Faking Your Damask Backgrounds!

Okay, I admit it – I fake it. I love damask and I love seamless paper. I can’t afford to have a gazillion different damask backdrops so I love to create my own and save a little cash at the time!

I’ve put up a lot of these files in the store this week that you can check out in the “Overlays” section.

But, you can also watch the video posted over in the top right of the site’s homepage. There is a fullscreen “toggle” button to let you see the video full screen, more detailed. Just click it. Hit the escape key to bring it back down. If you’re finding this tutorial down the road and the video isn’t up, you can click here to watch it on Blip.tv.

I hope this new tutorial really helps you and saves you a little cash in the mean time!

New This Week at Pink Ink Studios

Well, we’ve been CRAZY busy this week with lots of plans for updates and changes here at Pink Ink Studios. All in due time! But, first, here are the latest products released in the store this week. Just click on each icon to go to their location in the store.

From Carrie:

Carrie’s put up a lot of storyboards this week. Not all are shown below.

My fav! Moo Card templates:

From Amy Kant:

More Asuka Book Templates

Save the Date Card:

From me, Holly:

I have put up a lot of stuff this week, but will just give you a sampling:

Eight sets of vintage frames posted (not all shown)

New damask textures for fun effects on photos and to make your own backdrops!

And, new canvas templates for a vintage look!

From Heather Green:

Storyboard templates:

Love her leather, 8 x 10 frame!

From Tara Sroka – our card chica!

A cute Valentine’s Day card

Click the “NEW PRODUCTS” category to find out what’s new every day!

Photography gear review-Canon 5D Mark II

Many of you know that Canon released a new camera, the 5D Mark II. So much buzz and hype went on about this baby. When I heard that some stores were taking pre-orders I contemplated long and hard and finally decided to pre-order it in October. I started to hear that some of my peers were getting their cameras, so naturally I was like a kid on Christmas morning. I waited for my beautiful UPS package to arrive. So, when it finally arrived the beginning of January I hurridly opened the box to find my new “baby”. Now, you might think that I am being ridiculous about a camera, maybe I am, but this camera is awesome.

Here is an image from a shoot I just did. I haven’t even blogged it yet. This image is straight from the camera, the only thing I did was resize it for this blog post and sharpen it. That’s it.

Here are my settings

5D MKII

50mm 1.2 @ 4.5

1/320

ISO 640

Normally I wouldn’t show my SOOC images but I have been getting some beautiful images from this camera. I have been pairing it up with my 50mm 1.2 lens and it’s a match made in heaven. I loved shooting prime lenses before, but I have found a new found love for them with this camera. Not only is the image quality at lower ISO’s beautiful, this baby can go all the way up to 6400! The mega pixels are also amazing at 21.1. Another great feature of this camera is that it has the capability to record HD video. I have played with this feature just a little. You have to have special video editing software like Final Cut to do this.

Here is a video shot by Vincent Laforte with the 5D MKII. This video sold me on the camera and I don’t even shoot video

Isn’t it amazing??

So far I absolutely LOVE this camera! The battery that comes with it is a new technology. I don’t have a battery grip for this camera and I shot a 12 hour wedding with ONE battery. Can you believe it? I was impressed! The images are crisp and beautiful.

The only complaint that I have is that if you shoot RAW, you have to have CS4 to be able to process the images. A friend told me that you could use a free Camera RAW plug in and process each individual image, but that would take forever

I hope this has been helpful to you all. If you have any additional questions feel free to leave a comment. You can also email me directly. To see more images using this camera you can visit my blog HERE

Have a great day everyone!

Celebrating Pink Ink!

Holly and the team have been working hard on a lot of awesome things coming to Pink Ink Studios. In celebration I created this pretty pink gift certificate template. Use this for your clients or for your clients to give as gifts.

download here:

gift certificate

let me know if you have any troubles with the download.

Happy Thursday!

Jackie

Before and After: Combining Techniques

It’s been a while since we had a Before and After here at Pink Ink, and we thought we’d bring back this fun feature.

In the past, we’ve showed you textures, layers and a black-and-white action. What if you were to combine textures with some of the fabulous actions here at Pink Ink? Combining multiple artistic features can really give your photos a little extra punch.

Now, I’m not a professional photographer like you or the others on the Pink Ink team, but I have been known to take a picture or two from time to time.

Here’s a photo I took at our local zoo’s giraffe experience exhibit.

Not too bad, but perhaps it could use a little something. I thought I would try adding one of the textures from Texture Tuesdays. (By the way, if you haven’t downloaded the fabulous action and our FREE textures, what are you waiting for?)

This is OK, but not great. The texture just doesn’t quite work for me. So, I thought I might try a couple of the Photoshop actions instead.

Now we’re getting somewhere. I used Holly’s defog action along with one of the washes from her Photographer’s Assistant Set. I decided to go one step further, and after running these actions, try adding a texture.

Doesn’t this give the photo a little extra pop?

Bottom line, don’t be afraid to think outside the box — you never know what kind of results you’ll get until you try. You could try Heather’s Colorburst Action along with a texture or overlay for a totally different look.

New Support Ticket System

As a part of the improvements we’re making at Pink Ink Studios, we have implemented a new, support ticket system. A team of three support staff members have access to this. Please always use this ticket system when trying to reach us about shopping cart issues, forum issues, blog issues, etc. Do not reply to your sales receipt emails.

To learn more about our support…please click here:

http://pinkinkstudios.net/?page_id=1170

Or, as always, click on the SUPPORT link at the top of our website.

Thanks!

Adobe Lightroom 2.3 Beta

Adobe has released a Beta version of Lightroom (2.3) for download. This candidate label is stable and tested, however, they would like community input. Please click here to review the discussion in the forums on Adobe’s website.

Retiring Items

Pink Ink Studios is retiring several items from the 2008 calendar year in the store. Sale ends this Saturday. Get ‘em while ya can.

Click here to visit the “retiring” portion of our store.

Texture Tuesdays 1.27.09

Andie is covering our January Textures.

It’s Texture Tuesday! Be sure to click here to learn more, download our free action and visit the archives every Tuesday in case you miss one!

Click here to download your full resolution version.

Our NEW Facebook Fanpage

Are you on Facebook? Become a fan of Pink Ink Studios by clicking here!

Stay more up-to-date on a daily basis! We will be deleting our old Facebook Group tomorrow as this is a MUCH better way for our business to be on Facebook for you! ENJOY!

Oh – and don’t forget to check for a little Facebook Flair with our NEW logo! Do a search for Pink Ink!

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