Photo Tutorials...anyone can do it

Ok everyone want to know a little secret? You can turn just about any snap shot into a professional looking photograph. I will share the secret with you, and you can do it using Picasa Picnik...shocking isn't it? This time I will not be sticking to the free version of Picnik, but picnik is very affordable whereas Photoshop is much more expensive. I took a snap shot of a street in Mildenhall the other day when we were meeting at a rental agency (or letting agency as it's called here).

Not a bad picture, but it definitely doesn't look like something a professional would advertise does it?  I was just standing on the street and took a picture down the road.  There are several elements here that are distracting in the picture that bring down the quality of the picture...

Notice the areas that I've put the red arrows...these things just seem to junk up the photo and make it non pleasing to look at.  I used the clone tool in Picnik to get rid of these things (now you'll notice as I start posting the steps that some of the things I waited to get rid of because it was later that I thought they were to distracting in the picture.)  The clone tool takes alot of patience and time to get the results that you want.  It has taken me several times of using it to really understand how to use it and make the picture still look natural. Anyways...I got rid of the traffic cones, the yellow cross walk lights, the random antennas above the houses, and some of the street lamps in the distance.

Notice that here where I got rid of the the lettering on the bottom sign because the traffic cone was blocking part of it, so this way it makes the picture look better and is easier than trying to correct the lettering.

Next I used the Gritty effect.  It toned down some of the color and gave a cool look to the picture.  I faded it down some because I wasn't happy with how it looked at full capasity.

Next I decided to experiement with cross process and then played with the amount of the effect.

 Then I decided to use the vibrance effect which I think made the picture look cool.

Next I went to the edit section instead of create and played with the exposure.  I upped the contrast.

Then still under the edit section I went to color and used the auto color.

Next I used the soften effect and used the brush tool to make certain things stand out.  I used it on the sidewalk and roofs.

I added my waterseal and a frame...making this the fnal product.

I wanted to have some different versions of the picture, so I used the Infared Film effect and faded it down to let alittle color through.

Here's the final product of this picture.

Then for the heck of it I decided to make the picture black and white because honestly I love black and white and if done right it can just about make any picture look professional.

So there's some tips to help turn an ordinary snap shot into a professional shot.  It just takes some patience and a few stylish effects too...