Sorry this is kind of late in the week. I was toying around with the burn and dodge tools this 
week and discovered I overuse them. Every time I tried to adjust a photo, the result would come out much worse than its original. Frustration would take over and I'd move on to a different picture. Finally I showed my wife some of my trials and she suggested I use it to accent existing shadows and highlights rather than use it to control brightness and darkness, which was my problem. I played around with this concept and adjusted this flower photo. The adjusted one on the left gives the appearance of sun coming through the tree branches whereas the original appears dark and drab.
week and discovered I overuse them. Every time I tried to adjust a photo, the result would come out much worse than its original. Frustration would take over and I'd move on to a different picture. Finally I showed my wife some of my trials and she suggested I use it to accent existing shadows and highlights rather than use it to control brightness and darkness, which was my problem. I played around with this concept and adjusted this flower photo. The adjusted one on the left gives the appearance of sun coming through the tree branches whereas the original appears dark and drab.Next I chose a handful of pictures and tried out a variety of filters. 
The first one here is my little friend, the red eft, still hiding under his mushroom. After a few trials, came across the graphic pen tool on page 320 of our book and thought it would make the picture look like a block from a comic, but this didn't really happen. However, I really like how it makes the picture look as though it had been sketched. I can't recall the settings I chose on this one, but I think I decreased the size of the stokes and darkened the brightness some.
The first one here is my little friend, the red eft, still hiding under his mushroom. After a few trials, came across the graphic pen tool on page 320 of our book and thought it would make the picture look like a block from a comic, but this didn't really happen. However, I really like how it makes the picture look as though it had been sketched. I can't recall the settings I chose on this one, but I think I decreased the size of the stokes and darkened the brightness some.
This second picture was taken about a week ago; it was taken looking up through a spiral of birch bark on the truck of a birch tree. There were a number of pictures I thought would look good with the glowing edges filter, but somehow this one stuck out the most for me. In fact, I stared at it for so long I began to see the name Obama in it. Can anyone else see that? On this one I changed the edge width to 6 and softness to 2.
Last, I really wanted to include my kitty and began searching for a filter that preserved her beauty and made her look as though she were painted. Again, using the book I found the angled strokes filter on page 319. I really like how this filter softened her fur (I never thought Sasha's fur could ever look softer than it already does). I made the direction balance about even, then increased my stroke length and sharpness.
4 comments:
I love the way you choose to change all your photos, the flower is beautiful with the use of the tools, and you definitely captured your cat in a really cool way, and it does look very much like a painting. Nice job!
I really like your kitty photo with the filter you applied. It is remarkable how much this looks like a painting and how amazing the brush strokes are. I can't get enough of looking at this photo, something draws me to it.
The cat is a great photo. The filters really enhanced the photo. Great job.
Tracy
That flower photo change is so subtle, but I do love the way the sun looks like it's coming through! I thought the tree was a drainage pipe at first. VERY cool spirals. And in the kitty photo you mimicked the direction of the fur with the filter in the background in a most amazing way!
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