It is once again time to recognize our mother for all we have learned from her.  This digital greeting card is just one way that will show her you care. For a higher resolution look at the image, click on the picture.

Digital Greeting Cards

These cards are a nice way to earn some points with the mother-in-law.

Late spring is a perfect time to get out and enjoy the weather.  This offering was taken on a quiet stretch of walking trail, with new growth everywhere.  When you cannot get outside, the next best thing is to bring the outdoors home.  Our photo matting services enhance your pictures to increase your appreciation of nature without worrying about the pollen count.  For a higher resolution look at the image, click on the picture.

Photo Matting Services

Take a virtual walk in the woods with your favorite digital photos.

This week begins with showing off four new digitally matted pictures, using four variations of matting compositions which help to accent photo highlights, raise the quality of the content, and challenge traditional matting techniques with some unusual flair.  Using a digital photo frame to display your matted photos gives you the ability to have an excellent showcase for your creative works at far less cost than matting and framing your pictures using traditional methods.  If you are still not convinced that a digital picture frame is the answer, these compositions can be printed and framed using traditional frames, or as screen wallpapers on your computer.  I use all three ways to keep my pictures out where I can see them.  Well, it is time to deliver the goods.

My first picture of the week was used to make a birthday card for my brother last month, so I thought I would run it through the presentation cycle for this month.  I took the picture in Overland Park because I thought the sculptor did a good job of capturing that mental state of children when they glide off into their imagination and spend time living where they want to be, rather than where they are.

Plane, bird, or rocket, this metal kid is on his own cloud.

Second on the list is a photograph with more subtle matting highlights, and the bright fall colors of a neighborhood walk on a sunny day.  It is always great to watch the leaves turn vivid colors and think about somebody else having to rake them up when they finally come down.  This year has not been so nice around here, so I got out one of my shots from the past.+

I am always a sucker for autumn colors.

The third matted photo was also one of my favorite past fall pictures.  I did something a bit different with the combination of highlights, textures, and the accent lines around the outer matte edges.  These kinds of simple variations would turn out quite expensive if they were produced using traditional matting. 

Country Club Plaza - a nice place for colorful autumn shots.

My last photo in the sequence was taken on the grounds of the Nelson Art Museum in Kansas City.  Some might immediately ask, “Where are the people?” My answer is that for some reason, I seem to live in the part of our dimension where I can get lots of shots with no people in them, even in crowded places.  It might be somewhat related to all the time I spent in my younger years talking to people’s backs at parties.  I just seem to be where nobody else wants to go for the moment.  At any rate, the matting for this photo accents that unusual perspective with its nebulous outer limits quality of colors and blobs.  You have just crossed over into the Twilight Zone.

Picture if you will, being alone...very alone.

As this week begins a new month, I thought about taking a slightly new direction with my digital photo matting techniques.  Starting this week, I will begin showing how four different photos can go from the kind of thing you bring out make your late house guests go home, into something that will have them watching the whole show on your digital picture frame.  I will take some digital photos through a sequence of transformations which will eventually cover all the kinds of treatments I have offered to do for my Matte Watch audience.  Each subsequent week, I will take the matted photos and turn them into next stage of transformation until we circle back to the beginning with a new set of pictures.  This way, everyone can see how the photos look in the various treatment venues. 

The first matted photo is a new style of digital photo matting that incorporates some fractal manipulation of the central theme photograph.  As I have said before, I know that taking flower shots is probably about the most usual thing a fledgling photographer can do, but I like to matte these pictures and use flower shots in all kinds of different ways.  So, if you are some kind of “snooty” pro who wants to wise me up, then go ahead and show me what you have that is better.

Sometimes a picture can be made to compliment itself.

Now I know that more traditional matting styles can be more appropriate than creating the colorful designs and borders found in this week’s fare, but I felt like dabbling with some more unusual designs this week, so I went ahead with it.  There is certainly a lot to be said for going too far overboard in trying to make the beauty of flowers even fancier.  The next item might fit the category of too much, but I blame my wife because she said she liked it.

Too much dressing for a flower shot? You decide.

The third digital photo matting takes a complimentary colored spherical design using colors from the photograph, and drops it behind the main subject photo.  I liked this design for its variation away from the usual, and the beautiful flower as well.

Not all mattes need to be typical.

The final offering for this week’s digital photo matting parade of images uses a subtle weave of matte colors to create a delicate texture in the photo matting.  Next week, you will be able to see the digital calendar designs I create from these four matted photos.  Are you excited?  I knew you would be.

Use more subtle accents to create a nice texture.