11-1-Color_Correct

I started by using the Curves setting. I used the black eyedropper on tall man’s hair, and the white eyedropper on the girl’s socks; those areas looked the darkest and lightest to me. I then made a duplicate of the Curves layer, set its Blending Mode to Multiply and its Opacity to 50%. I then tried the Levels setting, but not much was changed by that. I next used the Brightness/Contrast setting and made some adjustments there. The people looked too pale, so I used the Color Balance setting and added some red to give them a little “freshening up.” The picture looked ok, but thought that the right half of the boy’s jacket and face, when you’re looking at the picture, and the baby, looked over exposed. I used the Magnetic Lasso and selected those two things (baby and jacket), and then used the Levels setting to darken them up some. I applied a Sharpening filter and called it done…

Kim Steele - Final

Ok. For this assignment I made the background a light blue color. I duplicated the background. I added the neon edges filter to the Ferris wheel image and put that layer under the background copy. I used the eraser tool to expose the Ferris wheel image. I used the quick selection tool to select the flowers and the tomatoes. I added a pixel mask to them to soften the edges. I reduced the size of the flower to make the smaller one in the bottom right corner. I rotated a copy of the larger flower to put in the upper left corner. For the candy sign I just selected it with quick select and put it at the bottom. The ticket sign I selected and tried to add a pixel mask several times but it kept doing weird things. So I just selected it and moved it over then reduced the opacity. That one also got a little adjustment with curves before I moved it. The Alaska text has the image of the round-up ride behind it. It also has an inner shadow and a drop shadow. The State Fair text has a drop shadow and inner glow. And the rest of the text has a drop shadow, inner glow and outer glow. The sheep gave me issues to. I selected it, softened the edges and moved him over. I think he looks kinda cute peeking over the flowers.

Kim Steele - tips

1. Practice!!!!
2. Be patient. Some of the tools take time to figure out.
3. Get help. A book, the internet, a friend. Some of the tools are impossible to figure out on your own.
4. Have fun! PS can do some cool stuff.
5. Don't be afraid to experiment.
6. The history panel is your friend. Know it. Use it.
7. Layers!!! You can do neat things with multiple layers. Changing the opacity, applying filters. All kinds of stuff.
8. Duplicate. You can also do fun stuff by duplicating layers. You can enhance colors and do other nifty things.
9. Use camera raw. There are some things you can only do in camera raw and other things that work better there then in PS.
10. Did I say practice? You aren't going to be am expert overnight. It takes time, and, once again, PRACTICE!!!!!

Kim Steele - Filters 3

This one got to filters. One layer got the neon glow filter and the other the plastic wrap filter. I reduced the opacity on the neon glow layer until I liked it. I thing it looks neat and kinda eerie.

Kim Steele - Filters 2

On this one I used the glowing edges filter. I applied it to a duplicate background and reduced the opacity to 50%. I think it looks cool.

Kim Steele - Filters 1

For this one I kept it simple. I just used the dry brush filter and tweaked it's settings slightly until I liked it. I think it looks like a painting.

Angelesa Ward - Vectors

So for this assignment, I started in Photoshop, and couldn't get it to behave the way I wanted. I've worked extensively with Fireworks and am quite familiar with the vector tools there, so I decided to draw my shapes and text there (text drawn with a graphics tablet and the vector drawing tool). I got everything as I liked, then saved it to a PSD format so I could bring my shapes in to PhotoShop and work with them there. And had an unexpected result. PhotoShop translated the text I'd drawn with the vector tool as shapes. While it wasn't what I was going for, I kind of liked the result.

All in all I felt that drawing vector shapes and manipulating them in PhotoShop is clunky and not at all intuitive. It is the best thing going for raster images, but as vector was added later, it feels rushed and unresponsive. I'm not sure at all that I like this picture, but as I slept thru yesterday (hate being sick) I figured I should probably post what I have before too much more time passes. Enjoy my little goofy robot.

Jessica Gonzalez: Vectors

First I downloaded am image of a skull, and using the same steps in the book I traced the skull with the paths tool. For each path I traced, I named it accordingly and created a separate layer to mach, and added a stroke to my paths to create the skull.
(And as I'm typing this I have just realized I didn't follow the directions because I didn't make my skull into a shape.)
I added a red heart shape, a rose shape that I downloaded and used the pen tool to create a path for the text up top. To get the different color behind the scull I used another shape and set it to overlay. The borders: ctrl+a, transform selection, 95%, stroke with red at 5 pixels.
so...
I'm going to leave this up but I did a quick fix.


for this version, with all the other shapes in place, I traced my skull with the pen tool and clicked the shape layers, I added new shapes over the eyes and nose. I used the line tool to create the mouth and the line tool to draw in the boarder. I then removed my unwanted layers, (the skull that I drew, and the border).

I wanted to draw trace the shapes of the eyes and nose to make the skull organic, but I was having trouble drawing new shapes on a separate layer. Each time I tried nothing would show. I thought maybe I can continue to do the shapes on the same layer, to subtract from the shape, but I couldn't get it to do that. I think I will try again later. My main problem was I didn't understand the assignment fully and only read from the chapter what I thought I needed for the assignment. I missed the part about "Subtracting Shapes from a shape layer". After I figure this out I will repost. again.

10-Vectors

I like playing poker, so came up with an idea of a “Good Luck” card in a poker theme. I had trouble with this assignment, and realized that I really need to work with “Paths and Shape Layers” a whole lot more. Needless to say, this didn’t turn out quite as well as I wanted.

After creating the 4.5X6.5 image size, I started with using the Rounded Rectangle Tool and created a blank card. I then used the Text Tool and added an A to it. I followed that by using the Custom Shape Tool and adding a Shape Layer with the Spade card image to it, and then resized it to fit proportionately under the A. I duplicated that Shape Layer and then resized the Spade so that it looked correct in the middle. After getting the Space card how I liked it, I duplicated the Shape Layer of the card so that way the Heart card would be the same size, I also duplicated the A, but changed the color to red, so it would be the same too. I took the same steps on the Heart card that I did with the Spade card, but I had to duplicate the A and small Heart and rotate them 180 degrees so I could put them in the bottom corner. I added a Drop Shadow, set the Angle to 0, and set the Size and Distance to 1 to just separate the cards from each other.

I wanted to make a poker table for the cards to sit on, so I created a couple more Shape Layers, one Black and one Green, in the shape of a poker table. I wanted to subtract the Green area out of the Black area in the layer but couldn’t get it to work, hence the creation of both of those layers. I also wanted to add a texture to the Green layer, but couldn’t get it to look good even with trying a ton of different settings.

I then added the wording and used a Warp Text in an Arch shape with a Bend of +50% for the top words, and a -50% for the bottom words. I added a Drop Shadow to the words, I wanted to change the Angle, but when I did that it changed the Angle on the cards too. I also added a Bevel and Emboss to the Background layer so it looked like the card edge where it was folded.

I then made a Shape Layer using the Ellipse Tool in the shape of a Circle making it a Poker chip. I was able to subtract the center of the chips, but don’t know why I couldn’t get it to work with the poker table. I then used the Custom Shape Tool and added a Heart, Spade, Diamond, and Club by subtracting them from the chip. I had originally added a texture to the Background layer, but I couldn’t figure out how to make to add a White layer below the chip image, so I had to remove the texture effect so you wouldn’t see it through the chip. I then duplicated (copied) the layer three times, changed their colors to that of different poker chip denominations, and moved them to the corners.

I used the Grid pattern to make sure that everything was spaced evenly out and centered. All in all it turned out pretty good, just wanted a little more out of it, guess I’ll keep practicing.

Kim Steele - color correct

First, I created a duplicate layer. Not sure why. That's just how I roll. Then I created a curves adjustment layer. Then a levels layer, a color balance layer, a hue/saturation adjustment layer, a vibrance layer, a brightness/contrast layer, and a second levels layer. On each layer I just tweaked the settings until I liked the result. On the second levels layer I selected white, black and gray points. I think it looks pretty darn good.

Kim Steele - Vectors

K, so....not my favorite thing I've done. I had zero inspiration for this assignment. What I did was paint the entire background blue. Then I used the line tool to...make a line across the card. Imagine that. I then painted the top section green. I drew my little globe with the shape tool, and drew the horrible continents with the pen tool, and colored them in. I added the text, and gave the top text a stroke effect and inner glow. The lower text got a drop shadow, and I think an outer glow. I also separated the different sections of the card into their own layers and added a drop shadow to the green section. And, obviously, I used the pre-made shapes for the tree and flowers and all of that.

09-1-type erica wells

I used a photo that was taken of a fire burning nearby and adjusted the white balance in camera raw. Then in photoshop I used the spot healing brush tool to remove some ugly power lines and light poles. Then I used a picture of flames to make a clipping mask to put inside the title, added a drop shadow, and warped the text. For the words on the bottom I chose a color i thought would go well with the picture, changed the font, and added a warp to the text.

08-bunny erica wells

I created a mask of the bunny and refined the edges. I then added it to the other two background layers.I used the clone tool on the flowers and grass under the bunny to bring them up a little and make it look more realistic. I added an alpha channel to add a shadow but it looked super fake so I added a drop shadow on top of the alpha channel shadow. Then I used the quick select tool to pick out one viola then duplicated the layer to get another. Then I adjusted the brightness and contrast to make it flow a little better. I also added a drop shadow to both violas.

Kathleen Boeckman - Family Photo

1. I created a levels adjustment layer and adjusted the black point, white point, and midpoint sliders.
2. I created a curves adjustment layer and:
a. used the black-point eyedropper tool to set the black point (the truck's wheel-well/tire),
b. used the white-point eyedropper tool to set the white point (the baby's outfit),
c. used the gray-pint eyedropper to set the gray point (the pole behind the mother).
d. I also adjusted the red, green, and blue curves slightly. This was tricky, to say the least.
e. I actually deleted and recreated the curves layer several times, until I got the picture to this point.
3. I tried copying the background layer, setting the blending mode to multiply, and adjusting the opacity downward. I tried several variations of this, along with my several curves layers. I finally decided that this version, with no background copy layer, looked the best.
4. Finally, I used filter > sharpen > unsharp mask, with an amount of 75%, radius of 1.0 pixel, and threshold of 4 levels.

Jessica Gonzalez: assignment 9

Sorry class for not getting the steps in on time. I have been working really hard on my analytical paper for my tech writing class so unfortunately I had to make a sacrifice this week on my time in this class which is unfortunate because I enjoy this class so much more. Anyway...


I actually had something else posted, with comments, and removed it because it was really boring. I do part time graphic design and I uploaded something I did for work, but felt like I needed to do something funner.
First I started out with a 5x7 blank canvas.

I browse for an image that fit my theme and opened it in PS and dragged it to my canvas on a new layer.
The image was larger that my canvas, so I used the free transform to rescale it which left 1.5 inches negative space on the left of my canvas.
I sampled a dark pink from the image and filled in the background layer with it.
I created a new layer, used the rectangular marquee tool, and made a 1.5x7 selection
across the top. I sampled a lighter color of pink from the image and filled in my selection.
I created the text across the top, and adjusted the character to fit how I wanted it, and added the inner shadow effect.
I browsed for another image with the same color scheme, and found a flower image and opened it in a new layer. I added a clipping mask to the new layer, so the text looked like it was written with the flower layer. I added the text to the left in white and centered it within the dark pink area. I added a new layer, selected the whole image, went to edit, stroke, 5px and chose the light pink. then, with a pixel square brush, I held shift, and drew a horizontal line separating creating a border around the light pink, and drew another line bordering the dark pink.

Angelesa Ward - Typographic Design

So once again, trying to find an image and an idea to work with consumed so much time. And then I tripped across a bunch of images I took when my cat Sasha was standing on my desk between me and my computer, telling me it was bedtime. A couple of them are priceless, but this one conveyed the sleepy insistence she had at the time. So...

Once I found the image, I emailed it to myself (iPhone, how do I love thee, let me count the apps...) and opened it up in Photoshop. I found a type I liked and typed all my wording in two different layers. I added a drop shadow and a color overlay to the top text and for the bottom text I experimented with a gradient overlay. I didn't like how it turned out. I mean, it was pretty, but it disappeared into her fur at one point, so I went with a color overlay on the bottom too, with a subtle glow. Overall, I like it, and it'll be gracing the background of my phone soon. =)

09-1-Type

I came up with the idea of doing a “Northern Lights” design, so I started with a new psd file in an 8X10 size. I copied the background layer and first tried using a black background and using a gradient from top left to bottom right. It looked good, but instead went with a blue background, changing its opacity to 85% and put a star field image on the layer below it to get the “stars” in the background. I then added the word “Northern Lights” to the image, I then warped the text using the flag effect and adding a drop shadow, inner shadow, and outer glow to it. I then duplicated that layer, changed the words to “Aurora Borealis,” and then moved and rotated the layers to where they are now. I found a couple of images of the Northern Lights and added a clipping mask to those words so that the words had actual colors of the Northern Lights in them. I found three more images of the Northern Lights on the internet and inserted them across the middle. I first tried just using a drop shadow on them, but instead I used a picture frame from the custom shape tool. I finalized it by adding the paragraph in the bottom and adding a drop shadow to it.

Kathleen Boeckman - Vector Birthday Card

First, I created a new, blank .psd document 4.5 inches x 6.5 inches. A musical friend with an upcoming birthday provided the inspiration for the theme of the card. I used the custom shape tool to draw the treble clef, the lines denoting the treble staff, and the musical notes. I created a new text layer and used the horizontal type tool to create the time signature as a paragraph (3 [enter] 4). I used edit>transform>scale and edit>transform>rotate to put all these elements exactly where I wanted them. I created a new layer and used the brush tool (4px size, hard round brush) to add the dot and the dash to the eighth-notes.

I created two text layers, one for my friend's name, and one for the "wishing you..." text, adjusting the font size to fit the space. I added a drop shadow to the "Linda" layer and copied it to the "wishing you" layer. Then I added another layer style to "Linda," adding a stroke border.

I decided to make a shape background for the lower section of the card. I selected the paths tab and used the pen tool to draw the shape, closed the path, and filled it with the purple daisy pattern. I then went to the background and filled it with yellow, using the paint bucket tool.

The music staff wasn't visible enough over the daisies, so I added another layer, clicked the paths tab, and used the pen tool to create another custom shape as a background to the staff. I closed the path and filled it with white, setting the opacity at 50% to allow some of the daisy background to show through. I then linked all the layers with the staff's elements, and decreased their opacity to 75%.

I created another layer and entered the "happy birthday" text. Since it wasn't visible enough over the daisy background, I created another layer, drew an elliptical shape with the ellipse drawing tool, filled it with black, and moved the ellipse shape layer below the "happy birthday" text layer. I selected the "happy birthday" text and used the warp text button (the "flag" style) to curve the text. Then I used edit>transform>scale and edit>transform>rotate until the shape and text were the way I wanted them. Then, I moved the clef background below the "happy birthday" and ellipse shape layers (but above the daisy shape fill layer).

The vector drawing capability of Photoshop is useful when drawing shapes like the custom daisy-filled background shape, and the shape for the background of the music staff. I had better luck getting my "happy birthday" text to look the way I wanted with the "warp text" button than when I tried to create a curved line path to type on.

Kim Steele - Type

For this one I started with a new PSD file. I painted the white area green. Then I opened the image behind the word flower and dragged it over to the new file. I reduced the size of the image so more of it would show through the word. Then I added the word flowers, gave it the wavy effect and added an inner shadow and drop shadow. The daisy and the purple flowers were cut from a couple other pictures with the quick selection tool. The purple flower was just one flower so I flipped it and shrank it to make the second one. The last thin I did was add the quotes. I gave them the wavy effect and added an inner glow and drop shadow.

before and after -erica wells

I started to edit this picture in camera raw but decided to just do it through photoshop. I did a lot to this picture trying to make the background not so ugly. I used the noise filter to get rid of the noise in the background but i thought all the clutter was ugly so i added a gradient with a light affect to cover all that up. As for his face, I used the healing brush, spot healing brush, the dodge and sponge tools. I also added a surface blur then used the eraser tool basically on everything but his cheeks, nose and forehead to get rid of the blur so you could see details.

Kathleen Boeckman - Summer Fun

First, I browsed in Bridge for the photographs that I wanted to use, and opened them all in Photoshop. I then did some basic adjustments of each of the photos, using adjustment layers to adjust levels, exposure, and color balance as needed.

I then created a new, blank .psd file. I selected the image of the Grand Canyon using the rectangular marquee and used edit>copy / edit>paste to insert it into my working .psd file. I made selections from the other four photos I'd decided to use using the elliptical marquee tool and copied them into my master file.

I then used the custom shape tool and drew the first sun image. I scaled it to fit the image of the sand dunes, moved its layer below the sand dunes layer, selected the sand dunes layer and used layer>create clipping mask. I then linked the sand dunes layer to the sun image layer, so that I could move and scale the layers together.

I repeated these steps to create the sun photo image in the lower left corner of the master file.

I then added drop shadows to the four images surrounding the Grand Canyon image, and gave the Grand Canyon image a stroke border.

Finally, I added text. I tried to create a path to type on but wasn't able to get it to work. I ended up just creating the headline text and then making it more appealing by making the text a bright yellow and adding a drop shadow layer style, with the shadow color being a dark blue.

For the paragraph text, I used the same dark blue for the text color and then added a layer style of a bevel and emboss, with white for the highlight color and the headline text yellow color as the shadow color. My master document ended up being very large, so I had to then scale everything down, crop, make a copy and resize it before I was able to save for the web.

intro nametag

Hi Everyone, Im Elizabeth, I live in Eagle River AK I'm taking this photoshop class because I thought it would be fun to learn how to photoshop images. I don't really have expierence in doing any kind of picture editing so im excited to learn. I have 2 laptops in my house, one is an hp the other a toshiba. I also have a fax, scanner, and printer in one. After taking this class I hope to get more involved with photography!

08-Bunny

I started by making an 8X 10 canvas and copying the violas image to it, and scaling it to fill the image.  I then used the quick select tool and selecting the bunny.  I had to zoom in substantially to get it fairly accurate, and even with doing that I had to select/deselect to make it really good.  I then made a mask layer on the bunny and refined the mask by smoothing, feathering, and shifting the edges.  I then brought the bunny image into the fern image and scaled it to a “natural” looking size, hiding it so basically only his eye was showing.  I brought in 3 red flowers from the wildflower image and used the levels to darken them up so they weren’t overly bright. 

08-Bunny

I started by using the quick select tool and selecting the bunny.  I had to zoom in substantially to get it fairly accurate, and even with doing that I had to select/deselect to make it really good.  I then made a mask layer on the bunny and refined the mask by smoothing, feathering, and shifting the edges.  I then brought the bunny image into the fern image and scaled it to a “natural” looking size.  I tried doing an alpha channel on the bunny, but didn’t really get an amazing result.   I also brought in the violas image and placed it up in the corner to add some color.  I duplicated the background “fern” layer, and sandwiched the bunny and viola layers between them.  I applied a mask to the duplicated layer and removed the area where the violas are.  I also used the polygonal lasso tool and cut around the fern and plant and deleted that area so that the bunny would look like he was hiding behind the fern.  I need to play with layers A LOT more so I can be more comfortable with them.

05-time erica wells

First i removed the background from all three layers using a combo of the magic wand and quick selection tool. I resized everything to fit correctly. Used the elliptical tool to cut out a circle shape in the coins, adjusted the opacity ( I thought it looked better at 100 % but i wanted to try something different) and fit it inside the clock face. Then I put the clock and coins on top of the dollar bill. I used the ruler tool to straighten the dollar bill out. I renamed the 20 dollar bill layer because it was the "background" and therefor couldn't be adjusted. By renaming it it converted into a regular layer. I added a new layer and added a gradient to fill it in. I added a lens flare from the render menu, made a few adjustments to that and she is all done.

04-selections erica wells

I used the quick selection tool to isolate the marble pieces then hit select inverse and used the eraser tool to get rid of the background. Then I refined the edges and also used the eraser tool to clean some spots up

03-meeting erica wells

Steps I used for this picture:
Cropped the picture to remove most of the girl on the right.

Clone stamp to remove the ugly parts in the grass, what remained of the girl on the right side after the crop, the random dog in the background, the red car, and the girl behind the horse.
Adjusted the offset and gamma correction

I wanted to do something with his pants. But nothing i tried looked quite right

06- Before and after- Brandy Fishback

I really got kinda click happy and didn't take good notes. I did play with the white balance, tone, sharping, noise reduction, saturation and vibrancy.

chickens-erica wells

I used the curves tool, clone stamp, unsharp mask, color replacement tool, and brightness and contrast. I tried using the spot healing brush tool for the wood fence above the chickens, but I wasn't satisfied with how that looked over the clone stamp. I couldn't quite get the eyes black like i wanted using the color replacement tool, but i guess it turned out ok.

05-time-Brandy Fishback

I used the quick selection tool to get the clock. I used the coins as a layer and stretched them to fit. I made the invoice smaller and put it in the corner. I made a text box to write, Time is Money. At the end I added a border. I also turned down the opacity of the invoice.

04-selections-Brandy Fishback

First I used the magnetic lasso tool to isolate the the guitar. Then I smoothed the edges. I also used the eraser tool to try and smooth the edges more. I also played around with the healing tool. I also used the clone stamp to fix some spots on the guitar.

Kathleen Boeckman - Bunny & Flowers

I found this assignment really challenging and frustrating. These are the steps I took:

1. Opened all the photographs for this assignment in Photoshop.
   
2. Created a new file with a canvas size of 10"x10".
3. Used the quick selection tool to select the flowers I wanted to use from "flowers.psd." I didn't like the lightpole, so I decided to select the flowers around it in the center of the photo.
   
4. I did edit>copy and edit>paste into my new .psd file. I then had to reselect the flowers and do edit>transform>scale, because they pasted into my new document at a very small size. [All my selections did this when I pasted into my new .psd file. Is there an easier way to paste at the size you want, rather than having to reselect and transform to scale?! ]
5. I then created a pixel mask from my selection. I tried using the "Mask Edge" dialog box and the Refine Radius and Erase Refinements tools to clean up the mask. This did not work very well, though.
   
6. Since the above didn't work for me, I selected the mask on my purple/red flowers layer, zoomed in, and used a brush with black to paint out parts of the image that I didn't want (and used a brush with white to correct when I erased too much)--using progressively smaller brush sizes.
7. I repeated steps 3-6 with 2 more flower images: "wildflowers2.psd" and "violas.psd".
8. I moved the layer with the yellow wildflowers behind the layer with the purple & red flowers. I tried to scale them down to look more natural, but couldn't get this to work properly. I don't know what I was doing wrong. :(
9. I selected the bunny and did edit>copy and then edit>paste into my new document.
10. I cloned part of the grass at the bottom of the red & purple flowers photo and used the clone stamp at the bottom of my background layer, to cover the gap between the various flower layers.
11. I used the paint bucket to fill the background with dark green.
12. I hid all the layers except the bunny, zoomed in, and cleaned up the edges. I initially tried adding a drop shadow to the bunny but didn't like it and removed it.
    
13. Cropped the background to fit the final image.
    

Angelesa Ward - Bunny

So for this assignment, I spent more time trying to decide which image to put my bunny in than anything else. I finally decided on the flowers.

Then I went to the bunny picture and used the quick selection tool to grab the bunny, added a pixel mask and cleaned up the edges of the bunny. I softened the edges and cleaned him up and then pulled him over the flowers. AND HE WAS HUGE. So I deleted that layer, went back to my bunny, made him smaller and pulled him over. I didn't like where I originally put him, so I deleted that layer, flipped him on the original image, and then pulled him over again. I put him over on the side. I went back to the original image, flipped him again, and made him tiny and pulled him over to the back near the road. (See him?)

Next I went to one of the wildflower pictures and carefully selected one of the flowers and pulled it over to the image twice and arranged them. I like how the bunnies blend in, especially the one in the back. I think I like him more than the big one actually. But yeah. STEALTH BUNNY! Enjoy. =)

Kim Steele - Bunny

This isn't all that great because we're all sick at my house. But, at least it's done, right?

So, I selected a section of fern with the quick selection tool. Then I copied and pasted that section back into the image. I also copied a couple of wildflowers and put those in there. For the bunny, I selected him with the quick select tool. I then applied a layer mask and reduced the size of the image by about 2 thirds. I dragged him into the fern image, applied a drop shadow effect, and nestled him in behind the section of fern I copied.

Jessica Gonzalez: Bunny

This is another one that may be difficult for me to explain.

First i made my selection of the bunny, and I went to the masks panel and masked the edges as like in chapter 6, to soften the section. I applied my mask and copied the bunny.

Next I opened the flower image, duplicated the flower layer and put the bunny in between them. Then with transform selection, I adjusted the size of the bunny and flipped it horizontally.
With the quick selection tool I selected the background (the blurred area) and then I inverted the selection.
In the masks panel I refined the edges. I set the output to Decontaminate color and new layer with mask.
I continued to refine the edges with several new layers and masks, but I started having difficulties getting the tools to do what I wanted. I think I got confused when it came to the refine radius brush and erase refinements, I either wasn't seeing any results or I ended up erasing selections that I wanted to add. So this option worked well for me as a starting point but I really had trouble making fine adjustments.

What I ended up doing was going to the mask and reducing my brush size, flow, and opacity, and painted the small areas that I wanted to fine tune. I went to the channels and clicked on the mask to reveal the red mask so I could better see the detail I painted. Before too long I noticed that the bunny still looked really strange because it had a blue color cast that shouldn't appear in the sunny outdoor lighting, so, with the bunny layer selected, I used the color replacement tool and sampled another area of the bunny and painted over the blue.


I tried the fern too.

Angelesa Ward - Before and After

This assignment was a tricky one. As stated in a previous post, I don't have a real camera at my beck and call (though my parents have one I could drive over and borrow) so my saved images were kind of sparse pickings.

I took this photo with my iPhone a couple years ago at the Salmon Bake.

As you can see, the BEFORE image was dark, washed out, not very colorful, and crooked. After fighting with Mini Bridge for a while trying to get it to open the image and failing, I opened up Bridge and navigated to where the file was hiding, and convinced it to open it in Camera Raw. Once I had it there, I fixed the white levels, temperature, blacks, bridghtness, tint and clarity. I also rotated and cropped the image with the straighten tool. Then I took the image into Photoshop. After fiddling with Sharpening the image, and not liking the result, I pulled up the History panel and undid all I'd done. I tried using dodge on the shadows under her eyes, but the effect didn't come out as I'd intended. I ended up using the sponge to bring up the color in her eyes, and the dodge tool to lighten the whites of her eyes. I'm fairly satisfied with the results. She's the center image of the photo and she has a healthy glow to her skin that is much more true to how she really looks.