buckstop39
February 28th, 2009, 12:47 PM
My name is Mike and I have been lurking for a couple of years I believe. I am still fairly new at photography and photoshop, though I have been taking pictures for many years. It is really nice that this forum exists which promotes the sharing of ideas and pictures or creations with others. There is so much talent here it amazes me.
I am from the Dallas, TX. area so there is not much available in wintertime for me to try creative photography. I mostly stay inside and resort to blending a mix of graphics and past photographs. At first I thought I would never be able to grasp any of the many procedures and techniques of Photoshop. But persistance in trying to know how each step manipulates a file has finally paid off for me to some degree. Now I am getting it so to speak. I know I may never live long enough to grasp all the things this fabulous product can do, but the last two weeks have really been an eye opener period for me.
I worked at Elements 5 for many hours in order to learn how things work or how it is organized. In planning a project, I found that having a main folder with the various stages of the project saved is essential. This helps me a lot, so that I don't lose so much time recreating a series of steps toward the eventual end result. That plus keeping several associated folders with contents of snips to add to the main project as you roll along. The process of going back frequently to the start to get something right was helping me learn, but sure ends up with lot of time lost if you mess up a step. Saving these steps along the way in .psd, really helped me.
I did not mean to make this so long winded. I just felt it was so eye opening once I learned or mastered creative steps and put them together for a finished file, that I wished to share what I found out. Actually if you save it in steps using .psd or .pse files, the work is really never finished if you do not want it to be. I usually save a final picture in Jpeg.
Thanks for your time reading this and again I hope the rambling is not too much. And thanks for all the knowledge and creative pictures that have been submitted that I have enjoyed. I am not sure this link works in here as I am still new to posting stuff. But one of the creations I did this morning is here. :)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3482/3316744268_98145de196.jpg
I am from the Dallas, TX. area so there is not much available in wintertime for me to try creative photography. I mostly stay inside and resort to blending a mix of graphics and past photographs. At first I thought I would never be able to grasp any of the many procedures and techniques of Photoshop. But persistance in trying to know how each step manipulates a file has finally paid off for me to some degree. Now I am getting it so to speak. I know I may never live long enough to grasp all the things this fabulous product can do, but the last two weeks have really been an eye opener period for me.
I worked at Elements 5 for many hours in order to learn how things work or how it is organized. In planning a project, I found that having a main folder with the various stages of the project saved is essential. This helps me a lot, so that I don't lose so much time recreating a series of steps toward the eventual end result. That plus keeping several associated folders with contents of snips to add to the main project as you roll along. The process of going back frequently to the start to get something right was helping me learn, but sure ends up with lot of time lost if you mess up a step. Saving these steps along the way in .psd, really helped me.
I did not mean to make this so long winded. I just felt it was so eye opening once I learned or mastered creative steps and put them together for a finished file, that I wished to share what I found out. Actually if you save it in steps using .psd or .pse files, the work is really never finished if you do not want it to be. I usually save a final picture in Jpeg.
Thanks for your time reading this and again I hope the rambling is not too much. And thanks for all the knowledge and creative pictures that have been submitted that I have enjoyed. I am not sure this link works in here as I am still new to posting stuff. But one of the creations I did this morning is here. :)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3482/3316744268_98145de196.jpg