Alibony Design and Graphics Blog

If you like to use clipart in collages, you’ll love this tip! Here’s a fast and clean way to remove solid backgrounds from clipart images using the Magic Eraser tool. View the full size video…

I love working with textures. Adding textures to an image can create a mood and make ordinary photos extraordinary.

Here’s a video on how to add textures to a photo. View the video at full resolution…

When you are looking for free textures to use, check out these blogs:

Shadowhouse Creations by Jerry Jones, who is also on flickr as skeletalmess. His textures are wonderful and free for personal and commercial use. He also has a very useful texture tutorial. In this photo, I used the 100YearsBC texture.

Lost and Taken by Caleb Kimbrough. Free textures from Caleb are also available on Bitt Box on Tuesdays. In this photo, I used an icy texture on Caleb’s flickr site.

I’m always looking for ideas for new lessons on Alibony. What would you like to learn about?

Please take the new poll in the right column of this blog. You can select as many answers as you want, or add your own suggestion.

And, please leave a comment with your requests and suggestions, too. I’ll be delighted to hear from you!

In this Photoshop Elements 8 quick clip, learn how to sharpen using the High Pass filter and then adjust the sharpening as needed. High pass sharpening targets the hard edges in the photo and not the smooth areas.

Before	After

Tip: For best viewing, after you start the video, press the Play in HD button to view the clip in Full Screen mode.

View article…

Have you noticed that your photos of snow look dull and gray? There’s an explanation for this.

Every time you take a photo, your camera determines the correct white balance for any type of lighting; that is, the camera decides what objects in the scene should look white in the photo and removes any color cast from the photo. However, the camera can be fooled by bright white snow – it tries to make the snow a neutral gray color.

Dull Snow

Here’s a few things you can do with your compact camera to ensure that your bright white snow stays bright:

1. If your camera has a setting or scene mode for Snow, use it. It’s designed specifically for snowy scenes. If your photos come out looking snow white, no other settings may be necessary.
2. To catch snowflakes falling, use a fast shutter speed mode. On one of my compact cameras, the fast mode is called the Sports mode and the icon is a a little running man. On another camera, the fast mode is called Kids and Pets mode because kids and pets are always moving around. If your camera has a Shutter Priority mode (often Tv or S), you can use that mode and set a fast speed, 1/2000 seconds for example.
3. If you are using any scene mode other than Snow, increasing the Exposure will help to brighten those whites. Take one photo with no Exposure compensation, then increase the Exposure in steps until you see the brightness level you want. Most cameras allow you to increase or decrease the Exposure in a range of -2 to +2 steps in increments of 1/3 steps. Check your camera’s manual to discover how to increase or decrease the Exposure – it may be a button on your camera or buried in a menu.

Bright Snow