Oooo photoshop, my careless love.

For a business? Like a poster? For a family?

I think it's fantastic!

For a family.

I hadn't realized that I felt so propriatory towards the "style". It was a real eye-opener for me.

Anyway....

I was doing this photo as a gift for a friend but since I'd worked up two versions I sent the images off to the baby's mom to let her pick the one she liked best.

She loved them. She wants both. She wants multiple copies of both.

So I spoiled my surprise for her but at least I'm getting over that "anybody can do this" feeling.

Yeah, anybody CAN'T do this.

You gots the eye.

Boomer, many people can visualize what they want something to look like. Few can actually turn it into a reality.

You have a gift. Quit whining. :wink:

Indeed, nice work Boomer!

And for the record, you asked:



Extensively.



It's been my discovery that EVERY image is salvageable, even if it serves to be a filtered-up background noise for some other piece. I try to throw as little away as possible, it can ALWAYS be recycled.



This all depends on your eye. For those that don't have it, it's difficult to tell. For those that do, just learn to trust it. You got it, trust it.



Touching up a photo or creating a project can go way beyond the ridiculous as far as time is concerned. What I do is take a good look at the finished product every so often. If I like what I see, I save a version of it and then proceed to butcher it some more.

Cheers, and great work!

I'm not whining!

And I'm not fishing for complements!

But thank you all just the same.

I think it has suddenly dawned on me that my whole process of making something is COMPLETELY different than it was just a few years ago and it really is a strange awakening.

And it has made me visually lazy. And technically lazy. Digital photography is almost too forgiving.

And that's where you run into the whole "anybody can do it" thinking. I'm an absolute compunter nitwit and even I can do it.

That is very interesting, Questioner, about being able to salvage every image.

I think I've done really good if I use say, one of every fifteen photos and that I've done average if I can use one in every twenty five or so.

Out of those twenty five, maybe a dozen will end up as snapshots, a dozen will be deleted and one will actually make it to an enlargment of some sort.

I do that "save, goof around, revert, goof around, save as" stuff too. It is nice to get that immediate feedback but it does make it much harder to know when to quit.

You don't need to fish. Your work is wonderful!!

You got skillz. Work it.

it's all been said but - you do have an eye

your work has an original twist, you take beautiful real and natural images full of character, you crop them imaginatively and boldly, they are GOOD. Then you do composites that take them up another step - or the ones where you turn them black and white and then add just a little colour to highlight something.

Ok sometimes you are skilled enough to make as silk purse out of a sows ear - but that takes skill and the eye again. Not many people can do it - a lot could make a sows ear out of a silk purse!

You are aware of the danger of being slapdash and so can concentrate on still taking stunning images that need no manipulation - but that doesn't devalue the creative things you do with the 'failures' (which wouldn't be failures in the vast majorities books!)

Oooo photoshop
Think of your original photo as the framework on which you build your picture. It's like drawing a picture and then fleshing it out with paint. The original drawing is a guide, and you can leave things out or add them, choose your paint colors, vary your brushwork and it's what you end up with that counts. Photoshop is only a tool, just like a pencil or a brush.

It takes an eye to see where changes can made made advantageously, and where to leave something alone.

I would count you as a photographer AND an artist.

Well thank you!

Actually, I got the prints back the other day and found I'd made a... ummmm.... sow's purse.... or a silk ear..... something not quite what I'd intended.

The computer screen is more forgiving than a print.

I've put it back on the Photoshop drawing board to see if a silk purse is possible!

I hear what everyone is saying about it not being some kind of crime to manipulate the images. I just feel like I'm being too slapdashy.

I think simply using a digital camera causes a lot of this laziness.

I remember the thread where we were posting photos of our houses and soz was waiting for the light to be right before she was going to take the photo since she's still using film.

And I thought "Yeah! Waiting! Cool!" Now that I can correct the light and correct the this and correct the that I've lost patience with waiting.

Instant gratification is nice but long term it makes me spoiled and pissy. Maybe I need to go buy some film and give myself a little test.

You could go all the way back to charcoal and cave walls, too....

I reworked the photos and reprinted them.

I picked them up today and they are exactly how I wanted them to look!

I still can't quite figure out what went wrong the first time....

Next up: charcoal on cave walls!