Photoshop tutorials

Artificial HDR

2010-02-21T17:12:00.005-05:00

If only cameras were capable of capturing exactly what our eyes see it would be much easier. However the cameras are not quite at the level of human eyes yet in terms of adjusting to light.

The good news is that HDR (see a longer explanation here) can be used to increase the dynamic range in a photo to capture more details that otherwise would be hard to include in the photo.
Granted this can all be overused but as with anything else... in moderation it's awesome :-)

Doing HDR the "correct" way is of course capturing photos with different exposures to draw out details in the various areas of the photo.
However what if you got one photo and at the time didn't get a set of photos?

Here I will show you how you can use 1 photo (captured in camera raw format) to generate a HDR photo using Adobe Lightroom and Photo matrix (other tools can be used too).

Starting out with this photo (which I btw. shot out the window of the car).

In Adobe Lightroom select the photo and create two virtual copies of the photo. You can do this by right clicking the photo and selecting "Create Virtual Copy" or selecting the same from the Photo menu (ohh yeah do this twice to create two virtual copies).

Select the first virtual copy and decrease the exposure 1 stop (the double left arrows)

Select the second virtual copy and increase the exposure 1 stop (the double right arrows)

Now you have three photos where one has an exposure as captured by the camera. One is underexposed by one stop and one is overexposed by one stop.

Now you can export the photos to finish the HDR in photo matrix or select the photos and select to create HDR with Adobe Photoshop (found in the edit menu).

I have here exported the photos and selected them for processing in Photomatrix (click generate HDR and select the files).

Once the files have been selected you may have to set the exposure differences manually.

Since the photos are all based on one capture there are no need to align the photos or attempting to reduce ghosting (nothing has moved in the photo between "captures").

Now the image displayed may not look "right" since it has not yet been processed. By hovering over the image you can see a preview of the expected result though.
This step I just skip right to the part of clicking "Tone Mapping" which is where step 1 of the magic is going on.

After Tone Mapping there is a pretty good preview of what to expect. Generally Photomatrix is doing the automatic settings pretty good so I don't even try to fine tune unless there is something that "sticks out".
Continue to part 2 of the magic and click Process.

All there is left to do now is save the photo and here is my final result which is created with a single photo (captured with camera raw).
Granted this is not the "correct" way to do it and creating it with a real capture where individual photos has been captured with different exposures will reveal/capture details that may have been lost in a single capture (darkest/lightest areas missing details).
However for a polishing of a single photo I think this is pretty decent :-)

Ink and watercolor

2010-02-15T15:36:00.007-05:00

In this tutorial I will go through the steps to transform a photo to a ink and watercolor image.

This will be with ink outlines and watercolor like colors.

For the walkthrough I selected the photo below from a medieval re-enactment we visited in Denmark during the summer time.

Start out by creating a copy of the background/image layer. Either using the "Duplicate Layer..." function from the "Layer" menu or the keyboard shortcut CTRL+J.

Select the new layer and desaturate it (Image->Adjustments->Desaturate).

This layer is to be the outline/ink layer. This could be done by tracing all the edges in the photo which will create a great result. However it will also take a long time depending on how detailed the photo is. Here is a faster way that will create good results with little effort.

From the Filter->sketch menu select "Photocopy..."

In the settings for the photocopy filter select amounts that creates outlines for your image (this may vary depending on the resolution of the photo). In most cases selecting these values will work. Detail: 4, Darkness:12.

Having applied the filter only the outlines should be visible in the photo.

Before removing the unwanted white "filling" in the layer. Add a white layer to the layer stack (this could be black as well or you could switch between the black and white).

Start by selecting the bottom layer in the layers panel and add a new layer (using the button at the bottom of the layers panel or New->Layer from the Layer menu).

White the foreground/background colors set to default (shortcut key d). Select the new layer and fill it with the background color (white).

Now select the outline layer (top layer) in the layer stack.

To delete the white background in between the outlines. Select the magic wand and make sure the "Contiguous" is off (not checked).

Click in between the outlines to make the selection. This will display the "marching ants" indicating the selected areas.

Delete the content of the selected area (using the delete key) and notice how the background in the layer changed to indicate the now transparent areas.

After deleting the background in the outline layer remove the selection Select->Deselect (or CTRL+D).

To trim the outlines and make sure all the white background is all gone. Ensure the outline layer is still selected and trim the white using Layer->Matting->Remove white matte...

To start coloring the image, select the photo layer at the bottom of the layer stack.

Duplicate the layer Layer->Duplicate Layer... (or the shortcut CTRL+J).

Hide the white fill layer by clicking the eye next to the layer.

To simplify the colors in the image, select the new painting layer (if it's not already selected) and apply a surface blur filter. Filter->Blur->Surface Blur... Settings for this may change depending on the resolution of your photo but starting out with a setting of Radius: 20 pixels andThreshold: 20 levels should do the trick in most cases

Move the painting layer up in the layer stack by simply clicking and while holding the mouse button down, drag the layer up.

Add a layer mask to the painting layer using the "Add Layer Mask..." button at the bottom of the layer stack or the menu Layer-> Layer Mask->Hide all.

If the mask didn't get created using the Hide all function it will be empty (showing all). Set it to hide all by selecting the layer mask and fill it with black.

To fill in the color with a textured watercolor look. Select the brush tool and load the wet media brushes by clicking the drop-down arrow next to the brush shape in the brush options as shown below.

After loading the set of brushes select a watercolor brush (or experiment with others). In this example I selected the watercolor brush with a textured surface. To better control the application of the color it is a good idea to lower the opacity and flow of the brush.

With the mask selected in the painting layer start painting white in the areas you want color to appear. This is an area where experimentation can change a lot. Try to use different size brushes, brush lengths. Just start brushing away. If everything goes wrong it can be undone by painting with black in the layer mask or undo everything by filling the layer mask with black.

After a good bit of brushing here is what my layer mask look like in the layer stack.

If the outlines doesn't stand out as much as you would want them to the effect can be increased by selecting the outline layer and copying the layer (see previous).

Select the new layer and change the layers blend mode to Multiply

Here is the result of the painting compared to the original photo.

Original	Ink and watercolor

Light retouching - Create a clear portrait

2009-10-08T21:02:00.010-04:00

A while ago I had a tutorial on how to create Crystal clear photos. Now I am (sort of) continuing that with a tutorial on light retouching of a portrait to give it just a little extra and stand out a bit.

In this tutorial I am using layers in photoshop. It could be done with many tools and even though layers are not strictly required I prefer using layers since they give me the option to go back and manipulate the effect later and adjust the intensity of each layer individually. For those reasons it is always a good idea to save your final result as a photoshop file to preserve the layers even if you "only" intend to use a jpg version online.

After the school photo day I took a couple of portraits of Emma. In this tutorial I will use one of those to illustrate :-)

(this is where I should have a note about always capture the photo correct in camera instead of "fixing" it in photoshop... but I am sure you heard that enough).

The initial photo is here. It is a little under exposed and the contrast isn't as high as I would like it... but those are things for the digital darkroom (photoshop).

First off I want to adjust the brightness of the overall photo a bit. To be able to determine the amount needed and ensuring it doesn't result in something too bright it's a good idea to check the histogram.
I know the histogram can seem mighty tricky, but in fact it is "just" a view of the range of light that can be shown in the photo and the intensity of light for each shade (this is very simplified... don't shoot me). In short the left side is the dark/black side and the right side is the light/white. You don't want the histogram to fall over either side.

Add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer from the adjustment layer menu and increase the brightness. In this example I ended with a value of 20 that moved the histogram a little more to the right (more light/white) without pushing over the side.

Next add a levels adjustment layer (in the same way as I did in the crystal clear photos tutorial) and line up the black and white arrows with the start and end of the histogram.

So far so good :-)

Now this is a portrait and for portraits I want to draw attention to the eyes and let them capture the viewers attention. The next steps are kind of some old tricks but even though it's some of the oldies they still work out pretty good.

Making a selection can be done in many ways. Some more refined than others. Here is one way of doing it that works even though it may not be the most precise method (a wacom tablet is a great help here).

Start by selecting the background layer and pick the Lasso tool from the tool box and do a rough selection of the eyes (hint: for the second eye hold down the shift key while making the selction to add to the selction).

Usually I get a selection that is hmm let's call it slightly uneven... I refine the selection by switching to the quick mask mode (shortcut key: Q or the button on the bottom of the toolbar). This will turn everything that has not been selected red or well any color that has been set for the quick mask overlay color.

Zoom in (shortcut key: CTRL + +) on the selection and pick a paint brush in a size smaller than the selection. Now color with white to add to the selection (the overlay color disappear) and with black to remove from the selection (add overlay color).

Once done, exit quick mask mode (using the button or shortcut key: Q) and copy the content of the selection to a new layer using "Layer via copy" found in the menu Layer->New or simply use the shortcut keys: CTRL + J.

Since this is the eyes we have copied name the layer "eyes" (double click the layer name in the layer window or with "Layer Options" from the layer menu).

First up is to brighten the iris a little bit. To do this select the dodge tool from the toolbox.

Change the settings to "Midtones" and the opacity to about 50% (this will slowly add the effect). Change the size of the dodge tool to be a little bit smaller than the width of the iris and paint around the center of the eye without hitting the edge of the iris.

Next select the burn tool from the toolbox (it is on the same menu as the dodge tool).

Change the setting for the burn tool to "Shadows" and again an exposure around 50%.
With a small burn tool size burn the edge of the iris and with a bigger tip burn the center of the eye to make it all black (or very close).

Switch back to the dodge tool and change the setting to "Highlights". With a well sized tip brighten the whites in the eyes.

Now is the time where the advantage of layers come handy. This effect may be a little bit too much when zooming out (shortcut keys: CTRL + -) and we can easily fix that by adjusting the opasity of the layer in layer window. Here I reduced the opacity to 30% to make it a subtle effect.

Next step is the hair and a little bit of sharpening. Select the background layer in the layer window (this to ensure content is copied from the background layer) and do a rough selection of the hair. Then switch to the quick mask mode to refine the selection if needed.

This step will be a subtle effect so if a little bit too much is selected it will under normal circumstances not break the photo or even be visible in the final result.

Select the new layer and just for good order let's name the layer "hair".

Ensure the hair layer is selected and apply the "Unsharp Mask..." from the Filter->Sharpen menu. For sharpen effect I think it is important to be very carefull and not oversharpen. If a portrait is over sharpened there will be small halos around edges in the photo. One way of getting close to a decent sharpening is to set the amount to the max percentage (now you should see the halos) and decrease the Radius until the halos start to go away. Now lower the amount to somewhere in the range 50%-80%.

In this example the skin is very fine and there isn't much to do. The skin can be tricky and many times over processing the skin in a portrait can make it seem like it is made of plastic (we don't like that... right?).
Select the background layer and make a selection of the skin (like in previous steps).

Copy the content to a new layer (CTRL + J) and let's name this one "Skin".

The toolbox have a couple of healing tools. For smaller area I prefer using the "Spot healing brush tool" and the "healing brush tool" or "Patch tool" for medium to large area.
In this example I only have to deal with a little leftover food around the mouth (When zooming in on the photo you will see this with almost any child... trust me... any... even yours if you have some).
Using the "Spot healing brush tool" just paint over the spot you want to fix and it is gone. Sometimes it can go wrong but this is where a quick undo (shortcut keys: CTRL + Z) and retry can do the trick.

At the eye there is a little loose hair that's easily removed with the healing tool.

Here is the final result with a before and after.

Before

After

I hope you liked the tutorial and please do feel free to drop a comment in case you have any questions or such :-)

Enhance and pop color

2009-03-10T21:26:00.007-04:00

So I made a promise... To make another tutorial ;-) it's been a while and I found a few photos that some people liked so here is the first of the new tutorials.

The photo I am using in this tutorial is of a leave in a stream from the fall time in the mountains. I originally picked this one and wanted the red color to really stand out. So not only did I want to make the color pop out of the photo but also enhance the saturation to make it really stand out.

The leave being in a stream partially covered by water helped in creating some glossy reflections which I enhanced.

So here goes the tutorial starting out with a somewhat ordinary photo.

When I first started out with photoshop I created changes directly in the photo (background layer). This worked out ok but as some knows it does make changes to the actual pixels and changing parameters later is rather difficult (i.e. impossible).
Instead of making changes in the background layer I will be using adjustment layers and for this particular one where I want to make multiple adjustment layers but limit them to part of the photo I will create them in a group (don't worry it's not that difficult).

To create a layers group simple click the folder icon in the layers palette

Before adding anything else make sure that the new group is selected in the layers palette. This will ensure that the new adjustment layers you are creating end up inside the group.

In this particular photo I want to increase the brightness of my target area a little bit. To do that I am as the first step adding a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to the group. With the group selected add the adjustment layer via the adjustment layer menu and apply the brightness needed for your photo. Here I increased brightness with a value of 35.

Next I want to add the color effect to my target area (the leaf). There are several ways to do this but here is one of them. As the first step I am adding a channel mixer layer (I know it sounds weird to do that to increase saturation but hang in there for a sec).
Here you will have to adjust the values depending on the color that's in your photo. For this particular case I have the red color I want to pop out and some green.
First off I set a check mark in 'Monochrome' (this I guess is the "weird" part) and adjust the output to boost my colors with the following settings: red: 190% and green: 90%.
This will most likely blow out everything in the photo so I adjust it to keep details in my target area by setting the constant to -20%.

As you can see there isn't really any colors popping anywhere... It's a very bright black and white but this is the point where... hmm... just go with it. It will be fine ;-)

To make the Channel Mixer layer pop the colors rather than turn everything black and white I am changing the blending mode of the layer to overlay. You do this by selecting the layer in the layers palette and select Overlay from the blend mode drop down.

And there you have it. Talk about colors that pop out in a sort of painterly way. It's kind of a weird way of doing it but I like the effect where the colors are not "just" boosted but the contrast and shades really get to play around and create a somewhat special look.

Chances are that the adjustment layers will "blow out" some areas of the photo as it is the case with my example here. Since my goal is to get the adjustment and color just for a small area I am not concerned with the actual color of other areas and can remove them.
To adjust the effect of the adjustment layers I am using a layer mask on the entire group. If you don't already have a layer mask on the group layer. Select the layer and click the "Add vector mask" icon in the layers palette.

Select the mask in the group layer and start painting (with the paint brush) black in the areas where you want to hide the effects.

After applying the mask to the group the photo is more balanced while still having the popping colors in the target area (the leaf).

To "convert" the photo to black and white I add yet another "Channel mixer" adjustment layer. Make sure the group layer is selected and click "Channel Mixer" from the add adjustment layer menu in the layers palette. This will add the adjustment layer above the group and make it independent of the mask applied to the group. Note alternatively you could use a "black & white" adjustment layer for this step.
The goal with this layer is to create a balanced black & white photo. The values used highly depend on the photo you are "converting". Start out by setting a check mark in the "Monochrome" check box and adjust values according to your photo.
For this particular photo I used the values: Red 56%, Green 38%, Blue 2% and a Constant -6%.

To get the target to show through the black & white conversion layer add a layer mask and color the target area black in the mask.
If you have a stylus this may be easier done as creating a mask with a mouse can be tricky at times.
You can start out by using the Lasso tool to make a selection around your target area and fine tuning it using the quick mask function and painting in your selection (make a loose selection with the lasso tool and press Q to switch to quick mask mode. With a brush paint black in the photo to add to the selection and white to subtract).
With a selection in your photo click the add vector mask in the layers palette and your mask is created based on the selection.

If your photo is still too bright or too dark you can add a Brightness/Contrast layer on top of the entire layers stack. This will adjust the brightness and contrast for the entire photo.
In this example I wanted to darken the entire composition a bit and increase the contrast. To do that I added a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer (with the top layer selected to ensure my new adjustment layer is on top) with the values: Brightness -15 and Contrast 10.

And now we are done. Below you can compare the before and after.

Before

After

Hope you liked the tutorial and please do feel free to drop a comment in case you have any questions or such :-)

Nikon raw (NEF) and Lightroom

2008-10-18T15:00:00.005-04:00

Having a DSLR I have been trying to get the best quality in photos and create a semi-pro workflow. I know it sounds fanzy and complicated but once a workflow is established then all you have to do is take the photos, import and print the ones you like.

My initial, second, third... (well you get the idea) attempts has been that once I import the photos in lightroom they kind of loose a bit of the contrast and saturation compared to how they looked on the LCD.

Of course this is caused by the RAW format conversion and the Nikon Raw (NEF) format is proprietary and not something that is publicly shared. So importing to lightroom or opening in photoshop the file have to be converted and the automatic conversion rarely comes out the way you want it.

Recently (as I was looking for a web plugin for lightroom) I stumbled on a raw conversion plugin from Adobe.

The DNG profiles which have camera profiles for just about any DSLR can be downloaded for FREE from Adobe.
After download just close all programs on your computer. Run the program (install camera profiles) and startup lightroom/photoshop and you are ready to go.
Now you can manually change the module used for converting the raw files or create a preset with the adjustment...

I have done only a few tests and so far it works pretty good. It doesn't seem like any adjustments are needed after import (using a preset setting the camera format to the camera standard).

Anyway, I'm sure more will come later but hey go ahead and try it out :-)

Resources:
Camera profiles + profile editor: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles
Cool lightroom presets: http://cameradojo.com/lightroom-presets/

Lomography or "the cheap shot"

2008-09-13T21:44:00.008-04:00

Lomography is the commercial trademark of Lomographische AG, Austria. However the lomo type of photography is inspired by the former state-run optics manufacturer LOMO PLC of Saint Petersburg, Russia. LOMO PLC created and produced the 35 mm LOMO LC-A compact Automat camera which is the center of this particular style of photography.

If you want to read more of the history check it out here or why not buy a lomo camera here.

Most likely everyone have heard the slogan originating from Kodak "a Kodak moment". Well guess what. The producers of the lomo got one too... "Don't think about it". This is based on the camera being rather cheap and all you have to do is press the button. No fanzy settings or stuff like that. Just point the camera and press the button. Don't think about it ;-) kind of like that...

Here is a little tutorial on taking a photo and turning it into a Lomo version or "cheap" shot.

Start out by selecting a photo and opening it in photoshop.
Here is the one I picked to work with.

First steps are to increase contrast and saturation.
Starting out with contrast select Brightness/Contrast from the add adjustment layer button in the layer pane. Once in the dialog set the contrast value to 20 and press ok to add the layer.

Next for saturation. Select Hue/Saturation from the add adjustment layer button in the layers pane. Once in the dialog set the saturation to 20 and click ok to add the layer.

Next we are going to create a typical vignette as in a typical lomo photo.
Start out by selecting the elliptical marquee tool from the toolbox. If this is not immediately visible right click with the mouse on the selection tool to expand the menu.

To get the vignette just right and fade out as we want it a feathering has to be applied to the selection. In this case I will use a feathering that is about a tenth of the photos shortest edge.
To find the size of your image select image size from the image menu. In my example the shortest edge is 1525 pixels so I will be using a feathering of 152.

Once the elliptical marquee tool is selected you can set the feathering in the options bar at the top of the screen.

Use the marquee tool to select the center of your image. Do this by placing the cursor in one corner of the image. Hold down left mouse button and drag the selection to the opposite corner.

Now the center of the image is selected but that is not *really* what we wanted. Actually we wanted just the opposite but that's ok. Just use inverse from the select menu or use the keyboard Shift+Ctrl+i to inverse the selection.

Create a new layer for the vignette using the new layer button in the layers pane.

From the Edit menu select Fill and choose black as the contents and click ok.

Now the vignette looks sort of ok but to make it look more realistic and blend in with the photo select overlay from the blending dropdown in the layer pane.

Depending on how the vignette looks you can copy the layer (Ctrl+j) to increase or lower the opacity to decrease the effect of the vignette. Here I copied the vignette to strengthen it a bit.

Now select the photo layer (background) and create a new layer (will be inserted directly above the background layer).

Change this layers blend mode to opacity the same way as the vignette.

Check to make sure your foreground color is white. If not select default colors in the toolbox (shortcut d) and switch the color (shortcut x) to make white the foreground color.

From the toolbox select the gradient fill. If it's not immediately visible in the toolbox you can right click with the mouse on the paint bucket to show the menu.

With the gradient fill tool selected you can now select radial gradient from the options bar. Clicking the drop down arrow next to the style select the foreground to transparent type. Note if your foreground color is anything but white this is the color that will show up here too so make sure you set the right color ;-)

If the vignette is still selected deselect it using the deselect from the select menu or using the Ctrl+D shortcut.

With the gradient tool click in the middle of the photo and drag the line to any of the edges.

If the result seems a bit too much you can lower the effect by lowering the opacity of the layer. It should be bright but not a shining white center.

And there you have your finished Lomo photo with strong contrast, saturation and vignette. I kind of like the saturation in these photos and it just seems so straight forward that it is hard to believe :-)

Ohh yeah if your photo needs adjustments, and may I add that's exactly why we are using adjustment layers, you can adjust the vignette by copying a vignette layer to make it stronger or adjust the opacity of the topmost vignette layer to lessen it and you can adjust the layer above the background layer to control the brightness of the photo.

A couple of extra shots

Here is a couple of extra shots I applied the effect to.

Have fun and ... don't think about it ;-)

Additional information
http://www.lomo.com/
http://www.lomographic.net/.
http://williamburdette.net/lomography/

Photos of smoke - post processing

2008-07-01T22:17:00.012-04:00

More in this series:
- Photos of smoke studio setup and lighting
- Photos of smoke photo exhibit

Soo now you got a ton of smoke photos and they are all black and color less.
Here is the post processing step following the light setup and capture of the photos and this is where we do some modifications to the photos and make them stand out.

It hopefully is pretty easy to follow but otherwise just let me know and please ask if you got questions. I will make sure to get everything answered :-)

Here is a photo I will be using for the creation of a smoke photo or art smoke if you will :-)

The foundation

The first important thing to make sure of is that the background is black. Not just as in a pretty dark background but technically black with the RGB values 0, 0, 0.
To do this we need some reference points in the photo and those can be set using the color sampler (or just use the eye dropper and ctrl click instead of clicking).
In the toolbar locate the color sampler. It may be hidden but will be shown if you right click on the eye dropper.

Click on a couple of what should be black areas in the photo and notice how you now have the values for those points in info panel in the upper right hand corner. As I suspected there is a little hint (very little) as the RGB values are not 0,0,0 for the points I selected.

To adjust the tones in the photo add a curves adjustment layer either using the layers menu or click the half white, half black circle in the layers palette.

In the curves dialog click the lower left point and either use the arrow keys to tap the point right or use the mouse to drag it towards the right. It may be a little tricky but the goal here is to have the color sample values in the info panel go to the desired values of 0,0,0. Once completed you can brighten the smoke a little bit by selecting the point in the upper right hand corner and move it towards the left (using arrow keys or the mouse).

Now the photo should have the background black and the smoke standing out in white/gray tones.
Some smoke art photos don't have a black background but is presented as colorful waves on white. First step is to turn the background white which is easily done by inverting the photo. To do this and maintain flexibility add a invert adjustment layer from the layers menu or using the add adjustment layer button in the layers palette.

This will instantly turn the background white and the smoke comes out as dark on white instead of light on black. At this point you may want to make the smoke stand out a bit more by increasing the contrast. You can do this by moving the white point in the existing curves layer.
Double click on the curve icon in the layers palette and in the curves dialog box drag the white point (upper right hand corner or where ever you left it) more towards the left. This will increase the contrast and make the smoke stand out.

Now for a really neat trick and the reason why we are using adjustment layers instead of altering the photo.
Click the eye (effectively hiding the layer) next to the invert layer. Now you have white smoke on a black background. Clicking again will show the invert layer and you have black smoke on a white background. This is great to determine what looks best for your particular design.

Another factor when making smoke art is that smoke rises so most of your photos will reflect that fact. However sometimes wonderful things happen when you turn things sideways or even upside down. All of this can easily be done using the rotate canvas functions in the image menu.

For this one I decided to turn it side ways and well hmm that's an artistic decision soo... deal with it ;-)

Adding colors

Colors can be added to the smoke in different ways and no one way is the right or wrong way so try a couple of different ways and see what works best for you and your photos.

First up adding colors using a hue/saturation adjustment layer.
Add the adjustment layer by selecting it from the add adjustment layer menu in the layers palette.

First set a check mark in the colorize check box which tells photoshop that we want to add colors to the photo. Now you can easily adjust the color of the smoke and the intensity of the color by moving the handles in the dialog.
The really really neat thing is that since we made sure the background was technically black this isn't affected at all by the application of color :-)

Another option for adding color to the smoke is using a gradient map adjustment layer. Like the hue/saturation add the layer by selecting gradient map from the add adjustment layer menu in the layers palette.

Here you can select a gradient map that will fit your smoke photo even though selecting one of them can be a little tricky :-(

Depending on what you have loaded in the gradient map dialog you may see different gradient maps. To load a different set of gradient maps click the little arrow in the white round thingi ma bop in the dialogs upper right hand corner and select a different collection from the menu (at the bottom section).

Now selecting a gradient map will affect everything in the photo and can make it a bit weird. I know you can modify and even create your own gradient map but let's just keep it simple :-)
Click ok in the gradient map dialog to close it and change the gradient maps layer blend mode to color.

Now double click the half white, half black circle in the gradient map layer to reopen the dialog.

Once back in the gradient map dialog you can preview the map as you are selecting it.

A third way of coloring the smoke is to well just color it :-) I know I know...
Start by adding a empty layer to the layer stack clicking the new layer button in the layers palette.

Before doing anything else. Select the new layer and change the blend mode to color.

Select a soft brush (one of the fuzzy ones in the brush tip selector found in the top toolbar).

Pick a color and (after ensuring the new layer is the active in the layers palette) start painting on top of your smoke. Once again since the blend mode is set to color the white background isn't affected by the color.

For this one I selected a purple brush to color the edges and a blue for the rest.

Look what happens when I disable the invert adjustment layer (hide the layer by clicking the eye). On this one my coloring came out a bit too strong but I selected the coloring layer and lowered the opacity to 65% which lessened the effect.

More in this series:
- Photos of smoke studio setup and lighting
- Photos of smoke photo exhibit

Increase contrast

2008-06-06T14:50:00.007-04:00

Often when taking photos with digital cameras you will notice that the contrast in the mid tones isn't quite where it should be. Or well you may see it as looking a little flat or maybe you won't even notice until you see the same photo with the contrast where it should be.

There are a wealth of ways to correct contrast in a photo. Many of these methods will adjust the contrast in the overall photo and not be specific to any region (mid tones for example). The reason why you will often want to only increase contrast in the mid tones is that the blacks are already black and the whites are white. So increasing the contrast can affect these areas which are already where they should be.

Here is a method for increasing the contrast in the mid tones without affecting colors in the photo and the areas where we don't want contrast to be increased.

Starting with a photo like this one:

It isn't necessarily bad or wrong in anyway. But let's just go for it and see what changing the contrast in the mid tones will do for this one.
To do this we will use a curves adjustment layer. You could apply the changes directly to the photo layer but in doing so you would loose the ability to adjust the effect independently later (fade, blend etc.).

From the layers palette - add adjustment layer select Curves.

The curves dialog doesn't have curves in it at all when it pops up. How disappointing ;-)
Next step is to add to points/handles as illustrated in the screen shot below. The area between the handles is where the mid tones reside and these are the ones we want to affect by increasing the contrast.

In the curves dialog it's relatively easy to increase the contrast for a given section. The steeper the line is between two points the greater the contrast is in the photo.
So increase the contrast in the mid tones simply by moving the right point/handle towards the top and the left point/handle towards the bottom.
You will get an instant preview in your photo which you can use to guide you in regards to how much you should move each point/handle.
I know it's difficult but for now don't worry about colors.
The curve should end up in a "S" like shape like illustrated below.

Remember me mentioning not to worry about colors for now?
Well take this photo as an example and you will see that the colors have been affected very much. They are over saturated and it is just a bit too much.

But as I said don't worry. This is very easy to "fix". Select the curves adjustment layer in the layer window and change the blend mode to Luminosity using the drop-down as shown here:

Now here is the finished result. Didn't take to many shapes but as you can see it's like some clarity has been added but this simple trick :-)

Original	New

ohh btw. to really see the difference click the photos to see a large version.

Brushes and textures

2008-04-07T14:19:00.000-04:00

You can of course always buy packages of brushes and textures for photoshop and well if you have been looking into it you will know that it will cost you a pretty penny...

Alternative to that is browse around trying to find just the right brush or texture.

Here is one site I found that supplies quite a few brushes and textures for free.
Of course use credits and all that as a thank you :-)

But check it out here: http://missm.paperlilies.com/

Salted paper prints

2008-03-31T22:02:00.000-04:00

Once again I am going back in time to wayyyy before the invention of photoshop. Well before computers and modern stuff like running water and toilets.

Salted prints as described by the Library of Congress are the earliest photographic prints made on paper. The image seems to be in the paper, not resting on the surface since the fibers are noticeable and seem to be part of the image.

View some examples online from the Library of Congress :-) very nice collection they got there...

I might add that the salted prints were generally used from ca. 1840- ca. 1860. And events such as the 4th of March 1861: Inauguration of Mr. Lincoln can be found in the online library... If that doesn't impress you here is a link to toys'r'us they got free shipping when you spend too much money on items you don't need ;-)

Soo to get started on this little adventure in old style photos. Pick out a photo you would like to use. Just to be really sure you my want to work on a copy ;-)

I picked out this one from Shenandoah from my trip out there in March (read more)

First step duplicate the background layer using the new layer from the layers menu or press CTRL+J.
With the new layer selected apply the "find edges filter" from the filter menu Stylize->Find edges.

With the same layer selected apply the "Dry Brush" filter found in the filter menu Artistic->Dry Brush...

In the Dry Brush dialog use the following settings: Size=1, Detail=7 nd Texture=3.

Finally change the blend mode of the layer to Overlay and adjust the opacity to 25%. Both settings are found in the layers palette.

To increase contrast and get everything nice and crips (almost too much but this is an old technique we are doing) add a curves adjustment layer using the adjustment layer button in the layers palette.

For the curves layer apply a high contrast S curve. Do this by selecting high contrast in the preset menu or simply grab the line about 1 square in from the left and drag that down a bit and grab the line about 1 square in from the right and drag that up a bit forming an S curve.

Add another adjustment layer this time a levels layer (using the adjustment layer button in the layers palette) and drag the middle (gray) triangle to the right until it has the value 50 (or just type 50 in the middle text box).

Now for some texture in the photo... Add a new layer using the new layer button in the layers palette.

Fill the new layer with 50% gray using the Fill method found in the Edit menu. In the fill dialog change the content to use 50% gray.

To actually create the texture add a Grain filter. This is found in the filter menu Texture->Grain filter. In the grain filter dialog select Clumped grain and set intensity=33 and Contrast=50.

On the same layer apply a glass filter found in the filter menu Distort->Glass and use the settings: Distortion=18, Smoothness=7 and texture=frosted.

To finish off the texture layer set the layers blend mode to Pin light (from the drop down in the layers palette).

To get the coloring of the photo to resemple that of an old-time salt print add a Hue/Saturaion adjustment layer using the add adjustment layer button in the layers palette. In the dialog start by setting a check mark (select) the Colorize option. Then set Hue=7, Saturation=22 and keep Lightness =0.

Now we will need a second texture layer. Start this by adding a new layer using the add layer button from the layers palette.

As with the previous layer fill the layer with 50% gray using the fill function from the Edit menu.

Once again add a grain filter to the layer but this time use the following settings: Grain type=Vertical, Intensity=2 and Contrast=50. Finish off the layer by setting the layers blend mode to Vivid light.

For a couple of finishing touches select the first texture layer (above the levels layer) and select the highlights using the Color range dialog found in the Select menu. In the dialog change the Select option to Highlights.

Fine-tune the selection by feathering the selection by 12 pixels. Select Feather from the Select->Modify menu and enter 12 in the feather selection dialog.

Once the selection is feathered (and this is the magic portion) hold down the Alt key and add a layer mask (the black button with the white circle in the lower part of the layers palette). This will create a layer mask keeping the highlights free of the texture on the initial texture layer.

If you are not entirely happy with the result and the contrast seems wayyyy to harsh you can adjust this by adjusting the 'S' curve in the curves layer (double click the layer icon in the layers palette).

Here is the finished result :-)

"Artistic" collage

2008-03-28T12:31:00.001-04:00

Yeah almost weekend... and finally here is a good little weekend project.
Well depending on how many photos you have it may take more than a weekend but it's not really *that* difficult once you get the hang of it :-)

Soo here are a little show and tell on how to make a collage with "artistic" edges.

Start out by creating a new document in the size you want to print the final work in. I have selected a 8 by 10 since it gives room to put decent sized photos in and fits my printing format.

Now open each photo you want to add to the collage. Select everything (CTRL+A) and drag the content (with the arrow tool) to the collage. After dragging each photo into the collage place it in the area where you want it and change the size so it "fits". You can easy change the size with free transform (from the layers menu or CTRL+T) just remember when resizing you can press and hold shift before starting to change the size to keep the same aspect ration (people don't get tall and skinny or short and fat... well unless... you know)...

Here I have placed three photos within my collage and placed them just about where I want them to end up.

Select the top layer in the layers palette and add a new layer. This will be the collage background layer in which we will add some texture and punch holes (sounds fun doesn't it?)

Select the paint bucket from the toolbox (may be hidden behind the gradient fill depending on what you used last but then just right click it and select the paint bucket).
From the toolbar click the drop down arrow in the fill selection box and choose pattern.

The default patterns may not offer exactly what you were looking for so you can create your own (maybe this should be covered later) or load another predefined pattern selection.
To get to this point expand the pattern selection (little arrow again) which will give you a view of the currently loaded patterns. Select on of these or click the next little arrow (upper right hand corner of the pattern window) and select the pattern package you want.
In this case I selected Color paper and went with a pale color.

With the top layer selected click in the collage to fill the entire thing with your selected pattern. Should it not be to your liking you can undo this (CTRL+Z) and select another pattern. It's fun try some different ones depending on the photos you have selected.

As you most likely noticed the photos you dragged into the collage each resides on a different layer. You could merge all the photo layers to make the selection slightly easier but well you could also just leave them :-)
But to punch the holes in the collage you need a selection to do this by. The easy way is to hold down CTRL and click the thumbnail of the first photo. This will create a selection based on that photo. But we will want to add a selection for the rest of the photos as well.
To do this hold down CTRL+SHIFT while you click the thumbnail of photo 2, 3, 4 etc.
Once done with all of them you should have a selection that reflects all of your photos like this:

Now invert the selection (CTRL+I) and with the top layer (the collage background) selected add a layer mask (the little gray button with a white circle in the layers palette). and wawooom look at that. Pretty cool huh? But yeah I know. I was talking about some "artistic" edges and this looks nothing like it does it?

To make the edges of the photos a little "artistic" we can rough them up a bit by modifying the layer mask (and this is where it pays off having a layer mask rather than using the eraser. The layer mask doesn't alter the photo in anyway so it can always be undone).

Select the brush from the toolbox and change the brush tip by clicking the little drop-down arrow in the toolbar next to the current one (a little round tip with a number under it).
Here you can select from already loaded brush tips but let's go ahead and make it "artistic". Click the little arrow in the top right hand corner of the brush tip dialog and select a new brush tip category. In this example I selected the Dry Media Brush to get that slightly rough look.

When selecting a new brush set you will be asked if you want to replace the existing ones. and well no it doesn't throw out and delete the old ones but replaces them within photoshop. You can either Append the new brush set (you may end up with a lot of brush tips loaded) or just select ok to just view the brushes in the set you selected. You can always load the old brushes the same way and select Basic Brushes from the list :-)

With the new brush set loaded select a brush tip you think will work. I choose the Heavy Smear Wax Crayon since well... remember we are going "artistic" ;-)

Now select the layer mask in the layers palette (the black and white thumbnail). Position you brush at one corner of the photo where you want to add the "artistic" edge outside the photos borders so it roughly would cover half the brush width into the photo. Before you draw click and hold the SHIFT key (ensures the line is always straight) click and hold left mouse button as you draw along the edge. If it doesn't turn out right on the first try undo (CTRL+Z) and try again. I just know you can do it :-)

Do that to all the photos you have inserted (remember to work on the mask not the actual photos) and you will in no time have this one ready to print and frame.

Have fun :-)

Making a collage

2008-03-28T12:30:00.000-04:00

Well finally I got around to it after the last round of travel photos from DK (http://jackidyrholm.blogspot.dk).

Using a template or well template like photoshop in yep you guessed it photoshop isn't that difficult. Getting the "right" template can be difficult at times since it can be a big file or one that's hard to modify.

Anyway I hope you find this one easy.

Here is a template for you to download and then I will show how to use it.

Download here.

Start out by opening the template and you background image in photoshop. Select the template window and the background image layer in the layers palette.

Select everything in your background image CTRL+A and use the arrow pointer (shortcut v) to move the image to the template.

Once the background image has been moved to the template you can adjust the position of the background image by moving it or adjust the size of it with free-transform (shortcut CTRL+T). If you are changing the size of the image it's usually a good idea to hold the shift key while dragging the corner. This will ensure the image keeps the same aspect ratio and the image doesn't come out as distorted.
If you don't want the background image to be black and white simply hide that layer by clicking the eye next to it. Otherwise double click the three bubble icon on the black and white layer to adjust the channels to what gives you the best black and white. Everything is shown real time so don't be afraid to experiment :-)

Now for the insets along the side. Select the inset layer in the template, open the photo you want to insert and either do a selection of part of it or just select all. Use the arrow point to once again drag the photo to the template and you will have it (sort of) inserted in the template.

First apply the mask to the photo layer that was just created. This you can do by holding down the CTRL key while clicking the mask on the inset layer. Doing this will give you a selection (marching ants) . Select the photo inset layer (the one we just dragged in) and click the mask icon in the layers palette (the gray one with a white circle in the middle).

Now before starting to move or resize the inset photo be sure to first select the layer you wish to work with and disable the link between the photo and the mask. If the link is enabled while resizing the photo the mask will change the same way and that's not really what we want in this case.

Now that the link is disabled select the photo icon (not the mask) from the inset layer and choose free transform from the layers menu (or shortcut CTRL + T). Hold down shift and drag a corner to get the fit you like the best. Note that you may have to let go of the mouse button and shift to move the photo while doing the resize.
Once you are done moving and resizing your photo inset select the inset area by holding down CTRL and click the mask then invert the selection by choosing invert from the selection menu (or shortcut CTRL + SHIFT + I). Delete/clear all non visible photo using the delete key (not backspace).

Now add a stroke (no it's really not a bad thing) by double clicking an empty area next to the layer text or selecting stroke... from the layer style menu in the layers palette (click the black round button with a white f). Depending on the size of the photo and resolution you may need a different size but try starting with a size of 2px, position: inside and black for color.

Now your first inset is done and you can delete the "old" inset1 layer which isn't going to be used. Also if you are going to come back to move the insets around or resize them it's a great idea to remember to re-enable the link between the photo and the mask.

Now you can go ahead and insert photos in the rest of the insets. Once done and having remembered to enable the link between the photo and the mask you can also move the insets around to a position that may look better than what I came up with. Anyway I ended up getting this:

soft focus portraits

2008-03-28T12:29:00.000-04:00

If you are using photoshop and have a number of changes you go through every time you get a nice portrait photo it just may be time to learn about photoshop actions.
If you already know about actions but have a hard time getting it just right or just want an action to plug in and ready to go...

Well here it is :-)

Browsing the net using google or your favorite search engine you can find plenty of free actions out there and many are free :-)

For portrait photos I have a good one here which gives a nice soft focus which you can easily adjust before finalizing the photo.

You can download it here.

Start by downloading the file and "install" it in photoshop. You can do this by switching to your actions palette. If it's not visible go to the window menu and click "Show actions".
Now you can drag the downloaded action file to the action palette or click the arrow in the action palette and select load action.

Now select a photo to use the action with. I got this one out of the pile...

Select the action from the actions palette and click the play button.

All there is to do is follow the instructions given. As an example there is a blur step which asks you to select a a value that fits your photo.
This value will depend on the photo size and in my case the best option was a bit under the average of 5.

and before you know it you are done :-)

Original	Soft focus

I don't know about you but if I can do stuff this easy... why use more time on it :-)

Have fun with it...

Sketchy...

2008-03-28T12:28:00.000-04:00

Here is a little quick way (other than using photocopy plugin) of creating a sketch from your photo.

Start with a photo like this one:

Create two duplicate layers using either "Duplicate Layer..." from the Layer menu or select your background layer and press CTRL+J twice.

Your layers palette should now look like this with the background layer and two copies.

Desaturate both the copies using the "Desaturate" function from the Image->Adjust menu (or SHIFT+CTRL+U).

After which your photo goes black&white and your layers palette looks something like this.

Select the top layer and invert the content using the "Invert" function from the Image->adjust menu (or CTRL+I).

Select your inverted top layer (or make sure it is selected) in the layers palette and set the blending mode to "Color Dodge". This will make your photo look all white but that's ok. Don't worry it's normal ;-)

Again with the top layer selected in the layers palette apply a "Gaussian Blur..." by selecting it from the Filter->Blur menu.

Depending on the size and resolution of your photo select a radius that seems right. The higher radius you select the more detail will show up and the less it will look like a sketch.

Here is the final result:

Original	Sketch

color me...

2008-03-28T12:25:00.000-04:00

Here's a quick tutorial for doing a quick "artistic" colorization of a photo.

Sooo here goes.

Starting with this image of a flower

First step before adding some color is to add a touch of texture to the photo to make it a little "artistic" and add to mood. Some photos this works great for and others it doesn't so this step is something that can be experiment with or left out.

Add a pattern adjustment layer from the add adjustment layer from the layers palette

To make the pattern a "low" impact and subtle select a fairly light pattern and increase the scale so it fit's the photo in a way where it doesn't impact too much.

To merge the pattern with the photo set the blending mode to "vivid light" and adjust the opacity to the level where the pattern doesn't stand out too much.

Now to add the color to the photo select "solid color" from the add adjustment layer from the layers palette.

Pick a color in the dialog (blue in this case).

Of course this make the entire photo the color you selected... but not to worry ;-)
Change the blending mode of the color layer to "Hue" and adjust the opacity to a level where the colors are well balanced.

and tada here is your blue flower

Now go forth and add as many color layers as you wish to created different versions of the photo.
One thing to remember is to hide the non active color layers to avoid the colors getting mixed.

and with the above example we now have a green flower

Making different versions with different colors you can now quickly go from this

To this

or maybe this

A quick photo border

2008-03-28T12:19:00.000-04:00

So I figured a quick little tutorial on adding a quick border with the help of a template.

You can download the template here(right click and use save as).

Start out by choosing your photo, I will go with this one:

Now open the template and your photo in photoshop side by side.

Insert your photo in the template by selecting the "your photo" layer in the template. Select everything in your photo and drag it to the template.
To select everything in your photo click the header of it and use 'ctrl'+'a' keys or the marque from the toolbox and drag a box around the entire photo.

To move your photo to the template be sure to select the pointer tool from the toolbox (or use shortcut key 'v'). Grab your photo and drag it to the template.
When starting to drag the photo it will look like it's "disappearing" from your photo but don't worry about that. Once the move is complete your photo will remain untouched.

After moving your photo to the template you will have something like this:

As you can see the template and the photo isn't the same size... but not to worry. A quick adjustment of the photo size will do the trick.
Using "Free transform" either from the edit menu or by shortcut keys 'ctrl'+'t'. Resize your image by holding down shift (ensures ratio stays the same) and drag the corner(s) so the photo fits. Finish the resizing by using the "checkmark" in the menu bar or using shortcut key .

That's it... :-)

However for some photos a white border isn't good or you may want to blur it a bit.

To change the color of the border, select the border layer in the layers palette and make sure the canvas area is selected (the white box) not the mask layer.

Select the color you want to use in the tool box and use the paint bucket to fill the layer with your selected color or use shortcut key 'ctrl'+'backspace' to fill the layer with the foreground color.

To make the border a little fuzzy/blurry select the mask for the border layer.

Using the Gaussian blur.. from the filter->blur menu adjust the radius to a value where you think the border looks like you want it.

and that's it.... here is the result:

Original	New

Pop art

2008-03-28T12:18:00.000-04:00

If you haven't seen it yet Jacki got her spring layout up and running. Go ahead and make a jump over there to check it out.

Anyway that's the inspiration for this little quick tutorial. It is surprisingly easy and you can put the amount of effort in to it you wish :-)

Let's start with a photo like this:

First order of business is to adjust the threshold to create a monochrome like photo. You can do this using the threshold in the image->adjust photo menu. However this will alter the pixels in your photo and once it has been applied it is for good. So instead here is how to do a non-destructive alteration.
In the layers palette select threshold from the 'add adjustment layer' menu (the half black - half white button).

In the threshold dialog slide (move) the arrow under the histogram to a point where your photo has enough black areas to create a well defined photo (i.e. you can still see what it looks like).

Now all there is left is to add some pop(ing) colors to the photo and we are done :-) well sort of.

Anyway, go ahead and create a new layer. Either from the layers menu or by clicking the new layer button in the layers palette. Rename the layer to something meaningful (the color you are applying or the area you are applying it to). And finally change the layer blend mode to multiply. Changing the layer blend mode to multiply will blend the color we are painting with nicely with the background and we don't have to be too concerned about coloring outside the line.

In the newly created layer start coloring with a soft brush sized to fit the area you are painting. I like using a soft brush but if you prefer a hard brush or pencil will do just as well. Here is where the blend mode is an advantage since everything colored on a black area will be "hidden".

When coloring areas it can be hard to "remember" what the original image looked like or where the lines where exactly. To help hitting the correct areas you can lower the opacity of the threshold layer which will allow the photo in the background layer to >>shine<< through.
To do this select the threshold layer in the layers palette and lower the opacity using number input in the box or the slider that appears when you click the arrow next to it.

Now continue the process of creating new layers for each new area you want to color. Just like we did a couple of steps ago. For each layer remember to set the blend mode to multiply.

After a few layers with coloring we end up with the final result:

Original	Final

A taste of photos

2008-03-28T12:17:00.001-04:00

Since getting good response on the give away with photos that have been created photoshop here is a sample of photos that have been given various treatments in photoshop.

These are some of the photos I have done over time. More or less successful but hopefully it can give you some ideas about what is possible and most of them are pretty easy to make once you get the hang of it ;-)

comments appreciated

Thanks,
--peter

sketchy lines

2008-03-28T12:15:00.000-04:00

Finally a new tutorial. Even though it's not entirely line drawing it's somewhat in that direction but a little more dramatic. Which btw. reminds me. If you have suggestions or request for something you would like a tutorial on or want to do something special with a photo. Just leave a comment and I will do what I can to fulfill your request :-)

Starting with this image:

You may of course want to "clean" up your image first or adjust the levels as outlined in previous tutorials before getting and make a backup copy just in case you will want to undo the changes.

Start by selecting the background layer in the layers panel and make a duplicate layer (ctrl+j) or by right clicking the layer and select duplicate layer from the menu.

To create some nice crisp edges to work with start by sharpening the new layer you just created. ("layer 1" unless you renamed it).
Select the new layer and select sharpen->unsharp mask.. from the filter menu.

Sharpening the layer should get well defined lines in your photo which is needed for this next step.
First create a duplicate layer as above and this time you will get a layer with the default name "layer 1 copy" unless of course you renamed the layer.
From the filter menu select artistic->poster edges...

This will bring up the filter dialog (hint here you can find a lot of other interesting filter to play around with and get a preview before applying it to the layer you are working on).

In the filter dialog for poster edges adjust the sliders as shown in the next image so you get some nice generous rough black lines. It may look a bit too harsh and too much but that's ok we will get to that in a second.

After applying the poster edges to the photo these lines may look a bit too harsh which as I mentioned is just ok. For now we can adjust the harshness by selecting the layer in the layers palette and adjust the opacity (upper right hand corner) to a setting where the effect looks just about right (which will be a little too harsh for how you want it to end up)

The next step can seem a little scary at first. It's kind of an old method in a new better digital version. Layer blending ... tadaaa.... It's basically somewhat equivalent to putting a transparency with lines on it up in front of your photo and it blends with the layer beneath it... pretty cool huh?

Anyway let's go to the layers palette. Select the poster edge layer (layer 1 copy) and select "pin light" from the blending list.

We are going to do some more layer blending so to ensure that the background which is our lowest layer we want to blend with is the right color (white in this case) we will want to create a "paper" layer at the bottom of the stack. The background layer will remain and we can keep that for reference and to avoid "destroying" the original.

To create the "paper" layer select the background layer and click the "create new layer" button at the bottom of the layers palette. This will create a new empty layer.

To fill the layer ensure the current colors colors are the default colors (hit d on the keyboard) and fill the layer with white. Do this either by using the shortcut ctrl+backspace or selecting fill from the edit menu. If you use the later you will get a dialog in which you must make sure to select the right color from the "Use" drop down.

In the layers palette we now have the background layer (kept as a backup for the just in case...), a white layer, layer 1 and layer 1 copy.
To emphasize the line effect select the layer named layer 1 and decrease the opacity (in the layers palette) to a level where the colors of the photo is dimmed.

Almost there :-) starting to look right.
Depending on the chosen photo you may have some grunge/black stuff in the background which really doesn't look too good or desired.
To remove those (caused by the poster edges layer, layer 1 copy) we can mask those out of the photo.
This can be done by deleting the lines/effect we don't want or by adding a layer mask to the layer.
Start by selecting the layer (layer 1 copy) and add a mask by clicking the "add a vector mask" button at the bottom of the layers palette (it's the gray one with a white circle in the middle).

The mask is shown as a white masking layer linked with our photo in the same layer. Select the white masking layer (should be by default but... well you know).
Select the paintbrush from the toolbox and set it to a good size soft brush and foreground color black.
When painting on the mask think of it as the areas you color black will shield the effect from the photo layer and thus will not show up. So with the black brush now color the background in your photo and you will see the smudge disappear :-)

You should end up with a layer mask that has black in all the areas where you don't want the edge effect showing up.
Before finishing up you can now rename your layers by double clicking the layer name in each layer. I have renamed them so layer 1 copy is the "edge lines" and layer 1 is the "colors".
Not that the renaming is too useful right now but if you save the photo and come back to i later it might be difficult to remember what each layer is.

You can now adjust the harshness of the lines in a few easy steps.

Select the color layer and adjust the opacity to adjust the intensity of the colors. Select the edge lines layer and adjust the opacity to adjust the intensity of the lines.

Our process may have removed some contrast and changed the brightness. This however is easy to fix by selecting the top layer and add an adjustment layer for brightness/contrast.
From the layers palette select the add adjustment layer button (the round half-white half-black one) and choose Brightness/Contrast from the menu.

In the brightness/contrast dialog adjust the values and use the preview to set it so it suits your photo. In this case I dimmed the brightness and increased contrast but it can differ based on the starting photo.

And here is the final result:

Original:

Sketchy Lines:

Tinted photos

2008-03-28T12:14:00.000-04:00

In the good ole' days (man I love this). One could develop black and white photos and tint them to your hearts content. However it was both smelly and highly toxic and of course if it got too much there was nothing to do than start over...

Now that we moved to the digital age tinting and redoing is simple, quick and painfree :-)

Tinting can be done in multiple ways. One of them which gives a little extra control is duotone (or tritone, quadtone).

To start with select a photo to work with. I went with this one:

As you can see it could do with a little clarity and cleaning before we start tinting. For this see previous post describing this in detail. Doing this we end up with something like this:

Before we can start tinting the photo it has to be converted to black and white. This can be done in multiple ways. The quick and control less method is using Desaturate function from Image->adjust menu.
Another way is using the channel mixer and if you got photoshop cs3 you can even do it by adding a black and white layer.

In this example I will use the channel mixer since adding a black and white layer in cs3 is both very similar and very simple.
From the layers palette select the channel mixer layer. Set a check mark in monochrome and depending on your photos color, brightness etc. set the values in the channel mixer settings to create a balanced black and white photo.

Once you have a good black and white photo (gray scale) merge all layers using the layers menu and select merge visible.

Even though the photo has the appearance of a black and white photo there is one more step. The photo may be gray scale but unless you started with a gray scale photo it is still a color photo only lacking colors.
To change the photo to a gray scale photo change the image mode in the image menu mode->Grayscale.

Now that we have the gray scale photo we can start tinting. I know that the new functionality offers an option for tinting the photo in the same "breath" but using this method we can tint the photo using multiple colors.
Start by changing the mode to duotone from the menu Image->mode->duotone.

In the upper left hand corner of the dialog type can be selected and the colors to tint with can be manually selected from the boxes below that.
Another "quick" method is using the load function (button on the right hand side) and load a predefined/working color set.

This is a good area to experiment in since you can easily load different color sets and instantly see the preview. Changing color set and look is as easy as hitting the load button and choose a new color set.

Here is a light magenta duo tone:

And a light brown duo tone:

Another feature that we can add really quick to imitate some old functions is to add vignetting to the photo. Again this can be done in multiple ways but here is one way to do it.

Start by creating a new empty layer using the new layer button in the layers palette or from the layers menu.

With the new empty layer selected in the layers palette. Select the Elliptical marquee tool and create a selection by clicking in the upper left corner and drag to the lower right hand corner. btw. the Elliptical marquee is grouped with the square marquee tool. You can toggle between the Elliptical marquee and square marquee using shift-M or select the one you want by right clicking the tool in the toolbox. Giving a selection like this:

Now with the selection active invert the selection (ctrl-shift-i) or selecting inverse from the select menu. Ensure the foreground color is black and fill the selection using alt-backspace or fill from the edit menu.

Now we have dark corners with hard edges. We would want those to be soft edges and this we can do by first blurring the edges. With the vignetting layer selected apply Gaussian blur from the filter->blur menu and select a radius around 100 pixels.

To finalize the vignetting set the blending mode to darken in the layers palette and decrease the opacity to a point where the vignetting isn't overpowering.

And here is the result:

Before:	After:

Developing in photoshop - Orton technique

2008-03-28T12:13:00.000-04:00

I have been experimenting with different "old" techniques that I would use in the darkroom in the old days (you know a dark room with smelly chemicals and the right light on).
Anyway here is one that works very good for portraits in particular but I am sure it can be applied to many other photos such as scenery, landscape etc. if it seems to fit.

Here goes a step by step for Orton sandwich in photoshop.

Step 1:
Open the image you wish to try the technique on. If you wish to keep the original unaltered now would be a good time to make a duplicate of the
image (Image>Duplicate) and close the original image.

You could start out with something like this:

Step 2:
Lighten the image as follows: Image>Apply Image… In the dialog box change the blending mode to "screen and the opacity to 100%.
This will give you an appropriately overexposed image. (it's ok it's supposed to look bright and overexposed).

Here is the overexposed version of my example:

Step 3:
Duplicate background layer (layer>duplicate layer...) or ctrl+J in photoshop CS2/3.

you should get a layer like this (notice original is background and layer1 is our new layer):

Step 4:
Select Layer 1 and blur this layer (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur…
In the Gaussian blur dialog box use a Radius setting of 15 to 50 pixels – the higher the pixel setting the blurrier the photo and the more ‘painterly’ the image…
Notice you can go too far and over do it...
Experiment with different settings, for my tastes and for the size of my digital
files (5Mb in raw and ~30Mb in psd) a radius of about 25 pixels works perfect. Smaller resolution jpg could need as little as 5-10 pixels radius.

Now the photo is nice and blurry :-)

Step 5:
In the Layers palette select layer1 (or the blurry layer) and change the blending mode from “normal” to “multiply”.

Blending mode drop down box is highlighted here:

Step 6:
You can now "finish" off by flattening the layers using shortcut ctrl+E or selecting the layers in the layers palette, right click and select merge layers.

There, you now have an Orton image - if you like your new masterpiece save the file! Simple as that :-)

Here is my finished example:

Original	Orton edition

That's all there is too it. Have fun and remember to experiment :-)

Crystal clear photos

2008-03-28T11:39:00.000-04:00

It happens to us all. some times, all the time or every now and then.
We get this nice photo but it seems a little fuzzy or there is a haze like glare in the entire photo.

In many cases this is a result of the blacks in the photo isn't really black (more grayish) and the whites are not really white (more grayish) and sometimes the gray isn't really gray at all.

Take this photo as an example

As you can see it seems a little fuzzy or there is a light haze covering the photo.
By inspecting the histogram you can see that the photo has data spiking in the center of the histogram with little to no data in the pure black and pure white regions.
On most cameras you can see the histogram on the display. If not don't worry we will get back to that in a second.

First start by opening the photo in photoshop and for the just in case scenario where we might end up wanting to undo changes create a copy to work on by selecting duplicate from the image menu.

Now for the major step in fixing the photo add a levels adjustment layer. This can be done from the layer menu by selecting levels in the Add adjustment layer menu or by selecting levels from the add adjustment layer list in the layers palette.

As can be seen in the histogram all data is centered and there is no data at the far left or far right side.

Using the triangles under the histogram you can now change the interpretation of pure black and pure white (and gray).

Move the black triangle towards the center until it "hits" the start of data. This will make the black colors black.
Move the white triangle towards the center. Again until it "hits" the start of data. This will make the white colors white.
The gray can be a little more tricky and unless your screen is properly adjusted this is where things can go wrong and end up looking differently than you intended.
Anyway adjust the gray slider until the mid tones (gray) looks "right".

If you have parts of your image being pure black, pure white and/or neutral gray you can also use the color pickers to the right of the histogram (under the options button) and use the correct color picker on the corresponding section of the photo.

As you can see this has introduced a major difference and removed a lot of the "haze".

To adjust any remaining brightness and contrast there may be you can now add a brightness/contrast layer. This is done from the layers menu as previously or from the layers palette.

When adjusting brightness and contrast keep an eye on hot spots to avoid these to burn out completely and in shadow regions to avoid causing black with no detail in it.

The final result after a quick touch up

Before

After