#12brightapps Day Nine – Photoshop Express

Photoshop ExpressWhat is it?

An easy way to touch up and improve your photos.

What can it do?

Correct and improve your photos with simple slide bar adjustments for different fixes and filters: crop, straighten and remove red-eye. Once perfected you can share your results easily from the app via social media, email and text message.

Photoshop ExpressDownload it now

  1. Open the App Store or Android market on your phone or tablet, search for ‘Photoshop Express’ and download.
  2. Launch Photoshop Express and for now choose ‘Maybe later’ instead of signing up.
  3. You may choose to sign up for free account at a later date which provides 2Gb of online storage for your images.

10 Minute Task:

This task is aiming to show you how easy it is to photoshop images like a professional.

To get you ready for the Christmas Party season we will take a selfie and make you look your best!

Within the app you will be prompted to select an image you already have or to take a new photo.

Click on camera so we can take a Selfie! You may need to autorise the app to use the camera which you should allow. You do not need to allow the app to use your location. Rotate the camera if your device has this option to take a photo of yourself, smile and press the camera icon to take the picture. If prompted allow the app to save the photo to your device.

Press the cross icon to come out of the camera. You can then search images on your device (‘on your phone’) and select the photo you just took.

Original Photo

Scroll through the different ‘looks’ available and find one you like. ‘Dream’ is a good choice to add soft-focus and take all the blemishes and wrinkles away!

Photoshop Express - Dreams look

The before/after icon on the top row allows you to switch back to your original at any time to compare the changes you have made.

Work through the toolbar at the bottom to test what each feature does to your Selfie:

PShopExpress_tool1 Looks

PShopExpress_tool2

Crop, rotate, straighten, flip

PShopExpress_tool3 Corrections (try adding some ‘vibrance’ to your photo)

PShopExpress_tool4 Fix red-eye

PShopExpress_tool5 Borders (vignette black adds a nice subtle effect to frame your face)

PShopExpress_tool6 Blemish Removal (you should zoom right in to give you accurate control here, then just tap a blemish to remove it!

Photoshop Express - Vibrance

 

It doesn’t always do what you’d expect so the undo arrow at the top may be useful as you experiment)

Once you are happy, press the Share icon at the top to save your work to the Camera Roll or share online!

Photoshop Express - Share

If you are feeling brave share your final work to Twitter with the #12brightapps hashtag for us all to admire!

Share on Twitter

And Finally…

The song told me to ‘Deck the Halls’…so I did!

Mr and Mrs Hall were not happy!

Discussion Board

Do your end results look ‘photoshopped’?

Does this tool give you more confidence to use photos of yourself online eg on studentcentral?

Further Task(s)

Another good use of this tool is for restoring old photos. Scan an old photo and try removing ‘noise’ or restoring scratches.

Sign-up for a free account to unlock extra ‘looks’ and add the ability to save your favourite settings to quickly apply to photos in the future.

Useful resources

Adobe’s help page on Photoshop Express http://www.photoshop.com/products/photoshopexpress