8 posts tagged “photoshop”

Although I am lucky enough to have both Photoshop CS2 and Photoshop Elements 3.0 on my system, and they are my two primary image editing programs of choice, from time to time, I like to test out freebies or programs packaged with printer or camera software. These programs at times have nice features that do one or two things easily and well, rather than going through a series of steps in a more complex, feature rich program. Serif has made a full version of their PhotoPlus software available for free download. It is version 6, they offer an upgrade to paid version 8 which offers some minor enhancements. I have downloaded a copy and will give it a test drive and review, but for those without access to paid software, or who want to compliment what they already have, PhotoPlus generally gets good marks across the board and is less complicated than running GIMP. Enjoy!

Link to Download Here

If there is a problem with the download links, you can snatch them here. Thanks BitBox!

I am working S-L-O-W-L-Y at putting a heritage scrapbook together with the plethora of old family photos from as far back as the late 1890s. Although I'm blessed to have access to them, most of them are worn, scratched, badly damaged and faded. Every photo has to be scanned and then lovingly and painstakingly restored in Photoshop. I'm a PSCS2 novice, but I've done my best to learn on my own and apply my traditional art skills. My life is so busy, it's hard to make time to learn and do the things I want to do. Anyway, to appreciate the work that went into these, I'll have to post the original photos sometime. These two are of my mom, who was born in 1932 to Italian immigrant parents in NYC.

The photo on the left needed to be desaturated and then I tweaked some things, but it's one of my favorites of her. The one on the right was badly ripped, scratched, had spots all over it and had pieces missing and was almost completely yellow. The original was hand tinted at one time. This is what I came up with the limited time (and skill) I had to work on it. (If anyone knows of tips/tutorials for this, please drop a link in comments, thanks!) I still need to go back and work it some more, but compared to the original, I think mom will be pleased. In working on the photos, it's hard not to be amazed how much my 8 year old daughter, looks like my mom.

People say my daughter looks like me, and although I look for the most part like my mom, my daughter looks more like her. That's a good thing, for my mom has aged beautifully, and even after last year's bout with breast cancer taking it's toll on her and hip replacement on the horizon, for a nearly 74 year old woman she is aging gracefully and looks phenomenal, without any outside enhancements.

Anyway, my life is so busy and the business of scanning and retouching and printing enough photos to even begin putting the scrapbook together has taken more time than I anticipated. It's my parents 50th anniversary this year, so I may put some of them in a simple Picaboo album, so they can enjoy them, and continue the slow and easy pace I'm on for the art book heritage album I'm planning on crafting. Hopefully that will get done in my lifetime or my daughter will have to take over where I left off!