Lions share

I used the paintbrush, using different sizes and colors. I found by working in a zoomed in mode, the detail was better and quicker to do. I actually like the fact that the image is not painted perfect...since the artwork has a quick look the painting not being perfect matches that technique. I think of it like putting a monster truck picture on fine china...it's just not gonna look right.

Losing my head over dancing

I found this VERY hard to post, as I HATE getting my picture taken and a close up no less. Oh, well...learning over vanity. The dancing couple and the picture of me are the originals. The goal was to take my head and put in on the girl dancer without it looking like it has been altered. This proved to be a lot harder than the scarecrow picture in the book. After some trial and error and mostly some great help from a class mate...I am ready to dance with the stars.

I had my daughter take my picture, she finally was able to stop laughing long enough to click the camera. Teenagers...everything is hilarious or horrible :). After getting my pic into PS I tried using the magic wand, but part of my face was being included...some of this was fixed by taking a second picture with a different color background. Finally, it worked best to use the magnetic lasso to rope in the features I wanted to post into the other photo. I used the same technique to take out that "other woman's" head. I then moved my head over and then I couldn't stop laughing. My head went from where her head started and went to her waist. I adjusted the size using the free transform option. Once I had my head the right size I adjusted the brightness and contrast (with brightness/contrast tool) of my face skin to match her body skin, I also had changed my head to gray scale when moving it off my body. I then learned about the clone tool...LOVE IT! Between the clone tool and the eraser I was able to blend the areas where her features had been and mine where not. It also helped to remove parts of me I didn't need, while that layer was still there. I mention this because once I had everything positioned and erased that I wanted, I resaved the pic and then flattened it. This allowed me to clone easier. I think the final results turned out good, but it is still weird...I wish I had those legs. Now, I guess I can have them in my dreams and my Photoshop.

Quilt work

Here is my "quilt" square. I couldn't figure out a way to center things or ensure that they were equa-distance from each other, does anyone know how to do that? Also, is there a way to copy the triangles and then paste and rotate them where you want them, thus ensuring them to all be the same? Pointing me to the page number, if I've missed it would be great.

Hotel California

The first pic is the starting point. The second was my attempt. First I went into the cooling filter and downed the luminance and upped the fade. I also checked the Neutralize check box. Then Selective color to down the yellow to bring the walls to a more tan, less green hue. Which by the end, I might have taken too much out. The channel mix, I adjusted the blue down to give more blue into the pic. (A side note, I did the shadow/highlight and boy did it light up the room. It looked like big spot lights where lighting up the room.) In hue/saturate I brought down the red hue, which helped bring the bed spread closer. The couch and drapes are good, but the walls and bedspread are still a bit off. The third pic to match to.

Project 2

I need a lot more work on the "levels". To change the photo to sort of get close to John's (First photo) I selected the Black and white option, then Neutral Density, tint. Decreased the red hue 27 and decreased the saturation to 13%. Adjusting the yellow seemed to help brighten up the image as well. (second photo) I played with the color balance and came up with some very weird colors. Through all the "playing" it seemed like the Alaska 50 years flag never really changed. (third photo)