Diffcult reception

It has fill flash. I was using bounce of a card and figured out later that I was only getting about 1/2 power. Stupid me. Maybe its time for a defuse box.

MGBEACH! will you do all MY Post Prosc work? DAMN! you rock. Nice capture by the way!!!

Thanks, that's very nice of you to say. Bottom line is that you have to start with a good image to really get anywhere with post. That's what we had here. That Overlay layer really knocks the haze out of images while boosting the contrast. The trick is to not go overboard when the original is already very good.

Michael, You do rock my man. You think you can explain exactly how you did that, I'm still learning

I like to keep it nice and simple. this one took about 3 minutes. First, duplicate the background layer (ctrl+J). Change its blend mode in the layers palette to Overlay. Then reduce the opacity of the duplicate layer until the contrast looks about right. On this one it was around 25%. Then I added a Levels adjustment layer. I didn't record the exact input settings, but I slid the black slider a little to the left, the grey slider to the left, and the white slider to the right. I added a gaussian blur to the duplicate layer (had to apply a pretty strong one because of the reduced opacity) then erased back down the original background layer. I ran an Unsharp Mask on the bottom layer at settings of amount 220, radius .3, threshold 0. Made sure it was converted to sRGB profile and saved for web. Then ran it through Neat Image. Let me know if you have any questions at all. I'll help any way I can.

MGbeach. Yo are da man! I always love your work. Very impressive!

Thanks Michael, By the way where did you learn PS? I really think, no change that LOL I know I need a class or something. When I get into layers I get lost and seeing the wonderful work you do I know I need to get a full grasp on PS.

I've never taken any classes or anything. I have read a few books by Scott Kelby. They're very easy to understand and very informative. Also, if you join NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals, $99/year) you get a subscription to their awesome magazine and a website full of great video tutorials.

LOTS of trial and error is the key. I think the most important things are to get a real good working knowledge of how Curves and Levels adjustment layers are used and the intricacies of layers and blend modes. After a while you get a feeling for the quickest and easiest way to adjust a given photo. I think there's a definite turning point where I stopped playing with all the "artistic" filters in Photoshop and started trying to make the final image look good without looking like it was heavily edited.

Forums like this one are great for fine tuning your abilities. Try posting an original with your best shot at editing. Get some feedback, and try again. Maybe put in the body of the message that you're not looking for other people to edit it for you but rather to give you advice on what is needed. Keep at it until you get a winner. Do that a few times and I guarantee that the number of revisions you need to do will get smaller and smaller.

Thanks,
Michael

ps. Sorry for getting this thread off line!

crusher-i know i should be looking at the photo but i'm a girl and love her make-up, ps or not.