Adobe Photoshop & Elements

Good morning. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...Another beautiful wintry day here in NE Ohio. 
Erie Shores Photography Club 

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Photography Club I Belong To.

      
This morning I'd like to share some of my thoughts about Photoshop in CS4 and Elements. I LOVE THEM. OK those are my thoughts. No seriously though, these two programs are ingenious but learning them is another story. Elements is by far the easier of the two.  I'll refer to Photoshop as PS.  PS is so intriguing, so much to learn. I am certain in my lifetime I will not master PS.  I am not a beginner and know a lot more than just the basics.   In the past 8 months I have surpassed 20 books and magazines about PS.  I am simply amazed by the number of things one can do in PS.  On this computer  I have over 90,000 photos, most of which are of my children and family.  I am always opening up a photo to see what corrections or tricks I can apply to it.  Learning photo editing is not as easy as one thinks when it comes to tack sharp photography.  I can sit for hours trying to make my photos 100% perfect.  Take this photo for example.  It's simple.  It's sharp and it's large. So why am I not happy with it?  Why do I always feel an edit is required?  I suppose that's just me. I thrive for perfection for each of my clients.

 

 Elements on the other hand is simplified in such a way you actually feel like you've accomplished something at the end of the day.  

The DO IT FOR ME  section of Elements I especially like.  The moment I hit that apply button a huge smile appears on my face. Do I leave well enough alone? Of course not. I keep at it.  

The examples below are edited using Elements. No tripod was used. 

# 1 Original

# 2 Touched Up Using Levels

# 3 Cropped & Sharpened

 As you will see there really isn't anything terrible with # 1 it's just flat and lacks contrast and there's not much composition to it. In photo # 2 I added some color correction and sharpness but left it uncropped.

Photo 3 is the finished product. The emphasis is on the mountains and not so much the lake. 

Keep in mind I have only been using PS & Elements for about a year. 

Have a great day everyone.