Kitchen Cabinet Liner

November 5, 2016 by Debra 2 Comments

Hi! While I’ve been silent (no internet and moving) I have been busy. Moving 25+ years of stuff takes time. Luckily Kevin and I can take our time in doing so. Getting the kitchen started was on my list of first. After wiping down the cabinets and counter tops with hot soapy water I removed the old cabinet shelf liners.

This was an experience in itself. I’m a Wal-Mart girl, a one stop shop for me. Bought my supplies and home I went. It’s been years since I put cabinet liner down. Last time I bought the cheap vinyl flooring and cut to shelf size. Real easy for cleaning, however- the edges curled up over time. This time round I bought the EasyLiner brand shelf liner shown above.

After messing up several pieces, I finally figured out a much better way of measuring the size of the liner for the shelf. As simple as it sounds, I removed the shelf from the cabinet and laid it on the liner; drawing around the shelf.

As shown below- the left image the shelf was placed to the edge of the liner rolled out with the bottom side of the liner facing upward. The middle image is where I drew my line marking the length of board on the liner. Placing newspaper under the cabinet liner kept any marker ink off the counter top. And the right image the shelf was removed from the roll of shelf liner. Notice how the lines on the shelf paper are not straight? Prior to using this method, I was using the lines as my guide. I wasted several pieces of liner until using this adapted method.

The liner fits beautifully in the cabinets!

Not sure how long the liner will last. Have you used this type of cabinet shelf liner? How often have you had to change it out?

Until next time- take care!

Best Wishes,

Typical Basic Edits

March 6, 2016 by Debra 2 Comments

Hi, have you ever wondered why the pictures you take are not as vivid or bright as other photographer’s images? Simple basic edits can make a tremendous difference.

Typical Basic Edits

Many people when starting photography get very lost when it comes to editing. When looking at a picture you just took on a nice camera, it’s really easy to look at it and think “wow, that looks great! what is there to fix?” Or maybe “I’ve got a nice camera that I figured out how to use, but I can NOT get my pictures to look like everybody else’s!” Well don’t stress it, because we’ve got some good ways to help you get started with some basic edits.

The 2 main things that photographers look at with each image is the tone and the exposure. Many cameras shoot pictures where the skin tone ends up looking too orange, too red or even too blue. Fixing the image so that the skin tones look natural and like the color of the actual skin can make a dramatic difference. The other major fix is the exposure. Is the picture too light? Is the picture too dark? Even with professional cameras, pictures can come out with the exposure off. The best way to judge if the exposure is correct is to look at the skin again. It’s very important to adjust the image until the exposure is correct. Even if it means making the sky extra bright, it’s more important to have the skin be the correct amount of exposure over everything else in the image.

The two software programs I use to make these basic edits is Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop. If you have used other programs to make such adjustments, please share in the comments section below.

For more information about image editing click here.

Best Wishes,

The Secrets to Using a Flash

February 28, 2016 by Debra 2 Comments

Do you ever find yourself trying to decide if you should use flash or not? There are a million similar situations you can find yourself in where you would consider using flash, but it sometimes seems the flash actually takes away from the image, rather than helping it. Here is some quick advice on how to use your best judgment with flash, and some tricks on how to make it look the best!

To Flash or Not to Flash

The best times to use flash are night, and anytime a good amount of natural light is not available. A lot of times this means indoors in a poorly lit environment! Flash was created to help the camera have enough light available to make the subject more visible, but it can also create a flat look to your images and create an extremely dark background. So anytime you are considering whether or not to use it, keep this in mind. You can also take a test shot without it on and see how you like it. The flash will create a better quality picture as far as clarity, but it may sacrifice too much beautiful and natural lighting and can completely hide the back ground.

Some tricks to help you use the flash more efficiently: A camera’s flash is not programmed to make it long distance, so get closer to your subject so they can be actually lit up by the flash going off. Also, until you feel proficient in determining when a good time to use flash would be, keep it on auto. It will go off, and sometimes clue you in to a good time to use it, when you yourself wouldn’t have thought to. Flash is ultimately an awesome tool to have when light isn’t available, and should be used accordingly!

Best Wishes,