Ideas of how to edit

Tyler · Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 2:16 pm Post subject: Ideas of how to edit

Okay, so im completely new to photoshop. At this moment i lack inspiration and assistance to photoshop my taken pictures. For example i have taken a shot of a baby and i have no clue how to enhance it into better than the original.
My Question is:
1. What do you do after you have taken a **** load of pictures and you sit in front of your computer reviewing them?
2. How would you edit this baby picture and how did u come up with the idea? ( http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/832/img2426u.jpg/ - http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/11/img2423vf.jpg/)

Thanks in advanced!

seaco · Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 4:07 pm Post subject:

My own personal way is to just try things this picture has been sharpened, the background blurred more a gradient applied to the top and diagonally, eyes lightened,cropped and a Nik Software filter applied if I remember.

Just try things and see if they improve the picture after a while you'll get an idea before you start what will work!

Tyler · Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 7:42 am Post subject:

Thanks a lot seaco! You got any speciel sites with guides or how do you learn about the effects and such?

Im really trying to get into photoshopping, but im abit confused of where to start to get some experience!

Once again, thanks in advanced.

jerryb4417 · Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 2:16 pm Post subject: Re: Ideas of how to edit

hi,
just a few thoughts...
first... I always keep a untouch copy of a photo ...my skill have improved over the years and i have noticed those first pictures i enhanced were poor compared to what i am capable of doing now and i am going back to those orginals and redoing... bethat said...

1. what i do when i first look at a groupof picture i downloaded from a camera... i evaluate them... the quality, the lighting the camera angle, if thier dull/bland looking etc.....
essentially i look what basic improvements are needed and if the picture is worth the effort... also many times ilook at the potential of a picture.. sometimes justslight improvemens or maybe some saturation or maybe apply various artistic painting effects ....

2. i would have done a similar thing that seaco did... and the reason i would do it... by bluring the background it focuss your attent on the kid!!!! also in the process if you noticed the color of the kid is a little bit saturated it hi lights the kid alittle more with that dull color of the background... if you had agood picture of just the building iwouldprobablyhave cut out the hat and fill in with the building... that hat is a distraction at least to me..

3. on learning ... and keep in mind thier more than one way to get the same results...
a. familiarize yourself on the tools and features...not important if you understand them but be aware you have them and where thier located... when you start doing the tutorials things are much easier...

b. learn the basics. ie; different ways of selection, masking, levels and curve adjustments, corlorization , different ways of sharpening, etc.
c. do tutorials of things your interested in!!!! iam always doing a search for a tutorials for some project on how to do something... and i'll save that tutorial if i reallylike it, webpages i generally save as mht files or i'll save a video file...
i maintain a special folder just for photoshop tutorials...
d. be a member tomore than one board... for example.... i go to a couple of general purposeboards like this one and i have a certain retouching board i go to (that all they do)... with the retouching boards i get to see a lot of techniques (before and after) on retouching/repairing /enhancsing pictures and at the same time i'll practice thetechniques they use and see if can be better..lol ...

4. sites. there a ton of sites.. when i get my bookmarks transfered over in a week or twofrom my fried xp system.. grr... i have quite a few but in the mean time here a few...
thisguy good a ton of video tutorials just hard to find the one you need..
http://revision3.com/pixelperfect/episodes

go this this site it is really very good, http://www.msjphotography.com/ . his tutorials a lot of them only stays there for a a few weeks although a few peremently there..... anyway
click on the phtoshop 101 .. it a group of video on basics which i think you'll like
also

if you have cs4 or cs5 he has video on them....

click on the workbench that where his tutorial are located..

if idon'tforget when i get the rest of my books marks trasfered i'll post them.

hope that helps

renata · Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 3:06 pm Post subject:

Another tip if you have a lot of pictures is to organise them in folders by date.

Here's an example of a folder structure:
Level 1: photos (top level)
Level 2: 2011 (a folder for each year)
Level 3: 1101, 1102 etc. (within each year, 12 folders for each month)
Level 4: e.g "110101 new years day" ( a folder for individual days with added tag)

So say you want to look up your photos from Christmas Day 2010, you'd look at photos>2010>1012>101225 xmas day

The reason for naming folders by year/month/day is that they will then appear in alphabetical order on your computer. Just make sure you pad the months with zeros (i.e use "01" for January, not "1"), otherwise january will be followed by november ("11") instead of February ("02").

Hope that makes sense. If you become familiar with Bridge it also allows you to tag your photos. Bridge also has a batch rename facility. So with one command you can give a meaningful name to a batch of photos.

Hope that helps.

seaco · Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 5:00 pm Post subject:

Youtube also has a lot of easy to follow tutorials...

Tyler · Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 5:04 pm Post subject:

Sorry for the late reply, but thanks a ton both of you!

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