Making your photographs look professional with a little help from Image Editing.

How many times do you take a photograph of a design or of decor that you have made hoping to use it in your portfolio or on your website and are really disappointed with how it looks in the picture?

I suppose the first thing we need to look at is the camera we use. I use a little compact camera, as it's so easy for me to travel with. The great thing about my little camera is that I can set it to take pictures up to 10 MEGA Pixels, giving me high resolution photos. Personally, I have not had any success using my smart phone or tablet to take decent quality photographs. Don't get me wrong, they are great for taking snaps, but when your photo represents the work that you do, maybe it's worth getting a better quality photograph?

Even with a great camera we don't always get the perfect photograph. Maybe the background is not great or the lighting is too dark?

So how can we make our photographs look more professional?

Here is a photograph of a design that I made earlier this year when I was demonstrating on the Qualatex® stand at Spring Fair.  I found the most neutral background that I could (to make it easier for editing), and snapped my photograph. Once I returned home to my office, I looked through all my pictures and started the process of 'cleaning up'!

There are several things that you can do to make your photographs look so much better!

PicMonkey - www.picmonkey.com
I discovered PicMonkey several years ago and love it! It's very easy to use and gives us many different editing opportunities. You can use the basic version free or pay an annual subscription of $33 to get PicMonkey Royale, which offer lots of extra goodies.




PicMonkey has 4 main function modes: Edit, Touch Up, Design and Collage, all of which you will be able to use for different purposes.

By simply opening your photograph in the Basic Edit function you can immediately start working on your image. You have several options to choose from:

• Crop
• Canvas Colour
• Rotate
• Exposure
• Colours 
• Sharpen
• Resize

My aim was to make my design look brighter and lighter and used the Exposure function to achieve this. I would recommend that you try out all the different editing functions and see what each of them do as you can get some really great results.

See below for the before and after results. The design looks so much brighter; you can see much more detail in the balloons being used.

Here I have used another great function on PicMonkey to make this collage! By simply clicking on the Collage function, you get several layout options; there are even specific options to create your own unique Facebook cover or layouts for Pinterest or Etsy!

I now have my image looking so much better, but I would love to lose that background!

How to edit an image using Paths Tool in GIMP.

GIMP - www.gimp.org

GIMP is a popular open-source image editor for Mac, Windows, and Linux that has slowly evolved to become a credible free alternative to programs like Adobe Photoshop. 

I've been using GIMP for a number of years now. And like anything new, it takes a little time to get use to it and all the many functions that it has to offer.

I have made a short video clip that will show you how to remove the background of an image. I will also show you how to change the background into a transparent (Alpha) layer that will allow us to add any colour or background that we want to use.

I am going to let you in on a little secret. Whilst writing this blog, I decided to do a little research and check to see if there was a better way to remove the background of an image than the way that I have been doing for the past few years, and guess what? There is! So after a few frustrating hours learning this new way, I am now ready to share this with you! It's actually very simple and quick, I just had to figure out a few simple things on my computer!




A few key step reminders:

• Open image in GIMP
• Open the toolbox if not already open.
• Increase the size of the image (bottom left) so that you can easily trace around the edge.
• Select Paths Tool from toolbox - see image on the right.
• Using the Paths Tool set pointers around the edge of the image. 
• Once you have connected the final point with the first point, click select, either by right clicking on the image or from the top toolbar.
• In Select you now want to click on From Path.
• Now click Layer and then Transparency, now click Add Alpha Channel - that will make the background transparent.
• In Select you now want to click on Invert.
• Now click Delete. That will remove the background and give it a 'Chequerboard' appearance.
• In Select, click none.
• Now Export the file making sure that you save it as a PNG file as this will allow you to save your image with a transparent background.

How to add a background colour to a PNG Image using GIMP

This next very short clip shows you how to add a background colour to your PNG Image using Gimp and Bucket-Fill.




So here it is, my 'cleaned-up' photograph with a white background! Now it's perfect to use on my website, Pinterest and my business Facebook page! Just make sure that you add your watermark to protect your image and to ensure that everyone know who created the design. 

I wrote a blog some time ago on how to create a simple logo and watermark, to read this blog CLICK HERE.

How to add a background colour to a PNG image using PicMonkey.

And finally, this last clip shows you how to add a coloured background to your PNG Image using PicMonkey. You can actually use GIMP for this purpose as you can change the foreground and background colours to different colours by simply double clicking on the black and white boxes and selecting the colour that you want to use. However, learning how to add a PNG Image to a Design in PicMonkey will give you so many exciting options!





And here is my final version of my edited photograph... just a little bit different from the original photograph. Once again using PicMonkey, I have added a frame and text; the creative options are endless!

This may seem a lot of information to learn, but I can assure you that it does not take long to perfect the techniques and the results are well worth the effort!

Have fun and happy ballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com

How to make a Quick Link Christmas Tree by Sean O'Kelly CBA

Christmas already! To be honest, early planning and preparation can only help your seasonal campaign. Having design ideas that you can propose to your clients is essential.

Last year I was asked to make Christmas Trees as part of the decor that I was making for a corporate Christmas party that I was decorating. 

I wanted to make something a little different from the norm and so I did a little research to see what ideas I could glean from the internet! 

My trees needed to be approx. 2m (6' 6") in height although they did not all need to be exactly the same. They needed to be robust and moveable to enable us to move them into position prior to the party. I also wanted to be able to add some shimmering tinsel and Christmas tree lights to bring my trees to life!

After looking at many different ideas, there was just one design that really stood out for me and that was a Quick-Link Christmas Tree made by one of my lovely ballooning friends Sean O'Kelly from Melbourne, Australia.

Rather than immediately emailing Sean and asking him if he could give me some tips and hints on how to re-create his design, I decided that it would be good for me as a Quick Link novice to try and work it out for myself. After several disastrous attempts, the first one looking much like a space rocket or torpedo (partially because I only had red Quick Links to practise with) and the second as a totally indescribable object, I decided it was a good time to give up and contact Sean (you can't say that I didn't try)!

Sean very kindly sent me his recipe, and with his permission I will share it with you in this blog!

Dolce Vita, Italian style… now that’s Amore - BACI 2015!

Designer: Barbara Biagioni CBA

This year 2015 Balloon Arts Convention Italy saw a return to Florence, the amazing home of Renaissance Art and of course balloons too, to celebrate it's 23rd year of this world renowned balloon art convention. 

With it's unique Italian style, this event was filled with a fantastic range of classes, and included the introduction of a number of new and very popular business classes.

Competitions are always a major part of BACI and this year saw the return of the Medium Sculpture category, bringing new challenges to the competitors.

Designer: Carlo Vavenotti, CBA

With the 'theme' Love, we were certainly treated to some truly stunning competition entries, with each designer interpreting the theme in very different ways!

Luc Bertrand CBA shows us how to inflate a Qualatex® Mousehead inside a Qualatex Deco Bubble and how to tie Deco Bubbles with confidence.

We all love Qualatex Deco Bubbles. But when it comes to putting a latex balloon inside one, especially shaped balloons such as hearts and the Qualatex Mouseheads, it can be a little daunting the first time that you do it!


Luc Bertrand, one of our leading industry instructors has made this great step-by-step video clip that shows you how to inflate both a Qualatex Mousehead and an 11" round balloon inside a Qualatex Deco Bubble and how to close the balloons and add a little finishing touch!

An interview with Brazilian Balloon Artist Luiz Carlos Da Costa Silva of Cenário Balões.

Last month I was very excited to make my first trip to Brasil to spend a week working with Team Pioneer Brasil at their Head Office in Jundiai. During my visit I had the opportunity to visit Cenário Balões and to meet up with owners Luiz Carlos Da Costa Silva and his wife Rosana along with their very talented team at their amazing facility in Sao Paulo!

Giant Teddy Bear by Cenário Balões

Cenário Balões was founded in 2002. Luiz was already involved in the party sector, renting out bouncy castles for children's parties and decided to include balloons as part of their service. But after attending his first basic balloon course he discovered his passion for balloons and decided to make them his main business.

Party Decor by Cenário Balões

Wedding Balloons and the great outdoors!

I will be decorating a wedding later this year. The bride has been pretty specific with her decor ideas with thanks to Pinterest! Don't get me wrong, I love Pinterest and think that it is a great source of inspiration. But I think that many of us are aware that a great deal of the shots, especially wedding designs are staged and therefore are not always as practical as they appear in the picture!

So what do you do when a bride asks you to provide large helium filled balloon bouquets that are to be positioned outside the entrance of the venue that you are decorating?
Unfortunately, unlike my bride,  I don't see beautifully arranged sets of helium filled balloons. I see a tangled mess of balloons flying horizontally!

Honesty being the best policy, I decided that it would be in both our best interest to explain all the potential problems of putting balloons outside, but also gave some great ideas and suggestions of what would work well instead.

So what are the potential problems when decorating with balloons outside?

Here are a few great suggestions and solutions from a group of industry experts from the QBN Facebook Group.

How much am I worth - how to calculate your hourly rate.

I often get asked ‘how much should I be charging for my time’?

If you were looking to become a hairdresser, lawyer, plumber or florist, I could probably tell you roughly what you could expect to earn or at least point you towards internet guides that gives this type of information. Unfortunately the job title Balloon Artist is not listed on any of these guides.

I would imagine that if you are reading this blog, you are self-employed or considering becoming self-employed. Working out what we should charge for our time is very much our own decision but having a guide to help us especially when we first start out would be helpful.

So what is our job? Knowing what our job is and entails will help us to determine what we are worth. Are we an event decorator, party planner, retailer, entertainer or all of these? Questions such as “are we qualified, have we invested in our art”, will also help to determine how much we can charge. Can someone just starting out without any experience or training expect to earn the same as someone who has many years of experience and is very well trained?