I Heart Photoshop Elements

As I've mentioned many times, my friends Amanda, Cathy, and I are beginning photographers. We've taken two photography classes, we know how to shoot in manual, we're starting to understand taking indoor photos. . . . But we still felt like something was missing in our photos. Amanda -- or maybe it was Cathy -- but it was most certainly not me -- decided that what we needed were better editing software and skills. As with everything new involving photography that is recommended to me, I immediately don't want to learn anything new. (Quite frankly, I would probably have no photography skills were it not for Amanda and Cathy coming up with classes, etc. and then my feeling compelled to participate.) So, as usual, I decided I wanted nothing to do with that and I let Amanda and Cathy talk about editing software and decided I would just work on taking better photos that didn't need editing. . . .

The more and more I listened to what Amanda and Cathy had to say, I was forced to see that they had a point. Editing can make a huge difference. One would think that I would be excited about something new, but I'm not. Just as I hated taking the first photography class, and as much as I disliked the second photography class, I truly did not want to have to learn something else. I'm very glad that I have the limited photography skills that I do, but I have NOT enjoyed the learning process. I find it quite painful and unpleasant -- but I do it because I want to keep taking better photos of the kids. I like the results and the time I spend with Cathy and Amanda, but not the process.

For Mother's Day, one of the gifts that Gary the kids (Rosemary in particular) gave me was Photoshop Elements 8. I loaded it onto my computer that night and was going to do some fabulous photo editing and make a post. Except I had a hard time with the whole photo editing thing. Photoshop Elements is considered "user friendly" (as opposed to the much more expensive, full-size Photoshop), but it was not user friendly to me in the least. As I do with all new photography things, I became overly frustrated and not just a little bit mad. I decided to put it aside until I had more time to devote to learning it. At the time, I sort of figured that would be, oh, a year from now . . . maybe. . . .

Fast forward a few weeks, and I'm on bedrest. I'm working, but working doesn't fill the whole day. So, I've decided to learn how to use Photoshop Elements. Especially since I'm not able to take a lot of photos right now, I decided this would be a good way to further my photography skills. I've been watching video tutorials, and reading blogs and blogposts, and finally after spending some time over the last week or so and all day today working on my Photoshop Elements skills I actually am starting to feel as though this whole process may be worth it. I have a LOT more to learn about Photoshop Elements, but I feel as though now I have enough of a foundation that I can do something productive with it.

In my early photos, I rarely did any editing. At most, I would crop a photo -- if I just had to crop it. I considered that going out of my way to edit something. Then, the more Amanda and Cathy talked about heavier editing, over the past month or so, occasionally I would try a little experimenting on my computer editing software and did some very rudimentary editing. Now with Photoshop Elements -- and my newfound love of actions for Photoshop Elements from Pioneer Woman, Texas Chicks Blogs and Pics, and CoffeeShop -- I feel like Photoshop Elements really can make my photos better in a way that I could not make them better otherwise.

Below are some examples. These are the same pictures that I posted a few weeks ago as backyard portraits. At the time, I thought my editing was pretty good . . . now not so much. In birth order, here are examples of the photo I took, my original rudimentary editing, my new editing from today with Photoshop Elements, and then a fun edit that I made today that seems to just work with the photo.

Here is the photo that I took of Piper, with no editing whatsoever:


Here is the editing that I did on my computer for the post a few weeks ago:


Here is the edited photo with my new Photoshop Elements skills:


And here is the photo edited in another way on Photoshop Elements, that I just really liked:


For Henry, here is the photo I took:


Here is my basic editing from a few weeks ago:


This is my new Photoshop Elements editing:


And here is another Photoshop Elements editing style that I just like with this photo:


And here is the photo I took of Rosemary:


My basic editing from a few weeks ago:


Editing from today with Photoshop Elements:


And another edit from today that just works for this photo:


I have several more video tutorials to watch and many more things to read about Photoshop Elements. Although I'd prefer to not be on bedrest and having these preterm labor issues, at least something good is coming of it! One day I'm going to be very glad that I have these skills. And now I can say that I probably appreciate Amanda and Cathy forcing it on me. Today I've paid them back by sending about 10 separate e-mails every time I learned something new that I thought I should share. They're being pretty good sports and somewhat humoring the pregnant woman, but I'm sure it's getting old!

By the way, knock on wood, I haven't had any more trips to the hospital since last Saturday night. I have an appointment with my doctor on Monday, and I'm hoping that will be my next medical visit -- and that I'll go straight home afterwards instead of being admitted to the hospital. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

The New Room

Finally! A post about the new room. I intended to make this post almost two weeks ago, but my hospital stay last week got a little in the way of that. Penelope and I are doing very well at home so far. I had one trip to the MEU this past Saturday night (courtesy of my dear friend Amanda so that Gary could stay with the kids). Thankfully, two shots of terbutaline knocked out the contractions this time, so I didn't get admitted and was able to go back home around 2:30 Sunday morning.

So, here we go. The weekend before last, Gary moved the kids from their old room to the new room. He had to take apart the cribs to get them into the new room, and then used furniture sliders for the rest. Then he had to move all the things in the bathroom, closet, etc. I was pretty shocked that he got it all moved as quickly as he did. The furniture was in and ready Saturday after lunch, just in time for naps.

To begin, here is a shot of the new room from the old hallway (in the "new hallway" the door to the bathroom is on the left and the two doors to the two new walk-in closets are to the right):

And here are pictures of the room from the "new hallway":




A shot of the bathroom from the new hallway, followed by a close-up pic (I just realized that I forgot to take a picture of the part of the bathroom with the tub and toilet -- it's not that exciting anyway):




After taking these pics, I sat down under the window at the end of the room to wait on the kids. I took a pic of their new (bigger) chairs:



And then I just waited for Gary to bring the kids up from their lunch. They have been dying to get into the new room since the construction began, but we rarely let them in there. I couldn't wait to see their reaction to the room itself, but I also couldn't wait to see if they could figure out what it meant that all of their furniture was in the new room. And I waited. . . .



Then the kids finally showed up. They were SO confused at first. . . .






Piper was definitely the first one to figure out what was going on and lose the confused expression on her face:



Rosemary took a little longer to figure it out:




There was a lot of exploration -- the new chairs, the bathroom, looking in the cribs to make sure they were their own cribs, etc.










Once the kids figured out that not only were they allowed in that room but that room was going to be their new bedroom, they got REALLY excited. They just ran. And ran and ran and ran. And then they would take a break and sit in their new chairs. Then they'd take off running again!


















Then, as they got more comfortable, the kids started pulling things out of the drawers of the dresser and armoire, and trying on what they could figure out. Then they would run a little more:











We have one small issue in that we don't have a full length shutter for the window in there due to the radius over the window. When Gary and I first moved in the house over 7 years ago and got the estimate on shutters for the house, we quickly decided to go the cheaper route of not having the shutters made to cover the radius and just to cut off the shutter at a certain point and let light come in. Once we decided to put the kids in that room, no amount of money seemed too much to keep the sunlight out of the room -- thus lead to more sleeping. So, we have ordered a radius made to fit the top of the window, but since it won't be in for a couple more weeks, we had to compromise:

So far the kids love the new room and are sleeping very well in there. It was an easy transition. We are going to be doing some work to our backyard, so that is the next big thing on our list. After that, Gary will paint Penelope's room and start getting everything ready for her. Lots of exciting things going on around here!!