Photoshop and its Open Source (i.e., perfectly free) analog, The GiMP, are reputed to have very steep "leaning curves." That is, the very scary folklore is that you have to learn and master a massive amount of stuff all at once before you can do anything at all. Well, that's not exactly true. First download and install The GIMP from
http://www.gimp.org.
Then log onto
http://ppl.ug/CPS0LvZOSD0/There you will find some folders containing short YouTube instructional videos. I hope that the organization of the folders is self-explanatory. If you start with the Basics, as soon as get to the point where you can "select" and begin using the "clone," "heal," and "smudge" tools, you will be amazed at things you can do to your photos after only a short time spent viewing a few of the videos.
One hint: a good reason for getting The GiMP and learning a few skills is that if you want to post an on-line portfolio of your work. One popular, free site for creative professionals is behance.net. But their user interface is the most wretched I have ever encountered. It's much easier to open a new image in The GIMP (sized in inches, not pixels, say 8.5 x 11), create a bunch of "layers," paste some photos onto the layers, size them and move them around (The GIMP has easy-to-use "tools" for this), use the "text" tool to add some text, and then -- when the layout looks nice -- merge all the layers and save its a "page 1.jpg." Repeat until you have all the "pages" you need and upload them, one at a time, to Behance using their simplest layout template. Then you will have a URL for your portfolio that you can post on the web, put on your business card, e-mail, and put in your e-mail signature.
Thank you and I would enjoy more information.
This site needs a software section. That is what photography is all about today.
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