my first tutorial

So, I want to share some of my photoshop knowledge.
Photoshop is a GREAT program. But, its only as good as the person trying to use it. Meaning, its a great program if you know how to use it.
I have Elements7, and its perfect for someone who just wants to make their pictures look a little bit more professional looking as far as edits go. There is CS3 and I think 4 but I am not sure what it does that PSE7 doesn't but I can tell you that I havent come across something I have wanted to do with a picture and not been able to do it with PSE...maybe its one of those "what I dont know wont hurt" kind of things.

One question I always get is about my black backgrounds. How do I get it so black, what is it.
Beleive it or not, its just a $10 queen size black sheet from W-Mart. I lay it over my couch, or my counter and shoot away. I prefer natural light if possible.

The trick is in the magic of photoshop...I think you will not be so impressed with my Black and white pics once you see how dang easy this really is. But I know alot of newbie photo mommies, and I would have liked to stumble upon this tutorial when I was trying to learn photoshop.

These directions should be the same for CS3/4 and PSE.

Here is the SOOC. I know, blurry pic, but its just for example purposes.


See how the black isnt really BLACK? It really has alot of blue in it due to the light hitting it...this is natural light BTW.

open it in Photoshop editor.

go to : Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels

just keep it names Levels 1 or whatever you want.


This box should pop up. Take the black ink dropper thingy and select it and then go to your picture and click on your black background. I usually shoot for the lightest area on my black background to make the whole thing black.


I dont have a pic of this...but it will usually make your subject really dark and underexposed looking. So now you go to your Layer and "remove" that dark cast on your subject.

Make sure that the White Layer Mask Thumbnail on this layer has a white outline around it. (see the white box?)

With black as your Forground, use a soft, round brush whatever size will work for your subject, and paint over your subject to remove that dark layer, and your subject is back to its original coloring (does that make sense?)

So, your white box will look like this:

***be careful around the edges...you don't want a Halo around your subject.

Then I either keep it the way it is, or convert it to black and white, depending on what I am going for.

Flatten the image once you are done before doing anything else to the pic (like running an action or something)

Yup thats it! Pretty non-special huh?

Here is my finished product: