Day 1 of Photoshop Top 5

This is a free class which has been running this week with Jessica Sprague but only now I have I managed to find the time to look at the first class.

We have learnt all about colour correction and I have found out lots of brilliant tools on Photoshop Elements to help you enhance the look of your photos. here is my before and after shot of Callum taken last year while we were on holiday in the States (boo hiss - this time last year we were in The Smoky Mountains.) I have learnt how to use the colour cast tool to change the tone of the skin in a portrait shot and how to change the blacks, whites and greys true to life.

Jessica explains everything really simply with wonderful video tutorials - my problem is just remebering all the details.

Before:

After:

Photo Editing - Day 13

Day 13: Collage + Brush
Welcome to Day 13! Today is the last video segment of our class, and believe me, we are going out with a bang! :) You'll be able to practice lots of your skills in this final project, and I can't wait to see your rendition!

I'll show you how quick and easy it is to create a grid using clipping masks, and then really spice it up with a brush! Just click the Read More link below to get started! {...}

Here is my version - I fancy getting one like this printed off much larger than this 8x8 and framed to go on the wall.

The sepia version has text added and the middle pic is supposed to be coloured - but I can't for the life of me work that bit out. More time needed to be spent on it I think.

Photo Editing - Day 12

Day 12: Storyboards
Welcome to Day 12! One of the most popular professional techniques for framing up a set of photos is a storyboard. In today's segment I'll show you how to create a three-panel storyboard of your own, including adding some text at the bottom. These look INCREDIBLE hanging in a frame on your wall! I can't wait to show you how easy these are, with the help of our friends, the clipping masks! :)

Photo Editing - Day 11

Selective/Spot Recoloring
Welcome to Day 11! Today's technique is one that, with the right photo, can be incredible. Choose a photo that has an object in clear view that you'd like to really highlight, while leaving the rest of the photo black and white. We'll be using layer masks for this technique, and I can't wait to show you the secrets! :)

I have wanted to be able to do this technique properly for ages. I have only managed it once on the photo of Callum wearing his red nose but that was only because it was a regular shape. Just need to find photos that lend themselves to spot recolouring.

Photo Editing - Day 10

Day 10: Project Start-to-Finish
Welcome to Day 10! By now, ten days in to our class, we've learned a whole bunch of techniques, and I'm sure you've experimented mixing and matching them. And if not, we'll take the opportunity to do just that today! I'll show you how to create your own clipping mask from a shape, then add in your photo, two textures, a type overlay, some type in two fonts, and then we'll finish it off with our edge burning technique. Start to finish in minutes, and you'll get an awesome photo! Ready to get started?

So today we were combining a few of the techniques we have learnt - we created our own mask, added a couple of different textures, an overlay, used 2 different fonts and some edge burning to finish it all off.

A lot to take in but I got there in the end!

Photo Editing - Day 9

Welcome to Day 9! Today we'll be talking about a technique borrowed from the traditional darkroom: edge burning. In the dark room, the photographer would additionally expose only the edges of a photo, while leaving the center of the photo properly exposed. Cool news: we can replicate this look in Photoshop, and the darkened edges pull our viewer's eye subtly toward the center of our photo.

When you add an adjustment layer in Photoshop, the layer always comes with a mask, which looks like a rectangle in the Layers palette. You can paint and draw on the mask to "show" and "hide" the effect you've added. We'll be be hiding our mask's effect with the gradient tool. :) It might take a bit to wrap your head around what's going on with the masking in this lesson, but it has some incredible possibilities!

Either I chose the wrong sort of photos for this technique or it is just too subtle for me - but I can't see much of an effect.







The top photo is the original and the one underneath is the edited version. Can see a slight difference but nothing too drastic. Maybe more playing with PSE is needed!!

Photo Editing - Day 8

Welcome to Day 8! I love photos. And I love words. So the combination of words and photos is not only completely natural, it often feels almost necessary! :) I find that I especially love type when it is placed on open, off-center space, and complements or leads in to the focal area of a photo. You'll find yourself taking plenty of off-center photos to continue trying this technique forever! :D After the video lesson, I offer some suggestions to spark inspiration on how to use type on your photos in interesting ways.

Loved today's lesson - have wanted to know how to do this properly for ages. Can now seeing me taking more photos with some extra "white space" just so I can add some words to them. Loving today's textures too - especially the folded paper one.

Photo Editing - Day 6

Day 6: TTV & Mega-Challenge
Hi there! Welcome to Day 6 of our class! Can you believe we're almost a week in?

Today I'll introduce a really fascinating concept in photography circles, called "Through the Viewfinder". To get a worn, faded look, photographers will actually take photographs (often using a macro lens and a light blocking device) through the viewfinder of an old camera. The result is a photo with blackened edges, distortion, scuffs and scratches and marks - pretty much what we've been looking for all our lives, right? :)

Through the Viewfinder, or TTV is growing in popularity, and you can see some of the work on the TTV Flickr Group. It's wonderful inspiration as well! You can check out the blog on the group's home page.

While the TTV flickr group is specifically for photographers actually putting the technique to practice, there's good news from this movement for the rest of us, too! Lots of folks are offering "Fake TTV" textures, especially at Flickr. So it's easy to fake without having to own your own old camera or rig up the light-blocking "tube" that connects your digital camera to the viewfinder of the old one. Ready to download some awesome textures and complete today's challenge?

Enjoyed today's class although you really do have to chose your photos carefully - not sure some of them work very well with portrait pics. But I have had a play and have learnt something.

Photo Editing - Day 5

Day 5: Textures
Welcome to Day 5! Today we'll be talking about textures. This is such a cool way to dress up certain photos, and you'll have fun searching for and collecting textures from all over the web after you learn the quick techniques for using them on your photos!

A texture can be any image file that you add as an overlay to your photo, that provides an additional layer of depth to the image. Textures are typically photos or high-resolution scans of patterned or (shockingly...) textured items, such as cloth, wood, concrete, paper, or more abstract elements.

Textures evoke a moodiness and a worn feeling, adding shadow or light or tint or scuffs and speckles. Because of this, I find that my favorite photos for texture are landscapes, flowers, or portraits that are a little bit moodier (someone walking away from you, or looking away from the camera, for example).

Another fab tutorial although I have to work through it step by step cos I was easily confused!!









Need to have a play around with this technique as I think I would prefer something a bit more subtle.

Photo Editing - day 4

Day 4: Clipping Masks
Welcome to Day 4! I hope you've enjoyed all that we've covered so far. We're going back to the edges of our photos today with one of the more complex Photoshop ideas: Clipping Masks. A clipping mask is basically a shape - any shape - that you can "clip" your photo onto, to cause your photo to conform itself to that shape. Want a heart-shaped photo? You can clip a rectangular photo onto a heart shape, and boom! Heart. I like to call clipping masks "cropping without cropping", because in addition to conforming itself to a particular shape, you don't actually CUT your photo at all - the edges that aren't inside the mask are simply hidden, or masked out. So you can still move your photo within the shape itself. Pretty mind-blowing, right? Yeah. :)

One of my favorite ways to use clipping masks on photos is to use one that is rectangular, but has scuffed-up edges, so your photo takes on a worn, aged appearance. This looks absolutely amazing either in the context of other digital items or simply printed out as-is. You are going to find yourself tempted to use a mask or a .png frame on EVERY PHOTO for the rest of your life. :)

Loved today's lesson - its something I have wanted to be able to do for some time. Can see me using this technique loads.

Photo Editing - Day 3

Day 3: Create a Vintage, Hand-Tinted Look

Welcome to Day 3! Today I'll introduce a technique you can use to create a cool hand-tinted special effect for photos you'd like to add a soft, antique feel to. We'll be diving in to two great Photoshop tools today - Adjustment layers and Blending Modes. Hopefully you'll be able to see how combining several different layers and effects creates a stunning overall result.

This was my original pic.




Then after desaturating it to remove some but not all of the colour, then turning the photo to sepia and finally blending the two layers together using soft light - this was the finished result. It gives a vintage look to the photo and accentuates the shadows.




Then Jessica set us another challenge which was to use what we had learnt today and combine it with yesterdays class and add a frame and use brushes. Not sure what Sam will think about the stars!!!











Already looking forward to tomorrows lesson.

Photo Editing - Day 2

Welcome to Day 2! Today's lesson covers one of the most amazing Photoshop tools for photographers: the Brush tool. I think you'll agree that we can even call it life-changing! :) The Photoshop Brush tool, in its default format, works just like a paintbrush. You select the Brush tool, pick a brush to paint with, choose a color, and begin painting.

But, the real fun begins when you begin loading in your own brushes, and use the Brush tool like a stamp instead! You can find thousands of digital brushes online, available for free or for purchase, and load them in to Photoshop.

Had great fun with this one - and I must have learnt something yesterday as it didn't take half as long to finish the tutorial.

Here is my original photo of Callum - and my attempt at using some of the free brushes that Jessica provided.






Off to hunt for more free brushes.

Photo Editing

Today is the first day of Jessica Prague's photo editing course - its a freebie so that even better!!























Today's lesson was how to add PNG frames and word art to a photo. The class is clearly taught through video tutorials - showing you through PSE6 step by step. But my brain still hurts at the end of it. Here is the finished result:

From this -




To this -



And a slightly more boyish version -