PSE Category
Friday, January 20th, 2012
So. Today’s was the last lesson in the Photoshop “Skinny-mini” course I was taking at the Kim Klassen Cafe. Wow. There was some cool stuff in there! I really enjoyed the course, learned some new tricks, and look forward to playing around with more of my own photos. I did, however, also discover that two weeks is about my maximum commitment these days – about day 7 (of 10) life started creeping in, and I was no longer diligent about getting the homework done. A 365 project just wouldn’t get done. Ah, well. What can you do when you have a sick toddler? Anyhow, I snuck in a little bit of playing this morning and thought I would leave it on this note. So, yeah. If you’re looking for a simple introduction to Photoshop, I highly recommend visiting Kim’s site and checking out her offerings. =)
Today’s lesson included selective blurring (in addition to textures, etc.), which transformed this…
Into this…
A little “heavy-handed”, I know, but I really liked how stylized it becomes. Have a great weekend, y’all!
Tags: blur, cafe, class, course, Kim Klassen, lesson, life, photoshop, Skinny-mini, text, textures
Posted in PSE | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
Okay. The last couple of days of Skinny-mini have involved adding texture layers, and altering images from color to black-and-white (and gradients thereof).
Changing this…
To this…
And this…
To this…
(Oh, thank heavens for the spot-healing brush!!!)
Anyhow. Just thought I’d share. =)
Tags: black-and-white, editing, Kim Klassen, layers, PSE9, Skinny-mini, textures
Posted in PSE | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
Alrighty. Two lessons down and two days of homework in brings us to today. I just thought I’d share the results – some photographic art journaling, if you will, altering images I took for August Break. 
Day 1 & 2 – Working With Text
Day 3 & 4 – Using Layers and Adjustments
Before
After
Before
After
Not terribly dramatic, I know (at least not when they’re small like this), but the changes are there. I can’t help but hear my favourite photography professor’s voice saying that they’re “calendar images”… and I’m not sure whether or not I should be offended by that. Anyhow. It’s been fun and I’m looking forward to tomorrows lesson. Wheee!
(Note: the framing was done afterward, in Pixlr-o-matic. I’m really hoping that we get around to covering how to do that sort of thing in PSE9 too…)
Tags: adjustments, e-course, homework, Kim Klassen, layers, Skinny-mini
Posted in PSE | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
Remember way back in September when I finally got around to purchasing PSE9? Well, since then I’ve been trying to register for Kim Klassen’s FREE “Skinny-Mini” e-course – without success. It just never seemed to be offered when I was looking. Until today. As I was editing my Creative Inspirations list, I happened to click on her site to see if it was available… and, well, long story short, I’m on Lesson 2. Wheee! So, yeah. If you want to learn your way around Photoshop Elements, now’s the time to sign up! 10 lessons over 2 weeks, go at your own pace, and did I mention that it’s completely FREE??? Yes, she uses a lot of layers and textures – things you may not necessarily be “into”, but she’s also showing me some very useful basics and even some shortcuts – in a quick and dirty way. Yay! Join me if you dare. Maybe now I’ll be able to do some photo editing without all those lovely presets at Pixlr-o-matic.
From Day 1 – a little tour of PSE9 plus working with text!
Tags: e-course, free, Kim Klassen, photoshop, Pixlromatic, PSE9, Skinny-mini
Posted in PSE | 2 Comments »
Friday, November 11th, 2011
Feeling a bit under the weather… again… so the “Pine Lake – Part II” post will have to wait. For today, I leave you with some Loose Moose Theatre for Kids photos for their upcoming performance of Aladdin. I took some promotional shots last night during their dress rehearsal, and although some of the props and stuff have yet to be finished, I think you get a pretty good idea of the show – especially when I play around in PSE9 a bit. A gravy boat never looked so good.
Break legs, guys! And if you’re in the area, why not pop by and see the show?
Tags: Aladdin, Loose Moose, promotional shots, PSE9, theatre for kids
Posted in Photography, PSE | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
Well. This week’s prompt from the These Moments (challenge) group was “self portrait”. So I started thinking about all the manymanymany different kinds of photos I could take of myself for this challenge… And it struck me that any one of those ideas just wouldn’t suffice. Ever since I became a stay-at-home mom, I’ve felt that there’s just never enough of me to go around. There is just soooo much to do – for my kids, for my husband, for my home, for my garden, for my friends, for my hobbies, for my dog… and occasionally for me. If only I could clone all of my different selves… Then I remembered that I have PSE9 – and I realized that I totally could! Wheee!
I also remembered seeing an image of a multi-armed Hindu goddess in my travels, which I tried to find online. Let me just say right now that the whole Hindu gods and goddesses thing is VERY confusing! There are several different multi-armed goddesses, so I decided to just pick one – Maa Durga, the invincible. “One who can redeem in situations of utmost distress”. Yeah, that sounds about right. She was totally a mother… Reading about her inspired this. (If you click on the image here, it will take you to Flickr where you can see it up closer. Click on it in Flickr, then click “view all sizes” when it shows up in the black lightbox…)
She is usually depicted riding a lion or tiger, but I decided to forgo that – it was already going to be challenging enough as it was. And as I didn’t have a lotus handy, in lieu of the 18th arm in which she would hold it, I decided to have her standing on one. I elaborated on a photo from the Creative Commons (thanks to “spaceppl” on Flickr for sharing this image) for this.
So. Here I am. Journalist. Photographer. Home Maker. Accountant. Gardener. Friend. Artisan. Chauffeur. Fix-it Lady. Chef. Tea Drinker. Cleaner. Playmate. Dog Walker. Health Care Provider. Social Planner. Student. And so much more…
And for all you other mothers out there who are multi-tasking goddesses in your own right, let me just say, “Well done!!!”
Tags: accountant, artisan, chauffeur, chef, cleaner, dog walker, fix-it lady, friend, gardener, goddess, health care provider, Hindu, home maker, journalist, lotus, Maa Durga, multi-armed, multi-tasking, photographer, playmate, social planner, stay-at-home-mom, student, tea drinker, These Moments
Posted in Musings, Photography, PSE | 14 Comments »
Wednesday, September 14th, 2011
I spent the better part of my “free time” today editing baby photos for my friend. They’re soft and cute and fuzzy (figuratively speaking, that is). But one of them kind of… stuck out, if you will. And I just had to play around a little…
Happily, I am pretty sure the parents will totally appreciate it.
Tags: baby photos, playing, PSE9, stick it, to da man, unusual, with character
Posted in PSE | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011
As you may recall, a couple of weeks back I took a nice portrait of my friend Jennifer during August Break…
She was wanting to use it on her spa website, but the tan lines were kind of bugging her, so I offered to try and “fix” them in PSE9. After doing a bit of research, I ended up taking a two-step approach. First, I made a duplicate copy as a background layer – which I deleted and replaced many times as I was figuring things out. I used the clone stamp tool with a very large and fuzzy brush to fill in the “white” strap marks, sampling skin from adjacent areas and just “moving them over” really. The tan lines were magically gone, but her neck area was still pretty red in comparison, and stamping over it just made things… bad. So, step two – I added a new blank layer and then sampled some of her shoulder for a pale skintone which I (again with a large and fuzzy brush) essentially spray painted over the red with. A few opacity adjustments, flattening the image, and this is what it looks like now.
Not perfect, I’m sure, but so much better than it was. Woohoo PSE9, and go me! =)
Tags: clone stamp, fix, PSE9, skin, skintone, suntan lines, two-step
Posted in PSE | 2 Comments »
Thursday, September 8th, 2011
Yesterday I had the great pleasure of meeting my dear friend’s new baby. He is completely adorable. He’s also the first baby I’ve actually held since I had my own two-and-a-half years ago, and I have to admit, I got a little wistful. Not that I want another baby of my own – I don’t think I have it in me to go through all we’ve been through yet again. I think I just experienced a little… longing? For the peaceful, calm, sweetness of him that I feel like I missed out on with my own… thanks to sleep deprivation and having to deal with the whole NICU and acid reflux thing. He even smiled his first smile for me. Aww…
At any rate, I took the opportunity to snap some photos of him. Which, I have to admit, didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped. I had forgotten how squirmy babies are when they’re not asleep, and the low light and slower shutter speeds weren’t exactly ideal for that. Still, I managed to get a few good photos. And I think I’ll be able to salvage a few of the less good ones too. Like this one, for example, which was taken while I was testing for the light (I ended up having to totally push/overexpose the rest of the photos because of the neutral/light scene.)
It started out completely underexposed (remember, this was just a test shot, but it is one of the only ones where he looks like he is sleeping, so I thought I’d play with it and see what I could do)…
First I cropped it, then adjusted the heck out of the brightness and contrast to get this…
Now, if you look closely at the image (as I am prone to do), his hair has developed a bit of a green tinge around the edges with the adjustments. So, I popped open PSE9 and studied up on how to change the colour of an object… and then did it! After I added a nice overall warm layer to the image, that is.
Much better. But, add a few “special touches” in Picnik – like a soft focus around his face, and a warm vignette (which I will soon learn how to do in PSE9, I’m sure)…
And the baby portrait has been completely resuscitated! Check it out closer up…
Isn’t that amazing?!?! Oh, thank goodness for the technical age… And yay me for learning how to work a little of it’s magic!
Anyhow. I just thought I’d share. It feels really good to be able to figure out how to do at least a little bit more of what I want to do to photos. Kind of makes up for the other day’s less-than-stellar results. Woohoo!
Tags: baby photos, fixing underexposed photos, less than good, PSE
Posted in Photography, PSE | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, September 6th, 2011
Today I played around with PSE… and it was not good. I found that without a specific lesson to focus on – just playing with layers and stuff – I am still not well versed enough to create something, well… good. At least not within the limited amount of time I had to play. I think that instead of taking a photo I like and trying to figure out how to make it rock, I am still at the “study a tutorial and then find a similar photo to make that process work on…” stage. Which is okay. It’s all part of the learning process, right? Here, let me show you…
Here is a photo I snapped when we went out for drinks on our anniversary. It was taken in a pub, with very little light, and could use some punching-up.
And here it is after I played with various layers and masks. While I already have a few tricks under my belt, it is just not… enough. Yet. Though I did learn some new stuff just by chance. Which is always cool.
And here it is after a quick visit to Picnic. Yeah. I’ve still got SOOOO much to learn! But as I said, it’s all part of the process. Here’s to finding some time to do some more studying.
Tags: anniversary, drinks, Picnik, PSE, so much to learn
Posted in Photography, PSE | 2 Comments »
