Photoshop Elements

The iHeartFaces constructive editing post really made me wonder… How can I be this dense? Surely I can figure out a freakin program… Surely? Photoshop Elements isn’t even the full blown Photoshop. Surely I can play around and figure out how to do ONE picture.

This was my test

It’s fairly cool in color… her eyes aren’t popping… it’s just off. Cute? Yes. But still… off.

Here’s what I did:

Using this tutorial and video found on iHeartFaces, I was able to make her eyes look much more vibrant. It was a bit tricky to use the magnetic lasso tool the first go around. That’s what the undo button is for, folks.

I have CoffeeShop’s Powder Room 2 action, and tried to use it. Honest. I did. But I need to read the instructions or something because I can’t figure out how to change the layers to show what the adjustments do. Huh. Moving right along.

After backtracking through what I had done (or NOT done) with the action, I started poking around in the area just above the layer information. The circle that’s shaded 1/2 gray and 1/2 white lets me change things like brightness and contrast.

Hallelujah!

I’ve been trying out how to do that on this program for AGES now! After adjusting those few things, I poked around a bit more and found out how to warm up the image using the photo filter adjustment.

So WHEW! Let’s take a look. Shall we?

By no means perfect… but I’m a happy happy girl.

I’ll keep working thru some of these actions as I am determined to figure it out. If I get any farther, I’ll let you know.

IHeartFaces is one of the many places I’ve been going to learn. It’s chock FULL of information. And, as I have learned, it’s best taken in small doses while using your own photo to walk through the learning process. I’m a hands-on kind of gal. IHeartFaces rocks.

Also?

Darcy over at My3Boybarians has been doing her 31 Days to a Better Photo series.  It is worth your time to go start at the beginning of the month and work your way through them. I’ve printed every day so far. Darcy has a knack for putting things in a way that even I can understand them… Darcy is also a rock star.

Happy shooting!