Tutorials 

116 creative works found

  • The Porcelain Skin Effect in Photoshop
    by Julie Langford

    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.

  • Exposure - for beginners/ intermediate photographers.
    by Mark German

    I just answered a question in a certain group forum, and it occurs to me that it may be useful to others. Feel free to ask any questions….

    I just answered a question in a certain group forum, and it occurs to me that it may be useful to others. Feel free to ask any questions. So here goes: General rule-of-thumb: expose to the right. What that means, is – use your histogram and get your exposure to the right half without hitting the far right edge. Anything clipped (blown, over-exposed) will be data lost for good. The same goes for black clipping (under-exposed). The reason exposing to the right is better then to the left, is that recovering data/detail from dark areas creates noise – whereas the reverse does not. A little rule that may help you with exposure: / Sunny 16 Basically what this catchy-named rule means, is this: / Given a bright and sunny day outdoors, correct exposure for any scene will be f/16, 1/125 SS, ISO100 (also known as ASA) Working up and down with this (and your histogram displays 8 stops of light) you can adjust to suit. For example – a slightly overcast day: / f/11, 1/125, ISO100 (1-stop wider aperture) / or / f/16, 1/60, ISO100 (1-stop slower SS) / or / f/16, 1/125, ISO200 (1-stop more sensitive film/sensor) If you have a specific requirement with SS (stop motion, blur, etc), adjust the other parameters to compensate. To stop your hand motion blur, use the reciprocal of your focal length. Example: 100mm needs at least 1/100th SS. Crop bodies need to be multiplied by the crop. (ask if confused) / If your subject is moving, double SS. If you are also moving, triple it. / Of course using a tripod (and you should whenever feasible) changes this. With photography, each numerical value doubles. / ISO: 100/200/400/800/1600/3200 / SS: 25/60/125/250/500/1000/2000/4000/8000 Aperture can be remembered by using this system: / Use two numbers (f/1 & f/1.4) and double them as you go. f/1, f/2,f/4,f/8,f/16,f/32 / f/1.4,f/2.8,f/5.6,f/11,f/22 Now put them together and you have your full range of full-stop apertures :) Some cameras will list 1/2 or even 1/3 stops. Aperture effects Depth of Field (DoF), which is the distance between the closest area in acceptable focus, and the furthest. Choose your aperture to suit your subject/scene. Adjust the other two parameters accordingly. If you ever come up to a situation that has a very high dynamic range (DR) and can’t wait for better light – bracket your shots. That is, expose +/- from the above settings. You can then either decide what you like best, or even combine exposures. (ask how). Of course – if you are a street/candid/journalistic/wildlife style photographer, then you may only get one chance. Which is more the reason to learn the above. Using additional lighting such as flash is a different matter, and other rules apply. The above is a basic guide to correct exposure for everyday and natural conditions. Hope this helps some people. Feel comfortable in asking anything, or contributing.

  • Photoshop Tutorial : " Under the Sheets " Displacement Maps Exposed!
    by Randy Monteith

    Hi everyone, Julie Langford asked me a few weeks back about doing Displacement Maps in Ph…

    Hi everyone, Julie Langford asked me a few weeks back about doing Displacement Maps in PhotoShop and then Darren Sharp asked me to help him out with an image he was working on. So I promised I would find the time to make a tutorial on one way I have used them in my art. Here’s an example of how I used a Displacement Map in PhotoShop The first thing we need to make is our Displacement Map. Our Displacement Map is going to help our Redbubble text follow the contours and folds of the blanket. Displacement Map Step 1: Load the original photo into PhotoShop Step 2: On the Menu choose IMAGE / ADJUSTMENTS / DESATURATE Now we have a black and white version of our original photo Step 3: From the Menu choose FILTER / BLUR / GAUSSIAN BLUR I choose a Radius value of 5 for this image Step 4: Now this is very important!!! Save this image as a .PSD file I saved mine as Displacement.psd Now to make the TEXT that we want to use like wrapping paper to follow the folds and contours of the blanket Step 5: Make some text on the screen or a flower pattern or photo or whatever you want. Here you can see i made some Redbubble text and then rotated it slightly to follow the angle of the blanket in the original photo. Important Note: Keep the size of this TEXT image the same dimensions as the original photo. Step 6: Save this TEXT image as a JPG with little or no compression at all. Putting it all together Step 7: Start a new image by opening our original Photo into PhotoShop. Step 8: Duplicate this layer LAYER / DUPLICATE Step 9: Turn off the original photo layer by clicking on the eye in the layers pallette / and then load the TEXT you made earlier as a layer above these two. So your layers palette should look something like this Step 10: Click on the TEXT layer so its highlighted to make it the active layer and click on the check box off to the left of it so the eye icon turns on and now you can see the TEXT image on your main screen. Step 11: From the Menu choose FILTER / DISTORT / DISPLACE … These are the setting that I used After you click ok it will ask you what .PSD file to load as the Displacement map. Load the file we made earlier called Displacement.psd Step 12: Now we have this distorted version of our TEXT image, but it has taken on the wrinkles and twists of our blanket and umm err our model too OOOOOOPPPs! Don’t worry we ill fix it up this is where we want to be right now. Step 13: With the TEXT layer the active layer still click on the ADD LAYER MASK icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette , indicated with the Green Arrow. This wiil create a LAYER MASK next to the TEXT Image layer shown with the RED Arrow. Layer Masks are great and wonderful things. When you paint with BLACK on them they reveal the pixels of the Layer underneath. If you make a mistake its easy to fix just change your paint colour to WHITE and then paint with white to correct your mistake. Step 14: On the TEXT layer change the Opacity of this layer to about 46% or so. / The Red arrow shows where I adjusted the opacity of the TEXT Layer. Step 15: Ok now we can see better what we want to Mask out. So Click on the Mask Layer Icon that is next to the TEXT LAYER on the LAYER palette to make sure its active. Step 16: Start painting out the girls face, the pillow and all the parts of the TEXT layer you don’t want to show on the final image. Here’s a detail shot of the Layers palette notice how the Layer Mask Icon is starting to fill up with BLACK where you started to MASK out the pixels of the TEXT LAYER. Step 17: Once you have finished masking out all the parts of the TEXT layer you don’t want showing change the OPACITY back up to 100%. Then change the LAYER BLENDING Mode to MULTIPLY for the TEXT LAYER. Here what it should look like. Step 18: Using the same techniques above, using the DISPLACEMENT technique and ad the big Redbubble text to the pillow and you will end up with this. Use a LAYER MASK and hide all the pixels of the big Redbubble text that fall on her face and hair. This will give it the appearance thats its just on the pillow. Here’s the original idea I did with this before the Redbubble version Other Tutorials On Redbubble How to make a Sketch and then a Pastel Portrait PhotoShop Tutorial : Another way to bring out details and sharpen a photo If you had fun or learned anything new here great ! It took me most of this evening to put this together. So please take some time to check out my gallery and if you wish comment on any of my artwork. Randy Monteith

  • TIP: A very useful colour adjustment tip
    by Alan Rodmell

    I am currently working through my third CS3 tutorial and I picking up a ton of useful tips for my photographic workflow. I just HAD to s…

    I am currently working through my third CS3 tutorial and I picking up a ton of useful tips for my photographic workflow. I just HAD to share this one with you. Regarding Hue/Saturation. When you overdo this on an adjustment layer in your photos your detail is lost and it looks really blocky. Sometimes you just can’t get the saturation adjustments you need. Here’s how its done – Thank you to Chris Orwig for this one. 1) Open you image and convert it to LAB colour using: Image – Mode – Lab Colour 2) Create a curves adjustment layer 3) In the Curves dialog box ALT-click the grid to get a more detailed display 4) Go to the a – channel 5) Pull the black slider on the bottom of the grid into the right just one grid line (in this example although you can play!) 6) Pull the white slider opposite into the left by the same one grid line 7) Switch to the b channel and repeat. 8) Check out your image. This method actually increases saturation in tones you couldn’t even see that you had. Its excellent for autumn leaves or rivers and waterfalls. 9) When your done exit Curves dialog and convert your image back to RGB (select to Flatten in the pop up prompt) 10) Your all done. This is by far the best tip I’ve discovered so far. I tried it out of interest on a shot from this afternoon and it brought out lovely greens in Autumn leaves and a lovely hazy blue on water and waterfalls. Try it – I think you will like it! :D

  • Tutorial: What Size Images Can I Print?
    by Gracey

    This is a question I see on a regular basis in the forums; sometimes in the journal entries as well. I know that RB has posted this in…

    This is a question I see on a regular basis in the forums; sometimes in the journal entries as well. I know that RB has posted this information in the forums, though for most new people it’s difficult to find. When you run a search from “my bubble” it doesn’t pick up forum threads, and if you aren’t a forum watcher (or don’t know the forums are there) you don’t even know you can search there. For anybody looking for the base information for required image sizes, the forum thread to see is in The Learning Centre Forum – FAQ listing posted by Peter What the post doesn’t tell you is that the various print sizes differ from image to image, based on the uploaded size of your image. Below are the minimum redbubble required pixels for printing, as well as 3 images of my own showing the uploaded pixel size, and the resulting printout size at redbubble. I hope this will help give an idea of what you’ll get from the image size you have. NB: if you have images that aren’t large enough for what you want, please see the end of the post for help redBubble Minimum Sizes for Prints Cards: 1300 pixels X 900 pixels Small prints: 1600 pixels X 2400 pixels / Med. Prints: 2160 X 3240 pixels / Large prints: 2560 pixels X 3840 pixels Posters small: 2500 pixels X 3500 pixels / Posters medium: 3500 pixels X 5000 pixels / Posters large: 5000 pixels X 7100 pixels Clothing: 2400 pixels X 3200 pixels Here are 3 of my uploads with the uploaded pixel dimensions, and what I can print from them: Strokes of the Lily (uploaded size 4200 X 5067) Cards / Matted Prints 9.6 X 11.5 / All Other Prints: Small 8 X 9.65, Medium 12 X 14.48, Large 16 X 19.3 / Posters: Small 16.5 X 19.9, Medium 23.4 X 28.2 (large is not available) Softest Dreams (uploaded size 7200 X 5023) Cards / Matted Prints 12.6 X 8.8 / All Other Prints Small 11.4 X 8, Medium 17.2 X 12, Large 22.9 X 16 / Posters Small 23.3 X 16.2, Medium 33 X 23, Large 46.8 X 32.6 On The Wind (uploaded size 3900 X 2571) Cards / Matted Prints 12 X 8 / All Other Prints Small 12 X 7.9, Medium 18 X 11.8, Large 24 X 15.8 / Poster Small 23.3 X 15.3 (other sizes not available because the uploaded file is not large enough) What You can Do if Your Images are Too Small Please have a look at the links below – these are various methods and instructions for increasing your image size so you can print the larger image sizes on redbubble. WARNING: image quality must be excellent in order to increase from small to large, so be sure your original sized image is of good quality. Increasing your images too much will cause artifacting that will show up in your large print. Basic Resizing Tutorial / How I Enlarge Images and Preserve Their Quality by Steven Love I know there are other image size tutorials, but I wasn’t able to find them doing a search. Please, if you have (or know of) other tutorials that are relative to this journal, post a link to them in the comments.

  • Create a Fantasy Forest Scene
    by Julie Langford

    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 :)

  • My painted with light technique explainded
    by Peter Zentjens

    Because of my Nostalgia series I received a few inquiries about …

    Because of my Nostalgia series I received a few inquiries about the “Painted with light” technique. About what it is and how it works. So, I decided to write a small article about it. This way, everybody who is interest in it can read it. I will not claim to be an expert in this technique, nor will I pretend that it’s something I discovered myself. It’s an old technique in the experimental photography. Rather then writing a complete tutorial on the technique I’ll try to reconstruct the path that lead me to where I’m today in the wonderful world of “painting with light”. At the end I’ll describe my own application of this lighting method in still life photography. First things first. Like many of you I’d never heard of “Painting with light” until I bumped into the work of Emil Schildt. Emil is an experimental photographer who’s experiments go in many directions. I’d like to try more of the things he has done, but, at the moment I’m still in the painting with light phase. Although Emil’s subjects are completely different from my own (his are nude models mostly), he was a huge inspiration for me. So, before you continue, check out his work in the painted with light category. (While you’re at it, check out the rest too, it’s worth a peek!). You will see that it really has a painterly feeling. Naturally, in Emil’s case, this feeling is enhanced by his other techniques, such as his special printing methods and so on. It’s this feeling that I was after in my lighting. What really got me experimenting was Emil’s description of his used techniques. Here is his painting with light tutorial. Based on this tutorial I started to experiment. In those days I was still shooting analogue and I quickly stopped again. The reason was simple. I had little spare time for my hobbies and practicing a new technique on film, having do develop them and mostly just see that it didn’t work out, having to start over again… Let’s just say it was discouraging and I wished I had a Polaroid camera. There was something better then Polaroid though: digital. When I bought my first digital camera I pick up my experiments again. The camera wasn’t really suited for it: long exposures resulted in more noise and enough dead pixels to fill up the sky with stars. But those problems where nothing Photoshop couldn’t handle and now I could experiment freely, see the results instantly and adjust my technique according to what I saw. I don’t know if it’s because the subjects are different, or because I’m jut not Emil, but I started to disagree on a number of things in his tutorial. I started to develop my own technique, or better said, my own work flow. Thinking of it that way, which is totally different from what I was thinking when I started writing this, I’ll end up writing my own tutorial anyway as I now see the differences with Emil’s tutorial that I had already forgotten. My work flow: / - Where emil advices to use a light bubble with a reflector, I advice to go for a flashlight. I suited my purposes better. Of course I’m working on a totally different scale. If you’re a model photographer I think you will have to stick to Emil’s advice. But if your subjects are smaller, like my still lifes, well, I preferred a shielded light source which produces a beam which is easier to aim with an to concentrate on one part of the image. - I don’t think I need to say this, but to be complete: you will need a tripod. - My first active step is simple yet takes up most of my time. It’s setting everything up. I start with a quick arrangement of my subjects on a table or whatever I’m using. I’m not carefully composing yet. Just putting the items in more or less the position I want to have them. This will usually changes ten times or more, but that’s not that important now. Right now, I’m looking for the angle mostly, for how to set-up the camera on the tripod. - Once the camera is up on the tripod I start to very carefully arrange my items and to really build up the composition. Of course, while doing this, the change is big that angle and crop are slightly adjusted again. All of this has little to do with the technique we are discussing, so let’s move on. - If this is the first time you are using this technique with this combination of tools (camera and light source) you will have to set up a balance between your camera and what you want to achieve. Now I’m mostly talking about the settings and amongst those most of all about white balance. Of course if you should raw you have the ability to edit the white balance later on and then it’s not so important. I wanted a very warm feeling so I leave my white balance to auto which results in a warm, reddish glow from my flashlight. It’s that combination, light source and white balance, that will dictate the colors and general mood. If you change your light or camera, you will have to search for the right settings again so try to stick to the same equipment as much as possible. When I bought my new camera and specially when I started to shoot in raw I totally lost direction and it took me a while to get the results I wanted again. On the other hand, once you used the same combination for a while, getting the results you want will go a lot smoother as you can know what to expect. - According to the size of the subject, the distance to it and so on, you will have to decide on a diafragm setting and a shutter speed. For the ISO value I would stick to the lowest one your camera has to reduce noise to an absolute minimum. The big advantage of digital is that you can do a few trial runs to see if you set up your aperture and shutter speed correctly. If not, don’t change your aperture ! You need that to pick the DOF. The big difference here is that Emil’s shooting models that have to sit still, so you want the fastest shutter speed possible. But my still lifes aren’t going anywhere, so I adjust the shutterspeed and keep the DOF where I want it. - Now, to make the actual picture, or to do your trial runs, I said the camera on “timer”. I make the room pitch dark, which is very important as you don’t want any light source then your own interfere with your image. I use my flashlight to find the camera again, push the shutter, and wait for the timer. - It’s here that the fun starts. Trust me, you will need a whole bunch of trials before getting it right. Work out a “path” for your light source to follow. Try to get the lightning right in one smooth motion. You can also hesitate with the light source on certain points of your composition to highlight them. You can move slowly or very fast to achieve different effects. Just be creative! Remember one rule of thumb though: keep moving the light or it will burn a spot into your image. If you want to highlight something, for example, make a slow circular motion to get a soft edge. Of course, it’s totally possible that you want that burned in spot, like I said: be creative. Just think of it this way: / your flashlight is your brush, light is your paint. - Repeat this, over and over again, until you get what you want, until you have your path worked out, the way the strokes of light have to be applied just right. - You are shooting digital, don’t be afraid of Photoshop or similar programs. Photoshop is your friend, even more accurate, Photoshop is your darkroom. Not all digital cameras give good results on longer, darker exposures like I already mentioned. So it’s possible that you will need a lot of Photoshop work to correct noise and dead pixels but I use it for a little more then just that. - At this point, I have several images which I like, but you will see this happening too: picture 1 has the light just right on item 1, picture 2’s background is far better lit and picture 3 has a spot of light on this tiny detail that non of your other picks have. I’m just giving an example here. I think you can guess my next step, right? I’m going to melt those 3 images into one where I have the light exactly the way I want it, everywhere. I’ll do this using masks mostly. Hiding bits from one image, showing bits from another, until everything is just right. I already mentioned the noise work (no longer necessary for me with my K10D) and the removal of dead pixels and do some other small adjustments like a little dodging, burning, small color corrections etc. Just like I would do in my darkroom in the ol’days. That’s it! That’s all there is to it. By now you should have one beautiful painted with light image. By way of inspiration, I hope, I’ll show you one of mine again. If you want more, check out my Nostalgia series update: this tutorial continues here

  • Black and White Tutorial
    by Elvina-Mae Farkas

    OK, many people ask me how I get my black and white photos done, and most of the time I try my hardest to explain it all through a reply …

    OK, many people ask me how I get my black and white photos done, and most of the time I try my hardest to explain it all through a reply email. But recently a bubbler bubblemailed me and asked, so THIS time I figured I’d draw one up. So 4 hours later and I think Im done. WARNING: LARGE LARGE LARGE FILE!! WILL TAKE A WHILE TO DOWNLOAD But once downloaded, I suggest that you right-click and SAVE, so you dont have to come back each time. =) And another thing – sorry if there is incorrect spelling, punctuation etc. I didnt read over it! OKIE DOKIE – so for starters, pick a image you would like to turn into black and white. Ive made this tut to suit a portrait photo. You can do it with landscape, etc. Just with some common knowledge of where to edit and put things. Shouldn’t be too hard! So here is my orginal: / This is a photo of my mate Tristan. Pretty plain photo of him sitting in the car, on our way to the races. =) HERE WE GO! WOO-LAH! I also just edit to get rid of his moles, etc. That might be my next tutorial – haha! Hope this helps guys! Feel free to comment if you need help etc. I’ll try and do my best to answer them for you!

  • Post Processing Tutorial
    by Hougaard Malan

    Post Processing 2 Sooooo…..It’s been about 3 months (I think) since my first tutorial and I’ve learnt a lot from photoshop in the mean…

    Post Processing 2 Sooooo…..It’s been about 3 months (I think) since my first tutorial and I’ve learnt a lot from photoshop in the mean time! So this is the improvement on my first tut and I’ll be going a bit more into using layers and levels to achieve better and more dynamic color range in your photos. Firstly, my disclaimer to all you critics out there. I have split landscape photography into 2 main genres. The first group show you nature as it is, they do very little processing and their photos always have a very clean, natural look. .The second group have a more artistic approach to their photography. They use a variety of cokin or lee creative filters, IR filters, strong ND filters and my favorite, Photoshop to make their photos more interesting and ‘artistic’. Now, no one can criticize the methods I am about to explain on making your photos more ‘interesting’ !!:) Secondly, to use this tutorial you must be able to shoot in RAW, because many times different parts of the images need slightly different exposures and you can achieve this with the RAW tool, with minimal loss of quality. I recommend you read my previous tut before reading this one. Here it is http://news.deviantart.com/article/35712/ Thirdly, Photoshop CS3. If you have CS2 then you’ll need to download the RAW tool plug-in which you can find at www.adobe.com . / / I’m not gonna explain how to open images or crap like that. This is not a tutorial for morons. So let’s get started! 1.Open the image your going to process, If it’s a RAW file and you have the PS RAW tool then it should open in the RAW tool. There is never any correct amount, it’s all personal opinion and what looks right to you. So whenever I say adjust something, you decide how much. You will learn what is the right amount over time. Adjust the following as much as(and IF) necessary. / White balance / Exposure / Blacks / Contrast / Vibrance The following Isn’t necessary, it can just add a little touch of vibrance or color to you photos. .Above all the sliders you’ll see a row of tabs that you can click on for other adjustments. I only ever use one, and that’s the one that looks like a coil: HSL/grayscale. That’s a confusing synonym for ‘messing around with the color’. Play around with the hue until your happy, but never adjust too much. Now at the top of the sliders there’s another sub-row of tabs. LEAVE SATURATION OUT. Go to luminance, play around, not too much though. 1a.In the case of a panorama, open all images to be stitched. Top left, click ‘select all’. Make the adjustments, save as PSD’s (doesn’t lose quality when saving, JPEG does). Merge them, layerflatten image. Crop the image, save the merged, cropped pano as a PSD and delete the PSD’s you just merged it from(they take a LOT of space). Now close it and open the merged pano PSD you just saved in the last step. This is so you can use the history brush. You’re now finished with the RAW tool, open image. The problem you now face with most images is that you want to enhance certain areas of the photo in certain ways. How do you do this? Layers…what is a layer exactly? Don’t be an idiot. It’s a layer! And layers are probably photoshop’s nr.1 key to success. You can put 500 layers on top of each other, and in the case of a photo it will always be copies of the same photo on top of each other. 2.Open the layer window. If you really don’t know how….press F7 and I will magically open it for you. 3.So decide how many parts of the image you want to edit separately and press ctrl+J to make copy layers, as many as you need + an extra one for last minute corrections. Now I’m going to guide you through the processing of my most recent image because it required the sky, ground and branch to have separate editing so it’s a good example. http://hougaard.deviantart.com/art/Shadow-of-the-Dead-76081703 Firstly the most recent one, which is a pano. I did everything as explained in step 1a. then step 2 and then step 3, to create four layers. one for the sky, one for the ground, one for the branch and one for any ‘oopsies’. 4.Edit the sky using the levels tool (ctrl+L), Do the RGB, then click the tab to select the levels of each color and then edit each color separately to get the color, tone and exposure that looks ideal to you. Make any other adjustments (curves, selective color etc.) to this layer. 5. Now that you can differ between the top layer (the one your looking at) and the one beneath it you can apply your first gradient mask. / At the bottom of the layers window you’ll see a rectangle with a circle in it. click it. you’ll see that a blank rectangle appeared next to the top layer. That’s your layer mask. 6.Now select the gradient tool by pressing G. You’ll get to know gradients as you use them more but to start click a short distance above the horizon and drag it a short distance below the horizon. See the result? You now revealed the bottom half of your top layer and what you now see is the layer below it.(to undo and try again simply press ctrl+alt+Z) You can reveal the top half simply by dragging the gradient the other way. You can create the gradient in any direction, opacity etc. Play around with the settings above the window! 7. Now in the levels window, select the 2nd layer. Edit it for the ground as in step 4. 8.If there is anything in the area of the horizon like a tree that’s sticking into the sky but but must have the same editing as the ground then you can either erase part of the mask(remember to select the mask in the layers tool) or you can use the history brush. If you have a simple photo in which only the ground and sky needed separate editing then you’re finished now. If you don’t want to lose you work, Save as a PSD at full resolution(if you don’t, you always regret it). 9.If your photo has another subject that needs it own editing then you’ve still got some work to do. Click on the top layer in the layer window and press ctrl+E to merge the 2 top layers. In my case, the branch still needed editing, I wanted to give it a reddish color to bring some more color to the photo. 2 ways to go about this. 9a. One is to select the branch with whatever lasso tool you prefer(3rd tool from the top, right click to select a specific one). Select the object. Now you’ll see, above the image there’s a tab that says ‘refine edge’. Click it and play around with the setting to well….refine the edge. Now you can just erase the object without a worry from your top layer to reveal the object from the layer beneath. 9b. The other way is to just erase it carefully, select the fine edged brush and start with a big brush, erase the center, select a smaller brush and move closer to the edge and so forth and so forth…. Both take time and patience. Effectiveness varies depending on the subject. If the object is well defined and isolated then I advise you use the first way. 10. Now that you’ve erased the object from the top layer and you see the object from the layer beneath it you can select that layer in the levels window and do the necessary editing to your object. And at the end of all that my photo was finished. The original was 70003500 pixels and when you do your processing at that scale and you upload something like a 1200700 to DA then most rough edges are unvisible and disappear. If you know that someone’s gonna buy a huge print then you better be more careful! 11. I Then pressed ctrl+E again to merge the top 2 layers and I still had one beneath the top layer(which is now the merged top 3). This bottom layer still has nothing done to it except the RAW adjustments. If you’re top layer has anything that went wrong in the editing like a rough edge, blown highlight, a shadow that’s too dark. Whatever. Eraser or history brush can usually fix it. Always save a full resolution PSD of your completed work because for certain photos this can take an hour or even more. And go through my previous tut http://news.deviantart.com/article/35712/ because it covers smaller useful things in PS and some steps that I don’t properly explain in this one. Some useful things about photoshop…. Practice makes perfect! Don’t stick to what you know, experiment! Photoshop is like maths, there’s a hundred ways to get to the same result!

  • (Photography) Knowledge is Power
    by Stephen Mitchell

    Here is an amazing bunch of Photography Essays and Tutorials I found buried within luminous-landscape.com...

    Here is an amazing bunch of Photography Essays and Tutorials I found buried within luminous-landscape.com early this morning. I plan to do a LOT of reading! Understanding Aspect Ratios and the Art of Cropping Understanding Soft Proofing Understanding Sensor Issues Understanding Printer Colour Management Understanding Raw Files Understanding Local Contrast Enhancement Understanding Contrast Masking Understanding Digital USM Understanding MTF Charts Understanding Histograms Understanding Digital Sensor Cleaning Understanding Digital Work Flow Understanding Mirror Lock-Up Understanding Medium Format Understanding Depth of Field Understanding Polarizers Understanding Lens Contrast Understanding BOKEH Understanding Bit Depth Understanding Sharpness Understanding Resolution Understanding Camera Movements Understanding Colour Theory Understanding the DSLR Magnification Factor Understanding SLR Viewfinders Understanding Exposure Understanding Digital Blending Understanding ProPhoto RGB Understanding Lens Diffraction Understanding Panoramic Stitching Yikes! Yes, there is a so much here to read, but certainly worth it!

  • Weird Creatures and Photoshop Transform Tools
    by Julie Langford

    Ok, so here is how I used the Edit transform tools in Photoshop to create / / Wiseman / !http://images-2.redbubble.com/img/art/cropped/...

    Ok, so here is how I used the Edit transform tools in Photoshop to create / / Wiseman / and Fish Monster / / / Have loads of fun and be creative – things just appear right before your eyes using this method. / / 1. Open Photoshop and create a new transparent document 3200 high by 2400 wide [you can post a Tshirt with these dimensions as well as an art piece]. / / 2. Create a new layer and fill the bottom layer with solid black [you will need this dark background to see what you are doing later]. / / / / 3. Working on the top, tranparent layer – draw a random shape using the pen tool [create smooth curves by clicking and dragging, until you get back to your first point to close the path]. / / / / 4. Down on the bottom right click on the Paths tab on the layers palette. At the bottom of the palette, click on the convert to selection icon [shown in red below] – this will convert your path to a selection. / / / / 5. Fill this selection with a multicoloured gradient [or two colours of your choice]. / / / / 6. Click on Edit [up the top], then on Free Transform. This puts a border around your selection so that you can resize it. hit enter when you are happy with the resize to apply it. Then use the move tool in the toolbar on the left to move it to the centre of your canvas. / / / / 7. Back in the bottom right Layers palette, click back onto the layer tab. Duplicate the top layer [right click it and click duplicate]. / / 8. Working on the top layer again, click Edit, Transform, rotate. This puts a border around your image and allows you to drag the corners to rotaate the layer. Rotate it enough so that it moves slightly away from the layer beneath [see below]. Hit enter to apply the rotation. / / / / 9. Repeat the layer duplication and rotate until you have about 6 layers – keep the rotation reasonably uniform. / / / / 10. In the layers palette, click the top layer, hold ctrl on the keyboard and click all the other layers – except the bottom, black layer. This will highlight [select] them all. Once selected, righ click them, and click on merge layers. You will now have two layers in the layers palette again. A black layer [at the bottom], and a new layer with your rotation work above it. / / 11. Working on the top layer, click on Edit, transform and warp. this puts a grid over the image, which you can drag in multiple places and directions to completely change the appearance of your image. Work with this until you have a long warped shape like below. hit enter to aply the warp efect. / / / / 12. Repeat the whole process again, duplicating and rotating the layers until you have something like the image below. / / / / 13. Select all the layers except the black layer again and merge them. [youre now back to two layers again]. / / 14. Duplicate the top layer again, move it away from the other layer on your canvas. Warp it so that it is longer and thinner than the original layer that you duplicated [see below] / / / / 15. Click Edit, Free Transform to resize it. / / / / 16, Rotate it and place it over the other layer on your canvas. In the layer palette, drag the long thin layer to underneath the other layer, so that it appears underneath it in the platte [and on your canvas]. / / / / 17. Select both layers [but not the black layer] and merge them. / / 18. Click on image [up the top], and then on rotate canvas, then on 90 degrees CW. Duplicate the top layer, then click on Edit, Transform, then flip horozontally. Now move this new layer over until it lies side by side to the other layer. Select both layers [but not the black layer], and merge them. / / 19. Working on the top layer, click layer up the top, and then New, and then Layer. Draw an oval selection using the circular marquee tool in the eye area, and fill it with white. / / / / 20. Duplicate this layer and drag it over using the move tool to cover the other eye with a white oval. / / 21. Create another new layer, and use the paintbrush and black, and click once on each eye white to create pupils. Ctrl click all the eye layers in the layer pallette and merge them. / / 22. Working on this eye layer, click the word Layer [up the top], then Layer style, then Inner shadow. Apply the settings below to give your eyes life. / / / / 23. Click on the black layer in the layer palette, then click on Layer, new layer up the top to create a new layer above the black layer. / / 24. Use the Polygonal Lasso tool and draw a shape within your image for a beak [see below]. / / / / 25. Fill this selection shape with a dark grey to yellow gradient [top to bottom]. / / 26. Still working on this beak layer, click on Layer [up the top], layer style, Inner Shadow, and use similar settings to when you did the eyes to give depth the the beak. / / 27. Crtl click all the layers except the black layer and merge layers. You are now back to two layers – one black, and one with your image above it. It will look something like the image below. / / / / To save your image to post as art on a black background, go to file, save as, and save as a jpeg. This will merge and flatten the work. / / To save your work to post as a Tshirt, first, click the eye icon next to the black layer in the layer palette to make it disappear – your black background will become invisible. Now go to file, save as, and save as a png file. / / Voila – you have created a critter using transform tools in Photoshop. / / You can also use this method with parts of photographs, like I did with Fish monster. Try all sorts of things to get neat effects – a spoon, as nail, a scewdriver even. / / Most importantly, transform, transform, duplicate and transform some more – the more you use, the better your results will be. / / Have fun! /

  • Sort of a tutorial on portraits!
    by Andy73

    I have had a couple of requests asking me how I do my portraits. / I may not do this the right or the most effective way, but this is what…

    I have had a couple of requests asking me how I do my portraits. / I may not do this the right or the most effective way, but this is what I have learnt from playing around so far, only just a newby to all of this. FOR STARTERS, BACK DROP AND LIGHTING / Sheet on the good ol’ hills clothes line for the backdrop, and the sunshine for my lighting. I havent used reflectors before, but would like to get some eventually. Other than that, I cant really say what I do, I just shoot. PHOTOSHOP / Using one of my shots ‘Blue’ as an example, using 4 steps to achieve, the eyes, the skin tone, converting to mono, and selective colour. The way I bring out the eyes is something I do for all my portraits. TO BRING OUT THE EYES / To start with, use the lasso tool, and select the eyes and mouth, then apply the unsharp mask. / To help bring out the eyes even more, use the dodge tool, set for midtones at about 7% using a small brush. *I never sharpen the entire image in portraits, just the eyes, and mouth, sometimes the hair. SKIN TONE / I use a program called ‘Neat Image’, a noise reduction program, which helps smooth out skin tones. This is the only shot i have used on a childs portrait, as I dont really think its necessary, and it can also effect the eye and mouth area, so careful not to overdo it. CONVERTING TO MONO / Layer – New Fill colour – Solid colour – set mode to color. In color picker set all values in RGB to 28. / This is the way I convert most of my images to mono, much more effective way than desaturating image. SELECTIVE COLOUR / Select the second layer and using a small soft brush eraser tool, delete the parts you want in colour. / For the edges change the opacity to about 20% to avoid a harsh line and to blend between mono and color. / Then going back to the first layer, I play around with the levels / and colour adjustment until you get the effect you want. I think thats about it. Hopefully this helps, and if anyone has any other tips, corrections, or better ways to do this, would love to learn.

  • Its all about the Eyes - A Tutorial
    by Sarah Moore

    I have had heaps of people ask me how I put together my Eye Series… !http://images-0.redbubble.com/img/art/size:small/view:main/81…

    I have had heaps of people ask me how I put together my Eye Series… So I thought I would let you all in on the secret… Desaturate… First of all I add a new layer in PS above the original and fill with black then change the blend mode to colour. To bring out the eyes… Add a mask to the black layer and with a small soft brush (set to black) delete the parts you want in colour. Using the lasso tool (with a small amount of feather say 5px) on the original layer select the eyes (hold down the shift key to select both eyes). Then apply the Unsharp Mask – play with the settings until you get the effect you want – don’t over sharpen or they will look weird. Then play with the saturation and contrast until you get exactly the colour you want. This effect only works really well with light eyes (brown eyes don’t come out as well) – BUT if you want to get really tricky you can apply a layer in between the black layer and original layer, then fill with a blue colour and change the blend mode to colour and hey presto a blue eye!! Butterflies… I change the colours of the butterflies to suit each image by going to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and playing with the hue until I get the colour I want. Crocodile Tears… The eye in Crocodile Tears wascreated by finding a stock image of a crocodile and copying its eye and placing it under Ty’s eye, after erasing the area that was his eye! There was then lots of adjusting to get it to fit correctly and getting the colour right. Hope this makes sense – if there are any other questions feel free to bubblemail me!

  • The Patch Tool, a major time saver.
    by Deri Dority

    The patch tool is often a very underutilized tool in Photoshop. Hidden under the Spot healing brush and 2 other tools, the Patch tool i…

    The patch tool is often a very underutilized tool in Photoshop. Hidden under the Spot healing brush and 2 other tools, the Patch tool is similar to a combination of the lasso tool and the healing tool. You select an area, click the appropriate button (source or destination- mine is usually on source) and then drag the selection to another area that has characteristics that fit your needs. For example, in one of my photos, “Fall in the Hills”, the photo was dotted with houses and roads that didn’t add to the composition. I simply drew around the houses and roads with the patch tool and drug them into an area with trees. The result is no more houses/roads, that simple. The patch tool is often superior and easier to use than the clone tool, especially for large areas, achieving better results. Another example, if someone has black rings under the eyes, you trace around the area that needs work on, select “source” in the Tools Option Bar right above the Tools Palette), and drag it to an another area of skin that has a more likely color. Make sure that the area you are dragging to is blemish free, as you will pick up any blemishes that are in the destination area. The best way to see how this tool works is to practice with it. Easy to use, you can cut your work time way down by using this over the clone tool. I rarely use the spot healing tools any more as well, finding this faster and easier. For most general use, it is easy to use. It takes a little more practice to use when there are lines in the area that needs to be fixed. You must drag it to a destination that has the lines at the exact same angle. / The patch tool goes all the way back to Photoshop 7, and has been improved on in the newer versions of Photoshop.

  • The T-shirt Training Tutorial
    by Michael Alesich

    To make a t-shirt file in however many easy steps needed for Photoshop A rough and ready guide 1. The new t-shirt file / Downl…

    To make a t-shirt file in however many easy steps needed for Photoshop A rough and ready guide 1. The new t-shirt file / Download the t-shirt template from the t-shirt upload section or input 2400 wide by 3200 high at 200 pixels/inch in RGB into a new Photoshop file as below. Note: If you are making a black t-shirt ensure the background is blank and there is no background layer 2. Artwork Input / Place artwork file by copying and pasting the art in from another file, this part is entirely up to you. One recommendation though is to have a look at the chart below. This chart indicates how the different colours will work on the different coloured fabrics. Confused? well if you want to print black on any of the 9 plain t-shirts then it should print just fine(left row and right row to the second bottom) but yellow seems to be almost entirely lost on the red, the green and the olive t-shirts. The t-shirt with the big difference is the black one on the bottom right. Since it has white printed behind the text it doesn’t really matter what colour you print onto it. 3. Check your file over This isn’t really a step but I’ll put it in regardless. / Your file will finish up on the front of a t-shirt so be aware your borders will not be the edge of the visible space. This is the maximum printable area on a t-shirt. / / So don’t expect it to cover the sleaves or wrap around to the back just yet. 4. Save the file / The last thing to do is to save your file as a png file, this is the requirement to be able to output to a t-shirt. / If you wish to save an initial PSD file to keep any layers used seperated. Once you are definately happy put in save as and select PNG instead of PSD as below. Save the file then upload as a t-shirt.

  • Red Bubble Tip #1: Adding a Portfolio Banner to Your Red Bubble Profile Page
    by bchrisdesigns

    I am not sure if someone else has already posted a tutorial on this, so I thought I would have a go at it. I read “this (How to add a Po…

    I am not sure if someone else has already posted a tutorial on this, so I thought I would have a go at it. I read this very insightful tutorial by admin Xavier Shay about posting a Portfolio into an email signature. I was toying around with the code, and discovered how to place the code on your Red Bubble profile page. I have noticed that some people have already figured out how to do this, so there are some who probably already know about this. I, however, did not know this until I toyed around with it and, so, I am sure that there others out there who might find this of value. I would first recommend that you read Xavier’s post and the comments that follow, as they were a very big help in learning how to do this. (1) The first step is to use the image location link that was provided in the forum tutorial: http://redbubble.com/people/username/recipe:banner;back_color:ffffff;orientation:horizontal;limit:4/username_banner.jpg (2) Next, paste this image location link somewhere in your “About Me” section between exclamation points, like this: !place the image location link here! (3) Now, notice the bold areas of the above link. You must insert your Red Bubble username (not your real name) where it says username (there are two spots in the link where you have to do this). So, my link would like like this: http://redbubble.com/people/bchrisdesigns/recipe:banner;back_color:ffffff;limit:4_;orientation:_horizontal;/bchrsidesigns_banner.jpg Can you tell where I have replaced “username” with “bchrisdesigns”? (4) Finally, if you take note of the italicized text in the image location link directly above, you will notice that the values of “back_color”, “orientation”, and “limit” are all italicized. These values are yours to control and manipulate to get the proper look and feel that you would like on your page. back_color: is the image’s background color, which you can change to any color using the standard HTML Color Code. Note, that you do not need to use the # (pound sign) that normally precedes HTML Color Code (i.e. ”#ffffff”) – you just need the code (i.e. “fffffff”). #ffffff is the color code for “white”. limit: is the number of thumbnails that will be seen in your banner. I have experimented with this in my blog and have discovered that the most you can set it to is “6”. On your Red Bubble profile page, the most you can really set it to is “4” for horizontal images and “6” for vertical images orientation: is the way your portfolio will be seen. This can be changed to either “horizontal” (from side-to-side) or “vertical” (up and down). And, that is it. Once you have decided how you want your image to look, just save your profile and presto! You’ve got a nifty banner on your page. BUT… If you would like your banner to be click-able, you need to add a link code to it, such as: ”! image location here ! ( link description here )” : hyperlink here You can copy and paste this example into your “About Me” section and then fill in the blanks with your information (make sure you delete any and all spaces). In the above example, replace the underlined text as follows: image location here: replace this text with the finalized image location link that we worked on in steps 1-4 above. link description here: replace this text with a description of what you would like people to see when they hover over your banner. (Mine says “View My Red Bubble Gallery”.) hyperlink here: replace this text with the actual hyperlink that you would like your image to link to (i.e. a specific Red Bubble section or your profile page; you can also link to your blog/website/etc.). Once you replace the text as indicated, simply save your edited profile and check out your radical awesomeness! Here is an example of mine (with hyperlink): I hope this helps everyone! Cheers! P.S. I am adding this to all of my groups in the hopes that everyone can use this tool to display their beautiful works of art (from Atmospheric Optics to Zoophoria). Much love!

  • HDR tutorial
    by Kevin Kroeker

    I am sure that many of you have heard of HDR or High Dynamic range photography. I am a huge fan of HDR as you can probably see in my port…

    I am sure that many of you have heard of HDR or High Dynamic range photography. I am a huge fan of HDR as you can probably see in my portfolio. I have been asked by a few people what HDR is and how to go about making HDR images. I have found a website that shows the step by step process of creating fantastic HDR images. Just click the link below. / / HDR tutorial / / / As well also see John Conway’s blog on HDR… a fantastic artist here on Redbubble

  • Moonwalk on black
    by Jason Moses

    US$23.94

    Step-by-step guide on how to moonwalk. Can’t read the instructions on the preview, so they are as follows: (above pics) Find some white gaiters and a fedora/trilby for extra effect Put on your favourite loafers Step onto a smooth floor (below pics) One foot in front of the other, knees relaxed. Keep the toes on the ground and lift the right heel. Really point that right foot, but keep it in place. Slide back the left with a straighter leg. Straighten the right leg and bend the left as the left foot comes back. Bring back the right foot with a straight leg, keeping the left foot in place. Really point that left foot. Bask in glory as the crowd marvels at your skill.

  • Photo to Lineart
    by Alison Johnston

    Lets have a look at changing a photograph to lineart. Some photos are going to be easier to convert to lineart than others. For example…

    Lets have a look at changing a photograph to lineart. Some photos are going to be easier to convert to lineart than others. For example, the simpliest would be anything with straight, definate lines … like buildings, walls, furniture etc., Some images are going to convert well straight away, others may need a little more manipulation. You are going to have a couple of different filters that can be used and a couple of adjustments to tweak …... like we would expect anything else from Photoshop :-) Grab my birdie image below to practise on if you like …. no larger images than this, so just right click and save as. Once you have the image open in Photoshop, double click on the b/ground and accept the default Layer 0 …. or rename it. Then duplicate the layer and from the top menu bar go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+U The Find Edges filter, found under Filter>Stylize>Find Edges doesn’t give us a dialogue box to tweak, but go ahead and use that filter now on the desaturated layer if you like. You can see that it hasn’t done that bad a job, especially with this image. Go to the top menu bar and use Image>Adjustments>Levels and you can punch in the same numbers that I have below, or use some of your own. Lets back up and try the Poster Edges Filter. In your History Palette click back on Desaturate. If your history palette isn’t open go to Window>History. Open the Filter Gallery by going to Filter>Filter Gallery and then open the Artistic Folder, then click on Find Edges. I don’t know if you can see the numbers I punched in, but they were Thickness 1 – Intensity 1 – Posterization 6. Click OK. So that looks awful :-) Go to the top menu bar and choose Image>Adjustments>Levels to bring up the levels dialogue box. You can see in the image below, that I’ve really had to push the numbers to get a reasonable effect. I think the eyes have turned out better in this version than the find edges version. In the final image below I have blended together the Find Edges and the Poster Edges layers. I filled the b/ground (birdie) with white and used the eraser tool on both of the other layers to take away what I didn’t want. I could have gone in and dodged some of the darker lines to make them less prominent, but overall this hasn’t turned out too bad for a rather complicated image. Try doing a building yourself and you’ll see how much easier it is :-) You can also use Curves and Brightness/Contrast from the top menu bar instead of Levels. You can also leave the b/ground bird as it was and take the opacity of your lineart down to bring some colour back in to the bird.

  • Pimp It Up Tutorial
    by Angi Baker

    PIMPING UP YOUR PROFILE PAGE TUTORIAL Adding Your Art Work On Your Profile Page Instructions 1…

    PIMPING UP YOUR PROFILE PAGE TUTORIAL Adding Your Art Work On Your Profile Page Instructions 1. Sign Into Redbubble (Do this twice on 2 seperate pages) / 2. On one page go to Mybubble / 3. account / 4. Edit you profile / 5. Scroll down to About You box (this is where you will be adding / all of your stuff…. / 6. NOW…Leave that page as it is and go to the other one you have / pulled up. / 7. click Mybubble / 8. Now you will see a bar of things listed for you to use / 9. Ex.. activity,groups,account,art,clothing,writing,calendars,journal, / watchlist,favorites,promote and bubblmail / 10. You click on Art / 11. This will bring you up to all of your work that you have added to / Redbubble… / 12. Ex… of adding one and you can do this to however many you want. / 13. Say you want to add the first one on your list / 14. You will go beside that photo and click on Show public View / 15. Now, click on Buy/Preview / 16. Now… You should see cards,matted,laminated,mounted etc…. / 17. I usually pick laminated, but you can use any of them that you / prefer… / 18. Click on the one you prefer to add to your profile page / 19. That work will now show up, you may also choose a backing color / with a few of these and or frame/matted colors over to the right / also if your works are big enough you may choose a size. / 20. That will all show up. / 21. Now… On that work of art that you see of yours, you will now / Right click your mouse right on top of that photo. / 22. Another box will pop up and you will want to choose properties / by left clicking on properties. / 23. Another box should appear / 24. Where you see the address Url you will want to take your mouse / and hold down the left side of your mouse while moving it across / down being sure to grab all of that address url, it should highlight. / 25. Now With your mouse let go of the left and right click and then / left click copy and also ok… / 26. Now let thatpage stay there and we will go to the other page of / redbubble that we have pulled up. / 27. Go to where you see the about you box / 28. Let’s add this work into that box / 29. First you will want to add an exclamtion mark Example ! / 30. Now directly behind that, we will right click our mouse and then left / click and then paste. / 31. Directly behind this we will add another exclamtion mark Example ! / 32. This should all be in one with no spaces at all (NONE) / 33. Now if you want that work to connect and direct people back to / your comment page of this work. / 34. Leave this page as it is and go back to the other one you have pulled up / 35. Let’s click on the back button two times so it brings us back to our / comment page. / 36. Now… at the very top of that page in the address bar you will put your / mouse in this area and… / 37. Left click and it should turn this blue. / 38. Let go and now lets right click on that highlighted address / 39. And the left click copy / 40. Now… back to the other page you have pulled up where you added / the other work… / 41. You will now want to add a : directly behind the ! and then you will / 42. right click your mouse, then left click and paste. / 43. Now lets save those changes. / 44. You’re Done You can also add lines between any work on your page by simply / holding down the line button —-——- until it goes all the way across… Adding your favorite artsists on your profile page / Some of you may have some favorite artists that you would like others / to know about, so what better way of doing this than to add them on / your profile page and linking them, WANNA KNOW HOW? 1. Find your favorite artist and go to their page / 2. Now you can just click on any of their work / 3. Their work page will now show up with the comment page / 4. you will also see to the right a small icon of them / 5. You will Right click your mouse on the top of their icon / 6. left click properties. / 7. Hold left mouse while grabbing the whole address url again / like you did for your art. / 8. Now… right click, and then left click copy and ok… / 9. Go back to your about me box / 10. add you ! / 11. then right click mouse and then left click paste / 12 and another ! / 13. remember no spaces in between / 14. NOW.. to link that to their page… / 15. We will simply use our other page and go back to their profile page / 16. Now we will go back to the very top to the address bar / 17. now lets left click on that url so it will highlight in blue / 18. Now lets right click and left click copy / 19. go back to about me box where you just added their icon / 20. Lets add our : / 21. now simply right click and then left click paste / 22. save all changes / 23. Your Done! / / I do hope that this tutorial is of use to you all here… / ~Angi

  • How I created Guardians
    by Julie Langford

    Ok – First I want to pay credit to both Susan Davies , who provided the base image of Castell…

    Ok – First I want to pay credit to both Susan Davies , who provided the base image of Castell Coch and to Rose Moxon , who kindly created the 3D dragons that I used in this composition. Thank you both – I could’nt have created this without you guys. / / I used Photoshop CS2 to create this image / / I started with Susan’s image below / / / / I used a duplicate layer [made the background invisible with the eye icon in the layer palette], and used a medium hardness eraser to erase all of the backgroung behind the castle to produce the image below. / / / / Then, I had to remove all those trees from the image, that were covereing the castle. For this I used various sized, soft clone brushes and fine paintbrushes to paint back in detail that was lost due to the cloning process – Very time consuming, but also very rewarding at the end of it. The image then looked like the one below. / / / / I then wanted to place the castle onto a rock tower, so I used a shot that I took at a local beach in the summer of 2007. This rock is only about 12 ft high. / / / / I pasted this rock image onto my composition as a new layer behind the castle, then again used the eraser to remove the parts that I didnt want, until I reached the result below. / / / / I then merged these two layers and used the edit transform perspective tool to change to perspective of the image – I wanted the image to look as if I were looking up at the caste slightly and I wanted the rocks to appear large and towering. The result is below. / / / / Now for the sky – I used an image that I took of a sunset in Cameroon in November 2006 / / / / I placed this sky image behind the castle – rock layer to produce the image below. / / / / Next I worked on the sky and castle layer in turn and adjusted the colour, using edit adjustments colour balance, until I created a nice tone for each layer, which both balanced with each other. I also adjusted the exposure slightly on the sky layer to give it a bit more kick. The image now looked like the one below. / / / / I wasn’t happy with the shadows and highlights on the castle in relation to the sky, so next I worked on both layers in turn and used dodge to add highlights and burn to add dark shadows and gloomy clouds. / / / I then adjusted the levels to make the castle layer a bit darker so it blended in with the sky – the result then became my base image which you can see below. / / / / I now wanted to add atmosphere to the image, so I created a new fill layer and used a very soft brush to paint in a light green fill at about 30% opacity, covering the whole layer in one go. I added a litttle noise and changed the blend of this layer to Colour Burn. The result was a deep rich feel that you can see below. / / / / I then flattened the image and just went over it to add any final highlights and shadows with the dodge and burn tools. / / I then used two dragon images that Rose kindly created for me – you can see them below. / / / / / / I placed these images onto the composition, using edit, free transform to resize them and then added a new layer to create some foggy mist around them. For this I used a lasoo tool, with feathering set to 30 to select the area that I wanted to have mist and filled it with white at about 30% opacity. I then added noise and added a box blur. I then added a glowing edge with a high spread to this layer by adding a layer style. The last step was to erase any mist that had covered the dragons with a fine eraser and using the dodge tool once more to bring out highlights on the creatures, before flattening and saving the image as Guardians / / To see the finished piece, click Here /

  • Photographing paintings for uploading to the internet.
    by Marilyn Brown

    Okay let me start of by saying, like most painters I’m not much of a photographer. I don’t have a studio set up with a SLR Camera, lighti…

    Okay let me start of by saying, like most painters I’m not much of a photographer. I don’t have a studio set up with a SLR Camera, lighting lamps and tripods set up to take images of my work but then I’m guessing many of you will be in the same situation. / I am just going to give you some hints on how to present your work in the best possible light to load up onto redbubble. 1. Take your photos outside in natural light. Indoor lighting can colour your work a dull yellow colour. / / 2. If your work reflects light, ie oil paintings, varnished work and even some graphite work, then it is much better to photograph your work in open shade. This stops that annoying shiny effect you can sometimes get, and never, ever use a flash. If your work is behind glass it is very hard to photograph, so the big hint is document it before you frame it. / / 3. Try your very utmost to line up work work so that it is as parallel to the camera. This will stop the distortion you can sometimes get on your work. Easiest way I guess it to stand it up 90 degrees against a wall and hold or stand your camera as straight on as possible. / / 4. You want your painting to occupy as much of the viewing space as possible but don’t get to close to your image, this also distorts the image. You are much better of standing back from the image and zooming in. The bigger the painting on your image the greater the resolution you will get at the end. / / These are the four basic hints for taking pictures yourself. Much can also be done after your image is taken. I have photoshop but many other programs can carry out the simple steps I will outline here. Remember we want to represent our paintings as close as possible to the real thing so don’t get carried anyway with post production. 1. Firstly change your image resolution to 300 pixels/inch this is the best resolution to work with (or at least this is what I was taught). / / 2. Make sure your image has the correct rotation, slight misalignments usually can be fixed with cropping. Hopefully your work is free of distortions. There is a way of correcting for this but it is much better to spend time when photographing to get this right. / / 3. Crop the image down so unwanted background is gone. If somebody wants to buy a print of your work I’m sure they wont appreciate half of your wall as well. / / 4. Lastly you can adjust the levels so the image is as close to the real thing as possible. Hopefully this will help some of you out. If anybody wants more information on how to change image size, rotation, cropping and levels I can give some advice on how to do this in photoshop only. If there is a demand I will do it. I also have notes on how to copy indoors but it requires a lot more equipment. Anyway let me know if you would like this also.

  • Linking Photographs
    by Stephen Mitchell

    Those link thingies are created with !’s and :’s ie: ! image ! : link (without any spaces) You have two options … (1) With…

    Those link thingies are created with !’s and :’s ie: ! image ! : link (without any spaces) You have two options … (1) With a link to original location, (2) or without. With Link: ! http://images-2.redbubble.com/rbimages/works_avatar/Me_Camera.jpg ! : http://www.redbubble.com/people/deondewaal/art looks like this Without Link ! http://images-2.redbubble.com/rbimages/works_avatar/Me_Camera.jpg ! looks like this Extra Trick ! http://images-2.redbubble.com/rbimages/works_avatar/Me_Camera.jpg (Hey, This Comment Will Appear when I float My Cursor Over It. Way Cool.) ! : http://www.redbubble.com/people/deondewaal/art looks like this NOTE: The hover-text is within the brackets. I highly recommend you to write all your work in an editor (ie, Microsoft Notepad), then test in your own journal because you can delete it if you ‘screw up’. This is easier to do with Mozilla Firefox I hope that helps. Similar Articles: ASCII Characters in your RedBubble Journal / Coding Your Redbubble / Format Found by Accident

  • Add Me To Your Watchlist Tutorial by Angi Baker
    by Angi Baker

    Hi all, *_Some of you may already know how this works, but for those who don’t and would like to have this feature on your profile p…

    Hi all, Some of you may already know how this works, but for those who don’t and would like to have this feature on your profile page; here is a quick tutorial on how you can do this. 1. You will first want to design or pick something out that you wish to use, you can even add to your selected pick add me or add me to your watchlist with text on the subject; however you wish to design this (Your choice) make sure to save this, just make sure that you don’t make your photo or button to big. 2. You will then upload this to your art selection, making sure that you choose the box on the bottom of your page called hide this work from others; located under the set publication options. 3. Now Click Save Changes. 4. Once this has uploaded, your new image will show up with the words on the bottom of it that says not published, and this is alright; this shows that this is hidden to all others. 5. Now you will want to right click with your mouse on this image, and then left click properties. 6. Next you will hold your left mouse down while highlighting the Address Url 7. Once highlight, let go of your left mouse and right click and then left click again on copy and then OK. 8. Now that you have your image chose, lets go to MyBubble at the top of your page. 9. When your welcome page comes up, you will then go to the right side of your page under Things you can do; and lets click on Edit your profile. 10. Now you should be at your Edit Your Profile Page. 11. We will now scroll down to the About you box. 12. You will then be adding your chosen image to this area by simply chosing where you want to put it. 13. Once you have chosen your location, you will right click your mouse and then left click Paste. 14. Remember you will want to add an exclamation mark right before and right after this Address Url without any spaces at all for your image to show up. 15. Your image should now be on your profile page, but lets check and make sure. 16. We can simply do this by going to the right side of your profile page once again under the Things You Can Do List and clicking on View your public profile. 17. Is it there? Good Job 18. I Did this and it didn’t show up – Go back and make sure you did each step correctly. Moving On To Get This Baby To Work 19. Now that we have our image for our button on our page, we now want to go here on our main Profile page and we will simply scroll down to where we see Add to your watchlist (ha, you will see your name after add, but there are too many to list here). 20. Now we will put out cursor right on top of these words and simply right click your mouse, going down to properties. 21. Left click on properties and another box will pop up. 822. We will now want to do as we did before, and simply hold down your left mouse key while highlighting over your address Url.8 23. Now that we have highlighted the address url, we will again right click your mouse and then left click copy and OK. 24. Now lets go back to My Bubble and edit your profile. 25. Now we should be on our Edit Your Profile Page 26. Yes I made it this far – Good Job / _ I can’t understand this – Please Go to the beginnig and simply follow each step_ 27. *Now right behind where you added your image you will want to type colon directly behind the last exclamation mark, and then right click on your mouse and then left click paste. And save changes… 28. Wait though… Does it work? Well lets go see… 29. Lets click on View Your Public Profile, which again is located to the right of your Profile page. 30. AW! There is all of my beautiful work that I have been working so hard on, boy my page is really looking awesome. Yes indeed my friend it is… 31. Now lets scroll down to your image button that you have made and put here, and simply left click with your mouse on your image, and this should take you to your add me. 32. If you have reached this, you have done done an Excellent Job if not then please simply go back to the beginning of this tutorial and do it step by step from the beginning to the end. I DO HOPE THAT THIS TUTORIAL HAS BEEN VERY HELPFUL TO YOU ALL, FOR THE ONES OF YOU THAT CHOOSE TO USE IT. SOME MAY AND SOME MAY NOT. ~GOOD LUCK WITH ENHANCING YOUR PROFILE ~A

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