Photoshop is a behemoth.

I went to the lab today to work on my six images for Project Two. I spent a little over an hour on two photos. I kept making mistakes and undoing. I'm also extremely indecisive. I kept going back and forth on settings like levels, curves, and brightness. I'm still not sure if I'm completely happy with the changes.

There are so many things you can do with Photoshop, but you have to be careful. I get really excited with all the settings that I get carried away.

That's what happened with this image:

the original

the over-edited

I find it to be too colorful and too contrasted. It almost looks cartoonish and it definitely looks edited. After I finished, I compared the original with the edited and realized it was way too much.

here was my attempt to tone it down:

I decided to start over. I wanted it less cropped as well. I made subtle, but noticeable changes, and I'm much happier with it.

I think Photoshop, like all the other Adobe programs, can only be learned through large amounts of time on the computer, working through each tool and experimenting with different settings. I'm excited to learn more about Photoshop, so I can start editing photos faster and more accurately.