Brush Experiments

I wasn't able to learn anything specific today that I hoped to.
I got a bunch of new brushes at qbrushes.com - a website I recently stumbled upon.
Today I did several experiments - as I usually do when I get new brushes.

They came out... interesting to say the least.

The first of these is Towering Flames. It's just a concept piece. I have been trying to successfully imitate fire for a long time. Nobody on the internet seems remotely good at it (without using source pics), so I'm rather pleased - it's the best yet, and makes me hopeful.
This second one I just did today, also. It's called Bearing it All. Perhaps it's a sign of my troubled heart... oh well. I'm perfectly happy... on the outside, at least. It's rather strange and shocking that such an abstract brush could have such an effect on me. It's still a decent piece, considering that I don't usually use perspective like this. Yes, the silhouette is actually me - from a photo.

Photoshopping Photography

I have been submitting some of my photography to DeviantArt. I've been enhancing the color on some of them, and have found two very important tools for doing so.
You can make any clear (as in not blurry) photograph have great lighting.
All you need is image>adjustments> levels... (or Ctrl L / Command L).

You bring the outer white and black arrows to where the graph begins and ends. You do it for each of RGB, Red, Green, and Blue, choosing them from the top menu. Then you have to slide the middle ones until you get the "correct" colors you're looking for. Do the RGB one last, as doing the other three increases the brightness. That's all RGB will most likely do, and in combo you may go overboard. Afterward, going to image>adjustments>brightness/ contrast... you can fix the brightness properties as you desire. As you might notice, the bottom one is quite an improvement from the top. I didn't do very much, but the improvement is awesome.