I have received lots of great feedback about the Photoshop Tutorials I have posted so far. I promise there will be another series soon and if there is anything in particular you would like to see a tutorial on then please leave a comment below.

I was approached recently by Gavin from Premium Digital Backgrounds asking if I would like to provide a review for his products. You can see from the website that Gavin provides great backgrounds for Photoshop fans to use to improve their photo edits.  
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Images from Premium Digital Backgrounds
For just $27 you get emailed a login name and password so you can have immediate access to a large range of digital backdrops. Each one is 6000 by 4806 and 300dpi which allows to you create high quality printable images. You also get access to a video tutorial which helps to teach you the basics of how to remove the background from your photograph so you can place subjects onto one of the digital backdrops. 
There is a range of around 280 themed backdrops to choose from including Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Weddings, Birthdays, Football etc... In addition to that you get access to over 100 studio themed backdrops.

Gavin was kind enough to let me have access to the backdrops so I have created a couple of edits using my own children to give you some more examples of the results:

  
The video tutorial that comes with the backdrops gives you an idea of how to remove the background from your photograph, it makes it look pretty easy which can be the case with some photographs. If you have little knowledge of Photoshop then I would suggest that you may find this quite difficult at first. 
For some photographs the magic erasor tool will pretty much remove all of the background, but sometimes you will have to use the manual eraser to remove areas. You need a steady hand for this and it can take some practise to get the results you would like.
Below you can see the three stages of removing the background from your photograph - before, during and after:

Once you have removed the background you can simply apply your image to any of the backdrops, and then use the blur tool to gently integrate the edges of your image into the background. 
You will have a whole 28 days to download all the great quality digital photography backdrops. Plus you have a 60 day money back guarantee so even if you are just starting out with Photoshop you have nothing to lose giving this a go.

Product file format: PSD, Tiff, Jpeg image files. Necessary software included. All files are zipped for faster download. Please note Total download size is 2.5gb due to high quality.
The backdrops can be used for personal use and are perfect for creating greetings cards, invitations, personalised pictures for bedrooms and lots more! 

To find out more pop along to www.premiumdigitalbackgrounds.com. 
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A kindle is a small, lightweight electronic book.

When I first heard about the Kindle through TV and internet adverts I have to admit I wasn’t so impressed. I’m a book lover, and I love the look, feel and even smell of books, so the idea of an electronic device taking over the traditional paper book didn’t particularly appeal to me. 

Christmas 2010, however, I was lucky enough to be given a Kindle as a gift. My first reaction was thinking how it was probably going to be wasted on me as I couldn’t imagine preferring it to my pile of paper books. I decided to give it a go though and I honestly couldn’t have been more surprised at how much I love it!!!  

As a mum of two little boys I’ve found it difficult to read books for a while as I usually have my hands full with either a child, or a baby and a bottle.
A paper book requires two hands, one to hold it and the other to turn the page. 
A paper book, if dropped into a potty or having juice spilt all over it is in a pretty sorry state. 
A paper book loses the page you were on when picked up by a child, and usually takes    up too much room in the change bag stuffed full of toys and nappies. 

A Kindle however is a dream for anyone with children who loves books! It is lightweight and small so it can fit into a handbag, if you spill something on it you can wipe it clean. You can hold it with one hand and use the buttons at either side to turn the page, and when you turn it off (or have left it for so long it turns itself off) it saves the page you were on! The feature I particularly like about the Kindle is how easy and quick it is to download a book, as a British ex pat I have had to stock up on books when I was back in the UK or  order them online and wait a week or more for them to arrive. Now I can browse either the Kindle store on Amazon via my PC or browse the shop directly from my Kindle and downloading a book literally takes seconds. 
The Kindle store doesn't just contain books either, you can also read magazines, newspapers and blogs on your Kindle. It charges via a USB port to your computer and the charge lasts a long time making it a perfect travel companion.

The Kindle has really been a positive addition to my life and enabled me to enjoy reading again, what item of technology has made a big difference to your life recently?

* This review was not sponsored, I am just sharing my opinion on what I believe to be a great product! If you would like your product reviewed by The Photo Fairy please contact me via email at photofairydesigns@gmail.com*  
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