I have been asked by many people via comments, and directly, how I get the clear skin effect on my *Portraits...
I have been asked by many people via comments, and directly, how I get the clear skin effect on my Portraits / . So, as I am now a leader in the Photoshop Help group, along with my good buddy Faizan Qureshi – I thought I would kick off my participation with this brief tutorial on how it is done. / / This was done in Photoshop CS2, but as the effect only uses the standard Photoshop tools, most if not all versions of the program will suffice for this tutorial. / / First things first, you will need a file to work on. The settings in this tutorial are based on the low resolution starting image here, and if you use higher resolution images – the settings will be different. / / You may right click and save the starting image below and use it to work through this tutorial to practise – you may also upload your finished work into your portfolio for feedback and to show others how you did – You MUST not, however, place the image for sale, or use it for any other purpose other than this tutorial, without my permission / / So, follow the steps and have some fun with this. / / 1. Save the image below and open it in Photoshop / / Starting Image / / startmodel / / / 2. On the toolbar on the left hand side, click on the healing tool / / healing brush tool / / Use the following settings for the healing brush / / healing brush tool settings / / / 3. Zoom in on the model so that you can see imperfections on the skin. Hold Alt on your keyboard and click on an area of skin close to an imperfection once – release the mouse and the Alt key / / healing brush step 1 / / / 4. Click the mouse again over the imperfection that you want to hide, once / / healing brush step 2 / / / 5. Repeat the last two steps until you have removed all the imperfections, until the image looks similar to the one below. / / model after healing brush applied / / / 6. Down on the right hand corner of the Photoshop workspace – you will find the layer pallette – Have a look – you will notice that there is one layer called background, or Layer 1 in the pallette at the moment. / / The Photoshop layer palette / / / 7. Go to the menu bar running across the top of the workspace – click on the word – Layer, then click on Duplicate Layer. A box will appear, just click OK. Notice that a new layer, called layer 1, or background copy now appears in the layer pallette above the background layer. Make sure that this top layer is highlighted/selected / / 8. Just above the highlighted layer, there is a drop down menu [which probably has the word Normal in it at the moment]. Click that drop down menu and click on multiply. / Multiplying the layer / / / your image will go very dark like the one blow. Model after multiply / / / Still working on this same layer / / 9. On the menu bar running across the top – click on the word Filter, then on Blur, then on Gaussian Blur – a box will appear. Change the settings to that below and click OK to apply the effect. / / Blur settings / Your image will now look like the one below / / model after blur applied / 10. Go to the top menu again, and click on the word Layer, then on New Adjustment Layer, then on Levels – a box will appear. Adjust the settings to that in the image below. / / Levels adjustment settings / / / Your image should now look like the one below / / Model after the levels adjustment / / / Note here that you now have 3 layers in the layer pallette. You will need to be working on the MIDDLE layer [see below] for the next step, so make sure it is selected. / / Selection of the middle layer for the next step / / / 11. On the toolbar on the left, click on the History Brush to select it history brush tool / / / On the top toolbar menu, set your brush to a small soft brush [so that you can fit it into the corner of the eyes], and set the opacity to 25 / / All in one stroke [thats important with low opacity] paint over one eye totally to bring the detail and brightness back out. Repeat for the other eye, and then for the lips. / / The effect is quite subtle here, but it will make a big difference at the end of the tutorial and will give life to your model. / / Your image should now look similar to the one below / / model after history brush / / / 12. Now go to the menu up the top and click on the word Layer, then click on Flatten image – this will result in you having one layer in your layer pallette again. / / Ok – so your model has great skin now, but she is a bit on the bright side. We are going to darken her up a bit, but if we just do it now, she will likely turn orange with the current saturation level. so we need to adjust it a little. / / 13. Go to the menu up the top and click on the word Image, then Adjustment, then Hue/Saturation – a box will appear. change the settings to that below. / / hue/saturation settings / / / The image should now look a better colour model after hue/saturation settings applied / / / Now lets darken her up / / 14. Up to the top menu again – click on the word Image, then Adjustment, then Levels – the levels box will appear. Change the settings to that in the image below. / / Levels adjustment settings / / / Your image should now look much darker / / model after levels adjustment applied / / / Finally – we need to bring out highlights and for this we use the dodge tool. / / 15. Over on the toolbar on the left, click on the dodge tool to select it / / dodge tool / / / Use a soft large brush [about the size of her whole cheek], set the opacity to 18 and work on highlights in the drop down menu [up the top]. Click and drag once across the eye area, then once down the models right cheek to brighten these areas up. / / Your image is now complete and should look something like this / / finished model / / / I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. The settings will be slightly different with other images of different resolutions but the methods will be the same. When adjusting levels blur etc on other images, use the sliders to get similar looking effects to what you used here and the effects will work nicely for you. / / Good luck everyone, Please come back here and let me know how you got on.
I have been asked by many how to do selective colouring on images, so here is a quick method for doing it. / / The method I use is a simp…
I have been asked by many how to do selective colouring on images, so here is a quick method for doing it. / / The method I use is a simple two step process / / Open the image and turn it greyscale – click the word Image [up the top menu] then – mode then greyscale / / Click ok to the message that pops up asking to discard colour channels [Those are the red, green and blue channels that make your image colour] Now – you have a mono image with all the colour discarded – You cannot select colour if its all been discarded – so we need to put it back. / / Go back to image [up top] – mode and hit RGB – the image will stay mono, but is actually a colour image [with no colour] / / Hit the history brush in the toolbar in the left and paint back where you want the colour. Adjust the size of your brush as required. / / For more subtle effects, turn the brush opacity down – but remember when using low opacity – you must paint in one stroke, without releasing the mouse. / / thats it – yep – really simple eh / / A variation on this is for example, where you want to use this method on a forest scene – impossible to paint back in or select to colour by different methods. So after making the image greyscale, turning it back to RGB and selectiing your history brush – set the brush to a very large size with a zero hardness setting. Find a place on the image where you would like to see colour and click the brush there once. The result is a really nice graduated colour effect at the point where you wanted it to appear – awesome. / / Good luck all – have fun with it, and let me know how you get on – perhaps link your images here. / / Jul
For some reason, people go a funny shade of green when one starts talking about Dodging and Burning …. nothing to fear at all. I’ve ju…
For some reason, people go a funny shade of green when one starts talking about Dodging and Burning …. nothing to fear at all. I’ve just realised that I haven’t got any little images to insert in this tutorial …. I’ll make them later. Dodging and Burning is not difficult at all, when you realise that 20 low opacity strokes are better than one huge Dodge or Burn stroke. D&B is used to create precise shadow/highlight and can certainly add enormous amounts of lift/punch to an image. Most people would duplicate the layer to do some D&B on, and this is fine until you are working on a 10/15/20mb file and everytime you duplicate the layer the image size doubles. Unless you have a huge amount of RAM, your computer will slow down and sometimes even freeze. Is there a solution …. of course there is, its photoshop. So you’ve been working on an image, and naturally taken snapshots along the way. Now you decide that you would like to do some D&B. Click on the new layer icon on the bottom of the layers palette. Go to Edit>Fill>50%gray>click ok and that’s it LOL, nah, only kidding. Change the blend mode of this layer to soft light. Go grab the Burn tool (example), select whether you want to burn the highlights, midtones or shadows from the top menu and I would suggest quite strongly that you use a very low opacity – around 10% to start out with. I usually use a very soft brush for this and set the size according to what I’m going to be doing. The sheer beauty of using the 50% gray layer set to soft light is that you can simply turn the layer on and off to view your progress – don’t like what you’ve done … trash it and start again. Use exactly the same principle for the Dodge tool. Yet another way to D&B. Click on the new layer icon on the bottom of the layers palette, change the blend mode to soft light (without filling it with 50% gray), select your brush tool and make sure the foreground colour is set to black. Lower your brush opacity in the top menu bar to round about 10% again and start brushing where you want to Burn (darken) the area. Do exactly the same thing, only with white as the foreground colour to do some Dodging (lighten). Yet another interesting take on the above is that you can D&B with colours. Try it … grab your f/ground colour as red (example), check the opacity is down and Dodge or Burn away with that colour. Perhaps even pick a dark red (example) from the image itself to use as the Burn colour. Have fun, and don’t be afraid to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in. The sheer joy of photoshop is all the fun you can have with it.
A few peopple wanted to know how I created Swingtime, so here’s a walkthrough for you all. / / This was done quite quickly, and without t…
A few peopple wanted to know how I created Swingtime, so here’s a walkthrough for you all. / / This was done quite quickly, and without the precision used to create the actual art piece, so please forgive the roughness around the edges of some of the screenshots. All was done in Photoshop CS3 but as basic tools only were used, All versions of the program will suffice. / / Base image provided by sxc.hu below / / Download it here and view the user agreement 1. Open the forest image in Photoshop. On top menu click Image – Adjustments – Colour Balance. Add yellow, red and magenta with the sliders, on Highlights and Shadows, until you get a deep rich forest. 2. Model image [taken by me. Model posed seated on a bucket holding hands up]. 3. Open model image in Photoshop. Top menu, click Select – All, then click Edit [again in the top menu] – Copy. Work on the forest image and click Edit – Paste, to paste model as a new layer onto the forest scene. [see image below] 4. User the Eraser tool on the toolbar, set to low hardness and 100% opacity to erase the background from the model layer. [See image below] 5. Erase further parts of the dress, that would not look natural if sitting on a swing. Pay particular attention to the waist area [which will give the impression of leaning back slightly], and the overhang at the back. [See image below] 6. Still working on the model layer, click Edit [top menu] – Free Transform. This will place handles around the model so that you can resize it. Then use the move tool to place the model where you want her in the scene. 7. Still working on model layer, click Image – Adjustments – Levels, and change the settings to make your model glow with colour [suggested settings below] 8. Now for the feet. This image was rendered in Daz studio / / 9. Repeat the process to copy and paste the feet image into your scene as a new layer [step 3] 10. Working on the feet layer, erase the background, then use Edit – Free Transform to resize. In the layer palette in the bottom right hand corner of your workspace – drag and drop this feet layer so that it appears underneath the model layer. Use the move tool to place the feet where you want them in the scene. Adjust the colour as required. [Step 1] Now for the swing Bench image provided from sxc.hu – cristi modoran Download it here and view the user agreement 11. Open bench image in Photoshop and paste into your forest scene [Step 3]. Crop it down to just the part you need and delete the excess. 12. Use the Polygonal Lasoo tool to select an area of the bench to use as a swing seat. 13, Once selected, click Select [Top menu] – Inverse, then hit Delete on the keyboard to remove the part of the bench image that you don’t need. Then use Edit – Free Transform to resize the swing seat, and the move tool to place it over the model in the scene. 14. Working on the model layer, Use the Magic Wand tool to select her dress. With the selection still active, switch to the bench layer and use the eraser to remove the part of the swing which covers the dress. Because the dress area has been selected, you do not need to be precise, as only areas of the seat within the selection will be affected. 15. Repeat step 3 to paste the rope image [link below] onto your scene. Drag the rope layer in the layer palette so that it is underneath the model layer. Use Edit – Free Transform, then Edit – Transform – Rotate to make it vertical. Erase the background and use the move tool to position it to the swing. rope image from Ladyleaf at sxc.hu 16. Working on the model layer, zoom in and erase the part of the hand that should be hidden by the rope. 17. Working on the rope layer – Duplicate it and move it over to the other side of the swing seat. Repeat step 16 on the other hand of the model layer. 18. Merge all layers except the background layer to bring you back to two layers within the layers palette. Use level adjustments on each layer in turn to blend them in well. 19. Finally, use the Burn tool to burn out the edges of the models dress overhang and the areas where the ropes meet the swing to give depth. Use the Dodge tool to make the models hair and dress pop with colour. 20. Flatten image and use White, and a star brush to add sparkles. Save image as jpeg. The end result can be seen Here / / Have fun, and let me know how yo uget on :)
The aim of this Guide is to provide easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions to achieving the Orton Effect without the necessity of bei…
The aim of this Guide is to provide easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions to achieving the Orton Effect without the necessity of being a Photoshop guru. For this purpose I try to describe the process in plain and simple language. If you are a digital artist guru, you may wish to turn away at this point to avoid the Groan Factor. I still call myself “new to Photoshop” and I have found a lot of tutorials on this topic assume a much higher level of knowledge than I have and are not very intuitive. One of the problems is that if you don’t “get” a particular step in the process, you’re gone. So, I try to explain the steps in easy to understand terms (hopefully!) and, importantly, describe what each step should look like after it’s done. So if you are not seeing the result of each step replicated on your screen, you know you have to stop and try again. If this happens, go to the top toolbar, select Edit then Undo [whatever it is you’ve just done] from the drop-down menu and try again. I have revised and expanded the Tutorial again, in December 2009, to: Use an actual image through the Steps. Include thumbnails of what to do. Describe the steps as per Photoshop Elements 7 (PE). Show a shorter way of using Blending (Step Five). To achieve the Orton Effect you will be creating Layers, but don’t worry if you haven’t done this before. I hadn’t. The method I am about to describe is the simplest I have found. It’s not my method, but the description is all mine. I said at the time of the original Tutorial I would revise it to include screenshots of the various steps. It’s only taken me a year or so to do so. The steps described below assume almost zero knowledge of Layering, and ignore other adjustments you might be making to the image, for example Sharpening the image before you start work on it, which is highly recommended. Step 1 Choose your image. I have found that an image with a lot of white in it, for example waterfalls, is not ideal for the Orton Effect. Try to select an image which is not underexposed, has strong colour, in focus and sharp, and which has a dominant subject. Flowers are ideal. For the purposes of this Tutorial, I will demonstrate the Steps using this image, shot in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney on 30 November 2008: / Handheld Canon EOS 10D, Canon EF 180mm f3.5L USM Macro Lens, ISO 100, f3.5 at 1/180th second Step 2 You’ve got PE (or Photoshop CS2 or later) open. Now select File from the top toolbar and select Open from the drop-down menu. Choose your Flower shot and open it. (You may be using a non-flower image, but for ease of reference I will refer to it as Flower.) Ok, now look across to the right of the screen. See the Layers palette? It should be showing a thumbnail of the Flower image, together with the label Background, like so: Feel the excitement. This is your Background Layer. Step 3 Move the mouse over to the thumbnail. Right-click the word Background. A small window should now open, like so: Select Duplicate Layer. A small box should now immediately appear in the middle of your screen, like so: It is asking you to Name the Duplicate Layer. Name this Layer Focus, like so: Click on OK. (Note: It doesn’t really matter what you name it, but Focus will do for our current purpose.) Step 4 Look across to the Layers Palette. There should now be a new rectangular box immediately above the original, called Focus, like so: Pause now and look at the tiny eye icon. You will see that it is now the Focus layer on your screen, so this is the “copy” you are working on. OK, moving on ….. Right-click the Focus rectangular box and select Duplicate Layer again. This time when the naming box appears just click OK because we will use the default name for this Layer, being Focus copy. Your Layers Palette should now look like this: Step 5 OK, now we are going to blend the Focus copy. Look at the Layers Palette again. See the drop down menu at the top left, showing Normal as the default? Click on it, then scroll down the menu and select Screen: The Focus copy layer should now have a bit of a washed-out look to it as a result of selecting Screen as the Blending Mode. (I have found that if the Screen effect still leaves a fairly good image, the Orton Effect will be enhanced. Too washed out and the Effect is diminished.) My Flower now looks like this: Step 6 Right-click the Focus copy rectangular box in the Layers Palette again, only this time select Merge Down (it’s the 3rd from the bottom): This will collapse the Focus copy layer onto the Focus layer, like so: Step 7 Right-click the Focus rectangular box in the Layers Palette again and select Duplicate Layer again. Name this copy Blur, like so: Click OK to close the box. Now, look across to the Layers Palette to check it looks like this: Step 8 Now, find and open the Filter menu on the Tool bar running across the top of your screen. Select Blur. Another menu should open. Select Gaussian Blur (don’t ask): A new window should open. You will see a Preview of the image with a default blur Radius setting of 15.9: (You can play around with the radius later.) For now, just click OK to close the window as we will accept the 15.9 (I have found 15.9 to be right for most images anyway). The blur you are to achieve with this step should be enough to discern the shapes without the detail. Here’s how my Flower looks now: Step 9 – The Magic Happens! This is the fun part. We now make one more blending option. Click on the same drop down menu in the Layers Palette you used to create the Screen effect, only this time select Multiply – it’s closer to the top of the menu: You should now be able to see the Orton Effect! This is how my Flower now looks: Step 10 OK, you now have a few options before saving the image. I’ll show you one. If, however, you are happy with the result, right-click the Blur rectangular box in the Layers Palette one more time and select Flatten Image (it’s the last option on the menu). This basically collapses all the layers into one final image and is the last thing you do in Layering. Your Layers Palette should now look like this: You can now Save the image as normal. But, if it looks too dark, you can adjust the Opacity level with the sliding bar before flattening the image. Look for the tiny Opacity tool in the top right of the Layering Palette. (TIP: If you find you need to go below 50% the Effect is significantly lost and maybe it wasn’t the right image to start with. If you are using Photoshop CS2 or later, another option is to adjust the Fill and leave the Opacity at 100%.) I’m not happy with my Flower – too dark – so I’m going to reduce the Opacity to 75%, like so: Now my Flower looks like this: How does yours look? Before I go, here’s some Samples of pre- and post- Orton Effect I prepared earlier: Before Orton Effect / Canon EOS 10D, Canon EF 28-90mm f4-5.6 Plastic Fantastic Zoom Lens at 28mm, ISO 100, f5.6 at 1/60 second After Orton Effect / Opacity at 100% Before Orton Effect / Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 28-90mm f4-5.6 Plastic Fantastic Zoom Lens at 90mm, ISO 1250, f13 at 1/100 second After Orton Effect / Opacity at 100% Have fun / Peter
This is simply a page where I can the links to all the tutorials I have hosted on my web server. As I add new tutorials, this list will c…
This is simply a page where I can the links to all the tutorials I have hosted on my web server. As I add new tutorials, this list will change, but every once in a while I send out an update journal. Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago I accidently deleted a folder that contained the tutorials (among other things), but up until someone bmailed me looking for one of the tutorials, I hadn’t figured out all that was missing. This journal will be an easy way for me to check links in the future. Tutorials Directly Related to Redbubble How to Add Images or Buttons to Your Profile as Links How To Make a T-Shirt Design with Transparency for the Redbubble Tee Template What Size Images Do I Need to Get Prints on Redbubble Photoshop Tutorials Replacing A Photographic Sky using Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 How to Isolate Objects with the Pen Tool Basic Image Resizing in Photoshop Boosting Colours with Layers Using the Photoshop CS2 Enlarge for Print Wizard Using the Perspective Tool in Photoshop Removing Backgrounds in Photoshop Using Photoshop’s Extraction Tool Removing Backgrounds in Photoshop Using Layers and the Eraser Tool A Simple Colour Sketch from a Photograph using Photoshop A Tutorial for Cleaning & Smoothing Skin How To Create Your own Unique Text Designs Using the Text Mask Tool Beginner’s Photography Tutorials Compositional Rules F-stops and Shutter Speeds Shooting Isolated Objects, or Simple How To Shoot On a White Background
I think this is one of the quickest and easiest ways to get a nice portrait in Photoshop. Again, it isn’t beauty retouching. Unlike the…
I think this is one of the quickest and easiest ways to get a nice portrait in Photoshop. Again, it isn’t beauty retouching. Unlike the Dreamy Glow effect this should :-) be a little more realistic. You can use the image here to start with or use one of your own. Once you have the image open, duplicate it and then you are going to run the Surface Blur filter. If you are working with a version of Photoshop prior to CS2 you are going to have to use the Median filter, this filter isn’t quite as good as the Surface Blur filter but you should still be able to achieve a similar result. I’ve divided my image into two so that you can see what is going on – don’t you do this :-) unless you want to of course. You are looking to keep the lips, teeth, eyes to a certain degree – see image below. If you are working on the same image you can just punch in the same numbers. Still working on the blurred layer, hold down the Alt key and click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette. This will make the mask black (hide all) which is exactly what we want, because we are going to brush back in the Surface Blur. Make sure your f/ground colour is set to white and you have a comfortable size soft edged brush – start painting back in the face avoiding the eyebrows, eyes, mouth and teeth. If you make a mistake, just switch your f/ground to black by pressing x key on the keybaord, fix it, press x again to switch back to white. If you want to make sure that you have painted back in every bit of blur, Hold down the Alt key and click on the mask this will give you a B&W version – see below – and you can fix it from there. Alt click on the mask to take it back to the normal view. I’ve taken the opacity of the surface blur layer down to 80%, you can choose whatever you want. Normally, this is the time where you would start evening out the skin tones, but you’re not going to do that :-) Before you go any further, rename the layer you just did the surface blur on to ….. hmmm …. Surface Blur. Making sure that layer is active, hold the Alt key and click on the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette – a small dialogue box will appear. If you don’t change the mode in the dialogue box, you won’t get the ‘Fill with soft light neutral colour 50% grey’ Now you’re going to pick a colour from the original b/ground to use on the face – so, with a soft edged brush selected hold down the Alt key and the brush will change to the eyedropper tool – once you have the colour selected just release the Alt key to go back to the brush. I used R-192 G-141 B-121. This is going to look terrible when you first brush it on – panic not – just dial the opacity of the layer down to about 40%. You will have to be quite careful with this layer, remember you are not working on a mask. The image below has the opacity at 100% and is not completely covered so that you can see what is happening. Turn the opacity down and complete the skin. The image below shows the completed colour with the opacity at 40% You can try some things now, like reducing the opacity of the surface blur layer … if you are using this image try about 55% and you could stop here if you wanted to – but there is more. Leave the opacity of the surface blur layer at 80% for the moment and the colour layer at 40%. All skin has some texture in it and you are going to replace some of the texture that was wiped out with the surface blur filter. Hold down the Alt key and press on the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette – fill out the little dialogue box as you did earlier. Now go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise and use 5, Uniform, Monochromatic – press OK to accept. Now go to Filter>Stylize>Emboss and try an angle of -90, height 15, amount 100%. Next go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and on this particular image try a radius of 0.5 pixels. And there you have the texture for the new skin. Once you are happy with the portrait, flatten the image duplicate the layer change the blend mode to overlay and sharpen with the High Pass Filter – Alt click on the layer mask icon to get an inverted mask (black – hide all) and with a soft edged brush, brush back in the areas you want sharp. Try different opacity levels for the surface blur layer and the texture layer. I’ve gone ahead and lowered the opacity of the colour layer to 20%, left the blur and texture layers at 80% then used seperate layers created in the same way as you did before but without clipping them with the previous layer, to burn the eyebrows, eyelashes, eye makeup and hair – then did the same to use some dodge on the eyes and hair. You could also use another layer to slightly sharpen the image overall to give the skin a less blurred look, as I have in the image below.
I’ve had a few people ask how I achieved the finish to some of my portraiture works, so as promised, I’ll try and explain as best I can, ...
I’ve had a few people ask how I achieved the finish to some of my portraiture works, so as promised, I’ll try and explain as best I can, how I acheived the image below. This is by no means a step by step guide, as I generally just mess about with an image until I’m happy with it. There are however, certain effects in photoshop I tend to favour for certain subject matters, so I can at least give you an insight into those! To start of with, if you are going to heavily edit a photo, it’s generally important you are working on perfectly focussed image in the first place, so if you are going for quality, use a tripod. The reason this is important, is because when you edit your work, you are directly affecting the pixels of your digital image, and somtimes, editing can cause pixel loss, therefore reducing the quality and sharpness of the image. Lighting is another important factor – it doesn’t have to be perfect, but make sure you don’t have any areas that are very under or over-exposed. One thing I always do when I start editing, is to duplicate the background layer twice to create three layers. I then hide the background layer, leaving two layers visable. I then tend to work on the top layer when adding effects, and once I’m happy with each effect, I merge with the second layer before duplicating the merged layer ready for the next effect. This way, you always have your untouched background layer so if you do go terribly wrong, you haven’t lost your original image. You can also use your background layer to compare your edited layer with. I find this very useful to measure how far you’ve come with your editing. If you’ve gone to far, and over edited, you can always reduce the opacity of the edited version to get some of the detail back, before merging with a duplicated copy of your background layer. To create a glamour style portrait, I generally start by tidying up the image. If it’s too grainy, I use despeckle or reduce noise, but this can cause loss of detail to important areas like the eyes or lips. Detail can be recovered by carefully using the eraser tool on these areas. This will reveal the layer beneath. These layers can then be merged and duplicated. I focus very much on the eyes and mouth of my portraiture work, and I frequently select these areas using the marquee tool or pen tool, (set to a feather strength of 100 or so) and sharpen them using the unsharp mask. Any areas that look over sharpened can always be erased with the eraser tool. I also use this method to increase contrast. The next step I might take is to set the colour palette to a very pale flesh colour and select diffuse glow. It’s always best to add each effect in a subtle way. I often repeat effects over and over adding just a hint each time. It might be more time consuming, but the final result will be much more pleasing to the eye. After you’re happy with the glow of the skin, have a play about with the layer effects in the layer palette. My favourites are “overlay” “screen” and “multiply”. To create the effect of smooth skin, I add a suitable layer effect, and then choose gaussian blur. You will have to play about with the slider here to see what strength looks best. I often reduce the opacity after each effect before merging with my second layer. I find the effects work much better adding a little each time. Remember that if you lose any detail in the eye/mouth area, you can recover it by using the eraser tool. The next step might be to add accented edges – I find this can add extra sparkle, especially to the highlights of the lips and eyes. A common setting for the highlight strength is 28 or 29, but again, have a mess about with it and see what effect it has on your image. I use a variety of methods to get the colour and tone of an image right, and I tend to begin by using the selective colour option. I’ve actually only just discovered this way of altering colour, and I find this option gives you much more control than any other method. The best advise I can give on getting the colour balance right, is to trust your instincs. If it feels right, it is. Same goes for any other editing you do. Try not to think too much about how it should look, and more on how you feel about an effect or colour you just added. Art is about expression in the most honest way. If you like it, it’s right! Other options to alter the colour and tone of an image are photo filters, colour balance and variations. I tend to use all of them at some point during my portraiture works. Another effect I frequently use is craquelure. This can work great on eyes and lips to bring out texture and highlight. Again, I will select the area I want to enhance, then after the effect, I usually either reduce the opacity of the layer, or fade the effect via the edit menu so it doesn’t look to harsh. Well, that’s pretty much the basics! I will usually run through each of these effects alternately adding a bit at a time. I often return to the eye/lip area to sharpen or add contrast. The skin can be further smoothed by reducing noise and or, despeckling repeatedly. Any detail like hair, eyes and lips, can again be recovered using the eraser tool. I hope this journal gave you a useful insight into how I go about my portraiture works. It might not be a step by step guide but I hope it will encourage you to acheive the effects you desire from photoshop. Let me know if there are any areas you are unsure about, or if there are any other questions, either leave a comment or bubblemail me. Happy editing!! Jen :-)
Quite a few people have asked me how I do my textured work. / To be honest, everyone does it their own way, but it helps to have someone s…
Quite a few people have asked me how I do my textured work. / To be honest, everyone does it their own way, but it helps to have someone show you how to get started. / Nicole Goggins taught me, & I believe Mel Brackstone taught her. (apologies if I got that wrong) / Of course there’s always an alternative way of doing the steps, I’ve certainly changed my technique quite a bit since I wrote this, but this is as good a place to start as any. / So here’s the walkthrough that I’ve passed on to those who’ve asked. LETS GET STARTED : I use PhotoShop CS3, but this’ll work with any version. / If you’re not using PS, I’m confident you’ll be able to find your way through it in whatever program you’re using. I’d suggest printing this so you can follow it step by step. 1) Start by opening the image that you want to add a texture to. 2) In the layers palette on the right, (R) click on the background layer & select “Duplicate layer”. This layer will be called “Background copy”, & will sit immediately above the “background” layer. (This is to preserve your original copy) 3) Do whatever adjustments you would usually do until you’re happy with the image as it is. ( ie – levels, curves, hue/sat, curves etc ) 4) Flatten the image - / To do this, go to the Layers palette® click on a layer, & select “Flatten image”. 5)Now it’s time to apply the texture image. / First, you need to make sure that your texture image is the same size as your background image. / To do this :- / Go to your top toolbar & look for the “Image” tab, & click on it. / Then click on “Image Size”. / You’ll need to write down the following details : Pixel dimensions – Width & Height , & Resolution. / Click OK or Cancel to close that window. 6) Now go to your top tool bar, click on “File” & “Open” your texture image. 7)Now that you’re in your texture image, go to “Image”, “Image Size” again, & make sure “Resample Image” is checked, & “Constrain Proportions” is unchecked.. / In that same window, change the resolution & Pixel dimensions – Width & Height to the same details that you wrote down earlier. / Click “OK”. / Now your texture image is the same as your background image. 8) Minimize the texture image. Do not close it, just minimize it. / Now you should see your background image workspace again. 9) In your background again, go to your layers palette & create a “Background copy” like we did in step (2). 10) Go to the little toolbar on the bottom of the “Layers Palette” & look for the little icon that looks like a square with the bottom left corner turning up. / This is the “Create new layer” button. / Click on this & create a new layer, which you can rename to “texture”. / Make sure this layer is active. ( it’ll be highlighted in grey) 11) Go to “Image”, then “Apply Image”. / Now you’ll see a window with a dropdown box named “Source” at the top. / Look for your texture image in the dropdown box , select it, & click “OK”. / You’ll see the texture appear in the “texture” layer that you created in step (10). Now it’s time to get creative….. 12) In the layers palette double click on the little thumbnail image of your texture. / You’ll get a window called “Layer Style”. / Under “Blending Options”, “General blending” you’ll see that the current blend mode is “normal”. / Click on this dropbox & start experimenting with the different blend modes. / I usually use “overlay”, “soft light”, or “hard light”. / This whole “Layer style” window is one you can experiment with as much as you like until you come up with the look you want. / Click “OK” when you’re done. 13) You can change the blend mode of your background copy also. / At this stage you just need to be doing whatever you want to achieve the look you like. 14) For a bit more depth to your texturing, you can try duplicating each layer, & then alternate their order on the palette by dragging them up & down. / eg :- texture copy / background copy 2 / texture / background copy / background (this one is locked, so will always remain on the bottom) 15) In the Layers palette you can adjust the “opacity” of each layer for more or less of the effect. 16) Don’t forget to save as you go. / I like to save all my layers as a psd (Photoshop document) so that I can make changes to it at any time in the future. / When you have a final image that you like, flatten the image ( as in step 4), & “save as” a jpeg. (or your preferred format) 17) Upload to redbubble so that we can all see how well you’ve done!!!! And that’s it! Just remember that there’s no “rules” for this….. a lot of it is just experimenting as you go. What works for one image might look horrid on another, so trust your instincts! [ One last point : I put a lot of time & effort into creating these tutorials. Please don’t disrespect me by claiming them as your own.]
This is an older Tutorial I created while I was on Deviant Art…It proved to be very popular so I thought Id share it here with my favou…
This is an older Tutorial I created while I was on Deviant Art…It proved to be very popular so I thought Id share it here with my favourite Redbubblers :D / If you have any questions please feel free to post them here :) Below are some of my works in which Ive used this effect / Click images to go to full view
From Wikipedia HERE _Tilt-shift photography refers to the use of camera movement…
From Wikipedia HERE Tilt-shift photography refers to the use of camera movements on small- and medium format cameras; it usually requires the use of special lenses. “Tilt-shift” actually encompasses two different types of movements: rotation of the lens relative to the image plane, called tilt, and movement of the lens parallel to the image plane, called shift. Tilt is used to control the orientation of the plane of focus (PoF), and hence the part of an image that appears sharp; it makes use of the Scheimpflug principle. Shift is used to control perspective, often involving the convergence of vertical parallel lines, as when photographing tall buildings. In many cases, “tilt-shift photography” refers to the use of tilt and a large aperture to achieve a very shallow depth of field. Tilt shift faking is the process whereby we take a normal life size location or object and give it an optical illusion to make it appear as a miniature scale model. Probably the best images to use are those that look down on a subject i.e. from a high angle – this isn’t always the case though and a bit of fiddling in Photoshop will soon let you know if the image is suitable. Definately one of the easier effects to achieve in Photoshop – so lets get rolling. I would very much like to thank Steve Carter for the use of his image Shieldaig Village in February. Steve has some fabulous images of Loch Torridon and other places that I’ve never heard of :-) over at his site – which you can find HERE THIS is the link to the images of the latest local photos(Highlands) I have resized the image a little for the purpose of this tutorial. Please be respectful of Steve’s copyright to this image. Open the image, duplicate the image and close the original. Duplicate the image by dragging it to the create new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette or pressing Ctrl + J on the keyboard. Make sure your f/ground is set to black and the b/ground to white then click on the gradient filter, go to the top toolbar and make sure the filter is set to f/ground to b/ground i.e. black to white and click on the Reflected Gradient icon. Next click on the Quick Mask Icon at the bottom of the side toolbar, or press Q on the keyboard. In this particular image, you want the main row of houses to be in focus, see the image below for the start and finish position I used for the gradient. Once you have done that, the mask will appear, exist quick mask mode by clicking on the icon on the side toolbar, or pressing Q on the keyboard – marching ants will appear. Next you need to go to Filter>Blur>Lens Blur and the teeny weeny dialogue box will open :) I did adjust my gradient after previewing it in the Lens Blur dialogue box, just take it a little bit higher than shown in the example above. You can punch in the same settings as I have, see image below. Most miniatures are painted bright colours, so next you are going to use a Hue and Saturation adjustment layer to boost the colours. Click on the little ying yang symbol at the bottom of the layers palette (create new adjustment layer) and choose Hue/Saturation from the menu. On the Master, pump the colours up quite a bit, I chose +60 on the saturation slider – just watch what is going on with the houses, you are going to add a mask in a minute so the changes only apply to the part that is in focus. Hold down the Alt key and click on the add layer mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Grab a soft edged white brush and making sure the mask is active by clicking on it, paint back in the colour to the houses, road, cars etc., all things that are in focus. You can boost the Saturation a little more if you want by double clicking on the adjustment layer thumbnail. And there we have our miniature village. I went ahead and added a small amount of sharpening to the houses. Bear in mind that the settings used are relevant to this image 800×507@72dpi.
I can’t remember where I first saw this tutorial, but its been around for a couple of years and it ’s a very quick and easy fix for blown…
I can’t remember where I first saw this tutorial, but its been around for a couple of years and it ’s a very quick and easy fix for blown out skies. You can borrow my horrible image to practise on if you like, copyright is mine etc., The image was taken on an overcast, hazy day and probably really wouldn’t be worth keeping, but there will be images that you have with a blown out sky that are worth keeping. Open the image in Photoshop and duplicate the layer by pressing Ctrl + J on the keyboard or dragging it to the create new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette. On the side toolbar select the rectangular marquee tool – reference the image below and make your selection is in a similar place. You can selecting the blown out sky and down into the tree area to get any patches that may be showing through the trees. You should have the marching ants showing. Create a Selective Colour adjustment layer by clicking on the little ying yang symbol at the bottom of the layers palette and selecting Selective Colour. The marching ants will disappear, that’s OK. At the bottom of the selective colour dialogue choose Absolute (see image) and from the drop down menu at the top choose White. Fiddle with the sliders until you get a colour that you like – you can make the colour quite strong because you will be able to take the opacity down later and change the colour altogether if you like (the joys of adjustment layers). I’ve gone a little nuts with my colour to show you how well it works. Make sure your f/ground colour is set to black and the b/ground to white. Click on the mask to make sure you are working on it, then go to Filter>Render>Clouds – you can just click on clouds, or you can hold down the shift key when you click on clouds to get a more intense result. After you have applied the clouds filter you can also use Ctrl + F to get a different effect. I doubled clicked on the Selective Colour thumbnail and changed the colour, I also took the layer opacity down to 65%. Here is the final image and then a comparison image – Have fun!
We all know about masking – White Reveals, Black Conceals or Hide All (Black) Reveal All (White). So what about the other 253 shades/ton…
We all know about masking – White Reveals, Black Conceals or Hide All (Black) Reveal All (White). So what about the other 253 shades/tones inbetween, have we forgotten about them, and how can they benefit us. We can use masks to precisely perform an adjustment/filter/effect on an image, but also use it to give varying degrees of the adjustment to certain parts of an image. Think of it in terms of 255=white 100% revealed 128=grey 50% revealed or 50% hidden, whichever way to want to look at it .. and 0=black 100% concealed. It’s all those different shades inbetween that can add an extra dimension to an image – or as Chris Orwig likes to say “Subtle, yet Significant” You can borrow my image to practise on if you like, copyright is mine etc., Open the image and duplicate the b/ground layer by pressing Ctrl + J on the keyboard or dragging the layer to the create new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Take a few moments to look at the image (your image, if you have one of yours open) and really think what you want to do with it and where you want the viewers attention to be focused. In my image I’d like to hit some of the b/ground with a Gaussian Blur to increase the shallow Depth of field. I’d also like to do something with the green stem sitting right in front of the flower. Cloning it out might be a pain in the bum, so using some of the Gaussian Blur on that might be a good idea. I’d also like to take the back petals a bit more out of focus, but not a great deal. You can do all that on one mask using different greys as well as the standard black & white that we associate with masking. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and I’m going to hit this with a 10 px blur – you might want to choose something lower or higher. Hold down the Alt key and then click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette, you will be presented with a black mask (hide all). Make sure the f/ground colour is set to white and choose a soft edged brush and start painting over the b/ground area. Zoom in and out as necessary Ctrl + the plus key to zoom in – Ctrl + the minus key to zoom out. Hold down the spacebar to temporarily get the hand to move around the image. If you make any mistakes while doing this, simply hit the X key on the keyboard to get black (provided your b/ground colour is black) and paint over to fix. You may end up with something like the image below. You can also check on your painting abilities by holding down the Alt Key and clicking on the layer mask. See image below. Hold down the Alt key and click on the layer mask to go back to the normal view. You can paint directly on the mask to make sure you have everything selected. Lets have a look at that two petals at the back of the flower. I don’t want them to be waaay out of focus like the b/ground, so I’m going to try a 50% neutral grey i.e. 128, 128, 128. Bring up the Colour Picker and in the RGB section use 128 for each of them. Paint over the two petals behind the flower. Your layer mask will now look something like the image below Okay, now lets deal with the leaf thing. I don’t want the blur effect completely revealed like the b/ground and I don’t want it as subtle as the petals, so lets try a darker grey. Bring up the colour picker again and in the RGB boxes try 200 and paint over the stem/leaf thing. Your mask might be looking similar to the image below. We really need to do something about the bright green. Click on the little ying yang symbol at the bottom of the layers palette and choose Hue/Saturation from the menu. Choose greens from the drop down menu at the top of the dialogue box. Use the eyedropper tool to select one of the greens, then use the eyedropper with a + sign next to it to add some various shades. Take the saturation slider all the way down to -100. Click OK to accept that change and then click on the white layer mask and press Ctrl + i to invert it (black – hide all) Open the colour Picker (by clicking on the f/ground colour) and pick 64-64-64 for the RGB colours – paint over the stem/leaf. Change the f/ground to a neutral grey 128-128-128 and paint over the b/ground area. Your layer mask might look something like the one below. Create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, and this time just increase the Saturation by +15 on the Master. Click on the white layer mask and then use Ctrl + i to invert it. I used a white brush to paint over the main flower petals and then took the layer opacity down to 50%. You can carry on doing this to your hearts content, at the end of the day you will probably want to sharpen selective areas as well. You’re going to do a Stamp Visible (you may want to phone a friend to help with this keyboard shortcut) Make sure the topmost layer is selected, then Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E will place all the layers below in to one single layer, whilst still retaining the layers below. If you adjust the layers below, the adjustment will not be visible on the Stamped layer. Once you’ve done that, duplicate the layer and change the blend mode to Overlay. Go to Filter>Other>High Pass and choose a radius of 3 pixels. Hold down the Alt key and click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette. The mask will be Black (Hide All) Go about the business of selecting various shades of grey – white etc., to bring some areas into sharper focus than others. Just to finish off this image you may want to create a new selective colour adjustment layer and choose whites from the drop down menu – make sure Absolute is checked at the bottom of the dialogue box. Move the Yellow slider to about +10, click OK and then click on the layer mask and press Ctrl + i to invert it. Use a white brush to take out some of the glaring white areas and then take the layer down to 75%. And there you have it. You will probably take much more care than I have. Have fun!
The start image is brought to us by mirimcfly over on Flickr, you can find it HERE...
The start image is brought to us by mirimcfly over on Flickr, you can find it HERE The image is available with a Creative Commons License, which you can read about HERE You’ll notice that the image is a little flat i.e. not very much contrast going on, and this will suit the type of effect you are going to do very well. The settings are relevant to this image 1024X768 @72dpi, but personal taste has a lot to do with the settings as well, so please experiment and don’t take the settings I apply as stock standard. There are a gazillion ways that you could finish this effect with, I’ll show you a couple of different ways at the end. I’ve added a comparison image below of the original colour image, the desaturated image and a (maybe) final version of the image and also a look at the layers you will using. Open the image, Ctrl + J to duplicate the layer, I used a black and white adjustment layer set to Green Filter to desaturate the image. If you have anything before CS3 you won’t have this available to you, so I have added the image above for you to work with (incase you were wondering what that was for). Open both images – the Start image and the desaturated one, then make sure the move tool is selected by pressing V on the keyboard. Hold down the shift key and drag the desaturated image onto the coloured one. Then duplicate the desaturated layer. If you have CS3/4 you can use the Green Filter and then Merge down and then Ctrl + J to duplicate. You should have 3 layers – the original colour layer and 2 desaturated layers. Change the blend mode of the top layer to Overlay and go to Filter>Other>High Pass and use a radius of 20 pixels. Click OK to accept that and then hold down the Alt key and click on the add new vector mask at the bottom of the layers palette to assign a black (hide all) mask to the layer. If you’re working along with the same image as I am then you can simply brush back in the face,neck, ear, hands, arms with a white soft edged brush. You want the High Pass effect to be visible on those parts. See image below. Make the mask pretty accurate because we are going to use it over and over again throughout this project. Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E to stamp visible then go to Filter>Blur>Shape Blur, use the Hexagon shape set to a radius of 5 pixels. Take the layer opacity down to 30%, blend mode set to normal. Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E to stamp visible again, change the blend mode to Overlay and then go to Filter>Other>High Pass and use a radius of 10 pixels, take the layer opacity down to 50% add a layer mask by Alt + clicking on the Add Vector Mask at the bottom of the layers to add a black mask (hide all). Hold down the Alt key and drag the mask from the first High Pass layer onto the layer mask, let go when it is over the layer mask thumbnail – a small dialogue box will appear asking you if you want to replace the mask click yes. You should end up with something similar to the image below. Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E again to stamp visible and then go to Filter>Blur>Shape Blur and choose Hexagon with a radius of 5 pixels. Take the opacity of the layer down to 50% blend mode set to normal. This blur will be used on the b/ground, not the man, so add a layer mask by clicking on the add vector mask at the bottom of the layers palette (white mask). Grab the layer mask from the layer below Alt + Click + drag and drop it onto the layer mask thumbnail. Ctrl + i to invert the mask. You might have something like the image below. You could leave the image at that if you wanted to. Maybe give it a bit more contrast and a sharpen, or you could carry on doing some more things to it. In the image below I’ve used a Hue/Sat adjustment layer set to colorize with Hue 200 and Saturation 5 Brightness to 0 – opacity set to 50%. I’ve used the mask to confine the adjustment to the man. In the next example, I’ve dupicated the original colour b/ground and dragged it to the top of the stack, changed the blend mode to soft light and taken the layer opacity down to 50% The next image shows what happens if you leave the blue adjustment layer turned on underneath the original coloured layer. Next, I decided that I didn’t like the quite white background of the composition so I added another Hue/Sat adjustment layer, chose colorize and used Hue 25 Sat 10 changed the blend mode of the layer to Multiply and took the opacity down to 75%. I used the mask again to isolate the effect to the background. Next I used a Levels adjustment layer and took the middle slider to 1.25, then used a radial gradient on a mask to lighten the image in the centre. Then I used a vignette to darken down the edges. Next I used an S curve in a curves adjustment layer to give it a bit more punch and confined the effect to the man with a mask and finally I used a High Pass layer to sharpen the image, radius set to about 2 and a mask to again confine it to the man. Below is my final image, if you have any questions, just ask. Have fun!
Making reflection in Photoshop is generally an easy affair, if you have a head on view of the image. Duplicate layer, Flip Vertical, Blu…
Making reflection in Photoshop is generally an easy affair, if you have a head on view of the image. Duplicate layer, Flip Vertical, Blur, Gradient, Opacity. What if you are making a design and the easy affair turns out to not be so easy …...... well as it turns out, it’s pretty easy to fix :) In the image below I’ve made a new file 800 X 600 @ 72 dpi and filled it with white. Created a new layer above that and made a selection toward the bottom of the image and filled it with a lightish grey, they inverted the selection and filled it with a darker grey. I then blurred that layer using Gaussian Blur at 3 or 4 pixels. I then created a new blank layer above that and with the Rounded Rectangle Tool (set to Fill Pixels) I drew out a shape, the f/ground colour was set to white. Ctrl + T to bring up the Transform tool and right click to choose Distort, I then distorted the image. Ctrl + J to duplicate layer, Locked the Transparency of the layer and then filled with a different colour. Ctrl + T to transform, lock the ‘maintain aspect ratio’ in the top bar and choose 95%. Do this twice more to end up with four different colours and then reverse the order of the layers. Drag out the three smaller layers to end up with something like the image below. You can use your own photos/images to do this with. Click on the top rectangle layer and then shift click on the bottom rectangle layer and then use Ctrl + E to merge those layers together. Duplicate the layer and then go to Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical. Duplicate the flipped layer and then hide it (just in case we make a dog’s breakfast of the next part) with the Move tool, drag the flipped layer down to somewhere similar to the image below. You can see the problem straight away – it’s gonna need some extra work. It’s an easy process. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and draw out a similar around the white part of the flipped layer similar to the image below. Ctrl + T to bring up the Transform Tool and then right click and choose Distort. Distort the image by using the top right handle and dragging it up, till it’s where you want it. Use the arrow keys on the keyboard for fine tuning. Ctrl + D to deselect. Use the Marquee tool again to select the Green (or whatever colour yours is) part of the reflection and do the same thing as you did with the white area. Take a little time to refine the edges. The very bottom of the image isn’t as important as the top area of the reflection. When you’ve done, Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use about a 3 pixel radius. Add a layer mask, and with a black to transparent Linear gradient start at the bottom and draw upwards. You might end up with something like the image below. Click back on the layer with the two different greys and add a new layer above this. Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and draw out an oval or circle and then go to Select>Modify>Feather I used a 50 pixel radius. Ctrl + D to deselect – change the blend mode to soft light and add a layer mask. Using a black to transparent linear gradient, draw from the bottom up, and take the layer opacity down if you like. You might end up with something like the image below. To tie all the elements together, click on the topmost layer and then Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E to stamp visible. I used a Lens Flare, you could also use lighting effects or something else to tie the whole image together. I then cropped some space from the bottom of the image, duplicated the layer and changed the blend mode to Multiply to come up with the image you see below.
I thought I’d share a quick way to blend exposures. / Nothing at all to do with HDR, but more about achieving a more balanced looking imag…
I thought I’d share a quick way to blend exposures. / Nothing at all to do with HDR, but more about achieving a more balanced looking image, exposure wise. First off, you will need to bring into Photoshop 2 images shot at least one stop apart via your camera, or RAW processed will do too. / Then, just drag the lighter of the two images on to the darker one, making sure it is stacked perfectly. / Ok, now just go to the top menu and do / 1. Select>Color Range and select Highlights from the drop-down. / 2. Put a tick in the ‘invert’ box and click ok. / 3. Add a Layer Mask, and then click on the Layer Mask to make it active. / 4. Go up to Filter>Blur> Gaussian Blur 250pxls and click ok. / Choose Flatten from the Layer menu up top. / You’re done. / Adjust Levels/Curves to taste if you want. I haven’t displayed any example because I wanted you to try it out for your self and make up your own mind whether or not you think it may be a useful tool to have up your sleeves for future stuff. / If you decide to give this a go, I’d love to know what you think. Good Luck / Peter
I don’t know whether anyone knows or not, but if you’re as mad about Photoshop as I’m getting to be you’re going to have a blast with thi…
I don’t know whether anyone knows or not, but if you’re as mad about Photoshop as I’m getting to be you’re going to have a blast with this site, “Photoshop Elements Menu” / http://www.photokaboom.com/_htm_menus/PSE_menu.htm Get Free downloads, and check out the tutorials.. You can never have too much information on Photoshop.. If you happen to find anything you think may be useful to others be it this website I’ve provided or another, please share the links here ;0) Check this out exert from the same site: Photoshop Elements /Move a Face Is this the right tutorial for you? The face you want to move could be in two situations. / Two Situations Situation #1 You have two photographs of the same group of people. The photographs were taken moments apart from each other. Grandpa Gumpo has a great expression in one of the photographs. In the other photograph, Grandpa Gumpo looks like a bee has just stung him. You want to cover Grandpa Gumpo’s bee-stung-face with his good-smile face. To do the above, go to File > New > Photomerge Group Shot. Don’t use Photomerge Faces. That’s for combining facial features to make a funny face. Situation #2 This tutorial is for the following situation. You have a photograph of a group of people. You want to add a person to the group that wasn’t in the group. Moving the face is easy. Integrating it into the group photograph is complicated. If you’re an intermediate user of Photoshop Elements, stick around. Beginners should come back later! 1 – Open the Two Photographs Let’s say you have a photograph of Uncle Fud. And, you have a photograph of a group of people, the destination for Uncle Fud’s face. 1) Open the photograph of Uncle Fud and the photograph of the group. / 2 – Select Uncle Fud 2) Double click on the thumbnail of the Uncle Fud photograph in the photo bin at the bottom of your screen. 3) Select Uncle Fud’s face and upper body. Hair can be difficult to select. You can select a few pixels of the background around Uncle Fud’s hair. Later, if necessary, erase these pixels of the background. 3 – Copy Uncle Fud 4) Press Ctrl + j. Uncle Fud is now on a new layer all by himself. 5) Rename this layer Uncle Fud. / 4 – Do You Need to Flip Uncle Fud? You may need to rotate the Uncle Fud layer horizontally, left-to-right. Do this if the lighting is different for Uncle Fud and for the group. Check Uncle Fud’s Light Direction Look at the lighting on Uncle Fud. Figure out where the light is coming from. Look at the shadows and highlights. Let’s say the light is coming from the left side in the Uncle Fud photograph. / Check the Group’s / Light Direction Next, look at the group photograph. Is the light coming from the same direction as in the Uncle Fud photograph? Let’s say the light is coming from the right side in the group photograph. When you put Uncle Fud into the group, he may look odd. He’s lighted from the left. Everyone else is lighted from the right. / Back & Front Lighting If one photograph has light was coming from behind—and the other photograph has light from the direction of the camera—there would be no need to flip Uncle Fud. 5 – Flip Uncle Fud Do the following, if necessary. 6) Make sure the Uncle Fud layer is selected (highlighted). 7) Go to Image > Rotate > Flip Layer Horizontally. Make sure you select: Flip Layer Horizontally—not Flip Horizontally. Uncle Fud has flipped. A person may look different when he or she is flipped left-to-right. However, correcting the difference in lighting probably outweighs any unnaturalness due to the flipping. This is even more true when the face is small in the group photograph. / 6 – Move the Uncle Fud Layer To move the Uncle Fud layer to the group photograph, do the following. 8) Make sure the Uncle Fud layer is selected (highlighted). 9) Press Ctrl + a. You’ll see the marching ants on the edge of the image. 10) Select the Move tool. 11) Click, and hold, on the large image of Uncle Fud in the center of your screen. Don’t click on the Uncle Fud layer in the layers palette on the right side. So, you’ve clicked on Uncle Fud in the center of your screen, and you’re holding the mouse button down. 12) Drag Uncle Fud onto the thumbnail of the group photograph in the photo projects bin at the bottom of your screen. 13) Double click the thumbnail of the group photograph in the project bin. The Uncle Fud layer is now on the top of the layer stack in the layers palette on the right side of your screen. If you haven’t already, go to Move a Layer. Uncle Fud Background copy (Group of people) Background Layer Stack in the Photograph of the Group / Note: / Edit the Group Photograph, Now You have moved the Uncle Fud layer to the group photograph. You’re finished with the Uncle Fud photograph. From now on, you’ll be editing the group photograph only. / 7 – Reposition Uncle Fud 14) In the group photograph layer stack, make sure the Uncle Fud layer is selected (highlighted). 15) Select the Move tool 16) Click, hold, and drag Uncle Fud. You can reduce the opacity of the layer to better see how to integrate Uncle Fud into the group. Fine tune the position by using the arrow keys on your keyboard. You’ll probably have to resize Uncle Fud. His head may be too small or too big. / 8 – Grid You can use a grid to make it easier to resize Uncle Fud. 17) Go to View > Grid. 18) Use the Zoom tool to enlarge the face of the person in the group nearest to Uncle Fud. Let’s say Aunt Joan is next to Uncle Fud. 19) Count the number of boxes from the top of Aunt Joan’s face to the bottom of her face. / Note: Grid Box Size If the grid boxes are too small or too big, change their size. Go to Grid in Preferences. / Windows Edit > Preferences > Grid, or press Ctrl + k. / Mac Apple menu > Preferences > Grid. / 9 – Resize Uncle Fud Let’s say the height of Aunt Joan’s face is eleven boxes. Uncle Fud will be “standing” behind Aunt Joan. So, make his face a little smaller than eleven boxes. 20) Make sure the Uncle Fud layer is selected (highlighted). 21) You may want to deselect the Eye icons of the other layers, so you can see Uncle Fud more easily. 22) Go to Image > Transform > Free Transform, or press Ctrl + t. A box will appear around Uncle Fud. 23) Position the cursor directly over the bottom right corner of the box. The cursor will change to a straight double arrow (not curved). Press and hold Alt, click and hold the mouse button down, and move the corner of the box to resize Uncle Fud. Pressing and holding Alt keeps the aspect ratio of the Uncle Fud layer intact. Again, make his face a little smaller than eleven boxes high. 24) Click the green check mark to keep the transformation. If you haven’t already, go to the Free Transform Tool. 25) Go to View > Grid to hide the grid. 26) Reselect the Eye icons for the other layers. / Note: / Don’t Degrade Uncle Fud If you make a mistake when resizing Uncle Fud, it’s best to go back to just before you resized the layer. The Free Transform tool adds and deletes pixels. Therefore, if you resize and click the green check mark, and do it again, and again, the Uncle Fud layer will degrade. Use one of the following methods to backtrack. / Undo Arrow So, if you don’t like the new size of Uncle Fud, click the blue Undo arrow icon until you return to the operation you did just before using the Free Transform tool. / Undo History Go to Window > Undo History. There, select the operation done just before using the Free Transform tool. Then, close the Undo History window. You’ll go back to just before you used the Free Transform tool. / Note: / Tucking Uncle Fud into the Group Uncle Fud’s body isn’t tucked into the group yet. He’s floating above the group! He doesn’t have legs! Not to worry. We’ll tuck him into the group after correcting his Levels and color. / 10 – Levels 27) If the exposure and contrast of the Uncle Fud layer are different from the group, do the following. a) Make sure the Uncle Fud layer is selected (highlighted). b) Go to the Create adjustment layer icon (“yin-yang”) and select Levels. Don’t make any corrections yet. c) Click OK. d) Make sure the Levels adjustment layer is selected (highlighted). d) Go to Layer > Group with Previous, or press Ctrl + g. The Levels adjustment layer and the Uncle Fud layer are now grouped. Look for the tiny black arrow pointing down in the Levels adjustment layer. Because they’re grouped, the correction from the Levels adjustment layer will be confined only to the Uncle Fud layer. The Levels adjustment layer won’t affect the group. e) Reopen the Levels adjustment layer by double clicking the graph icon (6.0), or gears icon (7.0), in the Levels adjustment layer. f) Make your Levels corrections to match the exposure and contrast of Uncle Fud with that of the group. g) Click OK. The layer stack will look like this. ↓ Levels (Grouped with Uncle Fud) Uncle Fud Background copy (Group of people) Background / Note: / What about Doing / Levels for the Group? You used Levels on the Uncle Fud layer. When we’re almost finished, you’ll do Levels on all of the layers to make the entire photograph look its best. / 11 – Color Correct Uncle Fud The color of the light that illuminated Uncle Fud, in his original photograph, may have been a different color than the color of the light on the group. People won’t notice slight variations in the color between Uncle Fud and the rest of the group. So, you don’t need to match the color perfectly. 28) If the colors of Uncle Fud and the group are substantially different, try one of the following two color correction methods. / Automated Method / Correct Uncle Fud’s Color a) Make sure the Uncle Fud layer is selected (highlighted). b) Go to Enhance > Adjust Color > Adjust Color for Skin Tone. c) Click on Uncle Fud’s cheek. / Sliders Use the sliders to fine tune the color. The Tan and Blush sliders affect the skin tone. Is Uncle Fud more tan, or more blush? The Temperature slider can be used to cool (blue) or warm (red) the color. / Better? Does Uncle Fud’s color match the group better? If not, correct the skin tones in the group. Do the following. / Correct the Group’s Color d) Make sure the Background copy layer is selected (highlighted). e) Go to Enhance > Adjust Color > Adjust Color for Skin Tone. f) Click on Aunt Joan’s cheek. But, don’t click on her too-thick rouge. You have now color corrected both layers. Their color should be similar now. / Photo Filter Adjustment Layer Method If you’re somewhat skilled at judging color, create a Photo Filter adjustment layer. a) Make sure the Uncle Fud layer is selected (highlighted). b) Go to the Create adjustment layer icon (“yin-yang”) and select Photo Filter. Don’t make any corrections yet. c) Click OK. / To Group or Not to Group Do you have a Levels adjustment layer already grouped with the Uncle Fud layer? If so, you don’t need to group the Photo Filter adjustment layer with the Uncle Fud layer. The Photo Filter adjustment layer will be automatically grouped with the Levels adjustment layer. So, skip ahead to f), below. If you don’t have a Levels adjustment layer grouped with the Uncle Fud layer, do the following. d) Make sure the Photo Filter adjustment layer is selected (highlighted). e) Go to Layer > Group with Previous, or press Ctrl + g. The Photo Filter adjustment layer and the Uncle Fud layer are now grouped. Look for the tiny black arrow pointing down in the Photo Filter adjustment layer. Because they’re grouped, the correction from the Photo Filter adjustment layer will be confined only to the Uncle Fud layer. The Photo Filter adjustment layer won’t affect the group. f) Reopen the Photo Filter adjustment layer by double clicking the filter icon in the Photo Filter adjustment layer. g) Click the tiny black triangle to open the filter menu. h) Select the filter according to the chart below. The boldfaced filters are the most commonly used. / If Uncle Fud Is . . . Use this Filter / Too cool (blue). Warming Filter (81) / Too warm (red). Cooling Filter (82) / Too cyan (blue/green) Red / Too violet. Orange / Too blue. Yellow / Too magenta (pink). Green / Too red. Cyan / Too yellow. Blue / Too orange Violet / Too green, such as florescent lighting. Magenta h) Click OK. If the color correction needs to be tweaked, reopen the Photo Filter adjustment layer. Move the Density slider back-and-forth, and click OK. The layer stack may look like this. ↓ Levels (Grouped with Uncle Fud) ↓ Photo Filter (Grouped with Uncle Fud) Uncle Fud Background copy (Group of people) Background 12 – Tuck Uncle Fud into the Group Do the following to blend Uncle Fud into the group. / Preparation 29) Make sure the Uncle Fud layer is selected (highlighted). 30) Reduce the opacity of the Uncle Fud layer. You need to be able to see the shoulders of Aunt Joan and others. / Understand What Needs to be Selected Let’s say Aunt Joan is standing next to Aunt Bea. Uncle Fud is going to be between, and behind, the shoulders of the two aunts. So, you need to select from their shoulders down. / Select You’ll select the two aunt’s shoulders, and the upper parts of the their dresses. The Magnetic Lasso tool may be the best selection tool for this task. 31) Make sure the Background copy layer is selected (highlighted). 32) Deselect the Eye icon for the Uncle Fud layer. You don’t want to select Uncle Fud. You only want the aunt’s shoulders and the tops of their dresses. 33) Select the shoulders of Aunt Joan and Aunt Bea, and continue the selection down on portions of their dresses. 34) To save the selection, go to Select > Save Selection. Enter Aunts as the selection’s name, and click OK. / Copy the Selected Area Onto a New Layer 35) Make sure the Background copy layer is selected (highlighted). 36) The Eye icon for the Uncle Fud layer should still be deselected. 37) Press Ctrl + j. The shoulders and dresses are now on a new layer. 38) Rename the layer Shoulders & Dresses. / The Shoulders & Dresses Layer Should Be in Register The Shoulders & Dresses layer should be in register with the Background copy layer. That is, the shoulders and dresses of the two aunts on both layers should “line up”. If for some reason, the Shoulders & Dresses layer is askew, from the Background copy layer, do the following. a) Select the Shoulders & Dresses layer (highlighted). b) Select the Move tool. c) Move the Shoulders & Dresses layer using the arrow keys on your keyboard. / Drag the Layer to the Top 39) Click and hold on the Shoulders & Dresses layer, and drag it to the top of the layers stack. This how the stack of layers should look. Shoulders & Dresses ↓ Levels (Grouped with Uncle Fud) ↓ Photo Filter (Grouped with Uncle Fud) Uncle Fud Background copy (Group of people) Background 40) Select the Eye icon for the Uncle Fud layer so you can see him once again. 41) If the opacity for the Uncle Fud layer is still below 100%, move it back up to 100%. / What Happened The Shoulders & Dresses layer is covering up the part of Uncle Fud that’s “behind” the two aunts. / 13 – Erase Uncle Fud’s Beer Belly An unneeded portion of Uncle Fud may be visible on the photograph. This part is visible if the Shoulders & Dresses layer doesn’t go down far enough to cover up the lower portion of Uncle Fud. Let’s say you can see the plunging necklines of Aunt Joan and Aunt Bea. But, there’s a portion of a hounds-tooth sport coat, with a beer belly sticking out, on the aunt’s dresses. Do the following. 42) Make sure the Uncle Fud layer is selected (highlighted). 43) Select the Erase tool. 44) Click and drag on Uncle Fud’s sport coat and beer belly. / 14 – Check His Hair Above, it was suggested that you select some of the background around Uncle Fud’s hair. If the background shows, erase it. Do the following. 45) Make sure the Uncle Fud layer is selected (highlighted). 46) Use the Zoom tool to enlarge Uncle Fud’s head. 47) Select the Erase tool, and use a small brush. 48) Click and drag on any background around Uncle Fud’s hair that shouldn’t be there. / 15 – Levels Now is when you do Levels on the group. 49) Make sure the Shoulders & Dresses layer is selected (highlighted). 50) Create a Levels adjustment layer, make the corrections, and click OK. Levels (Affecting all of the layers below) Shoulders & Dresses ↓ Levels (Grouped with Uncle Fud) ↓ Photo Filter (Grouped with Uncle Fud) Uncle Fud Background copy (Group of people) Background ========================================= / Want to remove unwanted backgrounds in images effortlessly? Fluid Mask 3 is the professionals’ choice. Fluid Mask 2 established itself as the market leader in still image cutting-out – Fluid Mask 3 takes masking to the next level. Quick to pick up and intuitive to use, Fluid Mask 3 gets professional results fast. Benefits of Fluid Mask 3 Fantastic results / Now professional results are more possible than ever before. Make super fine mask selections using new sampling and selecting tools. Check out the new edge blending algorithms. And the new complex hair blending that automatically gets great results from multi-colored whispy hair. No longer should hair be the cutting-out nightmare it is today. / http://www.vertustech.com/fm_overview.htm Help File: / http://www.vertustech.com/fm3_manual/WebHelp/FluidMask.htm My copy including Patch: / http://rapidshare.com/files/252473373/VertusFluidMask3.2.rar.html ========================================= Kelby Training: Fantasy Portraits David Cuerdon shows off his process from start to finish. First, shooting a model, then adding fantasy elements using Photoshop. Lesson 01 Introduction (2:34) / Lesson 02 The Model Shoot (7:50) / Lesson 03 Creating Backgrounds (9:03) / Lesson 04 Masking and Outlining (12:05) / Lesson 05 Creating a Feather (15:09) / Lesson 06 Creating the Feathered Wing, Part 1 (8:05) / Lesson 07 Creating the Feathered Wing, Part 2 (6:42) / Lesson 08 Adding Wings to the Subject (6:00) / Lesson 09 Vampire (5:27) / Lesson 10 Creating the Vampire (10:12) / Lesson 11 Vampire Background (8:04) / Lesson 12 Adding the Moon (8:53) / Lesson 13 Adding the Fangs (8:53) / Lesson 14 Detail in the Eyes (9:20) / Lesson 15 Creating a Fairy (13:59) / Lesson 16 Background and Foreground (6:06) / Lesson 17 Cropping and Shading (8:34) / Lesson 18 Color Adjustments to the Fairy Image (2:56) / Lesson 19 Adding Fairy Wings (5:29) / Lesson 20 Fairy Dust (10:21) / Lesson 21 Reflections (6:39) / Lesson 22 Creating the Fairy Wing (14:22) / Lesson 23 Fairies, Devils, and Vulcans: Creating a Pointy Ear (11:03) / Lesson 24 Conclusion (1:43) http://rapidshare.com/files/248414584/agktfapo.part1.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/248414694/agktfapo.part2.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/248414258/agktfapo.part3.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/248414612/agktfapo.part4.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/248414053/agktfapo.part5.rar ====================================== Author: Lynette Kent / Paperback: 256 pages / Publisher: Visual (September 11, 2007) / Language: English / ISBN-10: 0470144769 / ISBN-13: 978-0470144763 / Format: pdf Details: / Photoshop : Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks provides adventurous Photoshop users with a visual reference on how to use the bells and whistles found in the latest version of Photoshop. Broken out in 10 chapters, with 10 tasks per chapter, Photoshop : Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks covers 100 cool and useful tips and tricks that can be performed in the newest release of Photoshop. / Full-color screen shots and numbered, step-by-step instructions show you how to take their Photoshop skills to new heights. http://rapidshare.com/files/243974760/Photoshop_CS3_Top_100_Simplified_Tips_and_Tricks.rar ======================================= BIG SMILES!! / Here’s an amazing plugin for those Photoshop buffs out there.. / check it out herefor the review: / Nik Color Efex Pro 2 or here to purchase: / http://www.niksoftware.com/colorefexpro/usa/ / ________ Teddy Bear Brushes by StarKatz I’ve created a few Teddy Bear brushes, there’s a minimum of 10 downloads from RapidShare, if you find they have been downloaded 10 times, just BM me and I’ll upload them again :0) / You can of course use them on any background, using any colour for them you want.. this is just as a sample. Download them here: / http://rapidshare.com/files/253780571/Teddy_Bear_Brushes.rar.html Copy Teddy Brush 1.abr to your folder: / C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Brushes Once you open PhotoShop just hit your brush icon and then select Load Brushes: look for Teddy Brush 1.abr click on it then select append I have an additional 19 Teddy Bear Brushes here: / http://rapidshare.com/files/253883304/19_Teddy_Bear_Brushes_by_StarKatz.rar.html Copy 19 Teddy Bear Brushes by StarKatz.abr to your folder: / C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Brushes #Please if you use them add a link to your work on this page :0) —-—-——- #I found this awesome link for Photoshop check it out! / http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshop/Adobe_Photoshop_Resources.htm / —-—-——- / Here’s a great page for Action Scripts / http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm if the link doesn’t work from here simply do a copy & paste into browser ;0) Here’s a sample of what it has to offer: Image Enhancements 1. 3-D BW Action , George Rosema, 11/25/2004 / 3-D Color Action / 2. A2D Infrared, Addicted to Design, 2/11/2007 / 3. A2D Lomo, Addicted to Design, 2/11/2007 / 4. Airbrush, Shannon Beauford, 6/20/2008 / 5. Airbrushing Action set, Ronald Clercx, 6/5/2004 / 6. Alabaster Portrait, Feivel, 12/13/2003 / 7. Aly’s Color, Alyson Comacho, 6/12/2006 / 8. Aly’s Vintage, Alyson Comacho, 5/7/2006 / 9. AutoColor, Shane Metler, 1/6/2004 / 10. Basic Workflow v.20, (includes batch version) Jim Reynolds, 8/16/2005 / 11. Bloom Effect, Shannon Beauford, 6/21/2008 / 12. Bruce’s HighKey Action, Bruce Neville, 2/27/2006 / 13. Burke Line Drawing Resize, Burke/Jim Lewis, 1/28/2005 / 14. Canon Soft Recovery, Andrea Walter, 4/12/2009 / 15. Caponigro Adjustments, v.2.0 Jim Lewis, 3/19/2006 / 16. Carnival Action, Michelle Nicole, 6/03,2009 / 17. Color Boost, Shannon Beauford, 10/27/2007 / 18. Contrast Mask, Chip Springer, 11/18/2007 / 19. Dave Beaman’s Ethereal Glow, Dave Beaman, 3/27/2004 / 20. Dave’s IR Actions, Dave Jaseck, updated 3/21/2006 / 21. Dave’s Simplifier v.2, Dave Jaseck, 5/8/2004 / 22. DK Color Vibrance, Daniel Kvarfordt, 5/4/2008 / 23. Doug’s File Handling Actions, Doug Bardell, 8/14/2005 / 24. Draganizer, Sharon Lee Core, 11/15/2004 / 25. Dynamic Mask, Shannon Beauford, 2/12/2009 / 26. Edgarian Blur, Howard Owen, 5/3/2004 / 27. Editorial/Lomo, Shannon Beauford, 10/14/2007 / 28. Ethereal Effect, Juan García Gálvez, 8/10/2006 / 29. Flawless Portrait, Shannon Beauford, 10/14/2007 / 30. FX Pastel Transitions, Creative Drawer, 4/24/2009 / 31. Glamor Blur, Edgard Berendsen, 4/16/2005 / 32. Gothic Glow, Feivel, 12/6/2003 / 33. Hasselblad Softar #2 Focus Effect, Dave Jaseck, 11/7/2008 / 34. JGG Sunset Optimizer, José Fàbreba & Juan García Gálvez, 8/22/2008 / 35. Kent’s LensBlur, Kent Christiansen, 11/15//2004 / 36. Kent’s Quick Retouch Batch Processor, Kent Christiansen, 10/2//2005 / 37. Kent’s Sketch and Charcoal Smudge, Kent Christiansen, 9/6/2007 / 38. Kent’s Skin Fix v.1, Kent Christiansen, 10/202004 / 39. LAB Saturation Actions, Alessandro Di Sciascio, 9/24.2006 / 40. Local Contrast, thejaybird, 11/18/2007 / 41. Midnight Action Set, v.3, Dave Jaseck, updated, 6/21/2008 / 42. Midnight Black v2, Dave Jaseck, 11/5/2005 / 43. Midnight Sepia v2, Dave Jaseck, 2/22/2005 / 44. Morning Mist, Shannon Beauford, 6/21/2008 / 45. Muted Fashion, Shannon Beauford, 10/27/2007 / 46. Orton Effect, Jim Lewis (with help from Danny Raphael, Dave Jaseck, from a technique by Chris Empey, 6/21/2008 / 47. Paint with Light, Chip Springer,12/10/2004 / 48. Paint with Light II, Chip Springer,12/28/2004 / 49. Photorealistic Clouds, Shannon Beauford, 6/21/2008 / 50. Photoshop Facelift, Shannon Beauford, 12/26/2008 / 51. Platinotype, Steven Almas, 5/7/2006 / 52. Portrait Effect, Paul Bleicher, 4/26/2004 / 53. Professional Retro, Michael Van De Carr, 2/16/2007 / 54. Rich Color Landscapes, Shannon Beauford, 9/10/2006 / 55. Ronny’s Dual Method SkinFix, Ronny Harris, 5/23/2008 / 56. Selective Focus, Shannon Beauford, 6/21/2008 / 57. Simple Color Pop, Anna Bottoms, 10/18/2007 / 58. CSpringer’s Portrait Actions, Chip Springer, updated 4/1/2008 / 59. CSpringer’s Skin Repair Action, Chip Springer, 5/30/2007 / 60. CSpringer’s Wrinkle and Blemish Repair, Chip Springer, 1/06/2008 (requires Polaroid’s Dust & Scratch Remover) / 61. Soft Focus Action, v.2, Daniel Chui, 8/7/2004 / 62. Soft Light Portrait, Shannon Beauford, 9/11/2006 / 63. Tears, Shannon Beauford, 10/14/2007 / 64. TLR Color Compensating Filters, Glenn Mitchell, 5/21/2006 / 65. Tracy’s Fill Flash Action, Tracy McGee, 3/28/2007 / 66. Twirling Abstract Art, Shannon Beauford, 6/21/2008 / 67. Urban Acid, Steven Almas, 7/9/2005 / 68. Velvia Portrait, Shannon Beauford, 6/23/2008 / 69. Velvia-Provia v. 2, Paul Bleicher, 4/25/2004 / 70. Velvia-Provia for Elements, Paul Bleicher, 4/25/2004 / 71. Whiten, Shannon Beauford, 10/17/2007 Sketch Actions 1. B&W Sketch, Sharon Lee Core, 7/113/2004 / 2. Caricature Sketch, Sharon Lee Core, 12/2//2004 / 3. Cartoon Action, Maureen Barberio, 9/26//2004 / 4. Colored Sketch, Sharon Lee Core, 7/11//2004 / 5. Comic Effect Action, Tony, 7/28/200 / 6. Comix Actions, Andy Purviance, 2/15//2004 / 7. Dave’s Sketch, Dave Jaseck, 8/11/2004 / 8. Flaming Text, Shannon Beauford, 6/22/2008 / 9. Mitch’s Sketch Action, Mitchell Weitz, 2/17//2004 / 10. Painting Action, Ben Morales-Correa, 6/23/2007 / 11. Pen & Ink, Tom Bennett,9/26/2004 / 12. Photosketch, Shannon Beauford, 7/23/2008 / 13. Rough Pastels, Sharon Lee Core and Isabel Cutler, 11/15//2004 / 14. Sheri’s Sketch Action (PS) 2.1, Sheri Pierce, 2/3/2004 / 15. Sheri’s Sketch Action (PSE) 2.1, Sheri Pierce, 2/3/2004 / 16. Sketch and accompanying tutorial, Alex Glassman, 3/5/2005 / 17. Tilt/Shift Effect, Shannon Beauford, 6/21/2008 / 18. Watercolor, Shannon Beauford, 6/21/2008 / 19. Watercolor, Erick Nguyen, March 1, 2005 / 20. Watercolor for PSE 3.0, Erick Nguyen, Conchita, and Bob Jones / 21. Watercolor Tint Action, Ben Morales-Correa, 1/6/2008 Black and White Conversion 1. 1Click NewBW, 1-Click Actions, 3/30/2008 / 2. Aly’s BW, Alyson Comacho, 7/17/2006 / 3. B’s SplitTone 2, Bärbel Wilm, 3/27/08 / 4. B’s Vanilla II, Bärbel Wilm, 3/27/08 / 5. Blanco y Negro, Juan García Gálvez, 11/16/2006 / 6. Brian James’s Black and White, Brian James, 1/22/2006 / 7. Color to BW, Danny Raphael, 7/16/2006 / 8. Danny’s Black and White Actions v.5, / 9. Daniel Diaz B&W Action, Matthew Greer, 1/21/2007 / 10. Duotone Dreams, Dave Jaseck, 7/22/2004 / 11. Gorman B&W Action, Robin Holden, Sr., 12/10/2005 / 12. JGG Web High Key, Juan García Gálvez, 11/26/2006 / 13. Jodi’s Take Action on Cancer Awareness (Black and White w/ribbon overlays, Jodi Friedman, 9/26/2007 / 14. Julian’s Black and White Conversion, Julian Hebbrecht, 3/1/2006 / 15. Kent’s B&W Selective Color 4.0, Kent Christiansen, 10/6/2006 / 16. Selective Color v.5, AsylumXL, 4/17/2007 / 17. Sepiatone, Andy Purviance, 2/15//2004 / 18. Thomas Niemann’s Tones, Danny Raphael, 12/10/2003 / 19. TLR B&W Conversation, Glenn Mitchell, 1/3/2005 / 20. TLR Sepia Tint, Glenn Mitchell, 12/28//2004 / 21. Vintage Tint , Alls A. Ten, 5/22/2006 Frames and Mattes 1. 2Up, Sweet Cheeks Photography, 8/6/2006 / 2. 3D Product Box, Andy Purviance, 2/15/2004 / 3. A2D Polaroid 600, Addicted to Design, 2/11/2007 / 4. Andrea’s Borders A, Andrea Rascaglia, 12/18/2004 (big file) / 5. Andrea’s Borders B, Andrea Rascaglia, 12/18/2004 (big file) / 6. Andrea’s Borders C, Andrea Rascaglia, 1/29/2005 (moderate file) / 7. Andrea’s Test Frame Border, Andrea Rascaglia, 4/23/2005 (2.4 MB)) / 8. Andrea’s Polaroid Giant Frame, Andrea Rascaglia, 7/10/2005 (293 kb) / 9. Andrea’s Border Dogtown, Andrea Rascaglia, 7/17/2005 (323 kb) / 10. Andrea’s Polaroid 89 Border Andrea Rascaglia, 8/14/2005(1.1 mg) / 11. Andrea’s Vintage Background, Andrea Rascaglia, 11/30/2005(3.6 mg) / 12. Bronze Plaque, Sharon Lee Core, 9/26//2004 / 13. Bud’s Actions, Bud Guinn, 12/10/2003 / 14. Bud’s Brass Plaque, Bud Guinn, 1/6/2004 / 15. Bud’s Frames, Bud Guinn, 12/6/2003 / 16. Bud’s Signature’s & Stuff, Bud Guinn, 12/12/2003 / 17. Bud’s Wooden Frames, Bud Guinn, 12/14/2003 / 18. Bud’s Wooden Mattes, Bud Guinn, 12/14/2003 / 19. Bud’s EZMiter, v.1, Bud Guinn, 12/14/2003 / 20. Burnt Edge Vignette, Jodi Friedman, 10/30/2007 / 21. CSpringer’s Vignette Action, v.2, Chip Springer, 1/14/2007 / 22. Copyright Brush, Brian James, 1/26/2006 / 23. Custom Vignette 3.2 (for CS3), Custom Vignette 2.0 (CS and CS2), Galen Evans, CS3 update 4/1/2008 / 24. Dave’s Frame & Matte on White Background, Dave Jaseck, 5/26/2004 / 25. Dave’s Double Matte, Dave Jaseck, 4/22/2006 / 26. Dave’s Matte, (revised—both versions in one ZIP file, Dave Jaseck, 1/22/2006 / 27. Dave’s New Double Matte, Dave Jaseck, 3/15/2009 / 28. Digital Backdrops, Shannon Beauford, 10/27/2007 / 29. Edge Vignette, Anna Bottoms, 10/18/2007 / 30. Filer’s Frame Action, Joe Filer, 6/9/2006 / 31. Floating Frame, Ed Adams, 8/10/2008 / 32. Fracture, John Beardsworth, 7/25/2004 / 33. FrameIt!, Sweet Cheek Photographer, 8/06/2006 / 34. JJ Mack’s Image Visualization Actions and Scripts. (CS3 only), John J. McAssey, 10/2/2008 (11.8 mb) / (Requires documentation. Optional template) Caution: Big Files / 35. Jodi’s Multiple Choice Frame Action, Jodi Friedman, 3/30/2007 / 36. Keynote Reflection, v. 2, Gord Wall, 1/24/2007 / 37. Marcia’s Frame Actions , Marcia Fasy, 6/5/2005 / 38. Mike Brewer’s Invariant Frame, Mike Brewer, 9/26//2004 / 39. Nasso’s Cutter, Nassos, 10/2/2005 / 40. Out of Bounds, v.8, Terry Alford, 1/06/2005 / 41. Panos’s Big Picture, Panos Efstathiadis, 3/25/2006 / 42. Panos’s BnBig Picture, Panos Efstathiadis, 3/25/2006 / 43. Panos’s Stamp, Panos Efstathiadis, 3/25/2006 / 44. Panos’s BB Filmstrip, Panos Efstathiadis, 3/25/2006 / 45. Panos’s Puzzle, Panos Efstathiadis, 3/25/2006 / 46. PopOut, Brian de Cambra, 12/12/2004 / 47. Sharon’s Mattes, Sharon Lee Core, 7/11/2004 Sharpeners and Correction Tools 1. Harycover’s Fringing Action, Mohammed Yahyaoui,5/18/2004 / 2. Dave’s Sharpening Actions, Dave Jaseck, 12/13/2003 / 3. Julian’s Sharpener, Julian Hebbrecht, 1/3/2005 / 4. Kent’s Noise Reduction Brush, Kent Christiansen, 7/23/2008 / 5. Sharpener, v.3, Paul Bleicher, 4/26/2004 / 6. TLR Landscape Sharpener, Glenn Mitchell, 1/18/2009 / 7. TLR Portrait Sharpener, Glenn Mitchell, 1/18/2009 / 8. TLR Pro Sharpening Toolkit, v.2 CS and earlier, Glenn Mitchell, 8/14/2005 / TLR Pro Sharpening Toolkit, CS2 / TLR Pro Sharpening Toolkit, v3.0a CS3-4 Editing and Highlight Recovery Tools 1. Chip Springer’s Digital Grey Card, Chip Springer, 10/15/2006 / CS/CS2 Version CS3 Version / Danny’s 3×3 Action, Danny Raphael, 12/10/2003 / 2. Danny’s Save as Layers Action, Danny Raphael, 2/28/2004 / 3. Demoneye Remover, Chip Springer, 11/30/2004 / 4. Dodge & Burn, Shannon Beauford, 6/21/2008 / 5. Dodging and Burning, Perijn Hoefsloot, 7/10/2004 / 6. Embedded Watermark, Shannon Beauford, 10/27/2007 / 7. Haze Cutter, Jim Lewis, 4/10/2009 / 8. HDR for Dummies, Jook Leung, 5/28/2006 / 9. Katrin Eismann’s Fill Flash, Dave Jaseck, 2/4/2004 / 10. Kent’s Colorcast Fix, Kent Christiansen, 4/8/2007 / 11. Redeye Remover v.2, Chip Springer, 6/10/2004 / 12. Rule of Thirds, Peter Birch, 7/22/04 / 13. Sheri’s Shadow/Highlight Actions, v. 2b for Photoshop, Sheri Pierce, 2/1/2004 / 14. Sheri’s Shadow/Highlight Actions, v. 2b for Elements, Sheri Pierce, 2/15/2004 / 15. Stinson’s Dynamic Range Action, 2/1/2004 / 16. Tungsten Fix, Eric Lincoln, 11/18/2008 ================================ Susan Ruddick Bloom, “Digital Painting in Photoshop” / Focal Press | 2009-02-16 | ISBN: 0240811143 | 248 pages | PDF | 29,5 MB Have you ever considered using Photoshop to create fine art? Photoshop is usually used for enhancing photos, but this extremely powerful software package is capable of so much more. Every feature, from brushes to background, can be customised and optimised for artistic effect. With a little guidance from a pro, your photoshop results can go from competent retouching of images to visually stunning re-interpretations of them, turning everyday pictures into breathtaking works of art. In this beautiful and inspiring book, acclaimed artist, author and lecturer Susan Bloom shows you how to do just that. Starting with the fundamentals: creating your own artistic brushes and textured papers virtually, she goes on to demonstrate how to create a variety of classic artistic styles in Photoshop, with chapters on watercolours, pastels, charcoal and oil. Further chapters cover illustration techniques in photoshop, and using third-party software to create painterly effects. While the results are highly polished and realistic, this is not a book written specifically for artists. The techniques are aimed squarely at the Photoshop user looking to broaden their pallette, with emphasis on altering photographs to create artwork, rather than creating artwork from scratch. Beautifully written, clearly laid out, and guaranteeing inspiring results, this book is a must-have for every Photoshop user. Guide to using Photoshop to create fine art from photographs, covering many different artistic styles Highly visual, inspiring content with clear step-by-step instructions and hundreds of screenshots Backwards compatible approach: author has taken care to ensure that this fully up-to-date title also applies to previous editions of Photoshop http://rapidshare.com/files/261586586/DigitalPaintingInPhotoshop.rar ===================== / If you are thinking of creating your next web design using a painted style, you have two options. You can purchase real painting materials and create your own Photoshop brushes, or you can use free brushes that have been created by someone else. Since most web designers have limited time and short deadlines, it is an easy choice. Here are excellent Photoshop brushes collected to save you time in creating painted style designs. WaterColor Reloaded – 83 brushes / / http://rapidshare.com/files/258295927/WaterColor_Reloaded_by_env1ro.rar Splatter and Watercolour Brushes For Photoshop – 21 brushes / / http://rapidshare.com/files/258296449/watercolor-brushes.zip / http://rapidshare.com/files/258296503/splatter-brushes.zip / http://rapidshare.com/files/258296611/watercolor-strokes-brushes.zip Wet Paint Acrylic Photoshop Brushes – 16 brushes / / http://rapidshare.com/files/258298912/t9acrylicbrushpack.abr Messy Spraypaint – 10 brushes / / http://rapidshare.com/files/258300359/BB_HiRes_Messy_Spraypaint_CS1.abr.zip Hi-Res Splatter Photoshop Brushes – 10 brushes / / http://rapidshare.com/files/258301571/BB_HiRes_Splatter_CS1.abr.zip High-Res Grunge Ink Splatter Brushes – 9 brushes / / http://rapidshare.com/files/258302128/BB_hiRes_inkCS.abr.zip Hi-Res Splatter Photoshop Brushes – 10 brushes / / http://rapidshare.com/files/258301571/BB_HiRes_Splatter_CS1.abr.zip Watercolour Brushes Set 1 – 26 brushes / / http://rapidshare.com/files/258316449/WCB_Set_1.abr Hi-Res Acrylic Texture Brushes Set 1 – 15 brushes / / http://rapidshare.com/files/258312129/theshoreways_HiRes_Acrylic_Texture_Set1.abr.zip Free Hi-Res Watercolor Photoshop Brushes Set II – 20 brushes / / http://rapidshare.com/files/258314527/BB_Watercolor_II_CS.abr.zip ================ / Thank you annonymous for the share… Photoinstrument v2.8 Build 259 | 4,89 Mb PhotoInstrument is an easy to learn tool for editing and retouching digital photos. The powerful raster graphics editor in PhotoInstruments quickly and easily allows you to adjust and process digital photos. PhotoInstruments rich tools and effects offer adjustments and photo retouching tools that are usually found only in expensive retouching software. Now with just a few clicks in PhotoInstrument anyone can solve most digital photo problems. So easy to use that anyone can apply these changes. Included with PhotoInstrument is a short video tutorial that will teach you how to use PhotoInstrument in just minutes. PhotoInstrument supports more than thirty image formats including PNG, JPG, BMP, TIF, PCX, TGA, EXR, ICO and Adobe Photoshop PSD. PhotoInsturments user-friendly interface, supports these languages: English, Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Turkish. PhotoInstrument is an application which allows users to edit the images they want and modify them. Here are some key features of Photoinstrument: · Liquify / · Clone / · Smudge / · Skin Cleaner / · Glamour Skin / · Dodge / Burn / · Brush / · Blur / · Sharpen / · Colorize / · Rotate / Scale / · Red Eye Removal / · Brightness-Contrast / · Adjust Color Levels / · Glow / · Healing Brush / · Denoise / · Object Removal What’s New in This Release: · Filter “Glamour skin” updated / · China language updated http://rapidshare.com/files/262937100/Photoinstrument_2.8_Build_259.rar ==================== / onOne_Software_FocalPoint_1.0_for_Adobe_Photoshop.rar / / Selective Focus #The use of selective focus is used to remove distracting backgrounds and to focus the viewer’s view on the subject. It has artistic applications as well. This is a popular look in both portrait and wedding work, and it’s also used in commercial and editorial photography, especially food. All of these focus techniques are usually used at the time the photograph is taken and require additional hardware and knowledge of how to use them. Many of these tools have not transferred to digital or behave differently with digital photography. http://rapidshare.com/files/235858707/onOne_Software_FocalPoint_1.0_for_Adobe_Photoshop.rar ==================== / Album DS / / A new design experience that will unleash your unlimited creativity / Unmatched software for designing albums with speed, control and unrestricted creativity. All you need and more to stay above your competitors, professional software for professional photographers Album DS is an album design software for Photoshop and works like a toolbar for Photoshop CS or higher. Photoshop’s working area is used for designing the albums instead of any own area, meaning unlimited creativity because you have direct access to all Photoshop tools. If you need a template it will open in Photoshop at the album size by just double clicking the template thumbnail, you don’t need to search for a predefined size template as any template will fit any size; and best of all: you may easily modify the document in Photoshop because it is a true PSD file. Album DS automates the designing process by keeping track of used pictures, placing automatically the images, applying effects, allowing direct and easy access to templates, backgrounds, masks, cliparts, styles, frames, etc. Each album will be saved in his own folder, you may change from one album to another by just selecting the folder and all sheets, pictures and controls of folders will be retrieved with the album. This even allows for easily creating a backup of your work, just backup the folder and all your files will be included. You may even automate the creation of the whole album, just select the templates and pictures and Album DS will do the rest. Find out more by visiting their website: / http://www.albumds.com/site/ ====================== / How to create a signature brush in Photoshop CS3 I have found that using the brush tool in Photoshop is a much easier and convenient method when applying a sig to my photographs. For those who don’t know how to make one simply follow these steps: 1. Design your sig, either by using the font type tool on a blank transparent page or if you want to get technical you can design it using the brush tool on your tablet. Ensure you use the black foreground color selection. 2. Set your Workspace to Whats New in CS3 3. Do a tight crop around your signature. If you have placed a line underneath your sig you’ll first need to merge the visible layers before you crop. 4. Go to Edit > Select Define Brush Preset 5. Enter your desired sig name or just type in ‘My Sig’ 6. Open a new blank (white) page so you can test it out. 7. Select the brush tool and scroll to the bottom of the brush settings to see your new signature brush. Click on it and using the size slider adjust the size. 8. On the blank page (your test page) click anywhere, your signature brush will reveal your masterpiece! I always recommend saving a copy of your signature to a file that contains your important, Not to be deleted information’ I have one permanently on my desktop so I have instant access, plus I’ve burnt a copy of the folder to a disc in case the computer ever needs formatting. To save a copy of your sig to a ‘Do not delete folder’ simply right click on your desktop, select create new folder, name it Do not delete or anything that will ensure you don’t. Open C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Brushes / scroll down to find your signature creation which will now end with .abr i(e: My_signature.abr) / right click and select copy. / and then on the folder you created on your desktop, simply right click again and select paste. / Your signature will appear inside the folder. Have fun! =========================== / This is amazing! / http://www.photoshoptopsecret.com/stage.html?choice=site How to Become a Photoshop “Black Belt”-Fast! / Just released by Mark Monciardini, Photoshopî Top SecretÙ is an Extreme / Training Course that teaches you, step by step, how to create cutting-edge / graphics and special effects with Adobeî Photoshopî. This student-friendly / home study course includes four DVD-ROMs with over 16 gigabytes of video / tutorials and project files. It also comes with a full-color gallery book / (printed, not pdf) that shows the end result of each project in the course / You can look, learn, practice, and master these advanced techniques wherever you may be, without the need for expensive classes or tutors. / Create Posters, Movie Covers, Surreal Graphics and More! / The course will teach you how to become the ultimate Photoshopî “black belt” / for fun and/or profit. You’ll learn how to create top-level special effects / for eye-catching movie posters, album covers, book jackets, brochures, / mailing pieces, magazine covers, article illustrations, and a tremendously / wide range of print ads and Web site graphics. =========================== / Tip Have you ever been in Photoshop and found the brush image seems to disappear to a + symbol? To get the image silhouette back simply click the caps button. =========================== / Art and Design in Photoshop / Focal | 256 Pages | 2008 | ISBN:0240811097 | PDF | 27 MB http://rs746.rapidshare.com/files/262116240/Art_Design_in_Photoshop.rar Want to create illustrations in the styles of The Simpsons, steampunk and Victorian engravings? Then you need Art and Design in Photoshop. In this unique book, acclaimed master of photomontage and visual trickery Steve Caplin shows you how to stretch your creative boundaries. Taking the same tried-and-tested practical approach as his best selling How to Cheat in Photoshop titles, Steve’s step-by-step instructions recreate a dazzling and diverse array of fabulous design effects. You’ll learn how to design everything from wine labels to sushi cartons, from certificates to iPod advertising, from textbooks to pulp fiction. Written by a working pro, the clear guidelines pinpoint exactly what you need to know: how to get slick-looking results with minimum fuss, with a 16-page Photoshop Reference chapter that provides an at-a-glance guide to Photoshop tools and techniques for less experienced users. Steve explains both typography and the design process in a clear, informative and entertaining way. All the images, textures and fonts used in the book are supplied on the accompanying CD-ROM. If you want the complete edition you will have to purchase it, I will only share the pdf file. / Imaginative, inspirational and fun to use, this book is a must-have for every creative Photoshop user, both amateur and professional. Learn to quickly and ingeniously create fantastic graphic effects in Photoshop, from graffiti to classic art, newsprint and stained-glass windows Easy and fun to use with clear step-by-step instructions and hundreds of screenshots. Backwards compatible: fully up-to-date with the latest Photoshop release but also relevant for use with previous versions of Photoshop ======================= / / Scott Kelby, “Photoshop CS4 Down & Dirty Tricks” / New Riders Press | 2009 | ISBN: 0321563174 | 360 pages | PDF | 64,2 MB UNLOCK THE SECRETS OF THE HOTTEST TRICKS, AND MOST REQUESTED PHOTOSHOP EFFECTS IN ONE AMAZING BOOK! Scott Kelby, co-host of Photoshop User TV and the world’s #1 bestselling Photoshop author, is back to unlock the secrets of an amazing new collection of the latest eye-popping, jaw-dropping, Photoshop special effects—the same kind that made Scott’s previous editions of this book one of the top selling Photoshop books in history. You’ll learn some of the most closely guarded Photoshop CS4 special effects—the same ones you see on TV, in magazines, and on the Web. Using Scott’s simple step-by-step method, with hundreds of full-color images, you’ll see exactly how it’s all done. The book is written so clearly, and it is so easy to follow, you’ll immediately be able to create all of these effects yourself. You’ll learn: • The latest photographic special effects / • How to fake studio shots (you’ll be amazed at how it’s done) / • The latest cutting-edge type effects / • The most popular effects used by big movie studios / • The most-requested advertising effects / • Commercial effects that clients go crazy over! / • The most asked-for current Web effects / • Amazing 3D effects using Photoshop Extended / • Plus loads of effects that look hard, but are easy once you know the secrets And not only that, but the whole book is packed with creative ideas, layouts, and design techniques that will help you unleash your own creativity. It’s all here, in the only Photoshop book of its kind. You’re gonna love it! http://rapidshare.com/files/261698382/PhotoshopCS4DirtyTricks.rar ======================== How to Make Colors Pop in CS3 / source from ‘eHow’ This guide will show you how to transform a drab photo into a stunning, high-contrast masterpiece using Photoshop CS3 or later. While this technique can be used by photographers using other programs or earlier versions, some tools may not be available. In my experience this technique takes about 10-30 minutes (depending on how much you like to tweak settings) and can be applied in varying degrees to all different types of photo. 1. Start with a color photo. If your base image is not in color, this guide will absolutely not help you. This image is from an abandoned zoo. The light was dim, so what should be bright colors and rich texures falls a little flat. / 2. First, perform basic image cropping and levels adjustment. Your image should be slightly lighter than you want the finished product to be, but don’t lighten it so much that you lose detail in the highlights. Don’t worry about your contrast setting until the end. / 3. When you have your base image the way you want it, go to the Layers menu and select Duplicate Layer as shown. Hit Ok. / You should now have two identical layers. / 4. Go to the Image menu and select Image>Adjustment>Black and White. / Basic users should select a preset from the drop-down menu. I suggest Infrared or Maximum White for richest colors. / Advanced users should set layer mode to multiply before opening Black and White and set a custom conversion. If you do not set the layer to multiply you cannot “preview” your settings. IF you are using an older version of photoshop, the easiest way to “fake” this part of the process is to desaturate to 100%, discard color information, convert to grayscale, or whatever process you like to convert to black and white, and then use levels to lighten the image. 5. If your default workspace does not include the Layers window, click “Layers” in the Window menu on the menu bar. / The Layers window has a drop-down menu for layer mode that will say “normal” / Click this and select “multiply” / This should create a very dark image. Do not levels adjust! / 6. Next to the layer mode drop-down there is a menu that should read Opacity: 100% / I generally set the layer opacity at about 75% for a subtle effect. I do not recommend going any lower than 50%, but you can go as high as 100% depending on what you’re looking for. / 7. In the layers window, select the BOTTOM layer. This is your original, background layer. The thumbnail in the layers menu will be highlighted. Go back up to the Layer menu and Duplicate Layer again. If you have done it right, there will be three layers in the layers window, with the new layer in the middle of the two you had before. If the new layer is at the top of the list, you may have copied the wrong layer. Select the new layer and click the trash icon at the bottom of the layers window and try again. When you have your new layer in the middle, click and drag the layer to the top of the layers window. This should make your big image look the same as before you added the black and white multiplied layer. / 8. With the TOP layer selected in the layers window, go to Filters>Other>High Pass. This will turn the image bright white. / I usually set High Pass at between 70 and 120 pixels for this technique. The higher you go, the greater light/dark contrast you will have in your finished image. / 9. Set the layer mode for the TOP layer (which should now be bright white) for Hard Light. Some people prefer Pin Light, and feel free to play around with the mode you like best. Each has a slightly different effect. Again, reducing the opacity of the layer will make the effect more subtle. My image used a 70% opacity. / 10. When you’re satisfied with your image, go to the Layers menu and select Flatten Image. This will allow you to save the image as a JPEG, which will take up less space on your hard drive and is easier to share. If you want to keep the ability to edit your layers later, save a PSD version before you flatten. / Tips & Warnings This technique is great for textured or mossy walls and creepy Halloween or horror images. It can also make a portrait seem “gritty” and give a city-scape a run-down feel. Once you get the basic outline of the technique, play around with different versions until you find something that works for you. This is different from the way I learned the technique, but it’s what works best for my style of photography. *Don’t abuse the power of photoshop! Think of this technique like you would explain makeup to your 12-year-old daughter: honey, less is more! The goal of this technique is to make colors and textures pop for a realistic or hyper-realistic photo. If the graffiti turns into neon, you’ve gone too far. Photo Credit / Copyright 2006-2009 Jenna Black, used on eHow by owner. / Unauthorised use prohibited. ===================== A fantastic site devoted to Photoshop tricks and tips / http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-add-background-in-cs3/ ===================== / The recession may be nipping at the heels of creative studios, but that doesn’t mean that Photoshop artists should be reining in their ambitions. Armed with a broadband connection and a little know-how, it’s possible to download so much fantastic creative material, brushes, actions, PSD files, textures and plug-ins – for free – that your hard drive will be left gasping for air. Freebies for Photoshop are experiencing a boom online. From dedicated sites offering quality ready-to-use layered PSD files for design and website creation, to thousands of brushes and actions that can give your work the edge, it’s highly likely that there’s a free version of whatever you’re after online. I’ve grouped together some of the best examples of free stuff for Photoshop that are currently available: get ready to feel like a kid in a creative candy shop as you start exploring them. However, take care when feasting on freebies. A quick Google search for free Photoshop brushes, for example, throws up thousands of options. As with all free content, quality varies wildly – both in terms of creative prowess and technical accomplishment. It may be tempting to download everything, but a little time spent searching on Photoshop-related blogs for community recommendations on the best free content to download will save you from having to wade through the less-than-stellar materials. You should also pay attention when downloading anything from the web. Some sites lure you in with the promises of ‘free’ content, only to hold the best stuff back as paid-for options. And always ensure that you have decent anti-virus software in place, so that you’re don’t accidentally invite Internet nasties onto your hard drive. Always check the terms and conditions of your downloads to ensure you’re not breaching any copyright terms. Free Photoshop plug-ins Plug-ins are the biggest enhancements you can add to Photoshop, unlocking powerful features that can help boost your creative work. Some plug-ins are one-trick-ponies, such as those for creating TV scanlines or an image mosaic, while others deliver a suite of tools aimed at a particular arena, such as text effects. One of the most popular free plug-in suites for Windows users is OptikVerve Labs VirtualPhotographer tinyurl.com/b4e4d6, with millions of users. It includes over 50 presets that automatically apply combinations of film grain, colour correction, black and white, soft focus, high contrast and artistic effects to achieve professional-looking images. A more à la carte approach is offered by plug-in maker AutoFX, tinyurl.com/d65uyt, which offers two of its Mac and Windows commercial plug-ins – Dreamy Photo and Mosaic – for free. Dreamy Photo adds a soft, romantic feel, while Mosaic transforms images into a tiled effect. There is a whole category of plug-ins dedicated to delivering visual effects. Harry’s Filters for Windows tinyurl.com/d65uyt is a set that includes 69 filter effects covering zoom, glass, old film and 70s pop styles. Cybia has seven fantastic free effects plug-ins up for grabs tinyurl.com/ckzbda in the form of its Fotomatic collection. Highlights include NightScope for simulating night-vision effects, Techni-X for high-contrast effects suitable for illustration work, and HighSpot for powerful black and white colour conversion. Commercial plug-in maker Flaming Pear tinyurl.com/b8j86x has an array of free high-quality plug-ins for Mac and Windows, including warp, tile, colour conversion and Solidify that fills gaps with the nearest colour. Design studio Richard Rosenman has 24 Photoshop plug-ins, available free for Windows tinyurl.com/gnh7s including 3D spheregeneration, scanlines, and lens effects. Filter Forge has a collection of three plug-in suits for Windows users, including seven metal effects filters, seven photo effects, and seven filters to create different photo frames tinyurl.com/b7nwcv – Mac versions are planned for the future, according to the site. Free plug-ins also surface in unexpected places, including on Polaroid’s website. It has a free Mac and Windows dust- and scratch-removal plug-in for Photoshop tinyurl.com/5qms. Finally, a collection of 41 plug-ins for Windows from Xero Graphics in the UK tinyurl.com/abckr4 includes such gems as Porcelain, Moonlight, Skycleaner and Sparkles. Free Photoshop actions Actions in Photoshop were designed to remove the multi-stage drudgery of repetitive tasks in Photoshop, such as colour-converting images. Yet with some creative know-how, designers have been creating and sharing Photoshop actions that push the tool to its limits. Photoshop actions pull together a series of steps, including menu choices, filters, and resizing – and you can even batch-process a folder of images for instant creativity. The UK’s Turning Turnip site tinyurl.com/ca9wps has a great collection of free actions for photographers and artists, ranging from comic and watercolour effects, to pop-art and photo-grain actions. PanosFX has 38 high-quality actions to download from its site tinyurl.com/d7aja, including its excellent Rainy Day action, jigsaw-creation action, and spiral-bind action. For a unique take on Photoshop actions, Finesse FX tinyurl.com/ce7uky includes over 65 free actions that are geared to artistic output. Highlights include the excellent Old Parchment, TackIt mini action, and lots of actions for creative text effects. If you need more traditional photographic actions, Shutter Freaks tinyurl.com/amxzao has a directory of actions, including photo frames, bleaching, B&W conversion, and canvas painting. Free Photoshop textures Textures breathe life into layered effects and flat scenes – allowing you to add anything from dirt, swirls, mould and metal, to paper and floral textures to your work. Everything from oil stains to veined marble is available, and to kick off Jasen Robillard has selected 36 cool free textures on Flickr, all with Creative Commons licences – you can view the texture list with links to the high-res images at Abduzeedo, run by Digital Arts contributor Fabio Sasso, tinyurl.com/5kvjan. If paper, canvas and metal are more your bag, then visit Tutorial 9, tinyurl.com/6ch57d, for 99 fantastic textures, including aged paper, peeling paint, watercolour, diamond plate metal, and wrinkled fabric. Textures can more usefully be downloaded as texture packs – grouping together similar texture styles. Web Design Ledger, tinyurl.com/64qech, features 29 excellent texture packs, including old book covers, wood, fabric, brown packing paper, and cardboard – each loaded with high-quality textures for the asking. Free Photoshop brushes* While Photoshop features a basic line-up of brushes, they’re not what you’d call inspirational. Luckily, the creative community has stepped up and the web is awash with free Photoshop brushes. For a combination of sheer quantity and quality, British graphic designer PaulW has crafted over 1,000 brushes designed to appeal to Photoshop artists. Heavy on the clean vector tech-style, you can download the brushes packages at tinyurl.com/5bc9lu. For splatter, watercolour and spraycan brushes, Tutorial 9 has over 250 brilliant paint-effect brushes tinyurl.com/632xtu – as well as other brush types such as creative doodles. If your creative tasks require something a little more out of this world, then DesignM.ag has one of the largest collections of space-related brushes at tinyurl.com/6prxdc. It has over 500 brushes covering everything from galactic backgrounds to hazy comet trails and gaseous nebulae. Another more unusual set that’s worth considering is an astonishing human brush collection that features over 55 brush sets covering the human body – from comic art characters and retro figures to felt-tip sketches and fingerprints. It’s available at Web Resource Depot tinyurl.com/5rkpbz. Photoshop brushes are also a great shortcut to capturing current design trends – and Six Revisions plays host to over 50 free Photoshop brush sets that tap into what’s hot right now tinyurl.com/5acn63. With sets titled Girls In Trouble, Rebel Teens, Rusty 80s Arcades, and Pencil Tracing, they offer a unique slant to Photoshop’s default brush set. Brushes also don’t have to be limited to small sizes – the 100 Awesome High Resolution Photoshop Brushes directory hosted by Photoshop Roadmap tinyurl.com/2mfozo features high-resolution brushes covering spirographs, hair strands, smoke, bugs, fireworks, and more. #See my 2nd page
UPDATE I will continue to add new tutorial links to THIS, one journal. *As I add photoshop tutorials, they will go here. That way yo…
UPDATE I will continue to add new tutorial links to THIS, one journal. As I add photoshop tutorials, they will go here. That way you can just favorite this one journal. From now on, new journals will simply let you know that this one has been updated with a new tutorial. Although, I am categorizing the series as a “how to”; it is based on a new artwork, the direction of which I have no idea what it will be. So it’s also a live journal of my process in creating THIS particular digital artwork. Many Digital Artists on Red Bubble need no guidance whatsoever. You know who you are. ;) This series does not assume anyone’s knowledge or skill level with tools of the trade. If you have just about any version of Photoshop Elements or Photoshop or even Gimp, you should be able to just get started working on an image. Tutorials run from 4-5 minutes, maximum. How to erase and blend objects. For Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or similar photo editing programs. Erasing is the most basic, and possibly the most critical skill of digital artists working with photo-manipulation. Photoshop Digital Art – How to Erase and Blend Objects Sometimes, using low resolution stock or image files for objects in large artworks is unavoidable. Here’s how to fix the ugly pixelation that would otherwise be noticeable in digital art at full size. Photoshop Digital Art – Dipixelating Low Resolution Objects How to add and blend Cat Hair without special brushes. For Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or similar photo editing programs that include a smudge tool. Photoshop Digital Art – Add and Blend Cat Hair Help prospective buyers visualize your art in their home or office building by showing it in a virtual setting. This tutorial shows how to use licensed stock photos of interiors, and place your framed art on the wall! Novice level tutorial for Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, GIMP, or similar image editing program. Photoshop Digital Art – Showcase Your Art in a Virtual Room You will note how I have a BUNCH of objects laying around, seemingly willy nilly, on this rather large psd canvas (9000×6000 pixels). It’s untitled, and I only vaguely know where it’s going, at the moment, even three (3) tutorials into the series, so far. / Some facts: about 15 or so objects are laying around on the canvas I started out with 17, that are shown in the video. The image below is after more erasing was done and 2 objects were nixed. Guess which ones. objects are sized to approximately what they might eventually be I may or may not use any or all of these objects I will erase carefully around each, regardless if they will be used; unless I determine that I don’t like them. Once any object is perfectly cleared of its background, it will go into an “objects.psd” file; so I can use it in some other image, any time. Objects are generally placed close to where I think they may end up. I have already placed the background I have already done some work on the main figure and her mirror. The window has already been transformed (perspective) and placed about where I want it. Importantly, I have just received, before uploading this tutorial, permission that I needed from one stock provider who doesn’t allow use of her stock off of DA or in commercial-type works, without express permission. That allows me freedom to continue this series, as intended and upload to YouTube. Stock permission is critical to my work. If you watch the tutorial, you’ll note the rolling credits at the end. This tutorial focuses only on the candelabra and shows it at 200% scale the entire tutorial. There may be easier ways to do this. But I don’t take “easy” when precision is required. Plus PSE does not have all the tools of PS. ;) I’m working in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 for the Mac (currently the latest for the Mac.) It is different from 1.0, which I worked in for over a decade, as I discovered just a week or so ago; in that it imports abr (Adobe brush files), has a photo bin/viewer at its base, and does NOT have the fabulous Airbrush eraser from version 1. Otherwise, the differences are almost purely user interface. This note is added to satsify the curious. :) Bmail me or ask questions here, if you like. You can rate, comment, and subscribe to my channel (“francorpier”) at YouTube. Thanks. ;) Frannie
I was recently asked to explain how I use layers. So while trying to put my thoughts together, I decided I might as well share it with ev…
I was recently asked to explain how I use layers. So while trying to put my thoughts together, I decided I might as well share it with everyone who’s interested. I’ll show how to do very basic adjustments so you get a feel for how layers work. Once you’re comfortable with that you can move on to using layers to create art effects. Please keep in mind that I’m a Photoshop user... I’m in no way an expert! / This is just my way of working with layers. There are many different ways, & they all work. Why use layers ? : / Our reasons for using layers are many & varied. We might be doing vector-like illustrations, Or composing an intricate fantasy photomanipulation. / It may be a simple matter of applying text over an image. / You may just want to do basic tone & colour adjustments of your photographs. / Whatever your reason, using layers is almost essential. / I say this for one very important reason. If you apply adjustments of any type to your original image, you will be altering it permanently. There’s no going back. Pixels get moved around & destroyed, every brush or keystroke seriously alters the quality of your image. / However, working in layers is non-destructive. The original image sits at the bottom of your stack, untouched, unaltered, safe from damage. / All of your edits are stacked on top of the original, & then “flattened”, usually upon completion, or when you’re ready to move on to the next stage of editing. I’ll use this image of a bunch of people looking a Trojan warplane, to demonstrate the basics of using layers. / I’m using PS CS3, & I’m not sure how similar the layout of PS Elements is, so this will either be helpful to you, or just confusing…. it should be fairly similar though. Let’s get started : 1) Open your image in Photoshop, & save it straight away as a psd (Photoshop file format) I’ve decided to call this one “enter the trojan”. / 2) Now have a good look at the image & decide what needs doing. / Does it needs cropping? Some people choose to crop at the start, but for some strange reason I’ll often wait until I’m somewhere through my editing process. I like to wait to see how the image is evolving…. Does anything need cloning out? / This image has a rather annoying person disappearing out of the left side of the frame, so Ill be getting rid of him, as well as cleaning up a few distracting white spots on the airfield in the background. 3) Look to the right of your screen & you’ll see your layers palette. / At the top right of that you’ll see 3 little horizontal lines stacked on top of each other with an arrow next to them. Left click on this & you’ll get a drop-down box. this is your most important box for using layers. Click on duplicate layer, & rename it as you wish. / I’m calling it “clone”. / / You’ll see the duplicate layer appear above the background layer in your layers palette. / / Make sure the clone layer is selected (it’ll be highlighted in grey), & you’re ready to work on that layer. / Now select your clone tool & go to work. All done? If you’re happy with your work make sure you save. Now, remembering what I said about your background (original) layer remaining untouched, here’s a little demo. / Do you see that little eye beside your “clone” layer? / Click on it…. Hello!! Your cloning has gone! Click on it again….. it’s back!!! / OK, we could have fun with this all day, but do you see how the background image is unchanged? Cool huh? Let’s move on…. I’ve got blown out highlights in my clouds which are a problem & the mid-tones are a bit too dark. / I’ll deal with the clouds first by using a curves adjustment layer. 4) All the way down at the bottom of your layers palette, you’ll see a toolbar. look for the circle that’s half black & half white. / This is the “create new fill or adjustment layer” button. / Click on it & select “curves”. / 5) Grab the little white dot on the line in the top right corner. Now drag it a smidgen down to the right. That should take care of the blown out clouds. / Click OK. / / Do you see you now have a curves layer? / (Because I use CS3, it automatically gives me a layer mask box on this layer. It’s that white box in your curves layer. But we’re not going to get into masks today) Now to fix the mid-tones. For this I’m going to add a Levels layer. / 6) Just like in step 4), click on the “create new fill or adjustment layer” button & this time select “Levels”. / 7) This will open a box with a levels histogram in it. / To lighten your mid-tones slide the grey arrow in the middle of the histogram to the left until you’re happy. / Click OK, & you’ll see your levels layer sitting above the curves layer. Now, what if you wanted to do some dodge & burn? / There’s a number of ways to dodge & burn, so I’ll show you one that I use quite often. 8) Remember those 3 little horizontal lines that you clicked on to duplicate the layer? (step 3) / Click on that again, & this time select “New Layer”. / 9) In the dialogue box, change the name to “dodge & burn”, / click on the “mode” dropdown box, & select “overlay”, / then check the box “Fill with overlay-neutral color (50% gray) / it should look something like this : / / Then click OK. You’ll now see a layer called “dodge & burn” in your layers palette. It should be on the top of the pile. If it isn’t, simply drag it to the top. / Any work you do to the top layer will be carried over to all the layers below. 10) Select your burn tool, set your range to Shadows, & Exposure around 20 (this will depend completely upon the type of image you’re working on), then get to work burning out the areas that you feel need deepening. 11) Then take your dodge tool, set your Exposure to around 20 & work over the areas that you think need a little more highlighting. I’ve decided this image needs a bit more saturation. 12) Go back to the black/white circle (as mentioned in step 4), & this time look for Hue/Saturation. / / Adjust your sliders as you see fit, then click OK. / At this stage I’m happy with my basic adjustments. It’s now at the stage where it’s ready for me to use it as a background image for something a little more creative. 13) If you haven’t been saving until now, you really must do it now. 14) Now we’re going to Flatten the file. / Go to those 3 little horizontal lines with the arrow again (step 3), & this time look for “Flatten Image”. / / Click on it. You’ll see that all your layers have been “flattened into just one layer, & it’s now become your new background layer. If you’re planning to print this, you’ll need to give it some sharpening. / There are so many ways to sharpen, but at the moment I’m a bit partial to using the “high pass” filter. 15) To do this you’ll need to use a duplicate layer (remember step 3?) / I’m re-naming it “High Pass Sharpening”. / 16) Go to your “filter” drop down box on your top tool bar, & select, “other”, “high pass”. / 17) Adjust your radius slider until you see a good amount of line detail while keeping the tones in gray. Click OK. / You’re probably wondering what’s happened to your image. We’ll fix that right now. 18) Look above your “high pass” layer, & you’ll see Opacity set at 100%, to the left of that the word “normal” in a drop-down box. / Click on that drop-down box & select “overlay”. / / Presto! You’ve got your image back, & it’s been sharpened. / Toggle the “eye” off & on to see the effect. 19) If it’s too sharpened for your taste, you can adjust the opacity of that layer. / Find the “opacity” slider above the layer, & adjust it as you like. / I’m setting this one to 50%. / 20) Save this as a new psd file ( I’m calling this one “enter the trojan HP sharp”), & flatten it as before. / 21) Now all you need to do is save it in the Format of choice. / I routinely save all my images as TIFF files, & then save again as JPEG. / Remember to do all you backups now so you don’t forget later. All finished! Now you have an image that is fine as is, or ready for you to get a little creative & do further editing. / The final image : / You might also want to look at Texturing an Image in Photoshop for Absolute Beginners for further editing ideas. [ One last point : I put a lot of time & effort into creating these tutorials. Please don’t disrespect me by claiming them as your own.]
THE EASIEST WAYS TO MAKE RAYS OF LIGHT A Photoshop Tutorial for beginners I have used Photoshop CS4 but it will work in earlier v…
THE EASIEST WAYS TO MAKE RAYS OF LIGHT A Photoshop Tutorial for beginners I have used Photoshop CS4 but it will work in earlier versions. This tutorial is an adaptation of ‘Creating An Underwater Scene’ by the truly wonderful Mark Monciardini —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—— / As with anything in Photoshop, there are many ways to achieve the same end.Making rays of light is no exception. There are many ways to make these.This is the easiest and most effective way that I have found to do this. Essentially it is only four main steps to achieve this result… Steppleland Stock from Deviantart has kindly given permission to use the lovely start image. If you click on this LINK you can download the image. Make sure that you download the full size image and not just the thumbnail or the technique that you will be learning will not work properly. To do this click on the download button, and when the full size image shows, right click and use ‘save image as’. Please make sure that you tick the Add to Favourites button before you download, as a way of saying ‘Thanks’ for the use of the stock. Step 1 / Open the image and immediately create a new layer by clicking on the new layer icon at the bottom of your layers palate. Name this layer ‘Light Rays” / See below… / Step 2 Set colour palate to the default White foreground, Black background / Go to the menu bar and select Filter/Render /Clouds and hit ‘Enter’. / Your layer should now look like this… / Step 3 Go to your menu bar and select Image/Adjustment/Threshold and hit the ‘OK’ button in the little box that comes up. / Your layer will now look like this.. Step 4 Go to / Filter/Blur/Radial Blur When the box pops up, set Amount = 84 / Blur Method = Zoom / Quality = Good The arrow here shows you where the zoom will radiate from. You need to place the blur centre over your light source ie the sun or the moon, or where the strongest light is in the sky. In this image, we need to have the Blur Centre it in the top left hand corner. So, with your mouse, slide the zoom centre to the top left of the square box. / The dialogue box should look like this… Hit the OK button. Your image will now look like this. You are nearly there now! Step 5 Now set the blending mode of this layer to Soft Light (See image below) / Reduce the opacity to 77% / Reduce the Fill to 94% / (The reduction in opacity and fill is a personal preference. Just adjust them until you are happy with the effect.) / Step 6 Now add a layer mask to this layer by clicking on the layer mask icon at the bottom of your layers palate. (See image below) Now set your foreground colour to Black. / Set the background colour to White. Select a soft round brush 200px. / / With the layer mask selected, paint over the areas you want to hide with the black brush. Here I have painted out the rays over the tree trunk, to give the impression that the light is falling behind it. I also painted out the front foreground to set the rays further back in the image. If you go too far, change the foreground colour to White and that will bring the rays back. And that’s it!! How simple was that? / / Special thanks go to my dear friends LorraineCreagh &Francis / for their kindness and help in learning how to upload and post this tutorial. / xx /
CHANGING SKIES IN COMPLEX LANDSCAPES: A Photoshop Tutorial I have written this tutorial in Photoshop CS4, but it will work in earlier…
CHANGING SKIES IN COMPLEX LANDSCAPES: A Photoshop Tutorial I have written this tutorial in Photoshop CS4, but it will work in earlier versions too. How many times have you been out with your camera, found a beautiful landscape, but the sky was uniform, dull or flat? It has happened to me more times than I can remember! As with everything in Photoshop, there are so many different ways to remove skies from a landscape. It is very simple to do this in Landscapes which have straight edges into the sky, like cutting around buildings etc. But it is much harder to cut out skies when there is a lot of foliage around. The normal lasso tools, the quick select tools and the ‘magic’ tools do not work too well. But there is an easy way. The length of time it will take will depend on how many colours are in your existing sky. This tutorial will show the steps needed to go from this image… to this… Lets get going! You can download the lovely start image from Dangerous Stock / You can download the great sky from Hatestock / Do remember to use the download button so that you get the hi res versions and to click on the ‘Add To Favourites’ button. This is courtesy for being able to use the image. Also, if you publish your work do please remember to credit the artists who have given their stock. Step 1: * With the start image open, *double click on the background layer so that it then becomes Layer 0. Re-label this layer as ‘Background’ by double clicking in the box that says Layer0. This sounds silly, but now we have changed the start image into a layer, it will enable us to move the layer around later. Click onto the New Layer Icon. This will place a transparent layer above Layer 0 . / It is now labeled as Layer 1. You can leave this as it is. / Slide your background layer above Layer 1. / This is what it will look like… Step 2 The next step is to select the area containing all the blue sky that you want to replace. You can use a variety of tools to do this, but the easiest one for this image is the Polygon Lasso tool. / All you are doing with this selection is making sure that you do not cut any pixels out of the image that you do not want to loose. This is particularly important where you have pixels in the foreground, which are the same colour as the sky. In this image there is lots of blue in the barn, which we do not want to cut. So, click onto your Background layer and start to make your selection. I have highlighted my selection in red, so that you can easily see it, but yours will look like a dotted line. You can see that I have gone just below the trees where sky shows through. You now need to SAVE this selection. Go to the menu bar and to Select/Save selection and save it as ‘1’. Step 3 Now you have saved your selection, go to the menu bar and choose Select/Colour Range. / A dialogue box will pop up. Select ‘Sampled Colours’ / Tick ‘Localised Color Clusters / Fuzziness = 104 (You can increase or decrease this depending on the colours in your image, but for this image 104 works well. / Select the Image button. You will see your image behind the dialogue box. / Now, with the little eyedropper tool, click onto an area of blue in the sky. / You will see a selection created of that particular colour. Go to the menu bar and select Edit/Cut. Now just repeat this process as many times as you need to, to get rid of all the shades of blue in the sky. / DO REMEMBER TO LOAD YOUR SELECTION EACH TIME. / To do this, go to *Select/Load Selection and scroll down until you come to ‘1’ / Then once again, Select/Colour Range…. Edit Cut. I took about 6 cuts to end up with an image like this Step 4 Whilst you have a transparent layer under your background image, it is sometimes hard to see if you have cut out all the unwanted pixels. So to do a ‘safety check’ you will need to fill Layer 1 with a white fill. To do this go to the Paint Bucket tool, and with white as your foreground colour, click on that layer and it will fill with white. / If you have any hazy blue areas showing, just go to your History Palate and dump the white fill into the dustbin. Then go back to your select colour range and cut out some more. Step 4 Now you need to choose a new sky. I have found a beauty, which you can download. Just click on the image. / / Again, if you download it please do remember to favourite it out of courtesy. You can choose any sky you like, but it should have the horizon roughly where the horizon is in your original image. The most important thing to remember is that when you choose your sky, you will need to ensure that the strongest light source in the sky fits with the brightest part of your start image. In the sky I have chosen, the strongest light source comes from the top left hand side of the sky. This fits with the brightest part of the start image – the highlights on the roof of the barn, so immediately the image is credible. If this sky were flipped horizontally, so that the light source was on the opposite side, it would not work at all. Step 5 / / You can skip this step if you wish Because the sky is so dramatic, and because the start image is lovely, I want to extend the canvas in order to balance out the different elements in the image. So to do this, simply highlight your bottom layer – Layer 1. / Go to the menu Bar and select Image/Canvas Size. / In the dialogue box, scroll down the width and height settings and change this to Percent. / In the Height box, alter the percent to 140. / Click OK. This will have transformed the size of your image. Go back to your background layer, and with the move tool, slide the image to the bottom of the canvas. Step 6 Open up your sky image, and go to Select/Select All / Then to / Edit/Copy / Go to your barn image now and select Layer 1 – the bottom transparent layer. / Go to Edit/Paste You will see that the sky you have imported is larger than the original image, so you will need to make it smaller. / On the sky layer, go to Edit/Free Transform and from corner of the image, shrink it to fit. Step 6 You will see now that there are a few annoying bluish leaves hanging around on the start image. So select the start image layer and create a layer mask. (see image below) With your foreground colour set as black, choose a soft round brush and on the layer mask, just paint them out. Do this until you are happy with the end result. If you paint out something by mistake, just set your foreground colour to white to paint it back in. Step 7 Just to unify the two parts of this image, select the background layer and on the menu bar, select Image/Adjustments/Colour Balance. Slide the Yellow/Blue slider towards blue. You can see what I have done here. Also, I felt the need to slightly darken the start image to fit better with the sky, so go to / Image/Adjustments/Levels and slide the middle slider slightly towards the right. You can see what I have done here. Step 8 This is the really clever bit, and it something I do whenever I merge any images together. You can use this technique in many photomontages to achieve a unified colour scheme. Create a new layer above the start image. / Select the Paint Bucket tool. / Click onto the foreground colour and when the dialogue box comes up type in 336633in the hash box. Like this… Then, with the paint bucket tool, pour this into the new layer. / Select Color Blending Mode and reduce the opacity to 20% (see below) Step 9 Repeat this process. Create a new layer and fill with color 333366 / Set blending mode to color and reduce opacity to 20% Step 10 Repeat this process on a new layer and fill with cc9966 / Set blending mode to Overlay and reduce opacity to 21% / Your screen should look like this… / This will have unified all the colors in the image. One final step… / Go to Select/Select All ... then….. / Edit/Copy Merged... then…... / File/New (no need to change any sizes here) .... then….. / Edit/Paste That will give you your final image. You can then save this as a .jpg file. / Your original .psd File with all its layers is the preserved, so that if you wish to go back and change any bits at a later stage – you can do so. I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial. If you have, please let me know. Also – if you have found any bits too difficult, or which do not work please let me know too. I would love to see your final images too. If you want to show me, or ask any advice, but do not want to load your image for other to see, just upload it as normal, but tick the box ‘Hide From Public View’. You can then send it to me by Bmail, using the normal codes – !! either side of the url when you copy image location. / xx / Anna
This journal contains the second in a series of tutorials I have written. Each page is A4 size @ 100 dpi for easy printing. There are …
This journal contains the second in a series of tutorials I have written. Each page is A4 size @ 100 dpi for easy printing. There are five pages in all. Just click on the image to download each page as a .jpg file. Note that this tutorial is for private use only and copyright protection is in force. If you would like to upload it to your blog, please bmail me first for permission, do not just assume you have it. Thanks very much, I hope you find it useful, Simone :) Disclaimer Please bare in mind this tutorial was written for those who have very little experience with, or knowledge of Photoshop. It is in no way a definitive guide to using photoshop, it is however a great starting point for those who are just beginning and feel overwhelmed with the complexities of more advanced tutorials. It is also NOT a substitute for good sound photography skills. It will not magically turn a poorly taken image into a spectacular one, only time, experience, patience and practice with your camera will do that.
/ www.photographycampu…
/ www.photographycampus.com Hi Guys. / Some of you may know I’ve recently started writing for DESKTOP magazine about all things photography and photography post production. I am ‘soon’ going to launch an on line learning portal (subscription based) called the Photography Campus which will have video tutorials about photography & videography by real live working professionals. Anyway, I promised a few people that I’d put the articles up here once they’d gone to print. So here’s the November issues article: How to use layer blend modes in Photoshop. As creative folk, we have a wonderful knack of ignoring things when they get too technical. / For most of us, our left brain left years ago, tired of the lack of love and relentless mocking from its hyperactive sibling, the right brain. / It’s little wonder then, so many software functions are overlooked due to their, eeky – geeky – speakiness. / Take the layer blending modes in Photoshop. They promise so much with fancy names like multiply, hard light, dissolve and luminosity. Yet a quick look in many Photoshop help files reveal evil words like algorithms, percentages and the arch rival of all creatives..Maths. Urgh. / In fact the layer blend modes are little rippers when it comes to fixing images and creating interesting effects. They’re non destructive, versatile and quite frankly everywhere. (Seriously they breed like rabbits in Photoshop). / And here’s the thing. You don’t actually have to understand all of them to use them. / By in large understanding the theory of only a handful will have you speaking fluent blending modes and impressing your arty-farty-party friends in no time. Now for some maths you’ll really like. Sure there’s 25 layer blend modes listed in the drop down menu of PS CS4, but in reality they fit into 6 sections and truth be told there’s only 3 you really need to understand. Check out this diagram. The three sections you’ll use the most are the darken section, lighten section and the contrast section. In these groups if you understand one mode, you pretty much understand them all. Here’s how do they work. In short blending modes effect the way the top layer blends with the layer below it. Depending on which blend mode you choose, you can make images look lighter, darker, more contrasty, a different colour or a handful of other styles. / The first group in our layer blends diagram we’ve called ‘whatever’ because it’s not really all that interesting. / Normal is well, normal – as in default, as in 100% opaque, as in nothing exciting to see here…move on. / Dissolve is kind of like the annoying guy at the party. He has one trick (reproduces pixels randomly so things look a little pointilized) and pretty much that’s it. It’s probably not something you’ll use much if ever unless you are that annoying guy, in which case, go away. / The ‘dark’ section modes you will use a lot. They ignore white but blend the dark and black pixels, thereby making an image look darker. The Lighten modes ignore black but blend the lighter colours thus the making an image lighter. The contrast modes ignore mid grey but still blend the light and dark pixels and as such / create contrast. / To see it work in practice, here’s an experiment you can do yourself. 1. Create a Photoshop file. / Make sure it has 2 layers. The top layer has a 100% black object, a 50% grey object and a 100% white object. / The bottom layer is green. Your layers should look like this: 2. Choose the top layer and go to the layer blend mode. Choose Multiply…but wait before you do, ask yourself…if multiply comes from the ‘dark’ layer group what will the result be? Yup you guessed it, it will ignore white pixels, so as you see the white object disappears, the 100% black remains the same because you can’t get darker than that and the 50% grey object makes / the pixels below it darker. Therefore the entire image becomes darker. It will look like this: 3. Now choose Lighten. It ignores black so the 100% black disappears, the 100% white remains because you can’t get lighter than that and the everything below the 50% grey goes lighter. As such the entire image gets lighter. The image should look like this: 4. Finally, choose overlay. It ignores 50% grey, so the grey object disappears and the white and black objects remain. Thus the image will show greater contrast. See: By understanding these three modes you effectively have a good idea of how others in their sections work (give or take a few discrepancies…) If you include normal and annoying dissolve that’s 19 out of 25 sorted before you’ve even ordered your second chai latte. / As for the other blends, rather than us explain them, here’s a way to see their effect with a nifty little keyboard shortcut. / Choose your move tool (V). Make sure the top layer is chosen in the layers box. Hold down the shift key and press the – and + tools. This will scroll through every layer blend style and give you an instant preview of what happens with each one. / So now you know the theory how can you use it in practice? / The most obvious use is to fix exposure. / Here we have Jessie the wonder dog posing in an overexposed shot. Because she’s black and white she provides a good test case. / Firstly we create a new layer above our background layer. We can either just press cmd or ctrl j to duplicate the original layer, or if you wish to keep file size down, you can just choose a Levels adjustment layer and leave it untouched. It will ‘inherit’ the information on the bottom layer and allow you to work the blend modes just as effectively. / We want to blend the darker pixels whilst leaving the whites alone. So we activate the top layer and choose multiply. Shazam instant gratification. You can also try out the other modes in the Darken section to see the variations you can achieve. Here’s the before and after: Jess before multiply: Jess after multiply: Ok let’s try an underexposed shot. And this time we’ll use the Linear Dodge mode form out ‘Lighten’ section. Jess before Linear Dodge: After: Finally in the following shot Jess is exposed OK but looks awfully flat. She needs contrast and that means a mode from the contrast section. Try Overlay. Much better. Before Overlay: After Overlay: Once you’ve used a blend mode you can use it immediately again to ‘multiply’ the effect of it. You can also use the most well known blend mode of all – the opacity slider. Say I wanted to lighten the underexposed shot even more, I could go blend > lighten. Then create duplicate layer of that new layer and choose blend > lighten again. If two blends were too much, I could simply dull down the second blend my decreasing its opacity, effectively creating a ‘blend and a half’. / As an example of using multiple blend modes in the same file check out the following shot. The shot on the left (of a hot rock pool at Yellowstone National Park) is the original shot straight out of the camera. The shot on the right was achieved by combining a mix of layer blends just from the 3 main sections we’ve talked / about; darken, lighten and contrast along with the opacity slider. Some blends were used more than once. / In fifteen minutes we had the shot on the right. It could do with more work but it does show you what’s possible in a short period of time. BEFORE (straight out of the camera): AFTER: I did use a couple of quick layer masks in there as well to determine which part of the image the blend mode affected. What are layer masks you ask? Well, that’s for the December issue of DESKTOP. / In the meantime happy shooting and remember, with any program fear not the names of the processes, just experiment with them until you find what works for you. Then gloat. Some keyboard shortcuts relevant to this article: Use the corresponding number on your keyboard to set the opacity level, eg want 80% opacity? Press 8. / 50% press 5 etc. You get the picture (and yes you can have that pun for free). / To duplicate a layer press CTRL + J (WIN) CMD + J (Mac) / To cycle through blend modes: Press the move tool (V). Holding down the shift key and pressing the plus or minus key lets you toggle through the blend modes. If you’ve made it this far congrats! They key is just muck around and have fun :) / Follow my photo tips & news on Twitter @photocampus
The aim of this Guide is to provide easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions on how to add clouds to an image which has an otherwise blan…
The aim of this Guide is to provide easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions on how to add clouds to an image which has an otherwise blank sky, without the necessity of being a Photoshop guru to achieve it. Many stunning images on RB are in fact composites, with clouds being brought in from another image to add impact. (Sometimes you can’t easily tell!) It works very well and can transform an image. I have only uploaded to RB one artwork which is a composite of two shots, one being clouds: The original image of the building was clear sky – not a cloud in sight – and was thus a bit bland and boring and a perfect candidate for some cosmetic surgery. This tutorial was prompted by a request to explain how I did it. I still call myself “new to Photoshop” and I have found a lot of on-line Photoshop tutorials, including some others on RB, assume a much higher level of knowledge than I have and are not very intuitive. So, I try to explain the steps in easy to understand terms (hopefully!) and, importantly, describe what each step should look like after it’s done. So if you are not seeing the result of each step replicated on your screen, you know you have to stop and try again. If this happens, go to the top toolbar, select Edit then Undo [whatever it is you’ve just done] from the drop-down menu and try again. (Many many tutorials lose me when they fail to include this vital “check back”.) This tutorial is my longest one yet, given the patience I apply, but once you get the hang of the actions, you will find the process rather quick to do. If you have already read and followed my Orton Effect tutorial (now updated and expanded to include thumbnails), you’ll know what I mean, hopefully, so don’t be put off by this one. I explain the steps based on using Photoshop Elements 7, but users of more advanced Photoshop programs will be able to follow the same steps. I also have Photoshop CS2 (v9.0), for example, and there’s only one slight difference from the PE 7 interface from what I can tell, which I will point out where it’s relevant. If you want to refer back to this tutorial at leisure, feel free to favourite it as I never delete my tutorials. (After all, they’re more popular than my images!) In writing this tutorial I just want to point out a few things. First, I have not read a single tutorial by someone else on this particular process, and the words are all mine. I wish to also acknowledge that Tatiana originally showed me this process. She’s so patient dealing with my impatience! And, finally, there is more than one way to skin a cat, and there is more than one way to achieve what I describe. I’m just relating the method shown to me. Another popular method involves masking. There are LOTS of tutorials on masking. If I have the time and the inclination I will update this tutorial later to include the steps for masking as an alternate process – it’s a completely different path to take to achieve the same result. Lastly, please excuse the standard of screenshots. They’re my first ever attempt at including graphics in a tutorial, or anything for that matter! OK, here we go. Ready? Step One Clouds. You need some cloud photos. Beg, borrow or steal some, or better still, shoot some. I have a folder of nothing but cloud photos. Any day the sky puts on a show I will try and shoot the clouds, just to save them for later use. If you shoot some clouds in JPEG, make sure you shoot them in colour – you can always desaturate to B&W if the image you want to use them in is also in B&W, but if you shoot them in B&W in JPEG you won’t be able to convert to colour to match a colour image. Just another reason to shoot in RAW, really. For this tutorial, however, I am going to use a colour image needing a sky and a B&W sky shot. In theory, this will look weird, and it does, but I will also show you how you can then gradually desaturate the colour image after inserting the B&W sky and achieve quite a startling effect when you leave just a touch of colour. For best results, try to have nothing else in the frame of your cloud shot but sky. No trees or power lines! (If that’s not possible then crop the crap out. But note that creates a potential problem because now your cloud shot will be a different size than the image you want to drop the sky into. That can be fixed, but let’s just worry about equally-sized images for now.) Another advantage of having a “clean” cloud shot is that you can rotate it to horizontal or vertical, depending on the aspect of the image you want to use the sky in. Here’s a little cloud photo I prepared earlier: Step Two Your main image. The one without any clouds. The one you want to insert some action into, some drama. Try to select an image with a completely blank sky. It makes it so much easier for the Magic Wand (I’ll explain later) to figure out the portion of the sky you want to replace, ie all of it. Try to also select an image with straight lines, like a building or, even better, a straight uninterrupted horizon of a landscape or seascape. If you’ve got stuff popping up into the sky, like trees, the method I describe is just made soooo much harder and you may as well stop reading now and go watch TV or a movie. (At this point, the Photoshop gurus are shaking their heads and groaning, because THEY know another method to get around this when doing composites, but we’ll leave THEM on their lofty perches, ok?) Here’s a little image I prepared earlier. You may recognise the building: Cool, but be aware of one important thing: perspective. Unless you are trying to be rather obvious in creating your composite, the perspective of your main image needs to be the same as that used to capture your chosen cloud image. The images I am using for this tutorial were shot from the same perspective, or in other words, with the lens at roughly the same angle for both shots – looking up, at around 70 degrees relative to the ground. If I was to choose instead as my main image a landscape with a horizon, the cloud image I have chosen will not be suitable unless you actually want that abstract feel. Have I explained that well? Tell me if I haven’t. Now, let’s commence cooking our composite. I will refer to my two images in this tutorial as Clouds and Building, just for ease of reference. Step Three You’ve got Photoshop Elements (“PE”) open. Now select File from the top toolbar and select Open from the drop-down menu. Choose your Building shot and open it. Ok, now look across to the right of the screen. See the Layers palette? It should be showing a thumbnail of the Building image, together with the label Background, like so: Now, once again, select File from the top toolbar and select Open from the drop-down menu. Choose your Cloud shot and open it. Look back across to the Layers palette. You should now see a thumbnail of the Cloud image, together with the label Background, like so: Now, left click and hold down the mouse on the Cloud image, and drag it to the side, just enough to show some of the sky of your Building shot. Release the mouse button. Move the mouse over to the Layers palette. Left click and hold over the thumbnail of the Cloud, and drag it over to the sky – anywhere in the sky. Release the mouse button. A copy of the Cloud image should now be “superimposed” over the Building image. Don’t worry if it doesn’t fit. Look back over to the Layers palette. You should now be seeing two thumbnails – the top one called Layer 1 which is the “front” image, and the bottom thumbnail called Background, which is your Building image, like so: Now, ignoring the Layers palette, left click on the Cloud image sitting behind the “superimposed” image. Close it. Step Four Look over to the Layers palette again. See that group of little icons just above the top thumbnail? Hover your mouse slowly over them and their functions should come up, eg the 3rd icon from the left looks like a trash can and when you hover the mouse over it a little word bar comes up saying Delete layer. Well we don’t want to do that. Instead, hover the mouse over the icon on the far left, the one that is a square with an upturned corner. It should say Create new layer. Just remember where that icon is for now. (If you are using Photoshop CS2 or CS3 or CS4, the group of icons is at the bottom of the Layers palette. Hover the mouse over the icons until you find the one that says Create new layer. Remember it.) Now, left click and hold down the mouse over the bottom thumbnail in the Layers palette – it’s the thumbnail of the Building that’s labelled Background – and drag it over to the Create new layer icon. Release the mouse. You should now see three thumbnails in the Layers palette, labelled, from top to bottom: Layer 1, Background copy, and Background, like so: Step Five This is a slightly tricky step. Another click and drag, but best done smoothly and slowly. Left click and hold down the mouse over the Background copy thumbnail in the Layers palette and drag it to just over the top of the Layer 1 thumbnail. Release the mouse. All we are doing here is reversing the order of the top and middle thumbnails, so now your Layers palette should still show three thumbnails, but now in order from top to bottom: Background copy, Layer 1, and Background, like so: Step Six Ok, now the meaty stuff starts. Look over to the left toolbar now (or palette, whatever you want to call it). Hover your mouse until you find the icon labelled Magic Wand. It looks like, um, a magic wand, but don’t confuse it with the Quick selection tool immediately below it. This is the Magic Wand icon: Click on the Magic Wand icon. Your mouse pointer should now have the distinct look of a, um, magic wand. Look up at the little toolbar immediately above the image (which, incidentally, should be of the Building). Make sure the box marked Contiguous is ticked, like so: Now left click once on the sky in the Building image. You should now see marching ants completely around the sky and along the exterior part of the building which protrudes into the sky, like so: (Believe it or not, the technical term for marching ants is …. marching ants.) Step Seven Look closely at the marching ants where they meet the edge of the building. Are there any gaps where you can see the sky? This is important, because if you don’t shift the path of the ants so that they align to the edge of the building, your new sky won’t cover that gap. Enlarge the image if you are not sure. If you see a gap, it is easily fixed. First, press and hold Shift on your keyboard. Second, left click once on the mouse on a gap. Let go the Shift key. You should immediately see those obedient ants form up against the building across the image, like so: Cool, eh? Now, go to the top horizontal toolbar and select Edit. From the drop-down menu select Delete. This will delete your bland boring sky and replace it with your new dramatic sky !!! How cool is that?! Epic. Step Eight Now we have to send the ants home. Go again to the top toolbar and select Select. From the drop-down menu now select Deselect (ha! ha! I love a good alliteration!). Your marching ants should be no more, gone in fact. Does your image look something like this? How cool is that? Step Nine Nearly done! At this juncture, you have two options. You can finish now with the image you’ve got or you can adjust the look of the Building alone and/or the Clouds alone and then finalise the image. To finish now, right click and hold the mouse over the top thumbnail in the Layers palette. Select Flatten image from the drop-down menu – it’s the last menu option: The thumbnails should have collapsed into one thumbnail, called Background, like so: You can now save your image, you’re all done! To work further on the Building alone and/or the Clouds alone, simply left click once on either the Background copy thumbnail and/or the Layer 1 thumbnail and make your adjustments as you would normally do with an image, and then flatten your image and save it. Which is what I did with this image. I simply increased the contrast on the building and desaturated it to the level where there is just a hint of colour. To alter contrast, select Enhance from the top horizontal toolbar, then select Adjust Lighting from the drop-down menu, then select Brightness/Contrast from the second drop-down menu. A separate window will open and there is your contrast slider: To desaturate, select Enhance again from the top horizontal toolbar, then select Adjust Colour from the drop-down menu, then select Adjust Hue/Saturation from the second drop-down menu. A separate window will open and there is your saturation slider: So, how does it look? Epic or what?! Cheers and happy clouding – time to get freaky !!!
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