Shelby Stidham

Trying to Learn Photoshop

I am not good with Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended yet, but I’m so definitely working on it. My fiance, on the other hand, is great with Photoshop and quite honestly can do anything. I’m so jealous! But he’s had it since he was younger and has been working with Photoshop for years. I was just introduced to it a year or so ago, so I really can’t say I’ve had much time. I want to eventually be able to do everything on Photoshop, but right now I’ve been trying to teach myself creative photo editing. I like to search Google for high resolution pictures of people, head shots mostly, and edit them. I slenderize faces, change eye color, get rid of wrinkles, whiten teeth, and smooth faces. You know, all cosmetic type of stuff. It’s hard to teach yourself because you don’t have someone to tell you how to do things better, you just have to guess and check. But I think I’m getting better.

Tonight, though, I wanted to try something different. I was kind of getting bored of trying to make everyone look like they were supposed to be on the front of magazine covers so I decided to fool around with the filters and stuff. I took a picture of myself in the bathroom (I decided to use me because I got a new necklace today that I freakin’ love) and put it through a couple filters. The original was a tad hideous so I didn’t post it up. Here are the three I came up with, nothing fancy but still fun to look at:

I like this one a lot because it’s comic-booky and sketchy, but still realistic. I’m so loving that necklace, BTW, and I must say with my new necklace and un-straightened hair I feel very Carrie Bradshaw-ish this evening.

This one looks like a water color painting and, coincidentally, it was run through a watercolor-based filter. The dark eyes, the dark hair and dark straps.. it’s all quite mysterious and sexy, right? I like it. I’m trying really hard to not mention my awesome necklace again, just so you know. (Oh and don’t you love the bed in the background! Yes, you do)

The fake blue eyes are wayy too fake but I didn’t want to change them. My fiance hates it when I make photographs look unrealistic by making colors too saturated or features too fake but, if you ask me, sometimes its just fun to look at. I mean, you can tell its fake but it’s a good change, right? My eyes are blue they just aren’t cerulean color crayon blue like that.

Anyway, when I get better at Photoshop I’ll post some more interesting stuff. One day I hope to be a pro. I’m waiting on my man to do some tutorials on his website then I’ll use them and be better. So, see, it’s his fault I’m not great already! Here are some basic photoshop tutorials for those who are interested. Until I can post more, good luck to everyone who’s also new to Photoshop. It can be a bitch!