On this page I am posting some of my Photoshop contest entries. Later I may pass on a few tips as I
                                   learn new skills using this excellent software package. I use
                                   Photoshop CS which at the moment more than adequately meets my
                                   needs. There are many tutorials on the internet and these are
                                   essential learning tools. Why not have a go yourself at changing
                                   images or editing your existing digital images using Photoshop or
                                   perhaps a different image editor.   
                                   

Get Your Kits Out
Has MOVED

To provide more band width and a better service we have upgraded to

www.getyourkitsout.com

We have moved to   www.getyourkitsout.com    so this site will no longer be updated on a regular basis.  The new site will contain many new features and a wider content. 50mb was my limit here and we reached it so it's onwards and hopefully upwards.....

AT LAST A CONTEST WIN FOR ME I couldn't believe it when I checked to see how my latest effort was going and found out I was in the top four entries. There were a number of quality entries but this one held it's own with them and amazingly ended up first. I only spent about half an hour creating this image when I used it in a tutorial I was reading. Well it paid off and I was as pleased as punch when many of the regulars sent me emails congratulating me on my first contest win.                                   August 2004

A nice Turkish Sunset and a simple reverse image plus a little fading and added ripple effect and Bob's your Uncle as they say.

My favourite picture "Stone Structure" was quite difficult to achieve. I only started using Photoshop about 6 months ago and most of my new skills were utilised on this project. The original source shown below left needed a serious chopping to rid it of the sky. I used the extract tool on the Filter Menu. This is a great tool for chopping but it was here where I learned one of the  most     useful tips yet for Photoshop. If you place  the cursor at your starting point and hold down the shift key, then keeping the shift key held down move to the next point and right click. This will complete the straight line between the points. Keeping the shift key held down you can continue to move and right click thus speeding up the process and giving you much straighter lines. Shorter moves for curves keeps the arc neat. If you make a mistake just release the shift key and press alt - z to go back a move. You can also use this method in Brush or Erase modes   in just the same way.                                                                                                                         Since posting this image I have found lots of easier ways of achieving this picture, most of them learned using the excellent range of tutorials available on the net.                                 May 2004

My other pictures can be viewed in my Gallery on Photoshop Contest Page   http://photoshopcontest.com/boards/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=4439

    This is my latest effort, chopping is never easy but the
    amount I had to do on this one was frightening. Still I
    am happy with the end result. Some of the top entries on this
    contest were stunning. It's well worth visiting the Photoshop
    Contest site if only to see just how good the top people are.
    July 2004

I decided to take a few weeks off Photoshop Contest to reassess my whole approach to posting pictures. I realise that there is a method
to gaining votes and improving your VPP and hopefully after studying many entries I can improve my votes. The first thing that becomes obvious is that the pro's are out of my and many of my fellow PSC'ers league. Some of them are awesome but, there is nothing to stop us
learning from them. The message boards are also a great help, you can post any question here and the users are quick to help with the answers. There is also the advantage system which for a few quid gives you the opportunity to see the images a week in advance. This
allows you to get your entry in on time without any pressure normally spending the same time on your entry as normal. It also helps to finance the site but does cause a fair bit of controversy as many believe it gives the users an unfair advantage. For me it allows me to
chop at my leisure and post on time and to be honest my votes have improved but maybe so have my entries.

The lower picture on the left is the latest contest
subject which I chopped out and used on the other
picture above. I'm quite pleased with the finish to
this picture which is clear and clean, two of the
most important vote winners in my opinion.   August 2004