Wednesday, July 3, 2002
Although acquaintances may be many, and true friends they may be
few, counted on one hand are good folk like you.
Scaling Up My Amazon Ads
Source: Scaling Up My Amazon Ads
Freehand Selection Misting Tutorial for Paint Shop Pro
Many individuals have asked me about a Freehand Selection misting tutorial for Paint Shop Pro and so I created one this morning. You must have a basic understanding of Paint Shop Pro to do this three step tutorial. Note: Photoshop works differently so please only use this with PSP. 
I may write a PS tutorial another day, since I use both programs.
Misted tubes are nice to have for many reasons, especially blended designs, and they are best when they have clean edges all around them. For instance, I created a blend for the front cover of my award winning memoir, When Angels Fly. What can I say? I did use a blend and I’m an author so why not plug my memoir in this blog post as well. As you can see below, my son’s image is misted perfectly so that the mountains of Glacier National Park are visible as well as Lake McDonald (I took this photograph).
I suggest you NOT use a mask for misting. Successful misting comes with practice and it is very easy to learn. More on this as you work through this tutorial. This is a THREE Step tutorial © Mary Schmidt 17 March 2017
1. Open a new image, Edit, Copy, Paste as a New Image, and close original image. Go to Image, Resize, and resize so that the longest sides are 1000 px. This is KEY when misting. What works for a 1000 px longest side image doesn’t work for a 600 px or 300 px, etc. Those variables are the ones that you need to master, and you will. More on that shortly – in step 2.
2. Layers, Promote Background layer. Next go to your Freehand Selection tool and choose Feather of 60. Note: This is where most people have difficulty. Feather of 60 is fine for a 1000 px longest side image, IF this image has major white in the background. You MUST adjust this number for the the image you are using. I suggest you resize your images to 1000 px longest side and use this tutorial until your ready to take on other sizes and work to find the right size for that particular image. Draw a freehand selection around the part of the image you wish to mist. Note: It doesn’t have to be a circle or an oval. Be creative. Note: Look at your image and see where your marching ants are placed. If you have ants on the edge of your image then do Selections, Select None, then draw out your freehand area until you have Zero marching ants touching any side of this graphic. See my ants below. Once you have this worked out, proceed to step 3.
3. Choose Selections, Invert and hit the Delete key on your keyboard. Choose Selections, Select None. You now have a perfect misted image with Clean Edges. Save as a .pspimage or .png. Look at mine below. I added a new layer, flood filled it with green and arranged/sent it to the bottom. I wanted you to see that the edges are clean, and no part of the original edge is noted. This is what makes for a great mist. A lot of practice will make you a pro! As you learn how much you need to select for different images, make notes so that you have a idea of where to start on each successive image. Write down the largest side of your image and your final feather amount for use in the future.
Sincerely,
Mary Schmidt
https://whenangelsfly.wordpress.com
When Angels Fly ~ http://tinyurl.com/nzncr7b
Book Trailer ~ https://youtu.be/2yFT_kOntRE
https://www.facebook.com/MMSchmidtAuthorGDDonley
https://twitter.com/MaryLSchmidt
http://mschmidtartwork.deviantart.com/
Want to know why you need to leave a review?
Do you know why this is important?
I mean really important?
It helps a writer? Yes, of course. But there is more to it than that.
When we eat out, we leave the wait staff a tip. Even if the service is lousy, we leave a tip. Might be small, but we leave something behind. The staff worked hard to provide the meal, and our tip our acknowledgment. We may never return to that restaurant again, but that’s okay.
The same thing holds true for a book. The author works hard to produce a product for readers to enjoy. Some will enjoy the story more than others, but everyone should leave behind a tip (review.) Short and sweet, or long and eloquent, leave a review it doesn’t matter.
Don’t know what to say? Here’s a tip: read what others have said and to get ideas, to prime your thoughts into your…
View original post 182 more words
Do you remember?
Meaningful and powerful…. real life…. sadly.
You said I would never be anything, do you remember?
You said my reflection from my small mirror was a million times better, do you remember?
You screamed at me every time I tried to smile, do you remember?
You dragged me by my dress, do you remember?
You let him rip my heart right out, do you remember?
You called me names…
You made me a slave in that house…
You let him undress me to bare bones…
You spit in my face…
I was helpless
I was powerless
I was defenseless
I couldn’t even run
I stayed.
Do you remember?
You asked me to die
You asked me to disappear
Do you remember?
You compared me to a pig
You compared me to a dumpster
I begged you to love me a little..
I begged you to forgive me for nothing..
I begged you to allow me to…
View original post 42 more words
DRM or Not for Amazon
When you load your book up to Amazon you will get to choose whether or not to enable Digital Rights Management.
It is important to note here that this particular choice cannot be undone. Short of unpublishing and republishing this cannot be changed. Once you have some nice reviews and lots of sales on any particular book unpublishing it is not a great idea, so give some thought to this before setting it in stone. So, what is DRM?
Amazon says that Digital Rights Management “is intended to inhibit unauthorized access to or copying of digital content files”. While this sounds great in terms of combating piracy, in reality it’s about as effective in this regard as a straw hut would be at keeping you dry in a hurricane. My African Me & Satellite TV was published with DRM enabled and it is my most pirated book. Stripping DRM is…
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6 Ways to Transition Out of Writer’s Block
by Kathryn
Writer’s Block
The condition of being unable to think of what to write or how to proceed with writing it.
Also known as: every writer’s worst nightmare.
And let’s be real, it happens to everyone. Even the best writers in the world get stuck sometimes.
View original post 1,254 more words
I Will Have Played My Part
I love this!
A Map of Literature around the World
It is easy to get stuck inside our own reading bubbles, so I was excited to find this map of literature around the world. For the zoomable version of the map, click here.
The map was created by redditor Backforward24 and use book covers to highlight a single book from every country. Though some of the titles make sense – To Kill a Mockingbird is a pretty good one for the USA – others fit less well. I don’t know that I would have chosen The Dream of the Red Chamber to represent China for example.
Still, a map like this is a great way to begin reading literature from parts of the world that you know less well. I’m mentally adding books from South America and Africa to my reading list as we speak.
If you have other reading suggestions from around the world or if you think…
View original post 32 more words
Basic Misting Tutorial for Paint Shop Pro
Many individuals have asked me about a misting tutorial for Paint Shop Pro and so I have created a basic one today. You must have a basic understanding of Paint Shop Pro to do this three step tutorial. Note: Photoshop works differently so please only use this with PSP. 🙂 I may write a PS tutorial another day, since I use both programs.
Misted tubes are nice to have for many reasons, especially blended designs, and they are best when they have clean edges all around them. For instance, I created a blend for the front cover of my award winning memoir, When Angels Fly. What can I say? I did use a blend and I’m an author so why not plug my memoir in this blog post as well.
I suggest you NOT use a mask for misting. Successful misting comes with practice and it is very easy to learn. More on this as you work through this tutorial. This is a THREE Step tutorial © Mary Schmidt 14 March 2017
1. Open a new image, Edit, Copy, Paste as a New Image, and close original image. Go to Image, Resize, and resize so that the longest sides are 500 px. This is KEY when misting. What works for a 500 px longest side image doesn’t work for a 600 px or 300 px, etc. Those variables are the ones that you need to master, and you will. More on that shortly – in step 2.
2. Layers, Promote Background layer. Next go to your Rectangle Selection tool and choose Feather of 50. Note: This is where most people have difficulty. Feather of 50 is fine for a 500 px longest side image. You MUST adjust this number for the different size images you are using. I suggest you resize your images to 500 px longest side and use this tutorial until your ready to take on other sizes and work to find the right size for that particular image. Draw a rectangle inside your image. Note: Look at your image and see where your marching ants are placed. If you have ants on the edge of your image then do Selections, Select None, then draw out your rectangle until you have Zero marching ants touching any side of this graphic. See my ants below. Once you have this worked out, proceed to step 3.
3. Choose Selections, Invert and hit the Delete key on your keyboard. Choose Selections, Select None. You now have a perfect misted image with Clean Edges. Save as a .pspimage or .png. Look at mine below. I added a new layer, flood filled it with yellow and arranged/sent it to the bottom. I wanted you to see that the edges are clean, and no part of the original edge is noted. This is what makes for a great mist. Practice on 500 px longest side images, and then graduate further into other sizes and adjust your misted edge accordingly, so that you have clean edges all the way around. It may help to write down the largest side of your image and your final feather amount for use in the future.
When Angels Fly 