Have you drank your greens today?

The goal of this collage is to share the message of how drinking fresh juice is conveniently healthy.  One of the main reasons many people struggle to eat healthy is because it is not convenient. It takes effort and time.  Juice is part of that solution because a lot of nutrients can be packed into one juice and it doesn’t a whole lot of time to drink it. This collage shows that in the few minutes it takes to drink and 8 ounce glass of juice you will get the same nutrients as eating 5 apples.

I have very limited experience with photoshop so creating this collage was my first real crack at using these tools.

I used three images from freeimages.com

http://www.freeimages.com/photo/apple-table-1329268

http://www.freeimages.com/photo/glass-of-orange-juice-1-1525867

http://www.freeimages.com/photo/photos-1194675

Techniques for each image.

1. For the table image with the apples I erased the background using the eraser tool. I also used the dodge tool around the edges.
2. I added the green image as a background and then used the magnetic lasso tool to trim around the edges of the table. After the section I wanted to erase was selected, I inverted the selection and used the erase tool to eliminate the original background and allow the green background to show.
3. The glass of orange juice was quite the challenge because it was surrounded by a white box. To get rid of the white box I used the erase tool. I also used the dodge tool and blur tool to soften the edges. I played with the tools from the separating background tutorial but in the end decided against using them because I did not want to make the image black and white. I will need to study up on more effective ways to use those tools.
4. To change the glass of orange juice to look like apple juice, I selected one of the apples and then selected the juice in the glass and used the “match color” effect to change the colors. I expected a brighter green but I am happy with the way it turned out.
5. When all of this was done I added the two text box layers and sized the fonts.

Photoshop Tutorials

Here are my tutorials.

My Journey to Juice

As a kid growing up in the meat and potatoes state of Idaho we had juice. Sure we did. It was usually frozen and came out of a can. All you had to do was open it up, dump it in pitcher, add water a you had fresh orange juice for breakfast. Once in a while, on special occasions, we got a Capri-Sun, and since it wasn’t Kool-Aid it also got the classification as juice.

As I got older and started going to high school, I got introduced to new kind of juice called Jamba Juice. The new drink claimed to be juice but reminded me more of ice cream than juice. It even gave me a brain freeze if I slurped it up the straw to fast.

So as you can imagine I was never a really big fan of juice and rarely incorporated it into my daily meals. It just wasn’t a priority.

At age 23 I got a job working on a tourist railroad in Alaska that traveled daily from Anchorage to Fairbanks. I finally left the meat and potatoes state and was exposed to a variety of different people and opinions. Among the many things that I experienced, one was fresh pressed juice and smoothies. I even took my first shot of wheatgrass!

This juice came straight from the fruit and vegetables and was made right in front of my eyes. It had no added sugar, preservatives, artificial flavors or coloring, or artificial anything. The more I drank this juice, the better I felt. This was juice like I had never experienced it before.

Now I can’t say that I automatically converted to juice right then and there and swore off junk food for the rest of my life, but what I did gain was an appreciation for fresh pressed juice and the amazing effect it can have on my body.

The best part is that the person that introduced me to this kind of juice is working to open her own juice bar and I want to use this platform as a way to get the word out about the amazing work that she does and the bright future of Green Frog Juice Bar and Superfoods.