Photoshop Class

Photoshop seems so foreign to me.  It might as well be in Japanese.  I tried to figure it out on my own but it just wasn't working.  I wasn't good at it so I didn't have to motivation to play around.  And honestly, part of me thought you should just take good pictures and then you wouldn't need to edit so much. 

This year, I made a list of things I wanted to work on/towards in 2013.  Not resolutions, just small goals. Similar to the picture a day (Through My Picture Window -- missed only 11 days... not bad!)  Learning Photoshop Elements was on the list.

I still wanted to give it the good college try so Dan gave me the kick in the pants I needed.  He signed me up for a Basics of Photoshop Elements class through the park district.  He even downloaded the free trial of the latest version for me.  Good man, right?  Right.

I haven't had a whole lot of time to fiddle with it since the class (which has totally changed my mind -- editing, especially if you take good pictures... is worth it) but here are examples of a few that I've putzed with.

Before

After
I didn't learn much on how to color correct after the
first class but I did take out whatever that was on the left.

Before

After.
Played with the coloring and keystoning
(the first picture almost looks crooked
because of the door frame.  Don't worry,
I'll take care of that.)

 And last but not least --

Before

Take it from ok to great.
I also took out some chapped
blemishes around his mouth.

I obviously still need much practice.  The program is capable of soooo much - more than I'm willing to do.  I edited the last one a couple of weeks after the class ended and had to check my notes more than once... ok, way more than once.  I'll be ordering a highly recommended "how to" book on amazon because I know my notes won't help if I don't look at it for another month.  But I'm learning!

One thing checked off my Goals of 2013 list waaay sooner than I thought.