i’m sure you’re aware by now just how much i love my new camera. i love being able to take interesting photos, being able to play with the light, the color, and the contrast without having to worry about graininess and general low quality. but what makes me love all this even more is photoshop.

i’ve been out of the photoshop loop for a few years now, but my loving husband got me photoshop elements for our anniversary and i am back in the saddle. i’m going slow and reminding myself what all those funky little icons actually mean, but i’m getting there.

so, for your perusal, here are some before and after photos:

before:

here’s a picture of baby girl gazing into the fountain in town. it’s pretty dark, has that haze over it that digital photos tend to have, and even though i like the composition, it’s pretty much unremarkable. what to do, what to do?

working:

i’ve dodged and burned (darked and lightened) various shadows and highlights throughout the photo now. it’s definitely more interesting and i’ve been able to bring more attention to her face. but it’s still a bit dark, so…

step 3:

ta-da! i’ve played with the hue and saturation, lightened the entire photo and it’s an amazing difference! the colors pop, there’s more contrast, and it’s certainly a more interesting photo. still not perfect, but hey, not bad for practice…

and one more, just for comparison:

and finally, here’s one more. i’ve toned the colors down a bit for more of a “portrait” feel to the pic. it’s softer and doesn’t have so much of a day-glo feel to it. i like both, but if i were to get prints of them i’d be interested in how they looked all done up like. this one’s a bit more natural, i suppose…i need to work on the subtlety, but i’m getting there!

**edit** i’m obviously not used to people actually LOOKING at my blog, so i find it amusing that i found a comment from yesbuts about photo #3 immediately after i put up the tamer, less flourescent version! and here i thought “o well, i didn’t get to the next version, i’ll do it later…and no one will ever know.” definitely the first time i’ve been wrong. in the last 5 minutes. ish. but i haven’t ventured into the world of curves yet, but thanks for the tip! that will be my next adventure!