I Heart Faces - Texture
One of my goals for 2010 is to learn Photoshop better. I am confident in my familiarity with the basics of the program but I want to be able to rock the house with it by the time the year is over. I haven’t made much progress yet. It’s still January…
So I Heart Faces’ theme this week is Texture. I think that could mean many things. I have been wanting to play with some texture overlays in Photoshop, so I tried a few out on this photo. I ended up going with this one called PaperBox 2 by ShadowHouse creations. I like it but I’m not sure I like it on this photo. The photo is already pretty textured with the grass and tree leaves all around Uly. Oh well. I can’t spend any more time on it right now. My kids are hungry and I need to go make some kind of dinner.
This will have to do.
One piece of advice I heard last year at PhotoCamp was to show less photos to people and be more discerning about the photos that you do share. It’s kind of an “I only take good photos” attitude. I don’t only take good photos. I take some pretty bad ones. I take some good ones too, but I show all kinds photos; good and bad. I don’t think this is one of my better ones. I don’t really follow that advice.
January 26th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Good for you trying something new and learning. That is AWESOME! Your son is so cute : )
January 26th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
I agree with you Jess. This photo has so much texture already that the texture overlay is distracting…. almost clashing… if that word fits. I can see how it would be really cool on a close up photo with out a lot of background.
January 26th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
I love the picture. And I love that texture. I too want to get more familiar with Photoshop this year. I spent too many hours today trying to figure it out and it is so frustrating! Good luck with your plan!
January 27th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Jess, as a child photographer I have thousands of photographs, most of which would never qualify as “great”. As for PhotoShop, it can be a great tool.
When I learned photography I used 35mm film cameras and we did a lot of darkroom stuff; now it is all with PhotoShop. Biggest tip: take all of your photos in RAW as opposed to JPEG. Every time you work on a photo it is degraded, so try and take them in RAW.
The young one obviously wasn’t much interested in your taking his photo.
Regards,
Betty
Betty A. Muscott, Child Photographer
http://www.realkidsphotography.com
January 28th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
This is great! I too am finding Photoshop scary, and I too, by year’s end, would like to use CS4 instead of Elements. You did a fine job on this. I don’t know why I fear it - making mistakes won’t blow my computer up - but I am really intimidated by it just the same.
January 29th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
IMHO, this is a great exposure. I love that the skin tones are right on. The contrast between the colors and the skin tones make him pop. Since he is the center of attention and the point of the photo, I don’t even notice the texture, because the skin tones are spot on. It flatters the subject. Portraits aren’t about what is around the subject, they are about the subject. His expression is a little pinched, which indicates a young man whose mom has taken his picture one too many times, but I love the light and skin tones. Rock on Sister MOm shooter!