I’ve said it before and I will say it again…Photoshop is my zen.
I love editing my digital images as much as I like shooting them. It is all part of the artistic process.
From simple editing to correct exposure and color to putting together a digital creation that allows a peek into my own creative world…Adobe Photoshop is my favorite tool.

1. Since the holiday season is upon us I suggest you try to create your own Christmas cards. So many stores offer templates for you to insert your images and then print the product but you can create your very own design. For years I’ve been designing my own using Adobe Photoshop Elements. It’s great for organizing your holiday photos too.

This card is from the year before last. Just sit the kids next to a window and snap away! I touched up the photos a bit (even had to fix Chloe’s collar which was flipped up).
It was easy as can be to create all the elements needed for this.

2. Create your vision. Sometimes when I have an idea for a digital photo I must create elements that do not exist in reality.
For example, when I shot this image of my daughter I saw in my mind a fluffy cloud fairytale sky. But we were inside on a cold day shooting against a blank wall. All I needed to realize my vision was the perfect sky to layer over my image. And tada! Beautiful soft fantasy sky.

In these next images I created a stormy sky outside the window on the left and on the right the entire background was created using tools available in Photoshop Elements.

3. My previous tip leads me to this. When you are taking pictures of your kids, sometimes a perfect straight on super smiley shot is not what you are going to get. And I don’t think it’s what you should want. When thinking of setting up a photo shoot with your child consider what your child enjoys doing. After all, isn’t that what you want to remember?
Stop worrying about perfection. I have become famous for saying “don’t worry, I can fix that”.

Chloe loves my collection of bird statues. She will accept any excuse to play with one. Here I put one in her hands and asked her to look out the window and show him the sky. Again, this suggestion leads me to the next.

4. Experiment with extures. I love textures! I create my own by shooting through the viewfinder of my vintage cameras and then layer them over my shots to change moods and create depth.

5. Practice makes perfect. Just play around with it. I have swapped faces to create family portraits with eye contact all around. I have made birthday invitations, wedding invitations, birth announcements, thank you cards, ect. I take out stray hairs, remove stains, clear complexions, brighten teeth and eyes. I remove objects that interfere with my picture and add things that aren’t there. All with no formal instruction in Photoshop.
Adobe Photoshop Elements is so user friendly that you can really do all this and far more.

“I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Adobe blogging program, making me eligible to receive a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate,
click here.”