QUOTE(Leagle @ Apr 30 2006, 05:54 PM)

I was wondering, how do you get that... creamy color effect? If you get what I mean. I've seen it a few times, and I think it's really pretty, and I'm just interested in how to do it. Not to say that I'll use it in everything that I do, I'd just like to know maybe a little something about how to do it.. because it looks so pretty. ToT Thank you in advance for whoever helps. ^^
You can achieve this effect by lowering the saturation on a given image.
There are a few different ways to do this, but here's my favorite way.
With the image open, click on the 'Adjustment Layer Mask' button on the bottom of the Layers palette (it's the circle icon that's half black and half white).
Click on 'Hue/Saturation', and an options box will pop up.
Slide the Saturation slider to the left until you get your desired desaturation level (leave the checkmark in the 'preview' box to see a real time preview on the actual image), and for this particular image, it looks like they slid the Brightness slider a bit to the left as well (but that depends on the image you're starting with). When you're happy with your look, click Okay to apply.
To further enhance this effect, click on the same Adjustment Layer Mask button, but this time choose 'Levels'.
Slide the left slider to the right to make the darks darker.
Slide the right slider to the left to make the brights brighter.
Click Okay to apply.
The advantage of using Adjustment Layers, as opposed to applying the effects directly to the image layer, is that you can go back in to the settings of the particular Adjustment Layer (by double clicking the circle icon on the layer), and it remembers the last settings you put in there. Otherwise, you'd have to start all over again.
If you come across an effect that you can't set from an Adjustment Layer, always make sure to copy that image first, then apply the effect to the copied image. So you always have your original file to go back to, if need be.
Hope that helps.