I have recently found a really great tutorial for Photoshop and I decided to give it a try. After some experimenting I found out that I like it So I decided to work on this skill because I have a lot of time to perfect it. These two pictures that I will put first are my first to real 'projects'. Before that I have used only Image Size and Brightness in Photoshop So this is a big leap for me.

I'm expecting all sorts of critics, but I know there will be more bad ones As I already said, both of these are based on some tutorials, so they are not a work of my imagination.

I thank fusethemusic for this great tutorial (the second picture is made according to it).
The Tutorial



Twirl



Core





Hope you like it!

the twirl could use a little more monochromatic touch to it. too colorful. i like the core though looks sci fi.

Here's more!

This one is my best work ever (such a n00b, I know...). I have taken a picture of my friend Ivana (hope she doesn't get mad when she sees this) and a bunch of photomanipulation tutorials - since this is my first manipulation - and started working. It has taken me about two hours to complete everything, but it would definitely be less if I had some previos knowledge.

As you can see, there are a lot of things changed. First of all, I have removed the pimples. I used Gausian Blur and History Brush and it worked out great!
After that I moved on to the other parts of the face. I've made the eyebrows thinner by using the Smudge tool. Then I increased the brightness of teeth and the white eye part. Also, I have changed the eye colour a bit, so now they are sort of green.
In the end, I found a forest picture, blured it, and added it as a backround. I have cut out the original background by using the Lasso tool first and then switching to quick mask and removing the rest.

I would like to know if this is good at all, because it is my first ever photomanipulation

Wow, that photo manip one is kinda creepy haha. Great work just weird how diff it looks without changing it 'too' much, ya know? Great job!

About the first two, I'd agree that the first one is a little too colorful, maybe making the ribbony lines of color a translucent version or something would keep the image smoother. THe lines sort of stand out too much and break up the image a bit, but nice effect still for early PS work. The second image is really cool, well done indeed. Hopefully you'll be able to use those skills and merge them into other works

Keep up the good work. I'm no PS master by any means at all, but you seem to be willing and able to learn so good luck.

Like everyone else had said , yes your first pic could use a little more add-ons to make it look...well how would i call it... "real"? The second one is fabulous! I could never do anything like that even WITH a tutorial . The photo editing pic is excellent. I see you've learned to use the toolbar very well. One other tool that might come in handy often later on if you want to move on to photo editing is the rubber (New versions call it Clone) stamp tool. It enables you to copy a certain part of a picture to another area of the canvas. Works excellent if you want to copy the skin of one part of the pic over the pimples instead of using too much gaussian blur to make it look unrealistic. Your lassoing worked REALLY and i mean REALLY well. Had you really used a freehand lasso to remove the background? I always use magnetic lasso with 100% frequency for photoediting. Excellent job! (And i know you pyost. Don't say you haven't done anything like this before in PS !!! )

Yeah, I know, it was just a try-out of what PS can do... I did it in 10 minutes.



Nah, I'm sure you would. It might look complicated, but a few lens flares and some distorting and other effects and voila.



Not quite. First I used the lasso tool to select the area about 15 pixels around the head. and then switched to quick mask mode and zoomed a lot so I could deselect the rest with a 5px brush.



I haven't done anything like this before in PS Really! I just happened to have some really good tutorials. And a good pic, also.

OK, sorry for the double post, but here's another one. It's not really for this forum, it's photography, but I didn't want to make a new topic.

It's a picture I took while travling to Kopaonik (a mountain in Serbia). We were having a break and there was this lovely river with I tinny waterfall. I just had to take a picture of it! I never thought I would da something with it, but here it is. I decreased the picture size, because it wasn't very hign quality. I also removed all the colours except the river colours. So it turned out really nice with a black frame I added.

Didn't want to hotlink, so here's a link to DA: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/30017856/

Yeh for a beginner you look like your improving alot, the core is a great effect and if you take more time to study the filter effects you can come up with even more effects.
The photomanipulation is looking great and really has made it look better. Nice technique you have there and when you master photomanipulation, the possiblilities are endless. Ive done some really creappy Dark Art projects and always turn out great and look real So I should post a new topic soon showing this work, hopefully you will get better to achieve more than you thought.

Be sure to check my new topic out and nice attempt,
Burgin!

Here's another photomanipulation. I used it to show my friend the basics of photomanipulationg.

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/30670521/

nice! "Core" looks like something Tool or NIN would do for their album artwork