Hey everyone/anyone! Help! Can you tell me how to add a 'Layer Mask' in Elements 6? Thanks!

Black & White Portrait

I sure don't feel like I should be giving a tutorial as I am such a novice. But for what it is worth, I'll give it my best shot. The above photo is SOOC. I'm a huge fan of black and white and have had lots of fun playing with photos in Photo Elements 6. Learning it has at times been extremely frustrating to me and there is a ton about it that I have yet to learn. BUT, it is so rewarding when you finally do figure out a technique.

To get this effect I first cropped the pix. Then, I put it into black and white by clicking on the 'Enhance' tab and then 'Convert to Black and White'. Often I will go back into the Enhance tab, click on 'Adjust Lighting', click on 'Levels' and move the black arrow in 'Input Levels' to the right until I get the desired intensity of black that I want. That feature is way cool and I love using it. Next I did Vignetting. I have had to go back OFTEN to Carin's excellent tutorial on 'Vignetting' which is in the 2008 archives and dated October 6th. I found out you can use all kinds of colors with awesome effects to frame your subject with. Anyway, I'm sure this is all elementary to you, but hopefully helpful to someone who is learning the beginning basics like I am! Have a great week everyone!

Midnight Truck

The image is quite dark, which means there isn't much there to work with. I put the image in Photoshop CS3 and bumped the shadow about 75%. Here is the result. Let me know what you think

Cy

Another 'Help' one!

I took some pix's of my son's truck and trailer around midnite when he was passing through. I took them at the weigh scale under their lites and got some rather cool pix's. I blew them up to a 5"x7" and was disappointed when they turned out way to dark. Anyone have any helpful hints of what to do with them? I'd love to do some for his birthday.

Help!!

I love this picture and would like suggestions to make it the best possible... I was busy and quickly took shots when not otherwise involved... (it was a 50th anniv. for my sister.) The kids are so cute and would like to see the picture improved. You can see on the second picture that I tried working with it but it made it look faded and a bit washed out.

A quick setting change can make a difference

Hey There Folks.  I wanted to share with you what a difference a little setting change can make.

I am in the habit of altering my photos in photoshop, but as I learn more magic with the camera, lighting a shoot I am slowly having to edit less and coming up with a better quality

SOOC Straight Out Of Camera Shot.

These are SOOC shots and I am quite proud of them.

I set the white balance for cloudy as it was cloudy that day.

Then I went into the camera menu settings and changed colors to VIVID.  Look at the wonderful effect that I got, and without my crutch (Photoshop)!  

Holiday Break

With this being such a busy time of year we will have a short holiday break. Check the right hand side of the screen to find your next Monday Post.

As always, feel free to post a new blog entry if you have a question or need help or have something neat to share.

Also, we would love to have others join us! You may have been using a camera for 70 years or 7 days, we still would love to have you join us. Post do not necessarily need to be tutorials. You can ask a question, present a challenge, ask for critique, or submit a picture and ask everyone to photoshop it to see the different ways people approach a photo. Lots of possibilities, get out of your comfort zone and join us =)