wine on the keyboard

photoshop

Topaz Adjust Review

by Kay~Kacey on 5/19/2010

I’m messing with the trial version of Topaz Adjust–a plugin for Photoshop. It has a lot of different settings you can apply to a photo.

topaz-coffee-at-the-lake-2129

You can go from a sketchy effect to a 3D-ish effect plus more.

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See how this one has a cool subtle 3d effect?

topaz_0424

This one really separated SuperGuy from the background and makes the photo pop.

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This one I did a bit of the drawing effect along with some 3D goodness.

Anyway, you can trial it for a month. Just download it, then go to their website and enter your email address. They’ll send you a key that will allow you to use it for a month. Try it out and see if you like it. It’s $49.99 if you decide to purchase it.

I think this would be great to use subtly on Senior High urban photos, don’t you? Or flowers. Or just about anything. If you try it out, be sure to come back here and comment and share a link to your experiments.

Tip: if it does funky thing to the skin tones, just use a mask and paint out the skin.

topaz-4368

Here is a link to their gallery. Just hover your mouse over the photos in their gallery to see them switch from before and after. Another photoshop toy to play with. You’re welcome. :mrgreen:

Don’t You Wish

by Kay~Kacey on 3/17/2009

Really, sometimes, don’t you wish you could photoshop your world?

first-sign-of-green

This first hint of green in my very drab brown/gray backyard. Okay, I confess. I boosted the greens and saturated this photo. I know. It’s cheating. But sometimes I wish I could photoshop the world and make spring jump into full bloom. Sigh.

saturated-green-branches

Yes, bumped up the green on this one, and cropped down so it looks like there is more green around than there really is. I’m not above cheating to coax on spring, you know. :crazy: I’m not above using the liquefy tool on my thighs either… or the skin smoothing on my face. I’m just one big cheater, I guess. :rofl: 😆

What would you photoshop in your world??

Black and White Challenge

by Kay~Kacey on 2/15/2008

Really cool photo, huh?
black and white bridge photo
Too bad I didn’t take it. My son of the very organized desk took it. I love black and white photography. He actually took this with his canon xti, in color, then photoshopped it to black and white.

I’m so learning how to do that this weekend. Anyone up for a challenge? Take one of your photos and convert it to black and white. I’ll post my photo on Monday. Feel free to leave a link to your photo in my comments, or drop a link to me with my contact form. I’ll update my post during the day and add in any links to posts that you’ve done.

According to Scott Kelby, one way to adjust color photos to black and white (and this should be similar in both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements) is to make a new adjustment layer. Select Hue/Saturation. Set the Saturation to -100 (the slider all the way to the left). Create another adjustment layer. Select levels. Then in the levels box select red channel, then blue channel, then green channel. Use the sliders on each of these channels to adjust the contrast. When you’re done flatten the image. Then go to image and select grayscale from the submenu.

(okay, I have the full photoshop on my PC, but I’m not speaking to my PC right now. So I only have Photoshop Elements on my Mac. I love my Mac. :love: But I need to get the full Photoshop for my Mac.) But anyway, those instructions should basically work for either program.

Anyone up for a Black and White Challenge? Or if you’ve already done some experimenting with converting to black and white, feel free to drop a link to the pics in the comments. I’m going to spend this weekend messing around with some pics and see what kind convert to black and white the best. Stay tuned for the results on Monday!

Do you have any tips for me?