Help

[sarahlou]

Please give advice on my pics!!
I can't seem to get them crystal clear.

[danic]

I had a quick look through your gallery. They don't loot too bad, perhaps an unsharp mask in photoshop is what you need. Nothing too savage, just enough to give them that edge.

Does that help?

[sarahlou]

Only just got photoshop & not understanding it very well, what is an unsharp mask? can you advise any good books for photoshop? Thank you for taking the time to look at my novice attempts! I can't work out how to attach pics to my posts

[Frog]

I suggest posting some in the critique forum with your question.
There are so many variables.

[Frog]

to post pics go to the 'go advanced' option.
Then click on the paper clip at top which will bring up a browse window to browse your photos on your hardrive. Make sure they aren't more than 800 pxls on a side.
I have photoshop elements for dummies6. The dummy books are out for all the photoshop programs I believe. If you aren't as dumb as I, there are others.
I can never determine how much to sharpen using the unsharp mask so just use the auto sharpen option. Both are found under the 'enhance tab' in the elements programs.
Good luck and looking forward to seeing your shots.

[Anbesol]

Filters/Sharpen/Unsharp mask, I usually use a 100% filter with a 1.5-2.5 pixel radius, depending on the shot. I would also recommend becoming acquainted with 'levels', image/adjustments/levels, or just Ctrl+L. Auto usually does well, I open up levels then use auto, and finely tune the rest of the adjustments (you'll see what I'm talking about when you open it up). Sharpening and levels are probably two of the most important uses of photoshop, but there are plenty others you can get into as you advance in photoshop. If levels gives me good tones but perhaps a bit cool or warm, I would use a photo filter to compensate image/adjustments/photo filter.

Hope that helps, experimenting with the various filters and image adjustments will help you learn fast.