Learning to use Photoshop!

So we have Photoshop CS4 at work. I decided to start playing with it to see what can be done with our pics from the new camera. I came across a tutorial on a website called Digital Photography School about one way to make eyes pop a little more in a shot.

Here's the original pic.

You've seen this one before in an earlier blog.

Now here's what I managed to do with the easy steps in the tutorial.

It's not a startling difference, but I think it really helps draw attention to her eyes.

Basically, all you do is lighten the colored part of the eye and use the burn tool to emphasize the pupils and edges of the iris of the eye.

Now I gotta find me some more tutorials like this!!

UPDATE!! 5-6-2009

O.K. I learned another trick and just had to share again. The tutorial was on making a high contrast sky in B&W images.

Here's the before shot:

This was taken while we were out for a spin on my father-in-laws "Rhino." (For those who have no idea, picture a golf cart on steroids and with 4-wheel drive. It's a big tough ATV.) It was taken while we were in motion and going over some bumps, hence the slightly wonky tilt to the right. This shot is looking back up the hill towards the in-laws house. (It is also looking back towards our house too but it is hidden by the trees from this angle.)

So I first straightened it out in PS and cropped it down so the lines were vertical again. Then I converted it to monochrome and played with the color meter until it was in B&W. I did it that way instead of just a straight B&W conversion since the tutorial said there was more control over things this way. (Sounds smart at least. But what do I know?)

Then I made a selection around the sky portion of the shot and played with the levels even further to really up the contrast on the clouds. It made the blues look almost black and added a very neat effect to the whites.

Finally, I reversed the selection and made a few more adjustments to the bottom half of the pic. My only complaint is that the tutorial didn't really give much detail on how to make changes just within your selection area. I kind of stumbled around until it started to work and to be honest, I'm still not entirely sure what I clicked to make it start working! LOL

But at any rate, here is the result:
Is that awesome or what?


OWWW!!!
I think I just dislocated my shoulder while patting myself on the back.