And So It Begins – PSE!

So, yeah. August Break was over for less than 24 hours before we downloaded Photoshop Elements 9. (I can’t believe it took me so long to actually look into it and discover that PSE 9 cost less than $100.00 vs. the $700.00+ price tag for the full Photoshop CS5…) Less than 24 hours after that and I was taking online classes and studying various editing tutorials. <rolls eyes at self> If I had any doubts about being truly addicted to post-production editing, they’ve pretty much been taken care of. 😉

I began at Kim Klassen’s Cafe (it’s on my “Creative Inspirations” list). I was sad to find that her free “Skinny Mini eCourse” that I had been looking forward to taking was actually closed, but then I found her free “Textures In Ten” tutorial. I downloaded the material, took notes while watching the videos, and then got to work in my own program. In a matter of minutes, Kim talks you through adjusting a photo she’s given you, taking it from this…

to this…

So crazy easy! When you have the right tools and knowledge…

I then headed over to The CoffeeShop Blog – a site that the wonderfully talented Shelle had turned me on to – to get a different perspective. I read through her “Velvet Truffle” tutorial and gave that a try, turning this…

into this…

just by adding various in-program layers (no “textures” per se). Wow. Pretty cool, huh? Well, I think that’s as much as my brain can process for today, so I’m going to leave it at that and try some more later. Wheee! Isn’t this fun? 😉