I must confess that I have been very slow to get to grips with Photoshop, both conceptually and technically. I have tended to see it as a tool for photo manipulation, at worst as a means for rescuing bad photographs. It is only much more recently that I have realised that it is a means of expressing very considerable creativity. That doesn’t make it easier to gets to grip with the technology of Photoshop, but it gives a rationale for why one would bother.

My own attempts to understand both what is possible and how it might be done were aided considerably last week by a workshop I attended run by Joan Blease of Joan Blease Photography. The workshop was called Tantalising Textures because it focused on a particular creative technique but it was very helpful in opening my eyes more broadly to what is possible and how it might be attempted.

Of course, the danger with any powerful creative tool is that you are tempted to overuse it – use it to often and use it too heavily. The image above which I produced at the workshop may be an example of the latter but it was certainly enjoyable learning what can be done. Many thanks to Joan for a most excellent workshop which I would whole-heartedly recommend.