Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Photo Freak

Did you know that you can get a free 30 day trial of Photoshop? I've spent the last 30 days playing around with CS3 and I'm an official addict. Only problem is...once the free trial ends you have to buy the $600 plus program! If you go to the Adobe Website you'll see the different programs listed. Just move your mouse over the one you want a trial of and it will show a "try" option. Click on that to sign up for your free trial. It's truly awesome. I have Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 on my computer, which is a very old version of Photoshop. I also have Corel Paint Pro but have been disappointed with it since I discovered that you can't use Photoshop Actions with it. What are actions, you ask? They are the coolest photo editing tool EVER. While using Photoshop, you simply click on the action you want to use and it does all the editing for you. For example, I purchased actions from a gal I found on Clickin' Moms. I think I paid about $20 for the actions. Here are some of the pictures:

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You can see, there are tons of different types of actions. From aging a photo, to aging and adding a pink or purple tint, to sepia, to black and white, to making eyes brighter or sparkly...there's no end! It's addictive!

You can also find actions at these two sites:

Child's Play and Pioneer Woman.

You can find a guide to using Acions at Peachpit.

Now, all I have to do is figure out how I'm going to buy the Photoshop CS3 program AND that new camera lens I want!

PS- Clickin' Moms has tons more photography info and galleries. It's well worth the nominal fee to join, if for nothing other than to get to see all the awesome photos!

Happy snapping!

6 comments:

Jenny said...

Great pictures. I'm a big fan of picnik.com - lots of similar editing/effects and most of it's free.

What kind of lens are you getting?

Stephanie said...

I love Photoshop. I got it through my grad school program, and I got a huge discount for being a student. I am sure I waste a lot of my life on it...

The Chic Chauffeur said...

ok, PLEASE!! tell me how you did it. The darling photo of your little girl (second photo from the last in the post). Too cute, and I have some sweet little darlins' of my own I would like to make look a little more angelic!

Hokie Girl said...

Baby girl's eyes really sparkle! Too cute! I have a nice 35 mil camera that is just waiting for me to snap some new shots! Thanks for the inspiration to get it out again!

preppy little dress AKA "PLD" said...

what fun! now you just need to sign up under someone else, ha! ha! not sure if that would work or not?

PaperCourt said...

Thanks to your earlier mention of clickinmoms I have also become a photo addict. I've even learned to shoot in manual.