows the picture treated in sepia to adopt the same feel as the original sepia pictures of long ago. This bridge of time lends sepia-treated portraits a classic, enduring look.

Most editing software can easily render a color image in the warm browns of sepia toning. Similarly, digital cameras often include a sepia tone setting. To use sepia tones with a digital camera, just set the camera to “sepia” and start taking pictures. However, because the quality of a digital camera’s sepia setting varies, it may not necessarily produce pictures equal in quality to the original sepia tone process.

If you find this to be the case, then use your digital camera to take color pictures.

The color pictures can later be transformed into sepia with imaging software. By using graphics software to instill sepia, you can adjust the brightness and contrast of the resulting image. Often, even the most basic photo editing programs include a sepia tone option.

Here are instructions below for 2 free online photo editing programs (just log on and use their software) and one free imaging program you can download and use on your computer.

---

To use Photobucket or Flickr online:

• Go to Flickr.com or Photobucket.com. Follow the instructions to join and log on.
  

• Upload photos by clicking on upload, selecting the files to upload and uploading.

• Click on EDIT image

• Before you change your photo to sepia you can autofix, adjust brightness, contrast and many other characteristics of the photo.

• Locate the SEPIA button or tab and click. Open advanced Options and FADE the sepia effect to your liking.

• Click SAVE/OK

---

• Go to Picasa Web Albums

• Download for free Picasa 3 software

• Open software and select your photo from the files/folders on the left.

• Double click on your photo.

• In Edit Mode, click on Effects, then click on Sepia or Warmify
  

• Then you can Sharpen, adjust Saturation, Brightness, etc.

• Save your changes

---

If you own the photo-editing software called Adobe Photo Shop or Photo Elements, follow these steps:

For Adobe Photo Shop:

1. Open the image in Photoshop.
2. If the image is in color, go to Image > Adjust > Desaturate and skip to step 4.
3. If the image is in grayscale go to Image > Mode > RGB Color.
4. Go to Image > Adjust > Variations.
5. Move the Fine<-->Coarse slider down one notch less than the middle.
6. Click on More Yellow once.
7. Click on More Red once.
8. Click OK.

Tips:

1. Use the Save... button in the Variations dialog to save the sepia tone settings. The next time you want to use it, just load the saved settings.
2. Use Desaturate and experiment with Variations to apply other color tints to your photos.

For Photoshop Elements:

1. Open the image in Photoshop Elements.
2. If the image is in color, go to Enhance > Adjust Color > Remove Color and skip to step 4.
3. If the image is in grayscale go to Image > Mode > RGB Color.
4. Go to Enhance > Adjust Color > Color Variations.
5. Move the Adjust Color Intensity slider down one notch less than the middle.
6. Click on Decrease Blue once.
7. Click on Increase Red once.
8. Click OK.

Tips:

1. Experiment with Color Variations to apply other color tints to your photos.

---

There are many other photo editing programs you can use. If you have trouble with these or other programs feel free to leave a comment and I'll try to help you.



Create your post and upload it to your blog.

Make sure you link to SEPIA SCENES from your blog post.

Come back to this blog and sign in to Mr. Linky and leave a comment.

I will post my photo at 5:00 PM EST on Wednesday evening. Mr. Linky will be ready then too. :)

Looking forward to seeing your wonderful photos!

* FEEL FREE TO USE THE SEPIA SCENES BADGE ABOVE ON YOUR POST.

maryt/theteach