Contest For a Best Photo Forward Webinar Ticket

[JenFW]

Hi, Everyone.

I'm de-lurking to host a contest here.

I've been a member of Stitchin' Fingers for ages. Since Sharon started it, I think. I come here to look at photos and be inspired. Really-really. I click the "Photos" link, sit back with my chai, and let the colors, designs, and creativity fill me up. I am grateful to active members for enabling me to do this.

I don't need to tell anyone here that photographing needlework isn't easy. I've been struggling with it for years, waiting for a good weather in Alaska so I can photograph my work outside in natural light. Even then, it's rarely, if ever, perfect.

Best Photo Forward Webinar

I finally decided to ask for help, and the result is a webinar: Best Photo Forward: Refining Photos of Fine Embroidery with Photoshop Elements.

Melissa Shanhun, a leading digital scrapbook teacher in Australia (and a needleworker to boot---woo-hoo!), and I have teamed up to create and present this workshop specifically for needleworkers. We will learn the following:

• What Photoshop Elements is and why we should use it
• How to convey more accurate colors
• How to stretch and square warped or crooked images
• How to resize images for the Web
• How to frame a piece digitally

This is a live event, taking place on

March 20, 2012 at 8:00 p.m. EST (That's 8 p.m. on the east coast of the US.)

Participants receive the following:

• Access to the live workshop
• Handouts and resources used in the event
• Ongoing access to the workshop recordings
• Sample files so that you can see follow along with the demonstrations
• BONUS Photo Fixes for Real People – a jump start on using Photoshop Elements to improve your photos (Valued at $20). In this, Melissa teaches us how to digitally turn overcast skies blue, clean food from a baby's face, create a great group shot with everyone smiling, and remove red eye.
• BONUS Jen's Top 10 Ways to Use Images of Our Embroidery 

So even if you can't attend live, you can still take advantage of the workshop, watching the recordings over and over, as many times as needed to master the techniques.

You can learn more about the webinar on the Funk & Weber World blog.

How Webinars Work

A "webinar" is a seminar on the Web. It's a real-time event, like a live chat, and will be held at AnyMeeting.com. If you live on the east coast of the US, the time will be 8:00 p.m. on March 20th. If you'll be in Hawaii in the US, the time will be 3:00 p.m. on March 20th. If you're in Oslo, Norway, the time will be 1:00 a.m. on March 21.

You can use a time converter to determine your time for the live event. But, as I said, you don't have to attend live, though I hope you will.

All it takes to attend the live event is a link to the webinar site which you will receive when you register. You'll click that link just before the meeting time. Make sure the sound on your computer is turned on because we'll watch Melissa's computer screen as she works and hear her explain what she's doing.

If you watch and listen to videos on your computer, you should be fine.

We'll be able to type questions we have into a chat box, and Melissa and I will answer as many as we can. We'll follow up with written or recorded answers to any questions we can't answer in real time.

The Contest

Because I so enjoy and get such benefit from the photos on Stitchin' Fingers, I want to give someone here a ticket to this webinar, and so we're having a contest. To enter, simply reply to this discussion, and tell me what your biggest problem is with images of your embroidery. Though we're not covering photography in this webinar---just image editing---your biggest problem can be about anything.

You have until midnight, Alaska time, on March 16th to leave your reply. A winner will be chosen at random and posted here on March 17th.

If you have questions, please ask. I'll separate contest entries from general questions. Again, I'm posting more about this on my blog.

Thank you, all, for sharing your needlework, your creativity, and yourselves here.

[donna russ]

 My problem is that I cant seem to get the images to look the correct colors, there usually over just a little and won't show sparkle

[Lin Taylor]

My biggest problems is shiny things, like beads, metalick or silk fabrics.  The shine either gets in the way or it doesn't show depth and dimension.

[LUCIA MARIA DE OLIVEIRA VALETON]

How capturing details of my work?

[JulieCastle]

My greatest problem is having the "shine" from iridescent and metallic threads show true.  I suppose that would fall into other comments regarding true color. 

[D. Paula Banerji]

I find it a real challenge to get the right colours....whether in artificial light or sunlight.

[JenFW]

The Random Number Generator has been consulted, and the winner identified and announced. Congratulations!

Thanks, Everyone, for participating and sharing your biggest embroidery photo problems.

Cheers!

[Suzanne Campbell]

That would be 3pm on Wednesday March 21 in Queensland, Australia, right?   Or have I converted the wrong time?    I've recently got a digital camera (whoopee!) but have no idea how to upload photos.   My problem would be getting the textures lit properly, as I've done a lot of tone-on-tone work with embroidery and hardanger.  Also crochet.

[Melissa Shanhun]

Hi Suzanne - It's at 8am Perth time - so 10am Qld time - according to my calculations

Suzanne Campbell said:

That would be 3pm on Wednesday March 21 in Queensland, Australia, right?   Or have I converted the wrong time?    I've recently got a digital camera (whoopee!) but have no idea how to upload photos.   My problem would be getting the textures lit properly, as I've done a lot of tone-on-tone work with embroidery and hardanger.  Also crochet.