i'm trying to teach myself how to use photoshop finally. it's such an amazing product BUT it is really intimidating to me... but fortunately i have the help of a husband who does graphic design, and several friends that are either photographers or graphic designers by trade. :)

adrienne's blog pointed me towards several helpful links, including jessica sprague's photoshop friday tutorials.dude, they are SUPER easy to follow and right up my alley. the link above is to her old blog, and she just started a new one here in case you are interested.

anyways, so after trying unsuccessfully for about 15 minutes to find the dodge tool (which i discovered was actually in photoshop and not imageready. LOL guess it helps to have the right program open!), i finally figured out how to adjust catchlights in a subjects eyes (woot!) and how to do this:

i'm excited. :)

(oh and julie and any other interested parties- the tights are from hanna anderson, but i also found some similar ones at gap last year.)

my goal is to be able to edit pictures like amber nicole.

if you have a few minutes, go look at her blog. it is pure eye candy. especially go look at her archives from september and october... simply GORGEOUS photos. :)

here's one final photo from a few weeks ago of my friend michelle and her son chad. i just adjusted the levels in it to give it some more contrast, and desaturated the colors to convert it to black and white.