Larger Photos for your Blogger Blog

Someone asked about this and I know this question gets asked a lot, so I'm going to post it here.

This photo is embedded by using the code that you'll find below.



This one was uploaded using blogger's upload feature.

To achieve the larger photos on your blogger blog: In PhotoShop, save your photo to be 700pixels wide (or whatever your width can be) and then upload it to someplace like photobucket. Now, paste this code:

<img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="Direct Link Code" border="2" />

Now, in photobucket, you can copy your Direct Link Code (This could also just. be the http location that you've saved your photo to on your own website or other photo host site. )Paste that Code into where it says Direct Link Code...I know, that was pretty repetitive...sorry.

I know that some people say that you can just go under "Edit Html" and change the s400 to s700, but I personally have not been able to get that to work.

Disable Right Click on your Blog

This doesn't do anything for Ctrl+C, but it will at least slow people down by not letting them right-click and download. This hack is very easy to install onto your blog. Here are the steps:

Step 1 | Log into Blogger and go to Template -> Page Elements.
Step 2 | Add a Page Element -> then Add a HTML/JavaScript
Step 3 | Now just copy and save the following code into Html and you are done !


<script language='JavaScript'>
<!--

//Disable right mouse click Script
//By Maximus (maximus@nsimail.com) w/ mods by DynamicDrive
//For full source code, visit http://www.dynamicdrive.com

var message="No Right-Click!";

///////////////////////////////////
function clickIE4(){
if (event.button==2){
alert(message);
return false;
}
}

function clickNS4(e){
if (document.layers||document.getElementById&&!document.all){
if (e.which==2||e.which==3){
alert(message);
return false;
}
}
}

if (document.layers){
document.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN);
document.onmousedown=clickNS4;
}
else if (document.all&&!document.getElementById){
document.onmousedown=clickIE4;
}

document.oncontextmenu=new Function("alert(message);return false")

// -->
</script>

To have it say something other than No Right-Click! Just enter your desired statement into the code where it says "No Right-Click!"

{symbols} ©

How do you get the copyright symbol? Since I just posted about watermarks, I thought I'd best go ahead and post the answer to this too...it's an easy one!

• For PC: using your keypad...the set of numbers to the far right on your keyboard (it will not work with the numbers that are lined above your letters) While holding down the "Alt" key, you're going to type: 0 then 1, then 6 and then 9.

• For Mac: Option-G will do it.

You should now see a "©"

{brushes} creating a watermark brush

First, you need to understand a couple things about using your brush tool as a "stamp".

• Stamps can only be one-color. That color is determined by whatever color is on top in your color pallet.
• The widest you can make your stamp file is 2500 pixels.
• If you make a stamp that is only 200 pixels and you try to upscale it to 2500 pixels later, it will be blurry, just like making a small photograph larger.

Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way, it's time to make a stamp. In specific, for this tutorial, we're going to make a logo stamp that you can "stamp" onto your photos as a watermark. The same steps can be used to make a brush out of just about anything though, even a photo!

1. Open your logo file. If you leave your logo in color, most of your colors will become a "shade" of whatever color you're using to stamp in - ie: if you are stamping with black and your logo is not all one color, your logo will have varying shades of gray instead of black. For this example, We've taken all the colors and made them all black or white.


2. Depending on how large your logo file is, you'll want to downsize it until the widest dimension is 2500 pixels. Otherwise PhotoShop will not allow you to make it into a brush.


3. Next, go under Edit -> Define Brush Preset. This will bring up a box to name your brush. If you plan on making your brush several sizes, I recommend naming it with the size in the name. (Resizing your logo now to fit certain size photos may save you a bit of time later.)


4. This is a step many people forget, but if you were to have a glitch in your computer or program, you could loose all your brushes that you make, so be sure to save your brush. Go under Edit -> Presets Manager. Select the brushes that you want to save in your Presets Manager Pallet and then click on "Save Set". Now you just need to pick a name and save it into a specific location (either the PhotoShop Brush file or someplace else that you'll remember.)


5. Now it's time to play. Select your brush tool, then under the menu, click on the arrow just to the right of your brush and scroll down until you find the logo brush you just created - it will be last. Where it says Master Diameter, you can adjust the size of your stamp. Every time you open the brush you just created, it will always be in the same size you created it in.


5. In your tool pallet, pick the color that you want to use (for this example, I used blue) and then move your "stamp" to be over your page. It will show you an outline of the brush so you can see exactly where it is. I recommend doing this step on its own layer so you can adjust the location and opacity as needed.

**Don't forget you can also adjust the size of the stamp!


That's it, you're done! (The orange gecko designs stamp is to show you what happens when you use colors in your logo to make a brush.)


Hope you found this tutorial useful!

{overlay} using a texture as an overlay

What is a texture overlay? It's basically just that. It's a texture that you use on your photo to go "over" the actual photo. There are several ways that you can use an overlay. Below I'll quickly show you one of the many ways to use an overlay. I'll remind you that this is a "quick" play, you can achieve very awesome results the more you play with your blending modes and the opacity of your eraser brush. Also, remember, layers are your friend.

1. Open your image and your texture image. Move the texture over to your image. (Please disregard the marquee on the sample, it shouldn't be there.)


2. Select your eraser tool and then use a brush that's smaller than the image you want to show through the texture. Set your "hardness" to "0" to give you maximum softness. To find your eraser tool settings, select the eraser tool, then below your menu bar at the top of PhotoShop, look for where it says "Brush" click on that arrow and the pallet where you make the adjustments will come up.

For this example, I've selected my texture layer and set the blending mode to "Screen" to allow me to see through it enough to know what I'm working on. Begin to erase the texture from over your image. (You might also want to play with the "opacity" of your eraser brush to get your desired look.)


3. Adjust the size of your eraser brush if needed, to get into smaller areas.


4. When you're done erasing, play with your blending modes (I've just put mine back into "Normal" mode and adjusted the opacity to show the background through a bit.) Depending on the color and type of texture you used over your photo a different blending mode could give you some really great effects.


Adding a vignette to your finished piece might also help out with some of the blending. Have fun playing...and don't forget what I said about layers! Use them...and have fun!

I hope you found this tutorial useful!

{template creation} storyboards

Storyboards, storytellers, collages...whatever you want to call them...are very popular amongst Photographers. There are many great templates out there that you can buy, but if you've got time to learn how to do it yourself, it can be quite rewarding.

1. File -> New | Decide ahead of time the size of the collage you want to create and how many pictures you'd like displayed in it. It will help out in the long run so you're not trying to squeeze too much into a small size collage.

10x20 seems to be a fairly standard size for a collage, so that's what I'm going to use as my example today.


2. Next step is to place your guides. (If you're not familiar with guides, all you do is click on one of your ruler bars, hold down, and drag it across or down the screen.) On most collages I do, I like to leave some sort of a border. On this one, I set my guides at 1/2 inch in from the edge.


3. Next step is to create a new layer. Layer -> New -> Layer or Shift+Ctrl+N for PC users. You can name this layer now or later. For my photo placeholders, I call them just that.


4. This is where knowing how many and/or what size photos you're wanting to display will come in to play. For this example, we'll use three photos. I want two smaller vertical photos and one large square photos. Let's begin by setting our guide to make a 5 inch wide photo. I also set my guides so that I know all my dimensions are exact, so set a guide at 5" and I set my height for this one at 6" - to allow me some space at the bottom for text. Now, lets make the placeholder for this layer...


5. With your marquee tool, follow your guides and make your 5x6 box. Now go under Edit -> Fill and select a color you'd like to make your box. (I usually pick green, or something else that's funky, so there's no chance it will blend into a different colored background later.) Okay your color and there's you're photo placeholder.


6. Next (and this could easily be done ahead of time when you're creating your guides) I'm going to make a guide about 1/2 inch away from the first photo placeholder. This will be where my next photo placeholder starts.


7. To save time, since the second placeholder is the same size as the first, I'm just going to duplicate my first placeholder layer's layer. (Layer -> Duplicate Layer -> Name it Placeholder 2 -> okay) Then, with that layer selected, move the new box over to the new guide line.


8. Next, since I want a large square photo and I didn't take time to figure out my dimensions like I told you to in the beginning of this tutorial, I'm going to make a new layer and then using the shift key so my marquee stays square, I'm going to drag a square down from the top right guideline corner until I hit a new guide that I made that is 1/2 inch from my 2nd placeholder box. (Yikes, does that make sense?) At this point I also realized that I was not centered on my workspace, so I selected all three photo placeholder layers and moved everything down 1/2 inch so my top and bottom border is 1 inch and my sides are still 1/2 inch. (Move your guides so you make sure everything remains lined-up.)


9. Ok, if you made it through that last step, all I'm doing now is taking my text tool and adding a quick quote to the storyboard.


10. The finished collage (using the clipping mask feature). You can also add borders, a drop shadows, color, whatever you want to the storyboards. Just have fun with them!


PS - sorry if I lost anyone in step 8...I'll need to go back later and revise this tutorial to make sure I don't have to change my guide placement in the middle of the tutorial. :0) Thanks for bearing with me!

{clipping masks}

A clipping mask is created using two layers of a PhotoShop file. The bottom layer of the clipping mask duo acts as a placeholder for whatever the image is on your upper layer of the clipping mask duo. This is a very common feature used in templates that you might purchase.

The easiest way to understand how clipping masks work is to try one yourself. Follow these steps to use a clipping mask that is in a pre-made template. Click here to download a sample template to use if you don't already have one

1. Open your .psd template file.


2. Open your image file (make sure both the image file and the template file are visible) and click on the image layer in the layer tool pallet. Drag it from the tool pallet to the actual template file.


3. Now, if your template only has one photo placeholder layer, make sure your image layer (in this case, Layer 1) is above the Photo Placeholder layer. If there are multiple Photo Placeholder layers (as in this collage template) find the layer that you want the photo to be placed in (in this case, we're going to use Photo Placeholder 2 - the second one in on the collage). In the Layer Pallet, click and hold the "Layer 1" photo layer and drag it down until it is above the Photo Placeholder layer that you're wanting to use.


4. This will change the layer's appearance on the template because it will now be below some of the other photo placeholders.


5. Next, you can either right click on the "Layer 1" layer in the Layer Pallet and select "create clipping mask", go to the Layer section in the top menu and select "create clipping mask", or type "Alt+Ctrl+G". This will make whatever image is on your photo layer (Layer 1) conform to only show what is in the Layer below it (Photo Placeholder 2).


6. Next, resize your image (Edit -> Transform -> Scale) to make it fit the placeholder layer to your liking. That's it.


That's it, with a little practice, you should be able to master the fine art of clipping masks!