mK Artworks Portrait Blog

Simple yet vibrant Christmas Card Idea

18 Nov 2009 01:56:31 pm GMT -8

[img]http://portraitblog.mkartworks.com/files/card-front-red.jpg[/img] Another year and no time to post. Here is a simple yet vibrant Christmas card idea that anyone can create and it is easily customizable. What I did was cut a square piece of burlap, frayed the edges just right and placed it on a white flat background. Then I took pictures of it. This became the mat for the portrait in the center of this 5.x7 card. I also did 3 little mats for the inside of the card for 3 little images and then did one on the back for a picture of the person walking away. This is an easy card design to do. Plus, it adapts to just about any color so you can match the mat to your Christmas portrait. If you don't have various colors of burlap, you can take a picture of a white or offwhite burlap and then change the color in Photoshop. It is important however to take the picture of the burlap looking straight down. A tripod is recommended. You can download it at: Greeting card template design downloads...

Christmas Card Design for Park Portraits

11 Nov 2008 09:15:17 pm GMT -8

Finally a new Christmas card design! I don't know where the time goes but I thought I'd throw this up, after all its been a year. This card works great for portraits in a park setting. The warm brown color complements the scenery well. The sample picture here was a scouting portrait so the clothes were not given any consideration. Note the image actually prints lighter than you see here. [img]http://portraitblog.mkartworks.com/files/brown-christmas-card.jpg[/img] You can download it at: Greeting card template design downloads

Christmas Portrait Card Template Free Download

11 Dec 2007 12:58:16 pm GMT -8

By request, I've added the Expressions Christmas portrait card to the download area. The expressions card allows you to add ten or more small images to the front of the card. Great if you have many expressions and just can't choose one or you have many kids to 'show off'. Also, works great as a kissables card. Add images of feet, hands, eye, etc. You can download at the temporary Greeting card template design area. Template downloads are free.

Download Free Christmas Portrait Greeting Card Design

06 Nov 2007 08:42:49 am GMT -8

Some people have requested the designs of my greeting cards. While I have a website in development to allow for download of designs, it isn't completely tested yet. In the mean time, I have setup a temporary location for downloading a few designs. Right now the only designs there are the Elegant gold foil cards. These are based on a black background with gold accents. Great for sibling or family Christmas photo card designs. [img]http://portraitblog.mkartworks.com/files/greeting-card-1.jpg[/img] [img]http://portraitblog.mkartworks.com/files/greeting-card-2.jpg[/img] However, I may add some more or if you have specific requests, please feel free to leave a comment to this post. If you do not want your comment to be public, just put the word "private" at the beginning of the comment and I won't show it in the blog. You can download the designs from Free Website Downloads.

Tips for photographing large groups

15 Jul 2007 12:33:24 pm GMT -8

One of the biggest problems with photographing large groups is getting a picture where no one is blinking. Even with only four or five people, you can run into the problem. Generally what people do when taking family or large group portraits is take a lot of photos of the same pose. I think that is still advisable, however I've developed another method to help achieve as many photos as possible where no one is blinking. An idea I use to help limit the photos where someone has their eyes closed is a method I use on outdoor photo sessions, especially the beach, to help control squinting. All I do is ask everyone to close their eyes. Then tell them when I say "open", they need to open their eyes. When people first open their eyes, they take a second or two to adjust to the light before they start squinting. If you snap the picture right away, you have a better chance of getting one with their eyes all open. When you photograph large groups, you are bound to get someone blinking. So if you employ the same idea for blinking as I do with squinting, you are unlikely to get anyone blinking because generally people don't blink as soon as they open their eyes. You may want to wait a second longer to ensure their eyes have relaxed and focused. By the way, I also have another method for controlling sqinting when the 'close your eyes' idea doesn't work. I ask the 'squinter' to open their eyes really wide, spooky wide, and then ask them to relax their eyes. I snap the picture immediately after I ask the to relax their eyes. I hope these tips for photographing large groups and families and photographing outdoors helps. If anyone else has some good tips, please share!