Dodge tool in Photoshop

Here's a photo of paint tubes that was pretty dark when taken, as you can see in the original on the bottom. The photo at the top has been adjusted with the dodge tool, adding brighter highlights to the white & colored areas, and leaving the shadows as they were. It's more subtle than some of the other bolder and more obvious tricks I've seen in Photoshop so far. I can see how this one can be a real asset for a photo where you're just trying to enhance the natural elements instead of push the boundaries with design.

Adobe CS4 filters, Round 2

Here's a pic of a metronome (& guitar in back)that has the "Glowing Edges" filter applied. Photoshop lets you alter your pics in ways you might never even imagine...very psychedelic.

Adobe filters, round 1

Here is a pic that uses the chalk & charcoal filter, with hot pink selected as the color choice. I love the contrast of neons against more neutral colors. Kapow!

Fun with Adobe

Here's an image I took on the ferry to Burton Island State Park. The shutterspeed was set too low, so the image ended up being a bit washed out. Using CS4, I can kind of fix it -creating a blue tint sky, and sharpening & deepening the color contrast. You can probably do even more to adjust it once you have more experience with Photoshop.