Label Tutorial Challenge- Joan

[jobe05]

What the hell is "baited" breath jobe...what are you trying too catch man !! A cold !!!

I too am anticipating the "process" these ladies use in making their great labels

[Q]</span> From Steve Gearhart: “Where does the term baited breath come from, as in: ‘I am waiting with baited breath for your answer’?”



[A]</span> The correct spelling is actually bated breath but it’s so common these days to see it written as baited breath
that there’s every chance it will soon become the usual form, to the
disgust of conservative speakers and the confusion of dictionary
writers. Examples in newspapers and magazines are legion; this one
appeared in the Daily Mirror on 12 April 2003: “She hasn’t responded yet but Michael is waiting with baited breath”.



It’s easy to mock, but there’s a real problem here. Bated and baited sound the same and we no longer use bated (let alone the verb to bate), outside this one set phrase, which has become an idiom. Confusion is almost inevitable. Bated here is a contraction of abated through loss of the unstressed first vowel (a process called aphesis); it has the meaning “reduced, lessened, lowered in force”. So bated breath refers to a state in which you almost stop breathing through terror, awe, extreme anticipation, or anxiety.



Shakespeare is the first writer known to use it, in The Merchant of Venice:
“Shall I bend low and, in a bondman’s key, / With bated breath and
whisp’ring humbleness, / Say this ...”. Nearly three centuries later,
Mark Twain employed it in Tom Sawyer: “Every eye fixed itself upon him;
with parted lips and bated breath the audience hung upon his words,
taking no note of time, rapt in the ghastly fascinations of the tale”.



For those who know the older spelling or who stop to consider the matter, baited breath evokes an incongruous image, which Geoffrey Taylor humorously (and consciously) captured in verse in his poem Cruel Clever Cat:
<blockquote>
Sally, having swallowed cheese,

Directs down holes the scented breeze,

Enticing thus with baited breath

Nice mice to an untimely death.
</blockquote>

 

[Joanie]

Here's the adjusted cart. I resized, filtered using a soft "grain" filter, added a shadow under it, added snow, adjusted the brightness and contrast, toned down the color and added text. It's still not quite right so I will leave it alone for a while and come back to it with a fresh eye and attempt to get it to blend better. I have a bunch more layers now.

 

[Joanie]

Here's with the background and border in place.

Edited by: Joan

 

[Joanie]

I wanted to clean up around the train pic so added a border above and below by selecting copying, and pasting then applied a "grain" filter to the background and all the borders to make it meld.

Next will be the text.

 

[Waldo]

What program are you using Joan?

 

[grapeman]

As Frank from "Everybody Loves Raymond always says", "Holy Crap!" You are amazing! I would swear all those components started in the same piture. Looking good.

 

[Joanie]

I use Photoshop, Waldo.

 

[Joanie]

Here's the finished product with a few more tweaks.

Edited to say: I guess I should actually POST the finished product, eh?

Edited by: Joan

 

[Wade E]

Great job Joan and thanx for sharing and helping!

 

[jobe05]

Holy Crap!

What a great job Joan. You are fantastic with adding thing into a picture and make them look like they were always there. I have tried that in the past and it doesn't look right with all te rough edges, wrong colors and sizes.

Great Job!

 

[Joanie]

Thank you!

If you have questions, let 'em rip!

 

[rgecaprock]

Joan,
I can't do the adding of other elements to my labels. It's only limited by your imagination....and you have a great one!!!!


Great Label!!!


Ramona

 

[jobe05]

Joan:

One of the things that I like to do is use the cloning tool. It allows me to download labels that are already filled in and I can cover the words up with the background texture/color or I can eliminate things in a picture that I don't want.

Is this the better tool to use for this, if it is, can you give a quick demo on the proper method of using it, I don't think I am.

If it's not the proper tool, how would you do it?

 

[Joanie]

I like the clone tool too, Jobe! It is great to use as you are using it. If you have just a little bit of clear background to work with it's great! I used it a little on the label to copy the shadow color from the train pic to use under the cart with the barrels.

Another great tool to use if you have a bigger clear area is the Marquee tool--it's the box with the dotted lines around it. It will also do other shapes. If you select an area you want to use, copy it --control C, the paste it, Control V and it will put that onto a new layer. Grab your move tool and place it where you want it. If you need it more, just keep using Control V and it will paste the same sample putting each in a new layer. It's slick too!

Once you get those layers the way you want them you can Merge Down and they will become one layer so you don't have to worry about accidentally moving them around if you end up on the wrong layer.

 

[s.arkvinomaker]

Great job Joan. This has been very helpful. My buddy whom I make wine with just bought this same program you used to design this great looking label. Youdid a good job of demonstrating how to layer. I use a different program which doesn't have near the capabilities of the one you have used here. I have already forwarded this post to my friend and we both agree we will be refering to this example. It would be nice if you can give another example of your next wine going thru the steps of the program to achieve your final results. Its nice to be able to see what the possibilities are. I hope you enter another one of your label designs another labeling contest. The one you entered looked very professional.

 

[Joanie]

Thank you, David. I'd be happy to walk you thru the next label. I'm thinking about one for my MM Pinot Grigio.

 

[Jack on Rainy]

Thanks Joan.

This is amazing stuff! But it will take me longer to learn this than
learning to make the wine! I will definitely want to review this post
while I try it, though.

 

[Joanie]

How about I walk you thru a simple label...black and white plus text? Okay...maybe with a splash of color.

 

[Jack on Rainy]

I appreciate the offer. Will ask when I get to it. Need to get software and time first

!