Photoshop Conference

Yesterday I went to a Adobe Photoshop conference in Raleigh, NC with my friend Rachel. As an artist, I find myself using Photoshop more and more, especially when preparing images of my work for the web and to convert to slides (which in my opinion is becoming archaic).
The workshop was an awesome all-day event. We were submerged in the details of how to use "buttons" I'd previously been too afraid to touch. Of course, this morning I woke up and was all excited to show my husband the new tricks I'd learned, but when I opened my first image and attempted to work with layer masks....I blanked. Back to the drawing board I guess.

I do love Photoshop though and this is an example of the way I typically use it:

First I set up my finished artwork against a white background. This piece is a triptych that required three individual photos to be combined into one final image (that I added a drop shadow to). Keep in mind that my husband shoots with a D300, sets the white balance before shooting, uses a tripod, and crops in as close as possible. I go into Photoshop and do the rest.