Announcement

**Montana 5** · 26-12-2013, 14:19

Re: Girl with a Pink Umbrella

Doug.

**colin C** · 26-12-2013, 15:41

Re: Girl with a Pink Umbrella

I've had a little play.

**Stan** · 26-12-2013, 16:02

Re: Girl with a Pink Umbrella

Cheers Doug

I've had a little play

that is exactly my original thought but I am just working on a small screen at the moment so decided to leave the other people in for a different context but that is how I plan to present it when I have access to all my facilities ( and no jokes about that Colin

)

Stan

**colin C** · 26-12-2013, 16:18

Re: Girl with a Pink Umbrella

when I have access to all my facilities ( and no jokes about that Colin

)

Difficult to resist .............. but OK.

**DeeGee** · 26-12-2013, 19:16

Re: Girl with a Pink Umbrella

Looks content to be in a world of her own.

**Stan** · 26-12-2013, 19:34

Re: Girl with a Pink Umbrella

Thanks Di

Difficult to resist .............. but OK.

sorry Colin

Stan

**Riggers** · 26-12-2013, 19:58

Re: Girl with a Pink Umbrella

Originally posted by colin C View Post

I've had a little play.

That's brilliant Colin.

I wish I knew how you guys make that look so easy. I' tried to replicate what Stan did to my Squirrel shot but Photoshop just drove me crazy. I watched loads of tutorials and still didn't get much closer

**Stan** · 26-12-2013, 21:21

Re: Girl with a Pink Umbrella

I wish I knew how you guys make that look so easy

I have not had a go at this one yet but I think it is going to be a lot more difficult than the squirrel

stan

**colin C** · 26-12-2013, 22:39

Re: Girl with a Pink Umbrella

I wish I knew how you guys make that look so easy.

Hi Riggers

Photoshop was never designed to be intuitive, or easy to learn. That's why businesses spend thousands of pounds sending their people on Photoshop courses, or hundreds of pounds on user manuals. The manuals were never that good either. When I wanted to learn how to make layers I read the chapter on layers and because of the terminology and the way it was written, I knew less after reading the chapter than before. Even lots of useful features are hidden within sub menus.

The trick is to go step by step and become comfortable with each stage before moving on:

Learn Levels and how to alter the exposure. Learn Saturation to brighten or subdue colours. Learn Curves to alter contrast. Learn the Clone tool to copy from one area of the photo to paste into another area.

The next stage is to learn to make a selection. This is just drawing around a shape, so if you can use a pencil you can make a selection. Use the lasso tool as your pencil and don't worry if you don't get it perfect first time - you can always add or subtract from your selection. If you need to make a selection of a large area of similar colour, you can use the magic wand tool. If it's easier, you can select what you don't want and then reverse the selection. Once you have made a good selection you are happy with, yo need to decide what the feather will be. A feather of 0 will leave a very sharp edge and a feather of 100 will leave a very gradual soft edge. Where you want to blend the sky into the landscape a feather of 50 is fine. Where you want your subject to stand out against the background a feather of 1 is fine.

So now you have selected and you need to make it a separate layer. Go to Layer> New> Layer via copy and a new layer of your selection will appear above the background layer and it will be highlighted ready to use.

Now all that stuff you learnt in the initial stages of levels, saturation, curves and clone you can now apply to your new layer, without affecting the background.

Once you can make good selections and layers, that's where the magic of Photoshop begins and once you start to be proficient with the above, then you can be more advanced and use multi layers, layer masks etc.

Four bits of advice:

If you have a problem then ask. We are more than happy to help. This is not the type of Forum where we keep our knowledge to ourselves, but do try to keep the question specific, because there is only so much we can reasonably respond to in any given post.

By all means experiment and have fun, but at the end of the day, only do what you need to in Photoshop ......... not what you can. What to you may look like sharp photo's with punchy colours may well look over sharpened and over saturated to the rest of us.

There is no right or wrong way with Photoshop. With most things, there are at least three ways to achieve what you want and often more. So what works for you is right.

Photoshop is not an easy journey and it demands time and effort, but mastering the magic makes you the magician ........... on paper at least.

**tesarver** · 27-12-2013, 02:39

Re: Girl with a Pink Umbrella

Nice shot Stan, equally good edit Colin.

Tom

**Riggers** · 27-12-2013, 09:46

Re: Girl with a Pink Umbrella

Thanks very much Colin for another comprehensive and really helpful response.

I mainly use LR for post processing (levels, saturation, clarity, sharpening etc) and if I need to adjust levels / clarity etc on a specific area I've been using Nik's Vivesa (or Define for sharpening) with the control points which I find really easy. I mainly dip into PS if I need to clone something out and that's where I've been having trouble - getting the selections right.

I now realise that once I master selections and understand how to get the feather right and use layers then a whole world of new opportunities opens up e.g. I might just revert to PS for selective and subtle sharpening and noise reduction instead of Define.

I'll follow your advice and watch more tutorials on it - there was a series I started called The Big Selection which seemed really good.

Thanks again for your advice.

**colin C** · 27-12-2013, 09:50

Re: Girl with a Pink Umbrella

Glad I could help .............. become that magician.

**Shutterfly** · 31-12-2013, 09:24

Re: Girl with a Pink Umbrella

... And when you've learned all those lovely photoshop skills, perhaps the other thing you should learn is NOT to take random, pics of children and then post them on Flickr and related places. If this child is your daughter, I fully retract my comments. If not, then shame on you for being so totally irresponsible. If this was my kid I'd be furious. ( .. And, no, I a not some paranoid nutter ... Just an amateur photographer with more common sense.)

**colin C** · 31-12-2013, 10:17

Re: Girl with a Pink Umbrella

. And, no, I a not some paranoid nutter ...

Very well done on becoming judge and jury on what is and what is not acceptable, under the law in the UK. Parliament and the judiciary are no doubt greatly relieved that you have singlehandedly relieved them of the burden of formulating new laws. Presumably you also castigate the TV, newspapers and magazines for showing photographs of .................... I almost shudder to say the word ..............Children!

Thankfully the Law in the United Kingdom incorporates a modicum of common sense and precludes the taking and owning of "Inappropriate" pictures of children, not pictures of children. The initial arbiters of appropriateness are the Police, who strangely enough are trained in the law and they will decide whether to take further action, or otherwise. If you still consider the girl with the umbrella inappropriate, then I urge you to reconsider your above statement.

In your response you may wish to consider including one or more of the following phrases:

I overreacted

I apologise

I didn't know what I was talking about.

Announcement

Girl with a Pink Umbrella

Girl with a Pink Umbrella

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment