Five Tips for Creating Great Digital photo projects

I love Photoshop, on days when sewing just feels like too much work you can usually find me searching through my pictures and trying to figure out which ones could be made to look magical or need some touching up.

While it took a while for me to learn the ins and outs of Photoshop, its a lot easier then I thought that it was, so this was how people made all those adorable pictures of their kiddos! Its taken me a while but there are a few things that I do to make sure that I can Photoshop my pictures and turn them into great art!

1. Use a backdrop! If you want to place your subject in a certain place then photograph them on a solid colored backdrop such as a sheet. I prefer brown, black or white. This makes it easy to outline your subject so that you can cut them out of the photo and place them where you want. This also works great for the color pop photos where one part is colored and the other parts are black and white! I made this picture of Annabella last year, we dressed her up as a flower and I thought this was a great place for her to be hanging out
2. Zoom in: while you are working on your photos zoom in close so that you can see if you are missing everything, I think that this is especially important when fixing red-eye, as I often have problems with making sure that the entire eye is fixed sometimes there is some red left and its very obvious. When zooming in I can be sure that all the pixels are changed.
3. Save; Save often, I can't tell you how many times I've been in the middle of making a photo that looks great and my daughter has hit a button on the keyboard and it has all gone to waste! Saving is as easy as clicking a button and if you have a daughter, slow computer or just aren't thinking when you close the program in a hurry, you'll be glad you did
4. Fix that family photo: last year for Christmas we had a huge party, at the time we were friends with some people that this year we aren't friends with anymore, now being that I loved this picture of all of our friends but didn't want to be reminded of the awful things that the two people in the picture did to us, I simply photo shopped them out of the picture and added a photo of Jerry Garcia in their place! Now they make great gifts for this year!
5. Take your time: Don't rush, the more time you take the better it will look, if you rush while outlining your subject or whatever else you will only end up taking the line off them and somewhere else and having to start over again. It may take a day or two to get a photo where you want it, but keep taking breaks and coming back, being on Photoshop all day can get frustrating, so check your e-mail, play with your baby, drink your coffee, and eat some truffles!

Remember that this is art, and the more you practice the better you will get, try not to get frustrated and if you do, leave and come back later. Search the internet for tutorials and you will find countless ways to improve your skills!

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.