Learn About Composition in Less Than Five Minutes

Want to learn the basics of photographic composition in under 5 minutes? Click on the video above for a brief overview in a five step framework. Thanks to Lifehacker for blogging about this post that originally appeared on Videojug.

Make Your Own Holiday Cards from Stock Photos

Are you looking for a way to personalize a card with images of your family? Check out this tutorial from GraphicReporter.com blog written by Lesa Snider King. She’s a stock photographer and chief evangelist for iStockphoto. Her personal mission is to teach the world to create—and use—better graphics. I had the pleasure of meeting her this past year when she spoke to the Cleveland Digital Publishing Users Group.

Her directions feature photos from iStockphoto, a wonderful service that provides a large variety of photos at economical prices. In addition to these photos, you can use those that are available for free legally through a Creative Commons License on sites such as Flickr.

These techniques can be used for greeting cards of any kind.

Carve Your Halloween Pumpkin With a Photograph

Before and after Pictures

Want to put your child's face (or that of a friend or relative) on a pumpkin for Halloween? Using a photograph and your favorite image editing software (like Adobe Photoshop Elements) you can carve a picture on a pumpkin.

I first saw this technique demonstrated by the Pumpkin Lady on the Screen Savers, that technology show that used to be on Tech TV.

Basically, you create a high contrast version of your image and transfer it to a pumpkin. The pictures above came from masterpiecepumpkins.com which provides great step by step instructions.

If you'd like another approach see the Pumpkin Lady's site or this blog entry from the Okuda Family. This tutorial gives a great explanation on how to punch the holes to make the pattern.

If you succeed in carving a pumpkin from a photograph, please take a picture and post a link to it in the comments. Here are step by step instructions for taking pictures of your halloween creations. Happy pumpkin carving!

George Washington (by the Pumpkin Lady)

Turn Yourself Into A Werewolf (Using Photoshop)

Photoshop can do a number of Halloween transformations. Here is a tutorial for taking a picture and transforming the subject into a werewolf. Although written for Photoshop, it looks like all the steps can be completed with Photoshop Elements.

I learned of it from ImagingInsider.com which reported on a posting in Good Tutorials. The posting originally appeared in Aviva Directory.