Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

Especially when they happen on the same day.

It's been raining forever.   We've made the best of it and I have lots of photos but nothing that really gets me excited. 

Saturday night, I took a photoshop class from Lisa and learned a bunch of cool stuff.  I'm still trying to apply it but here's a peek at my first attempt to edit my photos using her techniques.  Pretty cool, I think!  You can click <here> to see a larger version of the final edit for this photo.  I think it turned out nice!

 

I like the way her face turned out but I should have kept the sparkle in her hairband.  Maybe next time...

 

Here's Maddy splashing in the rain puddle.  You'll have to click <here> to see a larger view since this came out much smaller than I expected! 

Here's Maddy looking cute, as usual.  In the before photo, her skin tone was splotchy and she had lots of stray hairs on her face.  Her face was dark and her eyes were just two dark shadows.  But the "after" photo is pretty amazing!  Be sure to click <here> so you can really see how cool her eyes turned out! 

 

And here's a pretty black and white just in time for Lisa's Black and White Wednesday.  I took the finished edit of the photo you see above and applied an action to it to turn it to black and white. I've never used actions before but (thanks to Lisa), now I know how to do that too!   Larger view of this black and white?  Click <here>.

 

I have many more photos I'd like to share but it's taking me a long time to process them because my new skills are pretty clumsy.  But I think I'll get faster and better with some practice!

If you have photoshop and need a few simple but effective tips, I strongly recommend Lisa!   She's a great teacher.  And she's really nice too!  :)