Retouch Menu

The Retouch Menu is found at page 174 of the Nikon D5000 User's Manual.

The steps are simple and I will not go through them in detail. Generally, bring up the image in the view finder by pressing the back button. Then press the OK button to view the retouch menu. Select the desired option and hit OK and save.

Here are several examples. The first image is the original, the second adds green, the third is sepia, and the last creates a gray scale using the cyanotype filter.

There are many options including D-Lighting which brightens shadows where the contrast between dark and light is significant. Another option is color balance which allows the editor to shift the color predominance.

Of course, Fireworks and Photoshop editing allows the same operations, but isn't it nice to have a choice?

Old photographs

In the early days of film, black and white was all that you could get. Images were fuzzy and blurry. to recreate that look, go to filters, adjust color, hue and saturation. Then, desaturate to remove color from the image.If you like, you can leave a touch of color to give the effect of a sightly colorized version. Now, add a little gaussian blur.

This is as far as you can go in Fireworks, but with Photoshop, you can add filter, texture, grain.

Here is the Fireworks version. In Fireworks you can also adjust the brightness and contrast.

For more on this, go to BioRust. The tutorial was written by globator, a Russian with his own photoshop website.

Love Potion #9

Happy Valentine's Day!

Blue Sky

This is a slight variation on the prior post. The background layer is again the sky. But, the sky was duplicated (cntrl + shift + D) and then flipped vertically.

Changing the Sky

There are many different things you can do to make an unexciting sky come alive. With Fioreworks or Photoshop filters, you can sharpen the image, change the hue and saturation, or both.

But, another technique is to layer images. The bottom layer is a background image that consists of the new sky. The top image is your building. Lock the bottom layer and work with the top layer, the building. Use the magic wand and eraser tools to clear the sky revealing the bright sky behind the buildings.

playing with fireworks hue and saturation

This article is a rework of an earlier article by breakdesign.blogspot.com.

Select an image.

Filters ->Adjust color -> Hue / Saturation

Andy Warhol









Original Photo





















Pink
Hue -40
Saturation +20




















Purple
Hue -110
Saturation +10





















hot yellow
hue 0
saturation +100

lesson one - filters

Using the blur filter in photoshop and fireworks is easy.

In the following examples I will apply a radial, zoom, and gaussian blur filter to three different images.

The photograph to the left is a country path in Graffign-Chemin, France. The path is one that my ancient French relatives used to walk when going to the fields to work. I have applied radial blur to give the photograph a time lapse effect. Remember Austin Powers zipping back in time?

The effect works in sports shots also. Use a zoom blur to focus attention. Here is Will waiting for the ball with all the action focused on Will.

Thanks to myJanee.com for the lesson.



1. Duplicate the picture in a new top layer. (How to.)

2. Lock the background image.

3. On the first layer, select mask.

4. Select the brush tool, and with black chosen paint a reveal in the center of the picture where you want the image to be clear.

5. You are done.


You can also use a Gaussian blur for an overall blur effect.


Movie makers use this effect to isolate a subject. Photographers use the Gaussian blur when focal stops don't do the trick.

Remember that with all of these filters, you are creating two layers. The background or bottom layer remains untouched. The second or top layer has the filter applied to it. The layer is then masked and the brush tool wipes off the area to be revealed.