It's Foto Find Friday and the theme this week is "Before & After." Everyone knows that I kind of have of a 'love-hate' relationship with photoshop. I love the final edits it produces but the time and the non user-friendly approach to the software program is less then desirable in the grand scheme of things. However, in recent months, after an umpteen amount of classes (and one still yet to begin come Oct. 19th), I am finally finding my inner peace when navigating thru photoshop. It no longer makes me cringe as bad as it once did when I log into there. For that means...I am making progress friends. :)
So this week, even though I don't typically care for textures and such on portrait style photos, I thought I'd take a dreary photo of an old red fire truck and spruce it up a bit. I don't mind textures on images like this but for some reason I am not as fond of a texture in the background when the image is of a human being. I'm learning that part of my personal style is clear and crisp images rather then texturized and done up with post edit art from photoshop. Again though, I find that I run across certain non-people images here and there that have no umph. Sort of like the before shot of the red fire truck below. However, with my new "bestie" (a.k.a. photoshop), we are able to go in and give that red truck a bit more spunk and add some character to the image overall. See the before and after shot below...
Above is the "before photoshop" shot and below is the "after photoshop" image...
Needless to say, I like the old, grunged out, retro feel of the the "after" image. Fun stuff. So...if you have any images that you've done a before and after edit on, feel free to share them this week. We'd love to see the magic that went into a fun or favorite photo of yours. And for those who will ask, on my after shot of the truck above, I sharpened it, added clarification, played with my curves a hair, used like three different actions on it, and then added a texture to it all at the end. It sounds like a long drawn out process but it was actually pretty quick and painless.
If you'd like to participate in the foto find Friday "before & after" theme this week, please blog a post on your own blog that has pictures pertaining to images that came out of your camera looking one way but then you did some post editing or some correcting via photoshop or another software program that helped spruce up the original image. Also, please make sure that you mention and link back to this AGD blog when you place the post on your own blog. We need you to make sure your link takes us directly to that specific post for this weeks theme (and not your blog home page). Also, please make sure that your post includes the info that links back to AGD. If those two things are not there, your link will unfortunately be deleted and you'll have to re-post it the requested way. We are looking forward to seeing your submissions. Have fun with it! ☮ & ♥, Angie
Remember when I told you that I wasn't going to let photoshop kick my butt?
It was no joke! Photoshop willnot win. I'm learning ladies. Learning lots! It's amazing how much you can learn through one on one private classes. Slowly but surely...I'm kicking photoshops butt...one day at a time. Today was no different. I finally learned how to make blog it boards. (thanks to my last photoshop instructor as well as my web gal) It might not seem like a big deal to you but boy oh boy is a huge deal to me. I have wanted to learn how to do these for soooooo long. Love, love, love the placement of blog it boards on blogs. Very fun!
I shot these shots up in the bathroom underneath the sky lights earlier today. As I was cruising thru the grocery store yesterday, I saw these Gerber daisies and knew that they'd make some great colorful photos as well as would brighten up the kitchen. So, I grabbed them and decided to take the time today to photograph them. They made for great practice with the blog it boards. YAY!
We spent the evening in Marco Island last night and I was hoping to catch some shots of a few interesting sites while there. However, I was so overwhelmed by the all of the beauty on the island that I got lost in the moment and never once stopped to use my camera. Imagine that! So...this was all I could come up with for blog material today. Hee hee! We are off to lunch for now. I hope everyone is enjoying their Friday. My Friday just got even better now that I finally sat down and took the time to figure out these boards. I might just love photoshop by the time all of this is said and done. Yes, we might just be B/F/F's at one point or another. Stay tuned...the learning never stops. To be continued...
