More Class Assignments

While looking around my gallery from the class I'm taking (see blog entry below) I discovered a photo I photoshop'd from Lesson 3 that I haven't shared here yet. This was a bonus project from Day 3 where we desaturated a photo, hand tinted it, added a frame and then added some stars to the background with the brush tool.

I used another picture from the photo shoot with Melissa (BTW, we are still waiting for Skyla's birth, Lissa is more anxious than the rest of us for this all to be over with and have Skyla in our arms at last!)

Okay, on with my pics from the class.

Day 5 Textures

Things are really getting pretty amazing now. I'd never worked with textures before. They give

a sort of 3D look to your photos which can make your pics look old and crumpled to contemporary and even make them look like they are printed on bubble wrap, depending what texture you use. Again, Jessica directed us to lots of free texture files you can download off the web.

The first photo I worked with was one Mino took in old town Conversano while we were in Italy in 2006.

I changed the photo to Sepia, did some other adjustments to it and then added a texture, which really gives it an old look. (See what looks like a crease in the center of the photo and the crumpled look around the edges? That is the texture layered over the photo.)

The next pic is also from our trip to Italy. It is a photo of all the umbrellas and people on the beach in Calabria. Doesn't it look like a really old photo now?

Then I did one more photo from our trip. This time I also used some color-tinting and added a frame to the photo. I also added a brush stamp and then text tool to add in the date.

My final picture from day 5 is a picture that I took of the hibiscus on our front porch, again using just about everything we had learned up to this point in the class.

Very fun class and I'm so excited to finally be learning more about using my photoshop elements program.

Day 6 - TTV

I had never heard of this before, but really good photographers are doing what are called TTV photos. TTV stands for through the viewfinder. In a nutshell, they are hooking their digital cameras up to really old cameras through the viewfinder on the old camera and taking pictures with their digital cameras. (Sounds complicated, and if you want more info there is lots of it out on the web.) Anyway...people are making texture templates to be used in photoshop that will give your photos this look without all the hassle of hooking your digi camera up to an old camera when you are taking a picture. On Day 6 of the class we learned how to add these textures to our photos. Very, very interesting look.

I used a photo that I took at the wedding shop of Melissa when she found her "dream" dress for her wedding. The texture I added to the photo makes it look like the photo was taken through the view finder of a really old camera. Then I added a brush stamp to the lower left corner of the photo and a little text to the lower right.

Day 7 of the class was just a Q&A of all the things we had learned the first week, which was an awful lot of stuff to remember. I'm so glad I will always have access to these course materials so I can go back and refresh my memory on all this stuff!

Day 8 Text

Up to this point we had just been working with simple text on our photos. In this lesson we learned how to add adjustment layers and textures to our text.

I used a photo I took on our trip to the Superstition Mountains in Arizona adding texture to the photo and to the word "time". Then I layered the words "standing still" over the first word, added a sanded overlay to the edges of the photo and layered a "negative" frame on the top.

So now my blog is up-to-date on all that I have been learning from this class and I'm anxiously waiting to discover what Day 9 will bring!

More Pictures

So I've found a few more minutes before we go to meet family for dinner at Olive Garden to share my pictures from one more of my classes.

Day 4: Clipping Masks

This was an easy lesson, but so effective. I can see wanting to apply masks to just about every photo.

Before applying the mask:

I had this great picture of Chad, Lissa and Aiden. They came out to the house last Monday for dinner and so we could take some "9th month belly pictures." We had a great evening and I took lots of pictures, hoping to get a few really good shots. This is one of my favorite shots, so sweet, a happy family waiting for their newest addition.

And this is after applying the clipping mask. It was so easy to do once I knew the right tools to use and in the correct order. I also cropped the picture a little bit, should have brightened it up also, but I didn't. It has a kind of soft look that I kind of like. In case you don't know, the clipping mask adds the soft, grungy look to the edges of the photo. (At least that's what this one does. It all depends on what clipping mask you use. Different ones will give your photo different looks. Wait until you see the clipping mask I used in Lesson 6!

That's it for now, got to go get changed to go to dinner.

Jessica Sprague Photoshop Class

Haven't been blogging much lately, but I have been busy! I've been taking another Jessica Sprague online class. This one is called Photo Editing: Frame-ups and Special Effects. If you have Photoshop, you really should take some of her classes, she is an amazing instructor and all the information from every class you register for is available to you forever so you can always go back and revisit any of the instructions. After owning Photoshop Elements 6 for about a year and never really knowing how to work it I finally took her class "Up and Running" and actually began exploring the possibilities of this wonderful program. It was the best money I have ever spent. The class I'm currently taking is actually being offered for free! It is wonderful and all you have to do is register and then all the class materials are available to you. I'm learning some amazing things that PSE6 can do to my photos, so I thought I would share my class work here on my blog. (Just in case there is actually anyone reading my blog, prepare to be amazed.)

Lesson 1: Adding a frame and wordart to a photo. Pretty basic stuff. This is a picture I took of Gracie at Black Butte a couple years ago. Thought she looked pretty "Sassy" here. Of course she often looks "sassy" and occasionally even sounds a little "sassy" but she really is a sweetheart and one of my favorite photo subjects. In fact I have almost 8 favorite photo subjects. I say "almost" because Skyla's due date is today, but she has not made her appearance yet.

Lesson 2: Again some basics using brushes. I love brushes, they are like digital rubber stamps and so much fun to work with. This is a fun photo I took of Gracie and Joey at a wedding we went to in Hood River last

month. Gracie was the flower girl and Joey was the ring bearer. At least they said he was a ring bearer, actually he just carried a football down the aisle, no rings in sight. Guess they thought the rings were safer with the best man.

Lesson 3: Things really start getting interesting now! Today we worked with creating a vintage, hand-tinted look on a modern photo. This gives a really neat effect, so I' going to show you my before and after photos:

Here's what I started with, a great shot of Melissa, Chad and Aiden waiting for Skyla.

And this is what I ended up with:

Pretty neat, huh? I need to get a little more aggressive with the hand tinting thing, it doesn't show really well, but I hand tinted Aiden's hat...should have used a stronger color so it would be more obvious, but I kind of like the subtle look also.

Well that's it for now, I've got 3 more lessons to share but I've run out of time for blogging so you will have to check back later for further updates! LOL