So Many Free Photoshop Resources on the Web!

I am addicted to Photography and Photoshop and constantly amazed at the number of people willing to share information, techniques, expertise, and more. And the resources, tutorials and on-line education available all for free! I have met so many interesting and talented paper as I learned Photoshop, and I encourage everyone to search for anything you might need to learn a new task, develop a new talent.

Lately I have been interested in layers and textures. And now there are actions! All designed to help improve your photos. And so many people have created free ones that you never have to purchase them if your budget does not allow. Some of the sites ask for donations or have select products available for purchase, but the free items are available without commitment or obligation. So try your hand at something new.

What amazes me about layers and textures is that it can transform the ordinary photo. Give it the extra oomph! that it might need to soften, highlight, texturize.

Here are some new sites I have happened upon. Please drop on in on them and let me know what you are working on. That is what the internet is all about. People connecting with People. Its a virtual library, a social event that you need to participate in. Don't be a wallflower!

ShadowHouseCreations The author creates the most interesting photos, and offers all kinds of free brushes, textures, and layers. His brushes were used to add the birds, and an extra tree in the photo above!

CoffeeTeaPhotography This is an amazing site that offers tutorials, resources, free actions, and more. She accepts donations of any amount to help her keep her site running, but its not a requirement for using the information. For me, a donation is well worth it. Her items are fantastic!


TexasChicksBlogsandPics Another informative site that offers tutorials, layers and actions and walks you through how upload them in any version of Photoshop. They also have a newsletter! Great tips and techiniques. They also have products for sale, but again, a lot of freebies.

If you want to try your hand at layering, trust me its easy. Drop me a line if you need some help.

Another huge resource is Flickr groups. People share their photos and work, you can get free textures of all kins on this site, and the groups allow you to post challenges you are having and get advice and suggestions from people who may have had the same struggle.

There is no excuse for learning. The free information is out there, print, bring it home and learn a new skill. Its easy peasey!

This photo includes my photography of a tree off the Potomac River, 1 cloud layer, one cloud texture, and one color texture all from ShadowHouseCreations and/or downloaded from Flickr. It has an eagle that was added using a brush set that was free on ShadowHouseCreations.

Now on to actions! Don't know much about them yet, but I am doing the Research. Will keep you posted.

Pondering a New Thought. What do you think?

On another website a therapist who works with photography to help people make changes in their life wrote "Your photos are actually "self-portraits" even if you are not in them". WOW, I mean Whoa! that caught my attention, made me feel a little bit uncomfortable so I knew I was in the learning mode with God at that moment and I had to think about that statement. Especially since I have been a little less than satisfied with some of my work. Her belief is that we take pictures of things that move us, people we want to spend time with, actions that amaze us. These snap shots can give us an idea or our mood, our journey through time, our future.

So I began thinking about what was bothering me about the pictures. They were too blurry, they weren't crisp or as "Pretty" as some of the other professional photos I see, I can't get the f stop, ISO, aperture correct, etc, etc, etc. And in this self analysis I realized a few things. 1) I am in too much of a hurry to be perfect 2) Because I am in too much of a hurry, I am taking pictures just to have a picture, but not really to learn the process and 3) Like everything in my life I rush, look for quick, fast easy ways, and don't enjoy the experience. And so, what do I get? Blurry photos. It is self portrait of my hurried, fast paced existence. The beauty comes from slowing down, looking for the best shot, perhaps not always taking the photo, but just enjoying that quiet solitude, those moments when no one is around and you are seeing it all take place around you.

I am challenging myself to make the time to slow down. To no be so worried about getting a shot, but to spend more time with the learning, more time with relaxing and enjoying the visuals. Finding composition through my own life interpretation.

I love to learn new things about myself, about processes, about people. Its no surprise to me that this new revelation about myself has come up "once again". It just is. I hurry. I move fast. A lesson to learn is the slowing down. Perhaps we will begin to see a change in the way we take photos as we slow down and enjoy the process.

This also translates itself to photo editing. Photoshop should not be used to just slap on some layers and call it a day. It should be another slow process where we feel the photo and find ways to translate the moods into a finer print. Textures, words, layers can all be useful in expressing what we saw during those quiet moments but it can only be done if we took the time during the shot to feel the experience, to relish and enjoy the shot. What do you think?

Frustrating Photos

Okay, I went out this past Friday (I had the day off) and headed over to a reserve at 8:00am to capture some shots of the Eagles they just let loose from rehabilitation. The day was perfect, it was very early in the morning, and not a soul was in site. The lake was calm and everything was coming to life. Butterflies, geese, birds, dragonflys, eagles, osprey, blue heron. I was in wildlife heaven, shooting photo after photo, after photo. Two hours later I headed home with some beautiful shots. You could see birds preparing to descent to catch fish, an osprey grabbing a fish from the water, a blue heron skimming the lake inches about the water. It was amazing and I was so proud that I had captured it all on film.

Coming home I was so excited, and tired. But I immediately began to download my shots. Photo after photo was blurry, out of focus. I was so upset and so frustrated. I just couldn't believe it. So I began to research the problem. And in a nut shell, here is what I learned.

1) Taking good shots is going to take time, patience and study. You can't rely soley on Automatic Focus. There are too many variables when it comes to capturing movement. In fact, there are three things that come in to play: Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO. I could go into detail about it, but I recommend that you head over to this site: digital photography school read up! They are a wealth of information. They give good tips on all sorts of subjects. Photography at night, photographing kids, photography for children...and more.

2) Blurry photos can be fixed. I found this plug in FOCUS MAGIC that works as a plug in with Photoshop elements and while it looks easy, my first day of practicing its use was a little daunting. I will post more on it as I practice. It costs $45 so seemed reasonable enough. They let you have 8 free edits to try before you buy, but since I didn't read the instructions prior to trying, I didn't have much success. I broke down and registered for it, so I now have alot of practice time. I will keep you posted.

The great thing about Digital photography is that you can keep going back and taking more pictures and trying again. Its frustrating when you think you got the perfect shot, and you want to see it, frame it, send it out to all your friends!

As you can see, they are quite blurry, but they are very clear in my mind. Here's the thing, no matter how many times I go back and take that picture it will never come out right if I don't take the time to slow down, learn something new, and take a few risks.

And with digital, I can do it again, and again and again! Wish me luck! If I master the blurry corrections on these photos, I will post them to show you the differences. Are you learning something new? If so, please share it with us. This is what its all about!