Portrait of my niece

[Teacher617]

I used Matt's cropping video to create this new look for my niece. I don't have PSE 5, so I couldn't do his last step, but the tutorial was easy to follow.

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/gallery/view_img.php?id=15344

Tricia

[Simone]

Hi Tricia, this is absolutely beautiful! I am relatively new, and more and more I'm convinced I need to subscribe. I really want to learn some of these techniques, such as Matt's cropping video that you mentioned! Thanks for sharing.

[Teacher617]

Hi Simone,
Thank you for your kind words. :-)

Welcome to the forum! I'm still a newbie myself, but I've found this forum to be absolutely invaluable to learning the ins and outs of PSE. Hope you do decide to join.

Tricia

[lindajay]

Tricia and Simone, welcome to both of you! Tricia, your portrait -- and your niece -- are beautiful! Nice work. I'm looking forward to seeing more from you.

Merry Christmas!

[mrod]

Nice job, Tricia! I like it. I don't have PSE 5 either, but I was thinking you could imitate Matt's last step with an edge-darkening technique. There's a ton of ways to do this, but this is a simple, quick way:

1. Merge any layers you have (depending on what version you have, you can create a new layer on the top of your layer stack, then press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E. This will create a merged layer of all your layers, but it won't merge the originals. Does that make sense? If you have version 4, I think you can just click on your top layer and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E and skip making a new layer. In V.3, you have to make a new layer first.)

2. Duplicate the merged layer.

3. Choose one of the marquee tools and on the duplicated layer, draw a selection around the part of the image you want to be lighter than the rest (the edges, in your case).

4. Feather the selection (probably a pretty high feather--30? 40? 50? It depends...:))

5. Then press delete. Your duplicated layer should now have a hole in it, letting the merged layer underneath show through. It probably doesn't look any different--yet.

6. Now you can play with the blend mode of the duplicated layer (the one with the hole in it) to darken it and make the edges darker. Maybe Multiply? You could also play with Levels to darken.

Just a thought I had when I watched Matt's video, trying to think of a work-around.

Great job on the image!

Mike

[Tom K]

Hi Tricia; Very well done picture of your niece.

As Mike said there are many ways to work around a particular issue if you
don't have ver 5....

Keep up the good work...........Tom :)

[Tom K]

Simone.... Welcome.

If you can, subscribe to the Elements magazine, it is well worth it..

The articles are great and written for all levels of reader, the videos
can't be beat and the tutorials are the best...

Good luck..........Tom :)

[Teacher617]

Thanks for the work-around, Mike! I've printed out your directions so I can try them out. :)

Tom, this program amazes me every time I watch a new video or see what others have posted to their galleries. I find myself saying, "I want to do that, too!" all the time.

Thank you both, for your encouragement!

Tricia