All special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, graduation, Father’s Day are an opportunity to express your love towards your dad, brother, spouse, friend, grandfather, nephew or uncle. Personalized pop arts are great ideas for such occasions as they enable you to convey and express how much you love a person and how much you consider them as a special part in your life. For example, you could take a picture of a grandfather with his grandchildren and make into a pop art to be a given as gift for his 75^th birthday. This pop art gift will probably be his most memorable and precious gift than any other material gifts that anyone could give him. Father’s day is around the corner and if you want to surprise your dad on this special day, you could get a pop art made of him and you playing your favorite sport or enjoying any special moment together! This is sure to make his day more special and make him feel more loved!

Pop arts can also be given as gifts when someone buys a new home or gets a promotion at work. Pop arts are great interior decor options as they can be personalized and customized to fit a specific space. They can also add more character and aesthetic appeal to the ambience of any room. Such personalized pop arts are an apt gift choice when someone gets a new job or a promotion at work. When someone buys a new home, a pop art of their family picture would be an excellent gift for their living room!

Pop arts can also be made on different mediums other than wall portraits such as mouse pads, t-shirts, bags, cushion covers etc. Pop arts of a favorite sports star or a music star on mouse pads are a good gift idea for teenage boys. If you are looking for gifts for small boys, pop arts of their pictures or their favorite personality on t-shirts is a good gift option. Irrespective of the age and the occasion, personalized pop arts are a wonderful gift idea for men of all ages!

Here are a few simple steps to create reflections on sunglasses.

Step 1

The first step is to select one of the lenses, using “magic lasso” tool. To use it, you just have to aim around the edge and the area within is thereby selected.

Step 2

Now move the picture that you desire as reflection to your document. Create a clipping mask by placing the image in a new layer. For this, press control + Alt + G

Step 3

Now that the image is inside the lens, you can move it around and also if needed, resize it with the free transform tool. Decide on what part of the image you want as reflection.

Step 4

Since the sunglasses have darker reflection, you need to add the inner shadow layer style, by double clicking on the layer.

Next, to ensure that the image is slightly curved, use the “Spherize”  filter. Make use of the

“Horizontal only” option and set the amount to 30%.

Now you just have to repeat the same steps for the other lens too. And there, your reflection is ready.

The first and foremost step in preserving a photograph is to make a digital back up copy and have several copies of CD’s made and distribute it to friends and family. There are several digital back up options available such as CD’s, flash drives, hard disk etc. It is extremely important to store the negatives in entirely different location, so that even if the pictures are damaged, you still have the negatives to make prints from.

After a long and grueling wedding, couples generally do not find time to organize and store their pictures and find it convenient to simply tuck them away in a shelf or drawer. This form of improper storage is the first cause of photo deterioration. It is essential to store the albums and pictures in an area of low temperature and humidity. This is because; higher temperatures will cause the colors to fade. Choosing an appropriate location is of utmost importance. Never choose the basement, as it is generally humid and is also prone to flooding. Storing them in a room with excessive sunlight will also cause fading. Hence, select a spot that is not over exposed to light and does not have frequent humidity or temperature fluctuations.

While storing photographs, make sure that it is not clipped along with newspaper cuttings or other photos, as the acid in the newspaper tends to leak on to the images and damage them. It is also advisable to not use paper clips, pens, markers or rubber bands, as they can cause scarring on the pictures. If you would like to use some newspaper clipping along with the pictures, have copies made on acid-free paper and then add them to your wedding photo album.

Invest in a good quality wedding photo album that contains acid and Lignin free pages. Even the slightest trace of acid in the album can cause the wedding pictures to deteriorate at a faster rate.

If you would like to add comments or dates to any wedding pictures, do not write on the back of the pictures. Use separate photo labels to make comments and place them in the plastic pockets provided in the album. This will also help in preserving pictures for a longer period of time.

Wedding photographs are truly the only way to keep your most prized memories timeless and eternal!

Mother’s day is celebrated to express gratitude to all the mothers and to honor them. It’s a way of telling them that we love them. This is the time of the year that you can show your mother that she deserves the best of the world. You can gift her photographs, which are cherished possessions and evoke sweet memories.

Photographs get spoilt over a period of time due to various reasons, like stains, scratches, tears, wrinkles, etc. And if you have a photograph, most cherished by your mother, but is damaged, you can get it restored and gift to your mother. This can be done through wowApic. wowApic handles all sorts of photo restoration work. For this Mother’s Day, wowApic is offering $5 off on minimum $15 orders. Just enter the coupon code ‘justformom’ and avail the discount till May 12^th. Make the best use of this offer and gift her best.

Over a period of time the photos tend to become dull and get spoilt.  In such a case don’t get disheartened. Instead, get the photo restoration done, so that you can relive those moments and revel in the memories.

Photos get damaged due to various reasons. Regular wear and tear, fire, water, smoke: the reason may be any, but the solution is ‘Photo Restoration’.  You can either go for the do-it-yourself approach or give your photos to a professional who will do the needful repairs.

Sometimes it happens that the wedding photos do not come out well. Such photographs can also be rectified.

The usual photo restoration work done are removal of blemishes, acne, spots, whitening of teeth, changing hair color, adjusting exposures, image sharpening, restore faded photos, retouch sun spots, repair tears, scratches, change background, glamorize a photo, add or remove elements, remove distracting backgrounds, correcting water marked and ripped photos. Even photos that are damaged by fire or smoke can be restored by using the correct tools.

Tips for photo restoration

As mentioned earlier, you can either try doing yourself using photo restoration tools and techniques or hand it to the professionals. There are certain things to be taken into account before going ahead with the job.

1. Focus on what is to be restored – That is to say, prioritize the damages to be rectified. You need not try to restore every inch of a photograph but concentrate on the more important things and try to preserve only that.
2. Gauge the damage – To fix up specific damages you need specific tools. So judge the flaws in the photo and use the right tool to rectify them.
3. Preserve a copy – Before embarking on the mission of restoration, scan and keep a copy of the original photo.
4. Use lighting – To brighten up faded photos, adjust the lighting in various ways.
5. Fix discoloration-   Editing tools can be used to fix discoloration and balance the colors in the photographs.
6. Use editing tools to blur or sharpen your images.
7. Use advanced editing tools to repair torn or creased photos.

Wedding photos are valued possessions and professional photo restoration helps you maintain them in good condition for a lifetime.

Any kind of photographs can be turned into a pop art and a lot of photo studios, websites and software tools are available to help you do this. However make sure that you are clear about the size you want your final pop art family photograph to be in case you are planning to frame it. Most websites and software give you a number of size options and allow their users to preview the final photographs in the size that they choose.  Also make sure that you choose the right colors and shades that you want to use in the pop art image. Try using dark and light shades in equal proportions as too many dark or too many light shades can make the image look too showy or too dull which results in an unpleasant appearance. Another thing to take notice of is the type of finishing you want. Some websites allow you to give our pop art family photograph a glossy oil paint look or a crude oil, choose the finish only after looking at sample images with these finishes and then decide.

Another important thing that you must keep in mind is the type of pop art image you want to use for your family photo. Different types of pop art options are available such as pop art comics, pop art classics, pop art basic etc. which each give your family photo a different look. Try looking for samples images of each pop art style and decide which style looks best for your family photo before finalizing the pop art.

Pop art photographs are becoming increasingly popular these days because of the unconventional and stylish look they gives regular photographs. However make sure that you hand over your photograph to a professional to convert your images into pop art.