Monthly Archives: October 2008

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Update on Lilly

October 30, 2008 – 4:37 pm

Hey everyone! I don’t have a ton of time here, we’re going to be moving to another room in a few, but I wanted to say we’re alive and well. THANK YOU for all the thoughts and prayers and things sent. I’m overwhelmed with all the support we’ve gotten in this short time.

I will be responding in more detail later but wanted to say we’re all okay, Lilly is playing her Nintendo DS right now (a good sign!). She’s so tired and not quite herself yet, very quiet. i think she’s scared a bit, not sure what’s goign on, but getting slowly better.

Sam and I were able to get a few hours sleep at the Ronald McDonald house which was a life saver. We’re meeting for another teaching time with the diabetes education team in about 30 min to learn some more.  I feel a lot better today with the whole situation, not totally sunk in yet but I know it’s going to be maneagable.

If you could just pray for Lilly that she’s able to accept the whole situation, I think she still thinks that when we go home that things will go back to normal, and I’m not sure how to break the news to her. Just pray that God’s peace and wisdom would be with us all in the situation and how to deal with Lilly.

I love you guys! We are hoping to come home tomorrow, or Sat morning.

By Kylie | Posted in phaunt life | Comments (8)

Please Pray for Lilly

October 29, 2008 – 12:11 pm

Hey everyone,

We’ve had an emergency with  Lilly, our 5 year old. She’s been sick the last day or so and today was not responding well so we took her to the ER. They’ve informed us that she is in severe diabetic shock, and we’re now in the process of going to a hospital about an hour away where they’re going to attempt to stabilize her and get her back to normal. That is going to take 1-2 days and then we will be having to go through education/etc on how they’ll teach us how to deal with this. The doctor informed us that she’s Type I diabetes, which we’ve never known, so now we’ll begin the process of how to deal with that?

My husband’s brother is Type I diabetic, so we have some kind of idea how this works, but obviously this is a huge shock and I’m not sure how to deal with it at this point. If you could please pray that she is stabilized quickly and we can work this out I would appreciate it.

I’m scared to death right now and in shock, just trying to figure out what will have to be postponed/etc and worried about my girl. She was totally unresponsive, but now she’s upset and just keeps saying she wants to go home and trying to pull the cords off her arm.

Sam is in the ambulance with her on the way there, I’m gathering up stuff to take to the hospital and trying to tie up loose ends. Please please pray for her, I know prayer works, so as much as you can send up for her I’d appreciate it.

I will prbably be able to log in to the internet via the laptop as soon as we get her settled and will update asap. Thank you.

By Kylie | Posted in phaunt life | Comments (42)

How to use the Rule of Thirds in Cropping-Photoshop Tutorial and Action

October 28, 2008 – 8:43 am

 

I had a question about cropping to the Rule of 3rds easily in PS so made a quick Tutorial for it and an action you can use to do it quickly and easily.

1. Open up your Photo and find your Custom Shape Tool

2. You’ll need to make sure you have a specific shape loaded into your Shapes, so after selecting you custom shape tool do these steps:

3. You’ll get this Dialogue Box:

4. Find the GRID Shape

5. Be sure to have the right Shape type selected (so that you make a new layer you can delete later)

6. Put the new shape layer on top of your photo to check if you’ve cropped at the Rule of 3rds:

OR

That’s it!
I’m attaching an action that will do all those steps for you (you MUST Have the TILES or ALL custom shapes loaded into your custom shapes though or it will give you an error). And then you can just resize the shape to use it as you want.

DOWNLOAD THE ACTION HERE

And GUESS WHAT??? Later this week I am going to be unveiling the FIRST STEP in the new Photoshop Naked project.. I am VERY VERY excitd about it and can’t wait to show everyone! So be checking the blog to get a peek at what’s coming!

Oh.. and some random photos from last week with the new 5d and 85 1.2 (which sadly has to go back in a few days)

parky-3

parky-6-2

parky-9

parky-25edit

By Kylie | Posted in Photography, actions, downloads, freebies, phaunt life, photoshop tips, tutorials | Comments (2)

Comments Winner and my new Baby!

October 20, 2008 – 9:45 am

 

I didn’t post the comments winner, got busy and forgot! So HANNAH ROBINSON.. email me at info@phaunt.com and we’ll get you set up for 2 months free VIPhaunt access :)

Now.. on to some exciting news! Last week I got a 5d!! I’ve been holding off upgrading my camera for awhile, but I finally took the plunge! A friend was selling her backup camera to upgrade and I had to jump on the deal. So my new 5d and I are getting acquainted. We’re having a few bumps in the road but I think we’re getting along nicely! :)

Just a few shots from last week. I rented the 85mm 1.2 as well from Lens Pro to Go (you gotta try them if you’ve never rented, Paul is awesome!) and have been playing with that a bit as well.

cornmaze-11

cornmaze-83 copy

ousided-13

ousided-25

ousided-26

jolts-103

jolts-10-Edit

jolts-22

jolts-58

And my Favorite.. I know it’s a bit dark, but I love the shadow/light on it.

jolts-111

By Kylie | Posted in Photography, contest | Comments (6)

The Worst Winners!!

October 17, 2008 – 3:17 pm

 

The results are in.. and the winner of the WORST PS contest is……..

#6

Kimi!!!!!

badps6 

Congrats Kimi! You win a spot in the phaunt U! I emailed you more info :)

 

Our CLOSE 2nd place winner is Jennifer with #8

badps8

She wins a year access to the VIP Section.. Congrats Jennifer!!

 

And our 3rd place is Melissa, who gets 2 months free to the VIP section!

badps1 

Congrats to EVERYONE who partcipated, we had a great turnout and voting!

I will post the winner for the contest comments later tonite in a seperate post, Along with some great news!

By Kylie | Posted in contest, phaunt U | Comments (5)

Vote for the Worst. Phaunt U Contest!

October 14, 2008 – 11:02 am

 

I gotta say this is one of the most fun contests I’ve done. It’s great to look back at some of the not so awesome stuff we ALL have done in the beginning of our photoshop/photography journey. With over 45 entries it was TOUGH to narrow this down. I tried to get a representation of all of the great variety of PS fun entered.

So here is your top 10:

 

#1:

badps1

 

 

#2

badps2

 

 

#3

badps3

 

 

#4

badps4

 

 

#5

badps5

 

 

#6

badps6

 

 

#7

badps7

 

 

#8

badps8

 

 

#9

badps9

 

 

#10

badps10

So now’s the time to cast your vote! Remember the winner gets a spot in the U, 2nd and 3rd place get VIP memberships. Voting is open to everyone, and feel free to pass the link to friends and family to come vote for their favorite.

VOTE HERE:

 

I will be announcing the winner on Friday so check back and see!

Also, I will be awarding One lucky voter/commenter a 2 month VIPhaunt membership, so vote and then tell us who you voted for and why.. you may win something of your own!

Thanks everyone who entered, you were all great sports!!

By Kylie | Posted in contest, phaunt U | Comments (65)

Win a Spot in the next phaunt U

October 10, 2008 – 7:54 pm

 

You all know how much I love to give things away, right?So I figured I’d give away a spot to the U (Starting on Monday). We’re doing this one a bit different. Most contests you’re going for teh BEST entry possible.. best photo, best editing, best written essay, right?

Well for THIS contest we’re going for the WORST!!!

That’s right! The person with the WORST entry will win! WHY? Because that’s what the U is all about.. helping you take your editing skills from not so hot to Super Star PS User!

So I want to see some BAD Photoshop Editing… You know the type.. Selective Coloring, Alien Eyes, Bad Head Swaps, Horriible Masking Jobs, Whatever it is, I wanna see it!

So here’s the rules:
1. The contest will run from TONITE (Friday) until Midnite Monday Evening. You MUST have your entry emailed to me no later than Midnight Monday or it will not be accepted.

2. Your entry MUST have been done BEFORE this contest started.. No fair taking a photo and doing all the worst editing possible on it just to win. It needs to be something you’ve done in the past. You can go back as far as you need to, there is no restrictions on the date. Even if it is not an example of your PS skills now, that’s okay!

3. Your entry MUST be no larger than 800px wide and NO watermarks on it. TO enter, send it to info@phaunt.com with the subject PHAUNT U BAD PS CONTEST and your entry attached. If you send a huge picture or one with a watermark it will not be accepted.

4. With your entry, tell me WHEN the photo was edited, remember, it must have been done before this contest started.

5. I will be posting the top 10 (chosen by me) and the winner will be selected by voting on the blog. I will email each person chosen in the top 10 so that they will know they are an finalist.

Voting will take place Tuesday-Thursday Evening. The winner will be posted Friday (10/17).

Prizes are as follows:
1st place: A spot in the phaunt U course ($375 Value!)
2nd Place: A Yearly VIPhaunt Membership
3rd Place: 2 months free VIPhaunt Membership

So.. what are you waiting for? Go dig up your worst PS work.. When was the last time you were REWARDED for some bad PS editing?
I can’t wait to see the entries!

Here’s a few of my own gems from years past that might help inspire you:

By Kylie | Posted in contest, phaunt U | Comments (8)

How to fix Deep Set Eyes and Under-Eye Circles in Photoshop

October 8, 2008 – 10:55 am

 

If you have someone with deep-set eyes or under-eye circles it can be a pain to fix. Here’s a really quick way I use and get great results most of the time:

1. Do your regular skin smoothing/healing first, then DUPLICATE your layer (so we’re not working on the background Layer)

2. Zoom in to the eye area:

3. Now grab your PATCH Tool

AND use these Settings in the ToolBar:

4. Now, with your patch tool selected, make a selection underneath the Eye that selects the area we are fixing.. like So:

5. Now, simply drag that selection to an area directly beneath it that has “smooth” skin, like so:

6. You’ll notice that we now have some freakishly smooth skin going on now..

That’s easy to fix.. now, before doing anything else (or the option will be greyed out).. go to Edit-Fade Patch Selection (or Shift+Ctrl+F) and then you can pull the opacity of the smoothed eye to about 50-70% or so and let a teeny bit of the natural lines back in:

BEFORE/AFTER:

It’s that simple!This is a bit smoother than I normally do, for illustration purposes :)

You can do multiple patches, and use CTRL+H to hide your selection (do it again to get it back) if you want to see it without the marching ants around it.

By Kylie | Posted in photoshop tips, tutorials | Comments (8)

VIP Contest Winners!

October 7, 2008 – 3:54 pm

 

 

I’m So, the first winner who sent the most hits to the blog/forum is.. Patricia!!

and the random winner (picked because my favorite number is 4) Is Barb!!

If you could both email me at info@phaunt.com to claim your prize we’ll get you set up!

But I’m feeling generous today so everyone who entered gets 2 months subscription to the VIP section for free :)

Just email me at info@phaunt.com and we’ll get you set up!

It PAYS to enter contests.. around here huh? ;)

By Kylie | Posted in contest | Comments (4)

Win A VIP Yearly Membership!

October 2, 2008 – 11:43 am

 

I had forgotten how much fun phaunt contests can be, so I’ve vowed to do more this month! I have another one coming up NEXT week on how you can win a spot in the next U (starting October 13th, almost full!), but I figured we could do a fun one this weekend giving away a Yearly VIPhaunt membership.

So.. If you want a FREE VIP membership what do you need to do? Spread the VIP word! Link us up somewhere, anywhere.. Your Personal Blog, a forum (don’t be annoying though, please), an email, anything to let a fellow photog/PS enthusiast know about the phaunt blog and FORUM and the tutorials/resources we have here.

After you link up, just leave me a comment saying where you linked and you’re good to go! I’ll be chosing 2 winners, one at random, and one based on the highest number of hits to the blog from a link. So be sure to tell me WHERE you linked from so that I can know which link is yours!

Have fun! The contest will end on Monday Evening :)

By Kylie | Posted in Forum, contest | Comments (16)
AJAXed with AWP