photo blogging #1: you have to start somewhere!

For Christmas I received Photoshop Elements and it's taken me until now to try it out! I had no clue of where to begin. I mean, obviously, I'd like to remove the wrinkles shadows on faces and get rid of red-eye. But, I know the software is meant for so much more than that. So, today I was talking to a photographer friend and showing her some of the pics on this blog. She commented that my camera tends to take "cool" photographs (refering to the colors and white balance). She noticed how in some pictures the skin tones make people look ashen or blue. Her suggestion? Add red to the photos. That meant I had to finish installing the program and open it. Yikes.

It took a little fiddling, but with some trial and error, I was able to warm up the skin tones on people. Take a look:

Before...

After...

Before... (the kids all look a little gray-faced)

After...

Before... (I've always thought the kids looked washed out on this one, especially their faces)

After... (I was even able to add in a little tan on this one. Too much?)

So that is blog post number one about my adventures with Photoshop. Next up, removing the, um, shadows from the faces. Stay tuned!