Trying Out Photoshop

Hey, hey, hey everyone! Today is a pretty exciting day because I am going to be checking out the full version of Photoshop! Now I have used Photoshop Elements and of course Express as well, but now I am going to see the full capabilities of Photoshop! Okay, let’s get into the editor!

First Impressions:

I just opened up a photo in the editor and went through some menus. This looks pretty awesome! Okay, there are elements of PSE (no pun intended 😂) in the full version, which means it isn’t too hard to see how to edit. I went to the adjustments tab and started just doing the basic brightness and contrast edits. I tried out the auto edit and… just as bad is PSE (nice job Adobe). Weirdly enough, things actually seem a bit easier than in PSE!

Edit 1:

Okay, so I am going to edit this first photo…

As you can see, I just hit brightness/contrast, and it automatically added a layer. This was not automatic in PSE. As I said, that is definitely easier and saves a step in the edit. As you can see, I made the photo more vibrant in the next screenshot!

I started playing around with things and messed with the colour balance and thought that this looked kind of cool and sureal!

I am not keeping that but still cool. I ended up adjusting the photo to what I have below:

I am super in decisive, so this is most likely going to change. I don’t really like how the background is so bright. I already added some vignette, but I think that it needs more… Okay, I think that I can adjust the curves at this point… Okay, so I just did that and now I have the effect that I wanted!

Now that I got the background down, I want to take a look at the highlights one more time. Okay, this is better! I used the colour selection to work on the yellows, especially in the flower. The last thing that I want to try is to add some detail in the flower. I want to get that bug to pop a bit more.

Okay, I got some more detail on the bug using the detailing tool.

Here we are! I think that I will export this after one more thing… I think warming it up a bit couldn’t hurt at all! Now, for the final edit reveal! Here it is:

Okay, so that was pretty fun! I am going to try editing a few more shots! Now that I have a better grasp of where things are, I will try to see if I can look into slightly more complex edits!

Edit 2:

For this edit, I am going to import the raw file. I know that this post isn’t about camera raw, but it is kind of part of the editor, so I will be using it quickly here. This is the photo that I will be editing:

Okay, I did quite a bit of work and have discovered just how powerful camera raw is! This might deserve a full post in the future!

I am going to import the photo into Photoshop now.

uhh… didn’t mean to do this. 😂

Okay, wow! I just exited and reopened the file and all the edits that I did in the other shot just transferred over! That is pretty awesome!

I tweaked the brightness and contrast already in camera raw, but I did it some more to bring the brightness down a bit and add some more contrast.

I worked on the colour balance next. I increased the reds to make it seem sunny. I adapted the green and yellow too, but just by one bit.

I added some red and orange tones to the photo using the hue slider. I think that it adapts it to look almost like it was taken in autumn with the warmer tones.

Now, I am thinking that there are just a few more things that I want to accomplish in this edit… I want to brighten up that pine cone a bit more, and maybe add some vignetting.

So, I got the pine cone to where I want it! I changed the middle levels.

Now, for the vignette… I am debating if I want to make a dark or light vignette. I am going to take a look at them first and be back once I decide! Okay, so I changed my mind and decided to export it without the added vignette.

This is the final export!

I am pretty happy with this photo! I do want to edit one more photo today.

Edit 3:

Here is the final photo! I liked how the raw edit came out last time, so I am going to do it again!

I went through the edits, and it turns out that you can add the vignetting right through camera raw!

You may be wondering what I am going to do now, I am going to work on the colour edits actually in Photoshop. I am going to start with the brightness and contrast edits… Again, just slight adjustments.

I upped the saturation and vibrance to get this:

I added some more vignette (kind of). I guess it is more blending colours. Anyway, I isolated those leaves.

I added a cyan filter and then I exported the photo to get this:

Well, those were the edits! Now, I got to see the power of Photoshop! What are my thoughts on it?

Thoughts:

I think that this is a super well-rounded and powerful editor. The editor is running a lot smoother than PSE which is pretty awesome. I think that PSE isn’t as well polished in the way of features and connectivity. Certain edits are hard to do within the limits of PSE and that second edit wouldn’t have been possible in PSE. Now, I haven’t explored the editor enough to give advice about it (if you are looking to purchase it). Give me a few weeks, and I think that I will have a better idea of what this editor contains.

Conclusion:

I really hope that you enjoyed reading my first impressions of Photoshop! If you miss posts about PSE, I actually released a short post on Behance! You can go check out that edit by clicking on these words 😊.

Thank you so much for reading my friends! I will be back next week with another post! It would be awesome if you could follow, so you don’t miss it and to support me! Thanks!!!

-Digital Wonders & Smiles