Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Captured in Ink



I wrote an article this fall about how to matte your digital photos using Microsoft PowerPoint or Word. I'm delighted to report that the January/February issue of Dollhouse Miniatures has a four-page spread of the article, starting on page 28.

For some reson, the pictures on page 31 are slightly out of focus. That may because the matted pictures you see on that page were in a PowerPoint slide. The magazine's artist pulled them out of the slide, added some shadows behind them and overlapped the images. It makes a nice collage, but the pictures lose a little in clarity.

If you're curious about the photos in the collage on page 31 of the article, I took all but one of the pictures myself. Starting at the top left and going clockwise they are: Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY; the Bundy family circa 1900 (this is the only one of the grouping that I did NOT take!); a view on Mount Lemon near Tucson, AZ; the Maroon Bells near Aspen, CO; my girls a few years ago; and downtown Chicago on a foggy night.

I've written a follow-up article, which is coming out in the next issue of the News with more information about how to do the matting with ovals and shapes. I hope you find the instructions clear and easy to follow. Since you're already a computer user and reading this blog, you may find it easier to do the matting than some of the other DH readers.

4 comments:

Norma Bennett said...

Congratulations on being 'in print' again George. It's a bit frustrating reading about this very useful article but not able to access it as we don't get that magazine in Australia, and I do understand that you can't reproduce it in full on your blog since there are copyright issues. However, as the general instructions are 'generic' perhaps you could do so some time in the future. BTW you still haven't revealed what you're doing with the bit of wood!!

dora said...

Merry Christmas, and a good year.
A Carmen hug

George the Miniguy said...

Thanks for the good wishes. Merry Christmas to all!

It's frustrating that the publishing world is still often limited by national borders. That's what's so fun about blogging via Google! Not only can we share our ideas anywhere across the globe, Google helps us do that with its translation function. It's fascinating to me.

For those who don't have access to the magazine, I'll do a similar, but different write-up with information about how to matte digital pictures.

Debbi said...

Love your site, George, especially the tutorials! I am looking for info on what you use to stain and varnish your furniture minis. I used to use the House of Miniatures set, which made a museum quality finish with real wood grain look, even on basswood. It was a 3 step process including a stain, glaze and varnish, but now that I am finally getting back in to nini making, that is no longer available. I am afraid to use stains and varnishes meant for full scale furniture. Is that what you use?? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks, Debbi S.

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