# Cocotini and Mindy-photoshop fun



## hartman studio (Feb 14, 2008)

I just got photoshop and I've been playing around with merging pictures. Here is Mindy that I merged with some tulips I took a picture of and Cocotini with some other flowers from my backyard.


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## hartman studio (Feb 14, 2008)

and a couple more fun pics of Cocotini...


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## trueblue (Jan 22, 2008)

Wow...do I see some black and silver in Cocotini?


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## hartman studio (Feb 14, 2008)

Hi Kim, no Cocotini is just chocolate and white. when I resized the photo it darkened her a little- I think that's why it looks like she has a little black and silver on her in that first picture.


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## mintchip (Apr 19, 2007)

Nice shots I've been thinking about getting photoshop. Looks like you like it


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## Leslie (Feb 28, 2007)

Nice! Isn't it is amazing the things one can do w/Photoshop?


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## hartman studio (Feb 14, 2008)

Sally, I think it will be a love/hate relationship!!!! I am not the most computer literate person, so I can get frustrated with it. Right now,my brush has suddenly turned into a crosshair instead of a circle with a little crosshair in the middle- in the middle of painting with it!! But it is sooo much fun when things work that I love it,too. See what I mean? I definately recommend getting it to play with-though my husband is tired of me sitting with my computer. I really want to get a Wacom tablet and Corel Painter- but I'm waiting to see if Painter 12 comes out first as 11 has so many glitches.


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## mintchip (Apr 19, 2007)

hartman studio said:


> Sally, I think it will be a love/hate relationship!!!! I am not the most computer literate person, so I can get frustrated with it. Right now,my brush has suddenly turned into a crosshair instead of a circle with a little crosshair in the middle- in the middle of painting with it!! *But it is sooo much fun when things work that I love it,too. See what I mean? *I definately recommend getting it to play with-though my husband is tired of me sitting with my computer. I really want to get a Wacom tablet and Corel Painter- but I'm waiting to see if Painter 12 comes out first as 11 has so many glitches.


I wish it would work all the time! Having someone there to help is great :whoo:
I've used the tablet but I'm not wild about it. Sometimes I connect my computer to the TV to edit pictures.
Do you have a MAC or PC?


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## hartman studio (Feb 14, 2008)

Sally- I bought a Macbook Pro a couple of months ago. I absolutely love it- no love/hate relationship there. I wish I had someone here to help me, too- my DH is way worse than me when it comes to computers and with no kids (computers are second nature to them!!)- I'm on my own...I bought a couple of books-they do help.


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

Jocelyn, great photos.


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## mintchip (Apr 19, 2007)

hartman studio said:


> Sally- I bought a Macbook Pro a couple of months ago. I absolutely love it- no love/hate relationship there. I wish I had someone here to help me, too- my DH is way worse than me when it comes to computers and with no kids (computers are second nature to them!!)- I'm on my own...I bought a couple of books-they do help.


I love the Macbook Pro!


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## Lilly'sMom (Jan 28, 2010)

I love your pictures!
I don't remember the name of my photo program but I have actually tweeked picures of myself - erase a couple of wrinkles here, shave a few pounds there......don't tell anyone!


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## MaddiesMom (Apr 1, 2007)

Those are really nice photos! I'd like to get photoshop, but I'm not very saavy when it comes to technical things. Is it hard to use?


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## hartman studio (Feb 14, 2008)

Jeanee,
I am not technical at all either. I installed photoshop and didn't do anything on it for over a month because I was too intimidated. So I finally bought a couple of books and just started playing around with it. These are my first attempts- so if I can do it-you can,too!!!! I bought Elements 8 because I didn't want to be overly intimidated with CS4 (now they are releasing CS5, so I'm really glad I didn't buy CS4). After playing with Elements 8, I don't think I'll buy the full version-I think this does enough for me.


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## Scooter's Family (May 23, 2008)

Jocelyn - You can make an appointment at the Apple store to go to the Genius Bar and they'll help you with anything you want. You bring your own computer and they show you how to use it. 

I too love my MacBook Pro! Whenever DH gets a new one I get his old one, works great!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

hartman studio said:


> I really want to get a Wacom tablet and Corel Painter- but I'm waiting to see if Painter 12 comes out first as 11 has so many glitches.


I'm not a great Painter fan... I find it very confusing, maybe because I'm so used to Photoshop. But I couldn't LIVE without my Wacom Intuos on my desk. I do have to say that the Bamboo is a very nice upgrade from the old Graphire, though, and I use that with my laptop. (and the Bamboo is a fraction of the cost of the Intuos)

A program _I_ love playing with is Photomatix. Here are a couple of my HDR's done in that program, then tweaked in PS4.

Karen


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## mintchip (Apr 19, 2007)

hartman studio said:


> Jeanee,
> I am not technical at all either. I installed photoshop and didn't do anything on it for over a month because I was too intimidated. So I finally bought a couple of books and just started playing around with it. These are my first attempts- so if I can do it-you can,too!!!! I bought Elements 8 because I didn't want to be overly intimidated with CS4 (now they are releasing CS5, so I'm really glad I didn't buy CS4). *After playing with Elements 8, I don't think I'll buy the full version-I think this does enough for me.*


Why don't you want to buy full Elements 8?
My friend says she has issues with the new CS5 version. I'm not sure why but will try to find out


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## hartman studio (Feb 14, 2008)

Sally, I have Photoshop Elements 8. What I meant by "full version" is the Photoshop CS versions which have a lot more features than Photoshop Elements 8 which is like the little brother(and lots cheaper,too). Elements 8 can do almost everything I want as far as Photoshop goes. I'm interested in a painting program like Corel painter or possibly Artrage so that I can turn my photos into digital paintings. I think their brushes are better than Photoshop CS4 (don't know about CS5-which I thought was being released today). I would need a Wacom tablet (probably an Intuos) for the increased touch sensitivity for this type of painting. By the way, Sally- I bought a wireless Mac mouse for my laptop- I found I needed it for Photoshop.
Karen- I had heard the Bamboo tablet was improved- but I think I'll end up wanting the Intuos 4 for what I want to do. I'm thinking of taking a course with Marilyn Sholin (she is one of Corel Painter's gurus) this summer. She teaches in Asheville which isn't too far from me. She does some really interesting digital paintings with Painter.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

mintchip said:


> Why don't you want to buy full Elements 8?
> My friend says she has issues with the new CS5 version. I'm not sure why but will try to find out


If she's having trouble with CS5 it's because she's doing a beta test... CS5 hasn't been released yet. I was asked to beta test, but after having a LOT of trouble with a previous version beta test, I decided to let someone else be the guinea pig!


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## SMARTY (Apr 19, 2007)

The pictures are beautiful, but I have no idea what you are talking about. My 3 year old computer has photoshop but don't think it (I) could do anything like these pictures.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

hartman studio said:


> Sally, I have Photoshop Elements 8. What I meant by "full version" is the Photoshop CS versions which have a lot more features than Photoshop Elements 8 which is like the little brother(and lots cheaper,too). Elements 8 can do almost everything I want as far as Photoshop goes. I'm interested in a painting program like Corel painter or possibly Artrage so that I can turn my photos into digital paintings. I think their brushes are better than Photoshop CS4 (don't know about CS5-which I thought was being released today). I would need a Wacom tablet (probably an Intuos) for the increased touch sensitivity for this type of painting. By the way, Sally- I bought a wireless Mac mouse for my laptop- I found I needed it for Photoshop.
> Karen- I had heard the Bamboo tablet was improved- but I think I'll end up wanting the Intuos 4 for what I want to do. I'm thinking of taking a course with Marilyn Sholin (she is one of Corel Painter's gurus) this summer. She teaches in Asheville which isn't too far from me. She does some really interesting digital paintings with Painter.


The big problem with Elements is that you can't do real masks. I couldn't work without them! And you're right, for serious artwork, the Intuos is a much better tool. I just always mention the Bamboo, because at that price, EVERYONE can afford the tablet experience!


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## mintchip (Apr 19, 2007)

krandall said:


> If she's having trouble with CS5 it's because she's doing a beta test... CS5 hasn't been released yet. I was asked to beta test, but after having a LOT of trouble with a previous version beta test, I decided to let someone else be the guinea pig!


She works for Adobe and her job is to test the new products.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

mintchip said:


> She works for Adobe and her job is to test the new products.


AH! OK. If the people at ADOBE aren't happy with it, that doesn't bode well... There were a bunch of patches people had to download after CS4 came out. I'm very happy with CS4, so I'll wait till other people find the bugs and Adobe fixes them before I upgrade. Besides. I want my Ipad first. :biggrin1:


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

SMARTY said:


> The pictures are beautiful, but I have no idea what you are talking about. My 3 year old computer has photoshop but don't think it (I) could do anything like these pictures.


The merging photos or the HDR? The merged photos are just taking parts of one picture and placing them in another... the high-tech digital version of collages we did as kids with magazine pictures.<g> Well, they can be a lot fancier than that, but that's the general idea.

HDR stands for "high dynamic range". Photographers have always had to deal with the problem that neither film nor digital sensors can register the same RANGE of light that the human eye can see. So when you take a photo, either the darker areas block up into black, or that beautiful blue sky you remember looks pale and washed out. HDR lets you take 3-5 (or even 7) exposures of the same scene, and combine them, so that you have detail in the shadow areas and in the highlights. There are several programs that can do HDR, including a very clunky version inside CS3 and CS4. But the most widely used program, and IMO the best, is Photomatix.

In its extreme form, HDR can look very unnatural, though many people like the "artsy" feel it gives to the photo. I like to keep it more natural, and try to make the composite image match what I remember in my minds eye.


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