I {LOVE} Photo Editing

Continuing my February {LOVE} series, I had to do a little post on photo editing. (or editing photos, depending on your preference. LOL)

For some photographers, the joy is in taking the perfect picture: one that does not require cropping or other tweaks. For me, however, my artistic nature has always lent itself to a bit of playing. I love to re-crop, re-color, zoom-in, twist, turn, cut, paste.... you get the idea. I have been known to do crazy things with photos, like create image transfers for canvases and iron-ons for clothing. 

I just love the possibilities!

I have had Photoshop for a while, but I was so intimidated by it that it took me a LONG time to give it much of a try. In the past few years, I have gotten better and better at using it. I use an old, ancient, wrinkled up version of it. Version 7. But I can just feel CS4 coming my way in the near future!

Still, sometimes I just want a quick fix. For that, I have been learning to use a FREE program called Picnik. (free is always good in my book!) 

Here are a few things I love about Picnik:

1) It saves right to a jpeg. You can rename if you want, but you don't have to.

2) It has some really quick "auto fix" buttons.

3) Did I mention it is free?

4) It is very user-friendly.

5) It includes some fun stuff like stickers, frames and some effects that do not require layers or serious photo editing knowledge.

In fact, I had been using it so much that I felt a little guilty...so I upgraded to the Premium Membership. At $2.08 a month, I figured there wasn't too much of a risk! :)

seriously, I should get a kick-back, huh? 

I thought I'd have a little fun playing in Picnik and Photoshop to show you what each one has to offer.

The photoshop actions I am using here are freebies from 

CoffeeShop Actions and Presets!

Let's see what they can do:

Here is the shot I started with.

Here is a cropped, Red-Eye fix in Picnik.

Here is the original, with Red-Eye Fix in Photoshop.

I did not use an action for the Red-Eye.

I will from now on. It took waaay too long, comparatively.

In Photoshop, I applied Memories of Sunshine Action by Johnna. (Coffee Shop) + Texture.

nice.

Here is what happened when I ran the TeaParty Action by Johnna. (Coffee Shop)

You are supposed to adjust the levels, etc.

Actually, I am not even sure now if this is the original product or after I tried some tweaking.

I CLEARLY had a hard time with this one.

Sometimes I think my ancient copy of Photoshop doesn't run the actions right.

No matter what adjustments I made, I didn't like it.

This reminds me of one of the faded photos from the 70's.

My mom has a bunch in our old albums.

:)

My limited Photoshop knowledge wore me out.

I just couldn't get it where I wanted it. So, I popped it (that pink copy) into Picnik and went to town.

This one, I like much better. It is kind of charming, really.

I kept playing.

This one is pretty similar to the Memories of Sunshine.
(again using that pinky-pink picture in Picnik.)

This could have gone on for days...were it not for laundry calling my name...

I really {LOVE} it! Someday I want a HUGE screen to edit on. And CS4.

And one of these days I will take a class in editing, so I can sharpen my skills and learn to do stuff the right way. 

I am 100% self-taught.

There are still some things I can't do.

I am not a good cropper.

Practice, right.

I have never sliced.

True Confession.

But I can do a lot of other cool stuff.

I am a pretty good scrapper when I set my mind to it. I even do a little designing here and there. 

(note: cowboy boots)

other sources for cool stuff:

Picnik is a free online editing service. Even if you upgrade it is like $2 a month! 

The Pioneer Woman is a great resource! She has some free action sets for Photoshop and some nice do-able tutorials.

Coffee Shop is a great resource for tutorials, actions, textures, brushes...all free!

You can find tutorials for pretty much anything you want to do. Google it, baby!

Join some groups or blogs.

They will tell you where to go!

I use Lost and Taken a lot for textures.

There are lots of other too.

Check out some of the texture groups on Flickr.

I also love Jessica Sprague. If you are a mom-tog or a digi scrapper, you could get lost in there!

  In a good way!

If you have any other great resources, please let me know! Which programs do you use?

I will leave you with the best tip I ever got: Save a copy of your original FIRST!

(in case you screw up!)

I'm linking up to Works for Me Wednesday at We Are That Family

***NOTE***

for heaven's sake! you know i'm not getting paid to review any of this stuff, right? Not that I would turn down the money...hint, hint!