Trying To Learn Photoshop (1)

It's one of those things I've been meaning to 'try' for a long, long time. I've heard myself say it a zillion times, then one day a friend pointed out I should maybe stop saying I will do it, and actually do it. Said friend loaned me their old copy of CS2 eons ago to see if I could get on with it; No.1 took to it like a duck to water, but I'm ashamed to admit I didn't actually try - I was wary of stepping outside my comfort zone. After a couple of years of using PaintShop Pro as my picture editing software of choice, I was happy that I knew my way around; however at the Camera Club I've joined, they all use flippin' Photoshop. There was nothing for it, I was going to have to start having a little tinker with Photoshop. There are lots of helpful tips and tricks to be found online - as well as some very cool videos over at YouTube on the subject. I'm going to try to blog my 'progress' (if any) here, so please forgive the amateurishness of my early attempts. I know there are those of you out there who are whizzes at Photoshop, so feel free to pass on any tips and tricks, or point out where and how you think I can improve.

My first 'lesson' was in taking an old black and white picture, and trying to 'clean it up' (repair tears and spots, etc.), colour it, and turn it into an oil painting. Sounds pretty easy, eh? Well it might be for some, but for someone who doesn't know their PS ar$e from their PS elbow, it wasn't! Here's the first black and white picture I used:

It's a random person unknown to me - I tried to colour it, but as you can see, I've been rather heavy handed with some of the colours and tones:

The 'edges' of my masking also leave a lot to be desired, but never mind ... I hope I'll get better at technique as I go along, and these stronger colours work better with the oil painting transformation (I loved how easy it was to apply some artistic effects). Here she is as an oil painting:

Then I tried the whole thing again - this time on a scanned-in image of my own. The child in this picture might be me. *blush*

This time I tried to be a whole lot more subtle with the tones, and more accurate with my masking. I asked Mum if she could remember what colour that dress was - she thought it was palest green, so that's what I went for. I can just about remember that sofa - which was black and white, and those green antimacassars are etched on my memory:

I showed that 'colouring in' to Mum ... she took one look at the dress being green and said she now remembered it was a peachy pink. Tsk. I'm not changing it again. Note to self: Save in .psd format so you can go back and alter layers quickly and easily!

I know my way around PaintShop Pro fairly well now, and can put together the collages I use so much on the blog, pretty quickly. I suspect there might be some rude words spoken as I try to make the change over to Photoshop, but I'm going to try.

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