I am largely self-taught on Photoshop, and now PS Elements. I occasionally pick up a magazine that has PS tutorials, like PS User or Photoshop Creative. They have great tutorials which walk you through the process of editing an image. They frequently come with a CD so that you can use the images that they’re using for the tutorial.
I decided to play around with a couple of the shots I took in Wales, just to practice some techniques.
Here’s the first before shot. The entrance from the courtyard into the main building. Nothing special. Colours are pretty true. It shows a scene I saw every day.
Here’s the after shot.
Certain parts of the new image really pop out and other’s recede. The little window above the door is much more noticeable, and the arrow slot on the crenellations really shows up now. Some parts of the image are sharper and others blur. I wouldn’t want all of my pictures to look like this one, but it’s kind of fun to play around.
This is all accomplished with layers, blending and blurring. It takes a little time to get used to these techniques, but if you don’t like the result, just say no when it asks if you want to save it… or better yet, work from a copy!
Here’s the second image I played with. I have to say, this is one of my favourite shots from the trip. Here’s the before:
It was a hazy day in early spring, so there’s not a lot of colour. I like the way the hedge leads your eye across the picture from left to right.
Here’s the transformed image:
There’s almost a sepia tone to this image. The third beast, on the right, seems to stand out more, with the arches in the summerhouse being darker.
For something completely different, here’s St. Paul’s in London.
 Before |  After |
I have PS Elements, which is less than $100 to purchase, a significant savings from the Photoshop suite at close to $800. I can do about 85% of what I’d do on PS as I can now do on PSE. Regardless of which photo program you have, play around with your images a little. It will do wonders!
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