Personalized gifts
Each year about this time, perhaps sooner, I start thinking about what to give as gifts for Christmas. Recently, my wife brought home some photos from her best friend’s childhood. I scanned them in and opened one of them and started to restore it. I printed out it, gave it to my wife, and she took it with her on her next trip to Dallas to present it to her friend, Tamami. From what my wife said, it was an instant hit. She loved it and now has it in a frame, prominently displayed in her home. Sure, I didn’t take the original picture, but I was able to use Photoshop to breath new life into the picture.
This started me to thinking about personalized gifts for Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. With the ease of doing calendars, books, slide shows, screen savers, etc, all I need do is to look into my store of pictures, pick some out, and create a very personalized gift.
Tamami and her mother
So, here is the before and after of the picture that I touched up. Mind you, I’m not especially handy with PS and this took me about 30 minutes, or so, to clean up. The healing brush, spot healing brush, and clone stamp tools were very useful. Also, using contrast and brightness along with the curves tool allowed me to add a little bit of punch to the picture. It was a fun endeavor. The original picture was about a 3 x 5 inch; I am now able to print it nearly any size up to about 16 x 20 and I can print as many copies of the ‘original’ as I want, with no degradation!
Now I wish that I had held onto it until Christmas! It would have been a great gift idea! Oh well, I guess that I’ll have to come up with something else … I already have, but I can’t say what. My wife reads this blog, ya know! 
I’m interested in what types of personalized gifts that you’ve come up with using your photography.
You’ve done a beautiful job with this.
I’m not ready to think about Christmas yet this year. I hope the mood hits soon though because I don’t want it to sneak up on me. I have a few ideas though.
What a great thing you did. I had asked my mom for all of my grandpa’s letters and photos from WWII so that I could scan them and create a file so they will be preserved digitally as well as filing them away in archival safe albums when I’m done. I want to work on those after I redo my site.
I’m working on a calendar for the family on Snapfish right now, as a matter of fact. I just dropped in the last photo. Then I got to thinking of doing a personalized calendar for the local antiques dealer who I’m doing some shooting for. You’re right, the possibilities are endless. One for the grandma’s with photos of the kids might have to be made up as well. Oh, and how about one of shots from your hometown, trips to the Smokies, or a trip you took with a good friend…to meet other new friends in person. hmmmm That one might require a few copies.
)
I put together an album of photos from my parents 40 years together as a present for their anniversary. Took some time – getting on for an hour per photo with a total of 42 done. Sources were a mixture of prints (old and new), slides & negatives. Of all the gifts given that day, this was the most viewed & discussed. A real tear-jerker, too.
Photo-Books and -calenders. I only started doing it last year, it was an instant success – but maybe I shouldn’t overdo it. The problem is to find a decent printer for everything (i.e. decent price and good quality). I find it hard to judge the quality from the site of a company or from second-hand knowledge… And those things cost too much time and money, so I won’t try and compare a range of services.
Very, Very nice work Paul. I think I may have fallen in love with this picture. You are right this would have been a Great Christmas present.