Helpful Sites for Photographers

I think I've posted some of these in the past, but here are a few sites I've come across that I visit frequently...

*Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider Blog. Scoops, tips, and comments on Photoshop.

*The Pioneer Woman--Ree Drummond. Free Photoshop Actions designed by Ree and just an overall awesome site!

*Pop Photo. Popular Photography Magazine's online site. Sign up for the newsletter.

*Rangefinder. Sign up for their free magazine (click on Subscribe at the top). Great articles in a nice, glossy mag.

*Digital Photography School. Photo tips and tutorials, cameras and equipment, and post-production sections.

*Stock Xchng. Free stock photos. Find textures and other images for Photoshop use.

*Photoshopmama. Great YouTube tutorials on Photoshop editing techniques. I am also subscribed to Tutvid tutorials.

*DIYPhotography. Do-it-yourself tips and tricks for photographers.

*Pandora. Can't edit without music? Me either. Make your own free radio stations here. My recent music of choice--Bluegrass. Random, I know.

Let me know some of your favorite sites so I can check them out!

Photoshop Phun

Since I'm a self-taught photographer and also have never had Photoshop (PS) classes for post-processing, I rely on the web a lot for research. I recently came across a link to a site for free high-res stock photos, stock.xchng at http://www.sxc.hu/. If you're looking for some free pix to manipulate for your site, with no copyright repercussions, this is your place. I'll be using some of these photos myself while learning some new PS techniques. According to the quick stats, there are 390,295 pictures currently available and more photos are added daily. You are able to search the database by word, resolution, category, photographer, and date.

If you're a blog stalker like me, you may also love the Blogs tab, which gives you access to the blogs of a lot of creative people.

Another favorite feature is the Tutorials tab, which gives a ton of tutorials for PS techniques. Some tutorials are definitely better than others, but if you're a PS beginner, it's a great place to start diving in.

I've also been looking at a lot of PS tutorials on YouTube. My favorite "teacher" so far is photoshopmama. Not only is she good at explaining editing processes, but the videos and visuals are some of the best I've seen.

For a sample of some of her work, click on the photo below to access Photoshop Mama's Pencil Sketch Tutorial, which is great!

If you know of any other great sites for free stock photos or PS tutorials, please email me!

Happy Photoshopping!