Photoshop for Real People

I am glad that so many of you are interested in Photoshop! I do not know much/anything about Photoshop Elements so I would be interested in hearing from those of you who do have it to see how much of this applies. Photoshop Elements is the simplified version of Photoshop. For those of you who may be interested in buying Photoshop be sure to get the educational version if you are eligible for that. It's the same thing and more affordable. Also, I believe that you can get older versions of Photoshop on ebay. Really the only reason I have the most current version is because I have a client (my brother) who needs my files to be from a current version of Photoshop in order for the print shops he works with to be able to manipulate the file if needed. You can try out Photoshop or Elements for 30 days for free by going to adobe.com.

Here is the video of me making adjustments on the fountain photo. I am quite sure you will not be able to read the screen or see exactly what is going on, but hopefully it will give you the gist and make following the written instructions a bit easier and demonstrate that once you get the hang of it, it doesn't take long. I was really trying to hurry because my memory card is small and I got cut off at the end. Here is the rest.... "After you flatten the image you save it as a jpg for printing and posting online."

I have 3 folders and 3 versions for each photo: working files (saved as tifs or psd with layers in case I want to edit it later), print files (saved as jpgs, full size), and web files (saved as jpgs as a smaller size...under 2MB...for easy uploading).




Here are the written instructions:

Save as a Tiff (to preserve quality)

Duplicate layer and put the duplicate layer on 25% opacity in screen mode

Adjust levels: move middle slider to left and left slider to the right until you like it

Adjust curves: just a teeny tiny bit...pull up the tiniest bit just below the mid section and down the tiniest bit just below the bottom thing

Adjust contrast up a bit

If going to black and white do that by using gradient map NOT by converting the document to black and white (gives more depth)

Save (as Tiff)

Flatten

Save as jpg

Ok, now here's what I need from YOU! I want to see your photos! So post a link or shoot me an email:)

Some resources I use when needing to learn about Photoshop are: twopeasinabucket or the Photoshop Creative Collection magazine which usually comes with a disk of plug-ins and you can get it at Barnes & Noble. I absolutely hate reading boring manuals and I forget how to do things that I don't do very often. Don't get discouraged though! Find a photoshop friend and call each other when you get stuck. I need one!