Photo Recipe: Using textures to add a vignette

This has been the never-ending winter.

Snow.
Cold.
Rinse.
Repeat.

I set a goal for myself to use my Lensbaby for all of January.  It was fun at first, but after a while, because I was stuck inside due to the NEVER-ENDING WINTER, I had run out of things to shoot.

And then, miraculously, we had a day that was 45 degrees F.  The clouds parted, the angels sang and I took the Lensbaby outside looking for something other than snow to photograph.  I found this flower between my yard and my neighbor's yard.  I have no idea what it is, which is embarrassing since I have lived here for almost 15 years, but we won't worry about that.  I just liked what I started with:



I liked the blur.  I wish I had placed the flower a little more off-center, but with an impatient puppy, it was good enough.

I wanted to make sure that attention was drawn to the flower, so I wanted to add a vignette.  I went to Love that Shot's Olde World Collection (because I am in love with the textures) and chose "Calais."  Calais reminds me of an old parchment with ink spilled all around the edges. I added it to my photo in soft light mode, at 75%.  Here is the result:



I liked the vignette, but I am never satisfied with subtlety, so I went back to the Olde World Collection and grabbed "Sicily."  I added it in overlay mode at 50%.  And I was in love.



I really liked the strong vignette and glowy center so that your eye is drawn to the flower.  And I loved the colors that the textures added to the photos.

Two simple steps and my photo became much more interesting.



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Fun with Bokeh

Bokeh. What the heck is that? When I first started this photography obsession, I was clueless (and I still am in many ways.) But I know I love bokeh. Bokeh refers to those out of focus points of light in the background of your photos. Bokeh is the reason I had my monstrous garage sale so I could afford my 50mm/f 1.4 lens with a really shallow depth of field. Bokeh makes me happy.
So, what better time of year to get awesome, out-of-focus points of light than at Christmas? Christmas trees are perfect for this. I walked around my tree, taking more photos than I care to admit of ornaments, so that I could get some awesome bokeh.
And you know what makes this bokeh even better? The creative aperture kit along with my Lensbaby. My aperture opening is in the shape of a star, so rather than having out-of-focus circles, I get stars everywhere. Stars! I especially love the stars on the silver ornament on the right.
I still struggle a bit with the focus on the lensbaby 2.0. But I have stars!
I'm a simple girl, really.