Turning Your Image Into a Circle-- Photoshop/PSE Tutorial

I have had this question a  few times, and turning your photo into a circle in Photoshop is a skill that incorporates an important Photoshop skill-- clipping masks.
Skill: Turning a rectangular photo into a circular image
Technology Used: PSE 6 (I chose this because it is a program that you all are likely to have and this tutorial can be easily adapted to the full version of Photoshop)

Part A: Creating the Circle
Open PSE in Edit

File=> New=> Blank File   I created a 12 x 12 image but any larger size will work so that you don't have to do to much re-sizing.

Create a New Blank Layer

Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool

Select from the options menu-- Fixed Aspect Ratio and the same numbers for width and height to make it a circle.  Here it is set as "Normal."

Click and Drag out your circle- resize and move with the Move tool so that it is the appropriate size.

You have two options to fill your circle

1: Select your Paint Bucket and fill your circle with a random color.

2: Select the New Adjustment Layer Icon-- The half black/half white circle in the Layers Pallette and select Solid Color.

You should now see your blank background layer and your circle on an independant layer

Part B: Adding the Photo Layer to Your Image

Open your photo.

Select=> All

Edit=>Copy

Now you can move back to your circle image and select Edit=>Paste and PSE will move this copied image to a new layer.

Part C: Clipping Your Photo Into Your Circle

Place your photo layer on top of your circle if it isn't already. 
Make sure your photo layer is selected. (The layer will be hightlighted in your Layer Pallette)
Hold the ALT key down on your computer and slowly hover your mouse down from your photo layer to your circle layer.  You will see your Mouse turn into a different icon, which basically means that it is it is time to Snip.

You can do this by simply left-clicking your mouse, and all of the areas of the photo which are outside of the circle have now dissappeared.  But don't worry-- you can still move your photo layer and resize it so that it fits your circle the best.

You will also see that the layer that is clipped is indented and that there is a small right angle arrow showing that it is clipped to the lower layer.


Part D: Flattening Your Image

Turn Off your Background Layer by clicking on the Eye next to the layer.

Now you can simply flatten your image using Merge Visible/Flatten Image=> Discard Hidden Layers or your favorite method. 

Save as a PSD or PNG to preserve the transparent background or simply move to your destination image. 
As you practice more, you can create clipping masks in the image you will ultimately be using, but when you are first starting out, it can be helpful to not have too many layers to work with-- have fun!

{Making the Most of Your Point and Shoot Camera}

Point and Shoot digital cameras have come a long way from the simple 2MP still image recorders of just a few years ago.  Today, a wide variety of creative styles and inexpensive editing software has changed the world of digital photography to the level of art, even for those who cannot afford expensive professional cameras. 

This series will cover basics of using your point and shoot digital camera beyond the automatic settings and quick fixes that you can do to when it seems like your camera just doesn’t “get” what you want it to do. 

One of the most popular features of point and shoot cameras is their numerous Creative Settings.  One of the most powerful is the Portrait setting.  This setting is most often symbolized as a woman's profile, sometimes in a hat.  This setting will do two things- it will make the point of focus crisp and clear while blurring out the background (commonly called bokeh) and will meter the exposure based upon the subject of the portrait rather than the surrounding background. 

This setting, naturally, is useful for portrait photography, but it can also be useful for still life photography where you would like to have a singular subject in focus and the surrounding area blurred.

What should the Portrait setting not be used for?  It functions poorly as a setting for landscape photography where you want a large area of your image in focus.  Some cameras also have issues in the portrait setting when they are trying to photograph larger groups of people.  The camera wants to have a smaller area in focus, and so people in the background or along the sides of the image may not be in focus. 

Up Next in Making the Most of Your Point and Shoot Camera: The Sports Creative Setting.

{Basic Digital Photography Tips} The Terrible Trio- ISO

This article is the first of a series of three articles of digital photography tips for beginning photographers looking learn the basics of how their digital camera works, and how to get a properly exposed image.  Perhaps the most easily understood of the three main components of a proper exposure in digital photography, ISO simply put, is your camera's "film's" sensitivity to light. 

Now, if only the name of ISO was as easy to understand.  ISO stands for "International Standards Organization," which really has no bearing on its function, so feel free to forget it now.  I know it is unusual for an instructor to tell you to forget something, but beginning in the world of digital photography can be a bit overwhelming, so one fewer thing to remember can be welcome.

Now, think way back to a time before the common nature of digital cameras and photography, to when you were taking a family vacation and needed to go buy film so that you could capture the memories of the museum, beach or Grandma's house.  One of the few things you probably considered besides the brand and price was the number prominently featured on the side of the box. 

I always felt safe buying a box labelled ISO 400, and the same is true today.  In your camera's setting is a setting for ISO, or you can leave this setting up to your camera.  If you have done so,  you can also look back through past images already on your camera and see that many of them in generally good light were probably shot around an ISO of 400. 

However, what do we do if we don't have the greatest light?  Say you are going to Grandma's house or a museum where the lighting might not be ideal.  What should you set your ISO at to avoid annoying blurs or too dark images, or the dreaded flashface? 

The important thing to remember is the higher the number you set your ISO at, the greater is your camera's sensitivity to light.  So Higher ISO=A Lighter Image with all of the same settings for everything else.  You're probably wondering then Carrie, why don't we want to use a high ISO all the time and never have a blur we don't want, never have an image that is too dark? 

We ideally would like to keep ISO at as small a number as possible because the easier it is for your sensor to absorb light, unfortunately it is also easier for your camera to have unwanted "noise" in the image.  This term is analogous to unwanted background sounds in audio recordings. 

A few of you may have seen this example in one of my Beginning Digital Photography classes; In the photo on the left, you can see my husband and son in the low-light environment of a museum back in our hometown in MI. You will notice that there is something about the image that looks a bit off, and when you come in closer in the crop on the right, you can see that both of their jackets appear to have small dots of color on them, as well as their faces.  This is noise. 

In horrible lighting conditions, you may have to raise your ISO up as high as it will go to have any chance of an okay photograph.  You have only a very few other options, which are to change one of the other three main aspects of exposure that we are discussing in this series:

{Basic Digital Photography Tips} The Terrible Trio- Aperture

{Basic Digital Photography Tips} The Terrible Trio- Shutter Speed

So get out there- practice, and be the boss of your camera!