Friday, January 21, 2011

Photoshop or Not.

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE! :)

I do not have Photoshop! (Now, you all know my little secret, He! He!) What I do have is a very old, and in computer terms ancient, version of Paint Shop Pro. I rarely alter many of the images that I take expect to use the brightness/contrast feature, slightly.

So, as I have been getting more into working with my camera and taking LOTS of photos (close to 20,000 in 2010, Phew!) I have started to explore the other features in Paint Shop Pro and also, have been drooling over some of the work other Photographers are creating with Photoshop. But now I am trying to decide whether it is time to upgrade to Photoshop.

So, if anyone who has Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro (the more recent version :) would like to let me know what they think about them I would love to hear from you.
Until then, the Artist in me, cannot stop wanting to play with the layering feature. The past few weeks I have been using a few random photos and seeing what I could create; the programme is limited but fun.

Hope you enjoy! :)








shadow catkins




stone wall texture





I layered all 3 of the above photos to get this :)




Xmas Holiday Light Bokeh




Stars and Stripes





I layered the Xmas Holiday Light Bokeh over the photo of the Stars and Stripes to get Patriot






Reflective Light Bulb




Again the Xmas Holiday Light Bokeh



 



I layered the Xmas Holiday Light Bokeh over the photo of the reflective light bulb and this is what I got :)

I hope you like these fun little photos :)


I just found out that I can download a free 30 day trial of Photoshop so I might just have to do that. Please let me know if you have any experience of Photoshop, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Have a Lovely Weekend.

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

19 comments:

Angela said...

I have it but have no idea how to use it. It is very confusing to me! I prefer to let my camera do the work...

Almost Precious said...

T - I looked into Photoshop at one time but found it was rather expense for my purpose, which was to take photos of my supplies and jewelry. However your purpose is different than mine, since you're a photographer. My daughter worked with Photoshop and raved about it. I think for the professional it is probably well worth the investment.

I really love your layered photos and the altered/enhanced park scene shot that you've created is beautiful. Really, very, very artistic.

Almost Precious said...

PS - I should have said; "since you're a photographer AND an artist".

thewovenspoke said...

I like what you have done, I tried photoshop once and found it confusing. I too try to let the camera and experience with photography get my photos to look like they do. Once in a while I use some of the enhance options in my computers programs "help" out.

Have a fantastice weekend.
www.thewovenspoke.blogspot.com

cabin + cub said...

I have Photoshop and I love it. Although I mostly use it for my design work and practice rather than my crafts. It is awesome for color correcting photos though!!
:)

Meeling said...

I love the lightbulb shot...really cool!

The Lavender Daisy said...

I like your photo of the bench with the tree :) I have Photoshop, and it's a lot of fun! There are so many amazing tools that you can use with it. If you decide to use it, I can give you the links to some Photoshop tutorials and books that have been helpful if you would like :) Have a good weekend!

Daliana Pacuraru said...

Well, T!
I like very much your experiment!
I wish you a great weekend!

Annette said...

I can see why you like playing with the layering feature! I have photoshop elements and find it confusing. However, the people I know who use photoshop absolutely love it. I think it's definitely worth checking out for your purposes! Happy Saturday! :)

Charlotte said...

Love the wine glass layered with the lights! The photo of the bench also looks so peaceful! I just want to sit on it and read a book. ;) The flag is also a great shot, I love how you can see it flapping in the wind. Great shots again T!

Bethany Dirksen said...

I have photoshop (elements) and it is good. My husband is MUCH better at using it than I am, but I am slowly learning. I do not find it user friendly...but I know it is a powerful tool if you do your homework.

Stephanie said...

Interesting!

I don't have photoshop or anything like that either :( I can change the contrast of my photos for my blog but other than that they are "as-is"

This makes me want to try an editing program

Unknown said...

T, you take such lovely pics!
I only use paint to resize my photos :-S
I hope you enjoy having a play with photoshop :-)

Rainy Day Gardener said...

I think you'd love it. My hubby raves about it and I think it would be cool to play with, so why not T? :) Cheers~!

Clare said...

I'm chiming in really late in the conversation, but I use Photoshop Elements, which is the *small* version of Photoshop and quite a lot cheaper. Photoshop is a huge, HUGE application, so if you don't think you'll need all of the professional bells and whistles of Photoshop, Elements is the way to go.

Annie said...

Beauitful layering, I just LOVE the way they all turned out! I vote Photoshop, I have it and love it :)

Anonymous said...

Hiya T! Welp, I use Photoshop Elements for my editing/colorwheel playing needs, and for what I use it for, it's pretty effective for image editing. I know my photographer friend uses the full Pro version, because his specialty lies with digital painting of fantasy photography.

I think your images are gorgeously rendered without Photoshop, but if you feel you want to expand your image repertoire, then by all means look into both versions. I will not naysay the program because I do love using it. I made sure it was included in my computer programming when I bought my computer years ago.

kelli g. { bug miscellany } said...

so pretty! i love the xmas lights. :)

i use PaintShop Pro for al my (very amatuer) photo editing. i don't even really know all the features you're talking about! he he. i'd like to learn more about PhotoShop. i've seen some of these 'actions' you can download to alter photos, and they are so cool! but i definitely think for just the usual kind of editing PaintShopPro is more the sufficient.

of course, you are a photo pro, so i can def see how PhotoShop would be fun for you to mess around with. you know students get a hefty discount on Adobe products....just sayin'... :)

Stephanie Round said...

I have photoshop and I adore it.
As much as I love the art of photography and having photos as they where taken with the camera, I am also completely obsessed with post-processing and really love doing image manipulations.
I've never used paint shop pro so can't compare but I definitely think photoshop is a worthwhile investment.
It doesn't need to be too expensive either. I have cs2 at home and at work I use cs4...there really is barely any difference between the two from what I can tell so far, so you don't need the most up to date photoshop to get the best out of it x