First time with flowers!

[MinnieMouse73]

I have just acquired a camera that does a bit more then just 'click and take photo' - I wasn't brave enough to go for the full DSLR but went for a Panasonic FZ18 which does give me the chance to try a few things out. Anyway, I've learned a lot already on here and yesterday went out to try taking a few flower photos. It was cloudy so I changed the white balance on the camera to the cloudy setting, set the ISO on 100, and used AP mode or Program mode for the photos. I know they're nothing special, but any comments/advice from you experts would be gratefully received (even if it's to give up now!)

So here goes ...

 

[MinnieMouse73]

Sorry, a question! On this one ...

... is it difficult to remove the cars from the background? I tried cropping them out but didn't like the effect as it then lost the river from the background. I don't have any expertise in adjusting photos yet but I've ordered Photoshop Elements if that's any use!

Thanks in advance!

 

[emmabelle]

I think they are really nice. I really like the first and third ones. I like to use cloning to get rid of things I don't want in a picture. It's really easy to use and I just got a real photo editor, so I'm by no means an expert.

Here, I took a crack at it! I cloned out the lady in the left hand corner too, but realized after, that I just got rid of her head! OMG!

 

[jann1033]

I think they are really nice. I really like the first and third ones. I like to use cloning to get rid of things I don't want in a picture. It's really easy to use and I just got a real photo editor, so I'm by no means an expert.

Here, I took a crack at it! I cloned out the lady in the left hand corner too, but realized after, that I just got rid of her head! OMG!

i think they look really good esp. for your first time...you got a nice close up to fill the area with a nice dof so they stand out. those first dark purple ones are beautiful
emmabelle also did a very good job. sometimes i think it's easier to use the rectangular marquee tool and the move tool to cover a large area....but that works better if you are removing something with a bigger background you can steal from my cloning always looks choppy to me if i do it in to large an area.

 

[emmabelle]

emmabelle also did a very good job. sometimes i think it's easier to use the rectangular marquee tool and the move tool to cover a large area....but that works better if you are removing something with a bigger background you can steal from my cloning always looks choppy to me if i do it in to large an area.

This one was a little hard to do because there wasn't really a good area to steal from, so I tried to make it look like bushes.

 

[jann1033]

This one was a little hard to do because there wasn't really a good area to steal from, so I tried to make it look like bushes.

i looked at that about 6 times trying to figure out where the bushes were from so obviously you done good.

 

[emmabelle]

i looked at that about 6 times trying to figure out where the bushes were from so obviously you done good.

Thank you, thank you, I especially like the headless body I created on the other side of the photo.

 

[jann1033]

Thank you, thank you, I especially like the headless body I created on the other side of the photo.

she kind of blends in with the tulips

 

[momonlongisland]

okay so I"m DEFINATELY not a photo expert at all, but LOVE taking pictures and have recently discoverd this board of posts and pics. I LOVE everyone's shots and what you've done to them....NOW my question....Would I need a fancy, expensive editing program or software to edit out the lady or cars above and HOW was it done??? Any basic ideas would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[MinnieMouse73]

Thanks for the input Love the job you did with it Emmabelle, thanks!

I cloned out the lady in the left hand corner too, but realized after, that I just got rid of her head! OMG!

I have to confess I could't even see the headless person, and had to check back with the original to see where you meant!

 

[emmabelle]

okay so I"m DEFINATELY not a photo expert at all, but LOVE taking pictures and have recently discoverd this board of posts and pics. I LOVE everyone's shots and what you've done to them....NOW my question....Would I need a fancy, expensive editing program or software to edit out the lady or cars above and HOW was it done??? Any basic ideas would be greatly appreciated!!!

I bought Corel's Paint Shop Pro x2 and it was $79.99 at Target. Not too expensive, and for me, it does everything I'd need it to do. I found it pretty easy to use. Once you have the picture up that you want to edit, on the left side of the screen is a column of choices to decide what you want to do to the picture. Once you click on a certain type of change to make, it tells you step by step how to do it. I'm having fun with it.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

It was cloudy so I changed the white balance on the camera to the cloudy setting, set the ISO on 100, and used AP mode or Program mode for the photos.

You're doing well! Very pretty pictures and nicely done.

 

[jann1033]

okay so I"m DEFINATELY not a photo expert at all, but LOVE taking pictures and have recently discoverd this board of posts and pics. I LOVE everyone's shots and what you've done to them....NOW my question....Would I need a fancy, expensive editing program or software to edit out the lady or cars above and HOW was it done??? Any basic ideas would be greatly appreciated!!!

check online at corel and adobe elements for free trial downloads, elements and the one emmabell have are about the same price...i tried them both and adobe made more sense to me but that way you can try both free downloads and see which you like better( they both do about the same stuff). the downloads are usually 30days so don't download then go on vacation or something
not sure what software might have come with you camera but see if it has a cloning or spot removal tool of some kind and that might be usable for that type of editing,

not sure what corel has but abode elements has a stamp and 2 spot cloning tools, the stamp makes the texture of the object, the one spot mostly samples the coloration so you can use the spot for things like sky, smutch on the sensor spots,stuff with out a lot of texture, the stamp for bigger things like grass or something to transfer a clump with texture. you click on the tool, alternate click to lock in the spot you want to transfer data from, then click on the spot you want to cover, it you set the feather to 10 or so ( in the tool bar along the top in elements) it will give you a nice blending edge rather than a hard edge. if you set your brush size to about the spot size it will look better than doing a bunch of plop like spots....it might sound confusing but once you get the downloads it really isn't. you can also use the rectangular marquee tool , basically the same you pick a place that doesn't the "ugly " part, draw a square that size with the marquee, altclick the move tool and move it to cover it with the moved part...if you forget to alt click the move you'll end up with a hole where the marquee was though.
with bouy

used marquee to get rid of bouy

this was an older photo and i use lightroom to adjust it with the bouy removal, hence the better coloration etc

 

[MinnieMouse73]

Thanks again, Ill have a try once Elements arrives!

 

[momonlongisland]

So would you guys recommend Adobe Photoshop elements to "play around" and have fun editing my photos and creating stuff? Is it easy enough for beginners or would you recommend another program. I saw the description on Adobe's website of what it can and cannot do, but want to know if its user friendly??? Anyone know if there's any discounts out there for the progam also. I tried downloading Picasa and its very good for organizing- but couldnt find any "extras" for editing or anything special as far as cutting/pasting things in and out of pics. Thanksss

 

[ElizK]

So would you guys recommend Adobe Photoshop elements to "play around" and have fun editing my photos and creating stuff? Is it easy enough for beginners or would you recommend another program. I saw the description on Adobe's website of what it can and cannot do, but want to know if its user friendly??? Anyone know if there's any discounts out there for the progam also. I tried downloading Picasa and its very good for organizing- but couldnt find any "extras" for editing or anything special as far as cutting/pasting things in and out of pics. Thanksss

I received Elements 6 for Christmas. For VERY basic stuff, it's easy enough, I guess. I bought The Missing Manual: Photoshop Elements 6, and was able to do some more cool stuff, but honestly I'm so frustrated with it that I don't want to play anymore. I'm a person that learns by doing, so sitting here with this huge book is not working for me. I need to find a class.

 

[jann1033]

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Photosh...t=WS0017530F-5F1A-40de-B22C-6D8C8E701000.html
have you tried here for help?
i have the same book and use it a lot for reference if i want to try something i haven't done before. i think any program that does more than the basic crop etc is going to take some practice/time to learn. when i first got elements i used the book to go through the steps i needed to do everytime i did something new, ie clone, layers, whatever. some stuff like layers seem scary but aren't at all once you use them a few times. but you do need to take time to learn to use it (or just use the quick edit and auto settings.) now i don't really use pse all that much but that is because i use other stuff..once you learn to use it though it seems like it translates to a lot of different programs, ie they are set up similarly. ie i use alienskin a lot and the settings to change the basic presets ( ie filter color, contrast, that kind of stuff)are pretty much set up the same as the photoshop elements settings ( it might be similar to corel as well, just don't remember what corel was like) so it's valuable in that way imo