Just because I can

I am posting this now because I hope to post something similar in about a year to see whether or not I have progressed!  Bizarre??? Probably, but I tend to lose things you see, so this is as good a place to store it as any!  So, honestly, if you don't want to, you don't need to read any further.  Class dismissed!!!

This might not be a terribly exciting piece (sorry!) but for me, it is exciting in what it represents: my first pic that is a total compilation of bits and pieces.  I still have such a long way to go, but I feel as if this might represent the first few steps.  It will be a long journey I expect!  But it's a fun one, to be sure and one that has already brought me so much pleasure, here at my kitchen table.

This post represents a lot of studying, a lot of pondering, and a lot of experimenting.  I watch the videos that come with the various classes I am taking (at the moment, mostly classes falling under the umbrella of Sebastian Michael's classes, link below) and then I watch them again!  Trying to remember what steps to follow (my logical brain kicking in) I wake up early, too early, but then I HAVE to get up to see if I can figure out something that is bothering me about a piece.  In the above piece, for instance, I was trying to figure out how to darken just that little bit behind the model's head:  just a dark brush?, a curves adjustment on a black layer?, a 50% grey layer to selectively darken?, or (and this one often seems perfect) tossing the whole lot in the bin!  So I slept on it (sort of, I got up at three a.m. again, the problem nagging at my brain) and tried all of these (except the bin part), and I now know how to do all of them, without having to look it all up.  That's what I'm after.  I'm sure there are lots of other ways but it's a start!

The above pic contains purchased content and content provided for free with the course.

photoshopgrunge.com

Getting There

I am excited that I can mess about in Photoshop and not be having to look things up all the time....how to do this and that.  It's getting better.  Still such a far way to go, but there are times when it doesn't feel quite so overwhelming.

This is a shot taken not too far from where I live.  I am so lucky.  I've added many layers and effects, filters (smart and otherwise!), borders, etc etc.  Slowly but surely.

But for sure, I'll be back.

Window Dancing in the Fall.

I continue to move along on my Photoshop journey.  Still at my kitchen table.  It could be worse.  It is most definitely Fall and while we are having a lot of rain, we do seem to have some lovely periods of clear weather most days.  It is a beautiful season.  One of the layers I have used in this pic is a shot I took of a maple tree with its gorgeous golden leaves.  Some of the gold is showing on the shutter behind the dancer.  I like to think I have hidden a bit of the season in my image!

This is an image of a dancer that I extracted from some purchased material.  I then placed her on a window ledge from a picture taken in Avignon a couple of years ago.  Some layers, some shadows, some extra materials, messing about with frames again.  There is so much to learn and I seem to be most 'able' in the forgetting department.  Oh well, more practice.  And then more.  It's all good.

I'll be back.

Back to the Louvre

Oh my gosh, what did we do before digital photography??  Well, mostly I didn't....too much fuss and expense.  Now it's so easy.  So here I just brought up a photo I had taken in the Louvre a couple of years ago and I did a small rework.  I am still working on the extraction tools and haven't yet tackled anything as fussy as 'flying hair' but soon!  But a few extra layers, borders, backgrounds, overlays, tons of fun and c'est fini!  Such an interesting journey this is!

This pic had some other bits and pieces in the original that I can now remove easily (no flying bits here!....well, just the wings I guess)  and I am getting more comfortable with adding borders, lighting, etc.  Oh this does make living at my kitchen table so much more palatable!

I'll be back....

A little frustration and a small view

I am still playing with my photos, trying to understand image size, save for web, importing into Lightroom (good grief, where did it go??), messing about in Photoshop, and basically moving files around from here to ..... where???

So this is one I have played with before. A street scene in Arles.  I am adding it here to see how it might look after all the madness I went through to get it here: I imported it from a file of my 'web version' photos, then ran it through Topaz Impressions (which I may or may not have installed correctly, so I seem to have to run it outside of Photoshop), then I re-saved it, then I brought it into  Photoshop, applied some layers, filters and effects, and when I checked the image size, it was about one inch by one inch.  All-righty-then!

More baby steps.  LOTS more baby steps!
Learning, learning.  I'm going out for coffee.  Seems the sensible thing to do just now!

I'll be back.

Topaz Impression

I have purchased a programme that works inside Photoshop and that allows one to make some pretty exciting pictures, using one's own photos.  It's great but it reminds me a lot of some of the apps I purchased to use with my iPad.  Except that the iPad apps are a lot (LOT) less expensive.  Still, it's lots of fun and I will certainly concede that I have only just scratched the surface of its possibilities so I expect that in time I may change my mind.  Some of the work that other people have done is awesome.

Anyway, it's called Topaz Impression and is just one of a number of possible purchases under the Topaz umbrella.  It's all pretty amazing!

Lots to do, tons to learn,....I'll be back...

Roses

Still playing about with Photoshop and all the bits and pieces that that entails.  Working my way through (ALL!!) the classes I'm doing at the moment....thank goodness for 'lifetime access'!

This is a pic I took 5 or 6 years ago at a B &B we stayed at in Port Townsend.  Lots of lovely bits of ephemera about the place.  I'm still just trying out lots of different layers, filters, layer masks, etc.  I've installed (sort of) a couple of 'plug ins' and because of my lo-tech (read: total lack of) capabilities, I'm never sure if they are running properly or not.  Lots of deep breaths!!!

But some progress.  There's no hurry.
I'll be back.