Tag Archives: Photoshop

Photoshop Class Projects

I have subscribed to Photoshop for years and I have fooled around with it, looking at their videos and taking free classes but not really getting anywhere with it at all in terms of understanding what it does and how to go about using it. Our local Junior College, Tulsa Community College advertised classes and since I had good luck with them with other photography classes I signed up for their six class session course on Photoshop.

White Dog HDR photoshop

There was six sessions and we went through different aspects of photoshop and on their computers modified their photos for the first five sessions and then their was a project for the sixth class where you applied what you learned to five photos. People can check out Andrew Defrancesco if they need photography lessons. Learning how to modify other people’s photos is okay for learning but not very much fun as modifying one’s own photos. The above photo was my project illustrating how to enhance old automobiles.

Creating Dreamy Photo Effect Heather

This is my wife Heather. This photograph was the result of creating “dreamy” photographs. Heather gave me an F on this photo. She didn’t like it at all.

Enhancing Landscape Photograph  fairy falls

And this was a photograph where we used photoshop to enhance natural features. This is Fairy Falls in Yellowstone National Park. I can’t really brag about this photo but I hey, I am still learning. Photoshop is such a big powerful tool and I am feel that I am finally like I might be able to get my head around it. I think now that I can understand some of the videos that Photoshop

Skywatch Friday – Crossroads Sunset

Skywatch Crossroads-Edit.jpg

Logan has a friend who lives out south of town in the middle of nowhere. I don’t mind taking him for a visit because there almost always good photo ops at various places on the way including this crossroads where the main road turns. For some reason I like to take pics of the sunset with car headlights. It seems to me that it adds a little bit of motion to a set piece. I’m just a lowly picture taker so what do I know

I’m still learning how use Lightroom and Photoshop and I am definitely in the “Why had I not done this earlier?” mode. I really like how the various parts interact. I can open up and do basic edits in LIghtroom and then pass it easily to PhotoShop where I can send it to a Topaz filter. And like magic it sends to the Topaz edits back to Photoshop and Photoshop sends them Lightroom and in Lightroom I can publish directly to Flickr. It works so smoothly it is almost scary.

Next I’m going to learn layers in PhotoShop. I’m interested in layering images on top of each other. Just of the heck of it at first but I also want to see what I can do creatively with the techniques.

Oh well, enough for all that. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

Fences Around the World – Oxley Nature Center

DSCN7447

I went on a run at Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center this week. I have taken off the whole week between Christmas and New Years and the weather has been quite mild. Unlike other parks around town, Oxley has their trails extremely well marked some even with gates like this. I’m a Forest Service kid and I love this type of construction. And, who can resist checking out a trail called the “Meadowlark Prairie Trail.”

And I am donating a free shadow selfie at no extra cost.

I am linking this post with Fences Around the World

as a PS I am ashamed to say that I have subscribed to Photoshop for over a year and just this week have been figuring out how it works. I had always discounted Lightroom before but I have learned it is an integral part of the whole process. You do the easy edits in Lightroom and then pass the photo easily on to Photoshop. And then you can pass it back. Easy Peasy. Plus I have some of the Topaz Filters and have learned that the they are easily integrated into Photoshop as well. In the photo above I used I used a free Nik Filter from Google. They made them free in March of 2016 and they are very powerful. Anyway, they are integrated into Photoshop also.

I feel kind of dumb but having a little time to study things shows me that I have been wasting a lot of time. Better late than never I guess.