Why? How could our Photoshop tips help you?
ALL of your old photographs and "tweaking" them, I did!
For the last few years, it has added a whole new dimension to my photography. Needless to say, colour processing didn't get a look in, I left that to the pros at the labs!
For the past two years I have been using Kevin Kubota's Photoshop Action sets on most of my wedding images and find them invaluable.
In typically "Me" style, I just loaded a photograph and started to play around, clicking this, sliding that ... it wasn't long before I got very frustrated with the sheer amount of features and effects available and so I shut the whole thing down for a while.
Then I started to read, and to listen to other people and their own Photoshop tips, people who knew what they were doing, and it wasn't long before I was as "at home" with Photoshop as I was up in the loft in the early 80's! It is not unusual for me to spend up to 8 hours a day on Photoshop CS nowadays.
I will show you simple Photoshop tips and techniques such as turning a somewhat bland photograph into something useable, for example...
A large Spanish Real Estate company, asked me to do something with their logo for an awards ceremony. This is the logo.
This took a lot more work but, once you know how, it isn't that difficult!
The same company asked me to produce an A1 print based on the Ocean's Eleven theme using the Directors of the company. Again, using the wonders of Photoshop CS I came up with this. I think they liked it, it is still hanging on the wall as large as life! With today's technology, online printing services can produce anything from postcards to banners, right from your desktop!
If you are serious about photography and feel that you want to explore a new and exciting avenue, give it a try. Once you get the hang of it, I can assure you that you will Always use it! It will really get your creative juices flowing.
Oh, and you don't have to have the latest version to get creative. Why not look at Photoshop CS2, a couple of generations old now but still great software and a lot cheaper than the latest reincarnation!
There are many other editing suites out there but none come close this one in terms of features and professionalism. However, it is pricey and not feasible for most people. With the amount of programs available, most with free trial, it is easy to end up with a PC that has 5 or more editing programs on it!
Please, please, please just stick to a maximum of 2, otherwise you will get confused as to which one does what and how?
If Photoshop is too much at this stage (both financially and on a learning curve basis), then I would suggest you look at Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 or 8 . They are the "baby brothers" of Photoshop, much cheaper and more user friendly. It is also a great start to get you learning all the exiting techniques and alterations you can make.
One other piece of software I find myself using more and more is ACDSee. It is a fantastic program that allows you to upload from a scanner, burn to a CD, remove red-eye and do most basic editing techniques. Most of all it has the best file viewer facility that I find myself using use all the time.
If you want to scan through all the photos in one of your files, you simply click on the one you want to see and then use the scroll wheel to flick through your pics. That's not all by a long shot...
ALL of your old photographs and "tweaking" them, I did!
For the last few years, it has added a whole new dimension to my photography. Needless to say, colour processing didn't get a look in, I left that to the pros at the labs!
For the past two years I have been using Kevin Kubota's Photoshop Action sets on most of my wedding images and find them invaluable.
In typically "Me" style, I just loaded a photograph and started to play around, clicking this, sliding that ... it wasn't long before I got very frustrated with the sheer amount of features and effects available and so I shut the whole thing down for a while.
Then I started to read, and to listen to other people and their own Photoshop tips, people who knew what they were doing, and it wasn't long before I was as "at home" with Photoshop as I was up in the loft in the early 80's! It is not unusual for me to spend up to 8 hours a day on Photoshop CS nowadays.
I will show you simple Photoshop tips and techniques such as turning a somewhat bland photograph into something useable, for example...
A large Spanish Real Estate company, asked me to do something with their logo for an awards ceremony. This is the logo.
This took a lot more work but, once you know how, it isn't that difficult!
The same company asked me to produce an A1 print based on the Ocean's Eleven theme using the Directors of the company. Again, using the wonders of Photoshop CS I came up with this. I think they liked it, it is still hanging on the wall as large as life! With today's technology, online printing services can produce anything from postcards to banners, right from your desktop!
If you are serious about photography and feel that you want to explore a new and exciting avenue, give it a try. Once you get the hang of it, I can assure you that you will Always use it! It will really get your creative juices flowing.
Oh, and you don't have to have the latest version to get creative. Why not look at Photoshop CS2, a couple of generations old now but still great software and a lot cheaper than the latest reincarnation!
There are many other editing suites out there but none come close this one in terms of features and professionalism. However, it is pricey and not feasible for most people. With the amount of programs available, most with free trial, it is easy to end up with a PC that has 5 or more editing programs on it!
Please, please, please just stick to a maximum of 2, otherwise you will get confused as to which one does what and how?
If Photoshop is too much at this stage (both financially and on a learning curve basis), then I would suggest you look at Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 or 8 . They are the "baby brothers" of Photoshop, much cheaper and more user friendly. It is also a great start to get you learning all the exiting techniques and alterations you can make.
One other piece of software I find myself using more and more is ACDSee. It is a fantastic program that allows you to upload from a scanner, burn to a CD, remove red-eye and do most basic editing techniques. Most of all it has the best file viewer facility that I find myself using use all the time.
If you want to scan through all the photos in one of your files, you simply click on the one you want to see and then use the scroll wheel to flick through your pics. That's not all by a long shot...