Why Photoshop (Elements) is One of My Best Friends :)

I've been meaning to do this post for a while now. I am so enamored of Photoshop, and I want to help all you curious ladies to understand why I can be so passionate about an inanimate object, lol! So I figure the best way to demonstrate is to show you some classic "before" and "after" shots. For those of you already familiar with the wonders of Photoshop, feel free to exit my blog now :) I won't be offended.

By the way, I'm totally an amateur at the most basic level, and I have no training whatsoever. You may not even like what I did to the photos. And that's perfectly okay! Photography is so subjective anyway. I just wanted to share this piece of my life with you. Photoshop has to be my friend because I just have a regular "point and shoot" camera, and the pictures just lack that extra spark that makes them stand out. I'm sure when I get my Digital Rebel xti sometime around Christmas I'll still find plenty of excuses to use it!

So here we go:

This first shot is of my nephew playing T-Ball. I really captured the pose very well, but it's just lacking "oomph."

This is after I played with blending modes, cropped it and blurred the background to better focus on him (and his intense expression!). Now it makes a statement.

This is Ashley goofing off after we got our last haircut. Such a cute expression, but again, it just doesn't pop.

This is her after I played with blending modes, increased the contrast, and made the background white. You like?!

This is just a mistake. I uploaded the wrong picture and don't know how to delete it. So excuse this photo :)

Comments

Favorite Things

Things that make me smile and sometimes laugh: my family Starbucks with friends reading blogs :) parking the car in the driveway of our "new" house, lol! Oh, I guess I've forgotten to take a picture to show, huh? bantering with Ashley (the good kind of bantering--not the kind that gives me gray hairs!) My Missionettes girls (I think we've already been over the fact that even though they all have parents, they're still "my" girls!) breakfast with friends (Hi, Teena!) my new XTi :) Photoshop Elements (one of my best friends 'cause it makes me look like I take good pictures, lol!) scrapbooking (digital and regular) Crock Pot dinners (If I wasn't a Christian I would worship the person(s) who invented it) women friends in general the words Carlos mispronounces (washmouth instead of mouthwash, it's "between the rules" instead of "against the rules," and "overfloat" instead of overflow) I, of course encourag...

"Cool" Lunch

I usually make Ashley take her lunch three days out of the week (she "gets" to buy on the other two days, even though she doesn't actually eat the food--part of the whole "fit in with the crowd" issue) . I was having a SERIOUSLY hard time getting her to bring her lunch, and it occurred to me one day that if she took "fancier" sandwiches, she might not fight it so much. So ... I started making Chicken Salad and getting various toppings (she likes the jars of roasted peppers, pepperoncinis, alfalfa sprouts, tomato, etc.) as well as buying bolillos or other fancier sandwich breads. That went over well. It went over so well that her friends would ask for a taste, and rave about how yummy the sandwich was. They were actually jealous of Ashley's lunch (yeah! now she won't be the "geek" who brings her lunch; she'll be the girl who brings cool lunches--mission accomplished and then some!) . One of her friends I know rather well, because...

Nehemiah: Sheep Gate (Symbolism)

hubpages.com http://www.prayfordetroit.com/ As I mentioned in my Nehemiah post, God has nudged me this summer to study Nehemiah in depth because He has some things He wants to show me. I am just starting Chapter 5, and I must say it is so exciting and interesting. I have to admit, though, that when I got to Chapter 3, it just looked like one of those boring chapters: it gave all the boring details about each section of the wall of Jerusalem that was being rebuilt, and gave countless names of the people who rebuilt each section. I was going to skip it and move on to Chapter 4 when I felt the Lord nudge me to look deeper--that there was something here that He wanted to show me. So I dutifully sought the Lord (and a research book, and the internet!) , and was ASTOUNDED at the incredible layers of symbolism in the names of the gates! It has turned out to be my favorite chapter so far. :) God is incredibly amazing, huh? The big pi...

My Good King

Search This Blog