New Orleans or Bust - an exercise in PS selection

Okay, so I know this is way out of my normal range for me. :-) I have realized that I need to learn more about layers and masks. So I got a book ... and I'm enjoying it. I have only just started working through it, but I have realized that in order to work effectively with layers, one needs to be really good with selections. So I found this image that I was going to put in my Flickr set anyway, and played with it, selecting only the sign hanging in front of the restaurant and playing with a drop shadow and bevell to make it look a little bit more natural. I would love to hear your thoughts. I'll attach the original below.

The original image ... a sign hanging in front of some shops/restaurants in New Orleans.

I am rather new to digital alterations. I have been using photoshop

for about 4 or 5 years, but have really only done basic, basic stuff:

color correction, levels adjustments, re-sizing, etc. I want to

learn to do better masks, and as a result, I have discovered that I

also want to eventually get into compositing images. In order to do

all of that, I need to do better with accurate selections. If you

click through to this image's page, you can see the original. I'd

love to get any and all input. Thank you!

Not using layers much myself and very limited use of selection tools I'd say you did a good job of isolating the sign from the original, I like the "pumped up" colors too. This kind of editing will have a lot of good applications but as an "Artistic" image it's lacking it's content and background. But I think you're on the right track to expand your knowledge and the use of PS, I still haven't gotten beyond Elements.

Ya' know, Susan - I have to say that I am still not convinced that photoshop cs3 is worth the gross amount more $$ it costs over Elements for me as an amateur. I got it originally because I didn't realize that there even WAS something less expensive called "Elements" and I have just gotten a couple of the upgrades since I started using PS7. I haven't used Elements, and I don't know exactly what the differences are ... but I DO know that some photographers who I respect (you included) use Elements exclusively and have gorgeous photos. There is a small part of me that works hard at learning more about the power of photoshop simply because of the investment ... I don't want it to have gone to waste......

I think you did the selection and colorizing pretty well.

 

 

What I'd like to be able to do is take a mundane-looking sky and create one of those wonderful serrated multi-color masterpieces from it. I've seen the before and after, and know it can be done, I just have no clue how to do it. Might be worth the CS3 price if I could do that. Right now, I use Paint Shop Pro, which is OK for a hacker like myself.

Hi Barry!! Let me tell you ... as much as I firmly believed that it was not such a big deal to use layers ... for so long I just didn't think it was worth learning. Now I see that it's really not necessary, but certainly does add a LOT of power to what you're able to do with an image. I was able to keep the original here (in case I messed it up), save the selection (in case I closed the file and wanted to come back later), keep the color adjustments in another layer, the beveling (immediately inside the selection) in another layer and the drop shadow in another layer (and, by the way, my name in another layer) ... and was able to turn each of those layers on and off to see what it looked like. AND ... I kept the plain background in yet another layer, so that I could add the photo.net R239,G239,B239 to it and then change it to a white background for Flickr. Took me about a minute and a half to change the backgrounds for the two sites.......