Photoshop Tutorials

LOMO

admin — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 08:25:02 +0000

Simulate the colors of Lomography with Photoshop. In this Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to apply a retro-looking color effect to your photo using all adjustment layers. Find out how to make photos look as if they were taken with a LOMO camera.

Sample PSD (Photoshop Document)

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Lomography

Lomography Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

Load a photo into Photoshop.

Step 2

To create this effect, we’ll be using three adjustment layer. One to compress the reds, to alter the color, and to create a vignette. Yes, you read that correctly. We’re going to show you how to add a vignette using an adjustment layer! But before we do that, we’ll add an adjustment layer to compress the reds.

If you load a LOMO photo into Photoshop and look at the channels, you’ll notice that the reds are highly compressed (high contrast). To simulate that, we’ll use the Curves tool and add more contrast.

In the Layers palette, add a new Curves adjustment layer.

In the Curves tool, select Red from the channel drop down menu and make a S curve like the image below then click OK. Now we have half the LOMO color effect applied.

The Best Technique to Enhance Saturation

admin — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 02:52:32 +0000

Make your photos look vivid with the best method published. This Photoshop tutorial uses a combination of three saturation enhancement techniques to create the best results. Follow this Photoshop tutorial to learn how to the best way to increase saturation.

Sample PSD (Photoshop Document)

Enhance Saturation

Enhance Saturation Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

Open a photo into Photoshop. To open an image, choose File > Open. The image I used to present this tutorial already has good saturation and would actually look worse with a saturation boost. So keep in mind that the original image will look better than the one with the saturation boost and that this is done for demonstration purposes only.

Step 2

First, create a duplicate of the layer. Press Ctrl+J or choose Layer > Duplicate layer. We will be using two saturation boosting techniques and a special Photoshop technique called adaptive saturation which we will describe later.

Step 3

First, we’ll use the LAB color method to increase the saturation. Choose Image > Mode > Lab Color.

Step 4

Open the Curves tool by pressing Ctrl+M. The Curves tool can also be found in the Image > Adjustment > Curves menu if the hot key does not work for you. In the Curves tool, select the channel “a” from the drop down menu and create a S curve like the image below. If you want more saturation, moves the two points closer towards the center. For less saturation, move slightly them towards the outer edge. Repeat this with the B channel.

This works by increasing the contrast on the two chroma channels. The LAB color mode separates the luminance (black and white tonal values) with the color. It creates three channels: By increasing the contrast on only the color channels, the luminance becomes unaffected. This saturation increasing method works great with landscape photos but not so well with portraits or photos with a lot of skin.

If you increase the curvature of the S shape, the contrast becomes greater. The image below shows how increasing the curvature and making the s-curve sharper will add more contrast.

Memorable Sepia

admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:45:37 +0000

Make your photos memorable with this romantic Photoshop photo effect. In this Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to create and combine a split sepia effect with a targeted vignette.

Sample PSD (Photoshop Document)

Memorable Sepia Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

Open a photo into Photoshop. Use a wedding or engagement photo if you have one because this effect is most suitable for those types of photos.

Step 2

In the layers palette, click on the add adjustment layer button and choose Black & White. If you’re using Photoshop CS2 or older, you will not have access to the Black & White adjustment layer. For users of Photoshop CS2 or older, skip this step and proceed with the next step.

Step 3 (For Photoshop CS2 or older)

If you’re using Photoshop CS2 or older, you don’t have access to the Black & White adjustment layer. Instead, you can use the Channel Mixer and Hue/Saturation tool to achieve similar (but not exact) results. Add a Channel Mixer and Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and apply the settings shown below. Remember to have the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer on the top.

When done, hold the Ctrl key and click on the two adjustment layers. Then press Ctrl+G to group the layers. The layers should now appear inside a group in the Layers palette. Select the group and choose Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All.

Superb Skin Airbrush Technique

admin — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:07:07 +0000

Airbrush skin like a pro. In this Photoshop retouching tutorial, you’ll learn how to retouch skin like the professionals. Find out how to make skin look healthy without looking plastic or blurred.

Sample PSD (Photoshop Document)

skin-airbrushing.psd

Airbrushing Skin Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

Open the photo into Photoshop. For this tutorial, try to use a high resolution image where you can see the skin texture.

Step 2

Create a duplicate layer and put it into a group. To do this, press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer then Ctrl+G to place the new layer into a group. Name the group "Airbrush" and the layer "Blur". To retouch the skin, there will be two layers in the Airbrush group. The first layer we’ve created (the Blur layer) will be used to blur the skin. After that, we’ll add another layer to restore the natural skin texture.

Step 3

Have the Blur layer selected. To blur this layer, use the Surface Blur filter. This filter blurs like the Gaussian Blur filter except it can retain edge detail. We’ll need to blur the layer so that the skin is smoothed and somewhat blurry without having the edges

Here’s what my image looks looks like after the Surface Blur filter. Your image should look similar with details such as the eye intact. If the eye becomes blurry, your settings are too strong. Undo and redo the Surface Blur filter with a lower setting.

Step 4

Create a new layer and move it above the Blur layer. Name this layer "Texture" and change the blend mode to Hard Light. This layer, as the name states, will be used to add a slight texture to the skin and also adjust the skin tonality.

The texture created in this layer will contribute to the final results very minimally - the difference can only be easily seen zoomed in on high resolution images and varies from image to image. Even though the result is very minimal, it ensures that no area of the skin looks too smooth or plastic.

Below is an example of this. On the left, the image looks like a solid color, also known as plastic skin. The image on the right has a slight noise pattern to make the skin look more realistic.

Mystical Light Shaft

admin — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:22:39 +0000

Make your photos look magical with this beautiful light shaft Photoshop tutorial. This ultra realistic light effect is great for adding drama to those precious moments. Follow this Photoshop tutorial to find out how easy it is to add this beautiful effect.

Sample PSD (Photoshop Document)

Light Shaft

Light Shaft Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

Open an image into Photoshop. This Photoshop effect doesn’t work with every photo, so you’ll need to pick a good photo to start with. A photo that is compatible with this Photoshop tutorial is one with a visible sky and that is partially covered with trees, clouds, etc versus a clear blue sky. Below is an example of a good image for this effect.

Step 2

First, we’ll create a duplicate of the layer. Press Ctrl+J or go to Layer > Duplicate to create a duplicate layer. You should now have two layers in the layers palette.

Step 3

Make sure that you have the top layer selected. Choose Image > Adjustment > Threshold. The Threshold tool creates a 100% black and white image (no grays). We’ll use this tool to help us separate the sky and the foreground.

In the Threshold tool, move the input slider all the way to the right. Then, move the input slider towards the left slowly until the sky appears. Once it appears, let go of the mouse button and click OK.

Brighten Photos Like a Pro

admin — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 09:46:28 +0000

Learn the ultimate Photoshop technique to brighten underexposed pictures. In this Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to use a masking technique to brighten images without overexposing highlights. This Photoshop technique can also be used to darken images without affecting the highlights.

Sample PSD (Photoshop Document)

exposure-correction.psd

Analyzing the Methods

Step 1

To begin this Photoshop tutorial, open an image that is underexposed. If you don’t have any underexposed photos, then you must be a very good photographer! Just kidding - you can acquire underexposed images by searching “underexposed” on Google Images.

Step 2

Now, let’s experiment with the common brightening methods to see how they perform.

Brightness/Contrast tool

First, let’s use the Brightness/Contrast tool as it is the most simple tool to increase brightness. Choose Image > Adjustment > Brightness/Contrast. Increase the contrast so that the exposure is correct.

If you’re using Photoshop CS2, the results should be quite horrible. In Photoshop CS3, the Brightness/Contrast tool has greatly improved results. But no matter which version of Photoshop you use, you’ll notice that the areas that are the correct exposure got brighter; making them overexposed. This is a common problem with brightening images. Don’t click OK; click cancel. If you did, press Ctrl+Z to undo.

Levels tool

The Levels tool is one of the better ways brighten an image. Load up the Levels tool (Image > Adjustments > Levels). The levels may look daunting, but it is actually easy to use; just slightly harder than the Brightness/Contrast tool.

To increase the brightness with the Levels tool, drag the gray input slider towards the left. If you want to add more contrast, drag the white input slider towards the left. The results are much better than the Brightness/Contrast tool, but the highlights are still being brightened.

You can play around with the Output Levels settings to filter which areas are affected, but that creates posterization in your image - yuck!

The Levels tool may do a good job brightening an image, but it’s not the best. Click Cancel to exit out of the Levels tool.

Breathtaking Split Toning Effect

admin — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:03:40 +0000

This dramatic effect is an ideal alternative to black and white. Instead of being pure black and white, split toning creates a multicolor toning effect where the shadows and highlights are of two different colors. This effect, which was a popular film developing method, can now be done digitally in minutes. Find out how to make your photos look breathtaking with this classic split toning effect.

Sample PSD (Photoshop Document)

Split Toning

Before you begin

The split toning effect can be done much faster with the latest version of ACR (Adobe Camera RAW), Adobe Lightroom, and possibly Apple Aperture - please confirm this with me in the comments if you know.This Photoshop tutorial is meant as a solution in case you do not have any of those options. For example, editing a JPEG file with Photoshop.

Split Toning Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

As usual, begin by opening a photo into Photoshop. If this is your first time following this tutorial, use a close up portrait photo. This split toning Photoshop effect works well with portraits but not very well with landscapes.

Step 2

First, if you didn’t open a black and white photo, you need to convert the image to black and white. There are many ways of doing this but the easiest method with Photoshop CS3 is to add a Black & White adjustment layer. If you’re using an older version of Photoshop, you can also use:

Hue/Saturation
This method is for beginners. Simply set the saturation to -100 and click OK. If you want to be more precise, you can also go into each color and adjust the brightness.
Channel Mixer
This method is for the more advance Photoshop user who understands how to use the Channel Mixer to create a black and white photo.

In the layers palette, click on the new adjustment layer button and select the method you want to use to convert your photo to black and white.

I’m using Photoshop CS3 so I chose to use the Black & White tool to make my color photo black and white. Here, I adjusted the settings to create the best tonal information. There isn’t one setting that will work with every photo - you’ll have to adjust the settings yourself.

Strong Focus for Killer Portraits

admin — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:02:25 +0000

Learn how to use Photoshop to fix portrait photos with a distracting background. This effect is easy enough for the beginner but works exceptionally well. Many professional stock photographers use this technique to enhance their portrait photos and increase their sales. Find out how you can make your portrait photos look better with this fast Photoshop tutorial.

Sample PSD (Photoshop Document)

One of the most important element of good portrait photography is the background. The background is also the most common mistake with portrait photography. Good lighting, pose, and focus can contribute to good portrait photography, but a distracting background can ruin it all. Chances are that if you shoot portraits, you’ll have several photos with this problem laying around. Follow this Photoshop tutorial to learn how to rescue those photos and make them look amazing.

The distracting background

What a beautiful model, uniform, and pose. But there’s something wrong with it. Looking at the image below, you were probably trying to figure out what the background is. The photo looks like it was taken at some parking lot outside an apartment. How does that have anything to do with the uniform? Actually, this photo was taken at an old barrack.

Step 1

Begin by duplicating the layer. This will create two layers - one for the blurry background and one for the subject. To duplicate a layer, choose Layer > Duplicate. Make sure that you have the new layer, Layer 1, selected.

Step 2

Now we’ll use the Extract filter. This filter makes it easy to cutout something from a photo - in our case, it will be to cutout the model. Choose Filter > Extract to open the Extract tool. To extract, draw a line on the edge of the model. But before we do that, checkmark the Smart Highlighting option. This will snap the brush to the
edge making the process faster and easier.

Outline the model with the brush. You will need to be very precise; if not, the results will be jagged edges.

Zoom in about 500% to make sure that you can see the tiny pixels.
Use the smallest brush size to make the extraction process more accurate.
When you reach the end of the window, hold down the spacebar and your cursor should change to a hand. Click and drag on the picture to move it to another section to continue brushing.