Archive for the ‘experiments with photoshop’ Category

this summer, i somehow found an inspiring opportunity to join miss b’s “school” and complete a few of the weekly photo assignments. i started late and missed “turning in” a few of the assignments, but i did get my final project in on time :) i wanted to share it with you. i chose the portfolio - for me, i interpreted it as a collection of photos that tied together. i don’t know if i created a successful portfolio collection (the word “portfolio” scares me)… but i do love the collection i came up with. i took these a little while back and did share one of the photos already…

here are the rest of them… enjoy!

wish i were in a field of flowers taking photos today. went back in my files to find some wild flowers from colorado to photoshop…

miss b suggested this action from here to go with my cravings for vintage feeling photos… of course, i’m going to listen to her (check out her beautiful vintage-y photos.) on this photo i used seventies from set 2. i love it.

also, posted this photo to share for best shot monday. i’m putting this photo out there to remind me that i want to walk across this bridge soon. isn’t it beautiful? i used to ride across it on the subway everyday… and i loved how the sunrise looked across brooklyn… i almost felt like i was in a foreign land. i could actually convince myself of it, through my early morning sleepiness.

my favorite photos are always the vintage-y feel ones… with the yellow tones and warm feelings. sometime i just cannot get photos there though… depending on the colors in the photos or whatever and probably what i’m doing in photoshop. but this one makes me happy. i love the yellows of these flowers. i used part of the action that i shared earlier (with the keep of the dunes photo). but i didn’t click the lighting step, and i also made a few adjustments to other steps, added a few… and this is what i got.

found a website that linked to free downloads for photoshop actions. i know very little about photoshop actions, but i have seen many photographer’s share their beautiful photos after they’ve applied these actions. so here’s my experiment with a photoshop action called retro. i downloaded this particular action from this site here. i did make a few different adjustments before clicking “done” on a couple of the steps along the way. i feel like a part of the photo is too dark. i need to try this action on other photos to figure out if i like it or not… anyone have any action advice for me??

playing with photoshop… turned up the exposure and brightness on this photo, turned up the yellow in the highlights, a touch of green tone, turned the saturation and vibrance down… (not sure if i’m using the correct terms for the edits i made… o well.)

out-of-focus #5

spent this evening experimenting. i think i’m in love with photoshop, even when it frustrates me to no end (with all the endless and unknown possibilities…). as i’ve mentioned before, i really don’t know what i’m doing. i really don’t understand what everything even means. i have no idea what i’m getting right or completely ruining. i also have trouble remembering what i’ve done to a photo to make it look as it does from one time to the next!

but… i love, love, love vintage feeling photos like the ones above. it’s a kind of art that i want to create… and someday, hopefully soon, i’ll have a better understanding of how to create it with a few slides and clicks of the mouse in photoshop.

what inspired me tonight? clicking through flickr, i was thinking about all the wonderful photos collected there. i clicked to my favorites and noticed the overall feel was the lighter, vintage, worn colors. (click to see for yourself.) i cannot get enough of all these photos… the pinks and whites of this one… the faded lines and softness of this photo… the feeling and pinks and greens in this photo… and the blues of this photo fill me with wishes for the same beauty in the photos i create. so i again opened a the viewer to find some photos to feed my desires of creating… so tell me, what do you think? are there any colors off? colors on? are the photos too light? too processed? any photos you suggest i add to my collection of favorites?

brushes, a first for me.

as i was reading past posts on a new blog i found, i saw a free download for brushes. a beautiful vintage postcard brush.

i was clueless about brushes, but i really liked the idea of adding a vintage postcard to my photos. so i clicked around, watched a tutorial, played with my newest free download.

the photo i used was originally posted here. i think i need to figure out how to make it more vintage-y to fit better on the postcard.

i think there are more brushes for me to discover.

i’ve probably seen photos that have been created with brushes and had no idea of such a thing.

anyone else use brushes?