A Quick Hello!

Whew!  Blogger must be having a "moment"... my internet is working fine and it took FOREVER to get to the point of writing!  AGH!

This morning I am going to try on wedding dresses.  Before you get too excited for me, the dress is not a big deal in my mind.  In fact, I have learned through photographic evidence that whenever I think I look cute in a dress, I in fact look like I gained 30 pounds.  This is what the camera says.  And the camera never lies.  I have this warped impression of what I look like, and it's something like Kiera Knightley, when in fact, I more closely resemble Warwick Davis.

ANYWAY, I wanted to write and say I FINALLY received Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom in the mail!  WAHOOO!  I was so excited, I nabbed the four free plug-ins from Alex Beadon, and spent the evening trying to figure out how to import my iPhoto images to LR (which is annoying by the way, and includes steps).  Mostly, I just used some images I had on the computer and toyed with them.

I am more familiar with PS having used it before for school and on my PC before it died, and have only a 30 day trial to go on for LR knowledge.  And since I forgot about the trial after a couple days, I really only used it for about a week.  So I decided I'm going to learn how to at least make minor edits with LR.



I used the presets already included just to see what I liked and what worked with the kind of images I typically take.  Okay, the one on the right was just a silly picture Bear took of me one day and I was bomb-rushing him, so the image really can't be saved.  But at least it was fun!

Then I used one of Alex's free PS actions, "Black hearts White" on a forlorn looking photo of Josie.  This was taken in our narrow, windowless hallway with the D90 and my 50mm f/1.4 lens, but the light was REALLY yellow, even with the white balance set to tungsten.  I couldn't get the image neutral enough for my tastes, so I thought trying it in B&W would be a good alternative.  This action is supposed to be reminiscent of aged black and white film, I think, but I adjusted it a little by increasing the contrast and other such minor tweaks until I felt satisfied.  Look at that face!  So despairing!



Well, tomorrow I may have some pictures for you of me in a white dress!  O.o

I promise any of the pictures will NOT be what I am going for.  And will probably be fairly ridiculous because all I own at the moment are sports bras, which are probably not appropriate under garments for trying on a wedding dress.  Oh, well.

Wish me luck and a lack of panic attacks!  I was never good at shopping... and I always loose patience with trying clothes on!  Clearly, I am more nervous about having a meltdown than I am excited...

Happy Wednesday!

xo

PS- Do any of you have an tips or advice on LR or PSCS5?  Or know where to download any free actions/presets I could play with?  I love to play with pictures!