A Lucky Red Shirt?

Greetings and a good day to you! I'm Debbie and am so glad to be a member of the Creative Memories 2012 Design Team. While pondering about what to write, visions of March scurried through my mind - lots of shades of greens, leprechauns, four-leaf clovers, and some funny photos I remember taking. One photo in particular brings a grin to my face. This photo needs just a simple fix to look great. It's a photo with a little story. Let me share:

Once upon a time, there was a funny young boy who LOVED the color RED. In fact, to make life easier, his shirt drawer was FILLED to the top with only red shirts - one for every day of the week! Coordinating his clothes in the morning was a breeze and he knew without thinking what he was going to wear each day. As you might guess, this young boy also possessed a photogenic, expressive, and effervescent personality. This, of course, worked well for a certain photographer who loved taking his photo. Early one St. Patty's Day, the boy awoke to discover a leprechaun had visited, not only messing up his room and springing his carefully laid trap, but turning his milk green as well. The boy playfully expressed his annoyance and Click! This photo was the result.

Now even though this young boy thinks red complements everything exceptionally well, sometimes it can create a little bit of a challenge. In this photo, the red just overpowers the rest of the photo. One option is I could change the photo to either black and white or sepia. However, this changes three elements I don't want to lose: the vivid greens, his blushed, freckled cheeks, and his chapped deep colored lips. I want to subdue the red so that these other features show. What to do? Well, usually I don't change too much of my photos, but I am going to turn his red shirt into a brown shirt. Fortunately, it's a simple fix with Storybook Creator 4.0.

1. Bring the photo into Storybook Creator 4.0 and place it on a 12"x12" page.
2. Make 2 copies of the photo, placing them side by side. (Right click while photo is selected, click on "copy", then "paste".)
3. With one photo selected, choose "Arrange", then "Flatten". (Note: after you flatten a photo, it cannot be edited using any "Format Photos" options - it is no longer a "photo" - so fix other flaws first.)
4. With the photo still selected, choose "Cut & Fill".
5. Then choose "Custom", and then "Cut out a curved path".
   
   
6. Clicking on "Keep both sections", hover the mouse over the photo. Using the "+", carefully place the points along the edges of the shirt. Outline the entire shirt, going completely around the edges until they connect. Zoom in even closer to check the position of the points and "edit points" (which allows you to select an individual point and move it) for those points that are not in the correct position. I then carefully double check the points around his neck and click "Cut".
7. Click onto a blank space to deselect both parts of the photo. Then click again, this time reselecting only the shirt portion.
8. To keep it simple and because I want a brown color, I choose "Color", then "Sepia". The brown seems just a tad bit drab, so i add back just a little red, by choosing "Color Balance", and increasing the red slider to about 30.
9. Now, if I haven't moved the shirt, I can merely "Arrange" then "Group" the two cut pieces of the photo back together. However if I did accidentally move it, (which I did), I can then paste the new brown shirt on top of the red shirt in the other copy, moving it and aligning it so that it lines up and covers the red shirt in the copy. After everything is lined up, click "Arrange", then "Group" and whaa-la!
   

I put together a very simple page using the photo and I must admit, I really like the brown shirt. I know there are other ways to do this, but because the shirt was large and simple in shape, this method was easy. Lucky for me, I have Storybook Creator 4.0 - because although it might seem silly, it was much easier than trying to get him to wear a different color shirt!

Happy creating!

Smiles,

Debbie

Here is my simple page:

Comments

[Barb]

This is the best explanation of changing the color of part of a photo that I have seen. Thank you so much for the details!!!

[Debbie]

I liked the red shirt better.

[Jodi Texeira]

Thanks for sharing! What kit are those ribbons from? Love 'em!

[Judi]

But you are missing the point that at this time in his life everything he wore was red. Not brown. While it looks better in the layout, it is changing history.

[Sue Philips]

Nicely done! If you don't want to flatten the photo you can do it the same way but select Copy instead of Cut after outlining the shirt.

[Kathy Stone]

Debbie - a great tip! I have twin boys - one wore an orange polar fleece everyday for at least a year (probably at about the same age as your son), and the other now wears nothing but grey T-shirts. With the magic of Storybook 4.0, their children will not think that I dressed them funny!

[Trevag Gonzales]

This is ingenious ... but isn't he going to be upset when he sees that he is wearing a brown shirt ??!!

Seriously, thank you for sharing. That trick will NO DOUBT come in handy some day!