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Krystal Hartley has been working hard to help people get used to being in front of the camera instead of behind it. We found her tips, ideas, and suggestions very inspiring and helpful and know you will too!
Joining the Discussion:
Krystal Hartley ( • Sweet Shoppe)
Peppermint Granberg
Katie Nelson
Steph
From the Show:
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(to see my own selfies or to join our private self-portrait group Mirror, Mirror)
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Krystal’s
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Anna Gay photography self-portraits
Picks:
Krystal:
Peppermint: AfterFocus (Free) • AfterFocus Pro ($1.99 USD)
Katie: The Crafty Girl self portrait challenge (2007) and her new website, Body Language Gallery
Steph: AdoramaPix Sale (30% off photobooks Nov 8-19 with code pxbkfall30; 20% off photobooks Nov 10-26, 10% off photobooks Nov 27-Dec 4)
Sponsor:
For the best deal in digital scrapbooking, become a member at TheDailyDigi.com.
I love this topic. I have been taking a lot of photos of myself since I started Project Life on January 1. I’m not in every photo, but probably half of the days — there I am! I just hold out my camera (a point and shoot that is almost always in my pocket when I leave the house) at arm’s length and try to get me and the interesting background in the photo. When someone offers to take my photo for me I give them a “No, thanks, it’s a self-portrait project and it would be cheating to have you take the photo!” I’ve gotten much better at it as the year has gone along — my face tends to be posed better and my arm doesn’t show so much anymore. My pictures of me were really pretty bad at the beginning but I decided that that’s part of my life and I have taken a couple this year that are actually good! One of my favorite early photos only has one eye and a bit of hair in the lower corner.
I found myself nodding along as I read your comment, Joyce. As with most anything, we do get better with practice. And while my self-portraits may break every known rule of photography (like crops and thirds), I find a lot of growth and satisfactory self-expression coming through each session.
I think I might cry!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! SInce I’m still working through my DSD downloads, it will be a lifesaver!
Is it 7 days from first click per product or per order?
Just started listening to this week’s show – and wanted to let you know that Design House Digital does let you know if you’ve already purchased a product. Once you’re logged into the store, there’s a spot under the item description that says when you previously purchased this product and a link to download it again. Love this feature.
Okay, back to listening to the show!
Designer Digitals does this too with a bright yellow, can’t possibly miss it, bar across the top of the item page. I love this feature!
Yeah!! <3 So glad you did this show! I'm even more inspired to continue with doing my ongoing self portrait project courtesy of Miss Krystal now that I've gotten to hear her speak about it.
I have another idea for a show! [Scary, right?!] I'm planning on doing Peppermint's (and Christine's) New52 project next year (well, starting at the end of January when I turn 33!) and would love to hear from both of them how their year of New52 went (I think they did that project a couple years ago??): experiences, tips, best things they tried, worst things they tried, etc.
Thanks again for suggesting this topic, LeeAndra. You know I’m on a mission, and it was such a great reminder to myself to keep giving it the attention it deserves. I love hearing/seeing the impact it has, and your self-portraits are sooo fabulous!
I did that project last year and loved it! You can see all of my experiences by checking the links in this post. /new-52-project.html
We have talked about this project before on the show, but it’s been awhile. I’m sure we will be mentioning it again.
We should mention it again. The show that we did about a year ago about projects was when we talked about the New52. Or was it two years ago..yikes!
I have to tell Steph that we have heard her pleas and we’ve changed the downloads at Scrap Orchard to start the 7 day countdown after the first click! SO if you don’t get to your downloads right away, your links will still be active until you can get to them!
And we also have a custom mod at Scrap Orchard that will alert you if you have already purchased a product!
Perfect solution Kami!
Hi Kami! I think Steph meant this comment for you:
Steph says:
November 17, 2012 at 9:16 am
I think I might cry!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! SInce I’m still working through my DSD downloads, it will be a lifesaver!
Is it 7 days from first click per product or per order?
BLESS YOU!!!
I figured out something about myself recently with regard to seeing myself in photographs. Since I am the photographer of the family, I nit pick for the best images but when I am in the photo, I focus on me and my image and not the photo in general.
While listening to the show, I thought…wait a second, what if I had someone else edit the images of ME, then I wouldn’t hate them so much.
So my tip to the world is don’t edit your own photo, have someone else do it or throw it through a filter or two and be done with it. For the love of Photoshop…do NOT zoom over 200% on your face, it clearly shows all your wrinkles. :>
I agree so much with what Katie said about how her feelings towards pictures of herself change after letting the pictures sit for a while. I went through all my old pictures a while ago and found some old ones of myself that I didn’t like at all when they were taken, but after sitting on my hard drive for few years, they became much more appealing to me. Maybe it was because I was able to see how much had changed over the years, or maybe I’ve just become less critical of myself as I’ve gotten older. Whatever the case may be, I was glad to have all those old pictures of myself.
re: Peppermint’s pick: I haven’t tried the app she recommended, but I just downloaded a new app called Pixlr Express that sounds a bit similar. I have been having so much fun with it! You can add a focal blur, crop to different ratios, add filters and frames, and do “color splash,” which lets you isolate a color in your photo and make the rest black and white. I feel like I’m using Photoshop on my phone–it’s so fun!!!
Sarah DG
I just downloaded Pixlr Express this past weekend! It showed up as a featured app in the App Store and I tend to download and try out every photo app, of course.
I haven’t messed with it yet, I don’t even think I’ve taken any photos since then now that I think about it. I’ll definitely have to play with it.
Thanks for another great show!
The idea of taking more pictures of me started when Megan Turnidge challenged us to get into the shots with our kids because they will love to see them. My 3 year old is a huge fan of photography already, so he loves to jump into self portraits with me. My hair is usually fuzzy and I may not have makeup on, but I love those pictures. We try to fit in my 18 month daughter, so it’s just our faces as we laugh or are silly together and I love them. My son also really likes it when I let him take pictures with my big camera. It’s a bit nerve-wracking, and there aren’t always many keepers, but he takes those pictures with love and I love to see myself through his eyes
One think I’ve discovered through Krystal’s group is that I am used to seeing my mirror image, so when my phone turns that picture around I suddenly look weird. The more I take pictures of myself, the less I notice the difference.
The mirror image thing is interesting – you know, I’ve never noticed it or even considered it before! Now I’ll have to go back and look at some of the photos to see what I think. Thanks for giving me a little food for thought.
I took several self portraits for a project in 2011, and I noticed that I’m used to seeing myself in the mirror (with my image reversed). So when I want a self portrait I always go to the mirror and hold the camera close to my shoulder. The pictures I get are closer to how I normally see myself, and I find myself much more happier with the result.
I loved this show, ladies. I haven’t taken many self portraits in 2012, but I think I’d like to start again for 2013. Thank you for the inspiration.
We talked about this on the show…one of them…that we recorded this week (we did two on Tuesday).
Hi ladies,
I loved Peppermint’s pick of the thumbtiles, but I thought the 7×7 was kind of odd. They do print that size at Persnickey, but lots of places don’t. I’m lazy and don’t want to print 8×8 and then trim. I emailed them suggesting more sizes and received a reply that more sizes will be coming soon…definitely 8×8, and possibly 12×12. I can’t wait to see my walls!
Yes! I was going to talk about them again when the 8x8s are ready because the owner contacted me on Twitter asking about what sizes scrapbookers would want, then a few days later said they were going to put them into production. So .. yay!
Peppermint, where were you on this episode? I missed your lively contributions, so I hope all is well.
Katie, I want to thank you for including sample layouts with your templates. I so need that visual in order to imagine how I’d use a template and often use “save as” to keep the samples with purchased templates, which is a pain if I’m lucky enough to remember to do it! So I really appreciate that you include them.
Here’s my question: I upgraded to PSE 11 and actually hate the new way to load actions. Well hate is a strong word and it isn’t loading them that’s bad, but afterwards there is no way to organize them into categories or tag them as favorites. It is too easy to load them—because I loaded all of them and now need to delete them so that I won’t have to scroll through so many to find the two or three I use daily.
There must be a work-around for this, right? I can’t be the only PSE 11 user getting frustrated finding my favorite actions but googling has brought up nothing. I’m hoping you digi-gurus have an answer. Thanks!
I got PSE11 installed last week, so now I can better answer some questions! Although they are loaded into a list view, like CS, you do not have all the options that you have in CS. In CS, you can create new folders and drag the actions around, reorder them and combine them in folders. You cannot do that in PSE, so I can see how it can be frustrating. From what I can tell, the only thing you could do would be to install a 30-day trial of CS and drag them around and organize them, and resave them. I’m checking with Add-o-matic to see if their installer will let you rearrange and sort your actions.
And, I’m back and confirmed that PSE 11 will not allow you to reorganize your actions at all. So, I suggest you load only the ones you use all the time and then load and unload the others as you use them. That’s what I do in PSCS anyway. If you have any of my actions and you want them combined into one folder, shoot me an email. As long as I don’t get overwhelmed with requests, I’d be happy to do that.
Oh, and that brings up one more point… If you install the Action Player versions, you will get all the actions from one “set” in one “folder” versus installing the individual ATN files, which will put each action in it’s own folder. Does that make sense?
Yikes, was I too quiet? I wonder if maybe I was lulled into submission by Krystal’s southern drawl? Southerners have that effect on me! LOL I don’t take a lot of self portraits, so I guess I didn’t have much to contribute, huh? I’m doing well, though! No worries.
hey girls, loved the episode as usual (I mostly paper/hybrid and I love that your topics are mostly for memory keepers and story tellers and not necessarily for digi scrappers)..I digress, what I wanted is to share two posts related to this episode
1) a post by vivienne, about choosing to see beauty (and cropping self portraits)
http://www.viviennemcmasterphotography.com/2012/09/06/choosingtoseebeauty/
2) a video of two incredible women talking about self portraits (they talk about unflattering angles and all of our other insecurities)
http://www.chickadeeroad.com/blog/i-am-beauty-a-conversation.html
check them out, they are very helpful and real
Rosa
Bought the app and just took a video then pulled out the best picture. Did just a little tweaking in elements but I did it. I won’t say it was painless but I did it! Thanks for the info!