The New Year is fast approaching and its common for each of us to examine our life and look for areas of change.  One common thrust toward new choices is the commitment to make a better life for oneself and for their family.  Sometimes it involves learning and other times its just deciding to do what it takes to achieve a goal.  This article is about how to get on track and stay there for all of 2010, driving toward the development and application of artistic talents.

First of all, you must define what your talents are and how they can be manifested by you in a way that is rewarding and includes having fun, and often being able to monetize it.  With the shape of the economy and the ongoing need to manage finances, one can’t often just start up a hobby and not intend to make money from it.  So, for this article, fun and financial reward will be at the core.

Do you love to work with your hands?  Do you have a knack for manifesting sounds or images into 3D pieces of art?  Do you like jewelry?  If you answer yes to these three questions then you should explore the art of wire jewelry making as an artistic way to express your abilities.

Finding wire jewelry making supplies is easy too.  You can start with patterns and designs that include the materials you’ll need to create the piece.  All you will need to learn is how to twist and connect wire; learn the range of materials, and then start designing pieces.

You will pull from nature, your daughter’s piano recital, or from a squirrel darting across the top of your fence, ideas that you can translate into a beautiful piece of wire jewelry.  Be sure to jot down what comes to you as you experience various forms of inspiration so that you can draw on it when you’re ready to order supplies to create with.  Then, when received you can sit down on a quiet afternoon and start creating.

After you’ve created a range of pieces, you’ll then want to start planning how to commercialize them – where to sell them and how to hang out your shingle.  Be sure to consult some experts if you need to, so that you don’t find yourself frustrated with lack of success.

Finally, enjoy the process and stick with it for all of 2010 so that you can look back and give yourself a pat on the back for a year well done in capturing the essence of your artist talent and funneling it toward a productive outcome!

Happy New Year!

Editing a Picture in PhotoShop

By Mike Ault

So, you have used a light box and lights, set the camera for the proper exposure, white balance and such, used a tripod and your picture still comes out like figure 1.

Figure 1: Raw Picture from Camera

What can you do? Well, I use PhotoShop 5.5. other editors are gimp on Linux and PhotoShop Elements (and many others) which all allow adjustment of the photo in the areas of color balance, sharpness and levels.

So I load the image into PS5.5 and end up with what you see in Figure 2. Immediately do a “Save As” and save the photo under a different name, this prevents you editing the original.

Figure 2: Photo Loaded in PhotoShop 5.5

First things to look at are:

1. Do you need to crop?
2. Do you need to cleanup stray lines, dust artifacts or other items?

In the above photo, I do not need to crop and at least for now there are no dust, scratches or other artifacts to cleanup. So now what do I do about the non-white background? I assure you, this was taken against a white background so how do I get it back? The answer is levels. Look at figure 3, it shows navigating the menus (Image, adjust, Levels) to get to the levels adjustment window. The Levels adjustment window is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 3: Menu Path to Adjust Levels

(Note: For Quick and Dirty try the “Auto Levels” item, it may do just great or it may not)

Figure 4: Levels Adjustment Window

Notice the histogram, under it there are three tiny arrows, one on the left, one center and one on the right. These arrows are used to adjust the “levels” in the image. You can manually shift them back and forth by using the cursor to select one, hold down the mouse left click and sliding it where you want to go. First, let’s adjust the “white” setting.

In our picture white will be easy, examine the non-necklace area, all of it is white, find the area that looks lightest. Now, using the mouse cursor, select the left hand arrow and slide it all the way to the right. Next, use the cursor to select the right hand eye-dropper. Move the eye-dropper to the area you decided was most “white” and then click the left hand mouse button. Just before I clicked on the left hand mouse button I captured Figure 5.

Figure 5: Left slider all the way right, eye-dropper is in mid lower-left quadrant

Once you click the image should reappear with the background reset to be white. See Figure 6.

Figure 6: White Balance has been reset

Now, if there are some colors still off, you can try setting “Black” as well a “White”. To set black first determine where the best “black” is in the picture. I usually move the Levels window so a corner points to it before the next step as in figure 7.

Figure 7: Upper Left Corner on Best Black

Next, select the right most slider and move it all the way left. Then select the leftmost dropper and place it on the black selection and click. Figure 8 shows the image just before clicking on the dropper.

Figure 8: Just before selecting “Black”

Figure 9 shows the affect of setting Black on our image. Note that at anytime should the results not be what you want, you can use a CTRL-Z to eliminate previous steps.

Figure 9: Image after selecting “Black”

Once you are satisfied, click on “OK”.

Now, is the image as sharp and clear as you would like? Or is it a bit soft? I usually like to use an unsharp mask to clean up the image a bit and really bring out the details. The Unsharp Mask is on the Filters, Sharpen, Unsharp Mask menu trail as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Unsharp Mask menu Path

Click on the Unsharp Mask menu item and the Unsharp Mask Adjustment Window will appear. Note that all changes to settings will be shown live on your image as they occur. Figure 11 shows the Unsharp Mask controls.

Figure 11: Unsharp Mask Controls

Notice we are currently set at Amount 32%, Radius 5.0 pixels and Threshold 9 levels. Usually radius doesn’t have to be set more than 10 and threshold more than 12. I usually use 5 and 9 for jewelry. The one control that you will probably want to adjust is the Amount control. In the Image above it is set to 32, look at the difference in Figure 12 with it set to 132.

Figure 12: Amount set to 132%

See how the lines look crisper and the silver, well, looks more silver! However, beware! Over sharpening can result in curved lines getting jaggy and the halo effect against colored background. Tweaking the settings gives me an optimal sharpness with minimal jaggies and halos at about 114% as shown in Figure 13.

Figure 14: Nominal setting at 114%

Once you get the image as sharp as you want, click on OK to return to the normal screen.

Ok, we have adjusted white and black (levels) and sharpness. However, the image still seems a bit dull, let’s look at brightness. Figure 15 shows how to get to the Brightness/Contrast controls.

Figure 15: Brightness/Contrast menu path

The Brightness and Contrast ion PhotoShop consist of two sliders, one for brightness and one for contrast. Simply use the mouse and left click to select the control and move it back and forth to get the desired change. I want to increase brightness slightly then adjust contrast to keep details sharp. In this case I increased brightness by +29 and upped contrast to +8, see Figure 16.

Figure 16: Brightness and Contrast Adjusted.

Now, with the brightness adjusted, notice that we are getting vignette effect (slight darkening) in the corners. If you like that effect, leave it, if you want to eliminate it, or any other defect such as a dust mark, scratch or unwanted background line, use the clone/stamp tool (it looks like an old rubber stamp on the tool bar. See Figure 17.

Figure 17: Stamp/Clone tool selection

First, make sure your “brush” selection is the proper size to clone just the area you want, too small and you can get artifacts, too large and it can be hard to get just what you want. You do this with a right mouse click. Next, place the stamp brush indicator (usually a circle) over the area you want to clone from and push the ALT-click combination to tell the tool to take pixels from the target and use them overlay where you tell it. Then move the brush indicator to the target area and simply click to paint over the target. The source area will move with the target area once you start clicking so be careful not to accidently clone something in the general source area as you move around. In Figure 18 I have cloned out the upper right hand corner to make it uniformly white.

Figure 18: Upper Right Hand Corner Fixed (not clone brush)

Figure 19 shows the final picture with the corners corrected.

Figure 19: Corners corrected, final image

Now, using a white background you won’t get much reflection and sometimes you want that. If you want reflections then use a colored sheet behind the glass stage area. Figure 20 shows the before and after image.

Figure 20: Image Before and After Adjustments

Hopefully with a bit of experimentation you can get your photos to where you are proud to put them on your web site!

by Mike Ault

Virtually everyone has heard of Ebay. Many have made successful purchases there and unscrupulous dealers may have ripped others off. I once thought that I had gotten a great deal on a Persian rug only to find the shipping to be outrageous. But more to the point, how can you make sure that your Ebay experience is optimal? Let’s look at five rules to consider when using Ebay:

First, always check out comments on a seller before you buy, and be wary of one with all great comments from only a few users. One or two negative comments may actually be a good sign (depending on what they say) as no one can please everyone.

Second, know the value of what you are bidding on. Do an Internet search on the item and establish a range of prices, and don’t forget shipping and handling costs!

Third, use a bidding engine. (I use www.esnipe.com) A bidding engine will usually do a few things for you:
1. Verify the amount you want to pay as being valid, before the end of the auction
2. Bid on the item just seconds before the close of the auction
3. Prevent you from getting into a bidding war, probably with a bidding engine!

Fourth, use PayPal or a credit card that will go to bat for you if there is an issue. Being able to reclaim funds is a great way to prevent unscrupulous dealers from selling you a ‘bill of goods’.

Fifth, be sure to leave accurate feedback after you have received your purchase, which helps in building your own positive profile.

If you follow these five rules, you will find that you win more auctions and are generally happier with the purchases you have made.

Buying gifts, especially wire jewelry, during the busy holiday season can be a challenge if you choose to go the retail route, in and out of stores.  It is particularly difficult to find custom pieces “in a store.”  So, why not take your journey to buying online?  This article will help you find the right pieces for your loved ones.

First of all, you need to make your list of whom you are buying for and what they might like.  Ask friends or other family members about your idea to buy a piece or set of jewelry for someone to find out what he/she thinks would be a great piece of jewelry whether it be a ring, necklace, earrings or a matching set!  Ask what their favorite colors are if you don’t know and if they like dainty things or robust?  This will help you narrow down the “look and feel” of the jewelry gift idea.

Next you will want to search online for jewelry “stores,” and maybe not so much a store but a designer of jewelry.  There are many jewelry designers, each with a website on line complete with pictures and pricing.  You can peruse to your heart’s content without interruption or pestering by a salesperson.  Wire jewelry is very popular because of its unique designs and wide range of creative possibility – with almost every piece being custom. So, search for keywords like, “wire jewelry designers,” or “shop for wire jewelry,” etc.

Be sure to search far and wide to see what’s out there and to get a sense of price, quality, and other features.  Compare and contrast and narrow your search to what you believe are the best value closest to what you envision your special one will love.

You can then share your various selections with your key people who are assisting you in finding the right piece(s).  There are often share buttons or you can grab the URL and email it to someone.  They can comment before you make your choice, just in case you are not sure.

Before you buy, check the return or exchange policy.  Don’t forget you can call the designer direct if you have questions.  Most online merchants, at this time of year, will gift wrap your purchase before shipping for free.  Be sure to ask about insurance so that if the item goes missing, you are covered.  Finally, be sure to print a copy of your receipt and hide it so that if your special someone frequents your receipt area, they won’t find it!

Happy Holidays!

In case you don’t know or don’t remember, women love jewelry – jewelry of any kind.  Some women even like to create their own jewelry.  That’s why giving the gift of wire jewelry making supplies can be even better.  Either way, you can shop online to find the right pieces or parts needed to give the woman / women in your life the best gift this year, or next.

First of all, you need to know what style the intended recipient of your gift likes.  Does she like dainty jewelry or large outspoken pieces?  What is her favorite color?  And what textures is she drawn to?  Does she like silk, nylon and soft cotton which lean toward fragile designs or thick nubby wool with big buttons which would reflect the desire for sturdy pieces?  Is she always in a hurry and need something that’s easy to adorn herself with?  Or does she leisurely put on her pieces?

Next, take a look in her jewelry box if you get a chance.  See what might be missing.  Does she have many pieces of jewelry or only a few special ones that she wears all of the time?  This is important to know since you want her to appreciate what you buy for her.  If she only wears a few pieces because she only has a few pieces, then you might want to buy her the makings of a “matching set,” which means earrings, necklace, bracelet and ring.  If she has many pieces and matching sets then consider buying her tools and materials plus instructional material to be able to make plenty more.

Finally, look at the quality of her jewelry.  Does she like only diamonds and rubies?  If so, then you’ll have to go toward more semi-precious materials and gold wire.  Maybe this is where you buy a few pieces of high quality material with a design pattern so she can make it herself.  Again, remember, if your gal is a brainiac and works with her mind and not so much with her hands, consider just buying her a custom piece of wire jewelry.   Whatever you decide, the most important aspect is to think of her and what she would love and you’ll pick a winner every time.