Photoshop Tutorial #4

Today's photo with a vintage twist.

I've always loved how "old" photos looked and isn't it great that I can create that effect now with good ole photoshop!

Original photo:


























1. Duplicate the background image (command J).

2. Set foreground color to white and background color to white.

3. Click on the half black/white circle at the bottom of the layers window and go down to gradient map. The duplicate layer is now a black and white image.



























4. Change the opacity to 50%, so the full color background is slightly visible giving it a muted look. Now flatten all the layers.



























5. Duplicate the background image again and set the layer mode to 'Soft light' and at 50%.



























6. Now create a new layer (blank) and take your eyedropper tool and click on the brown area.

7. Fill the layer (option + delete or shift F5) with that brown color.

8. From the top menu bar, go to 'Filter' and slide down to 'Noise'--> 'add noise'. I put in 40 for the amount and made it 'uniform' and checked yes for monochromatic.

9. Then take your burn tool with a large brush and burn the outer corners. Your layer should look like the below.



























11. Change the opacity to 60%.



























12. Set the layer mode to 'Overlay' and you're done!



























Before and after comparison.

Photoshop Tutorial #3

Fixing a blurry picture

What a great shot this would've been if it wasn't a bit blurry. I hate it when that happens. I end up deleting most of the blurry shots and keeping just a few that aren't too bad since Photoshop can help me fix this.

Here's the origianal shot.




1. From the 'Filters' menu bar, go down to 'Sharpen' then to 'Unsharp Mask'. Use the sliders to adjust the sharpness by viewing the image in the preview box.























It's not totally crisp and sharp and can't get any better than that without it looking really bad, so this will do for me.




2. Then I look the 'dodge' tool with a medium size brush and lightened some parts of her face.

3. Next and final step, took the 'burn' tool with a larger brush and darkened the outer edges for more intensity.




The side by side comparison. Not as blurry anymore and more vibrant now.




I think this photo would look pretty cool in black and white also. So I simply set my foreground color to black and my background color to white. Then from the 'Image' menu bar, go to 'Adjustments', then down to 'Gradient Map' and there you have a lovely black and white photo.






One step further to make it a warm sepia tone... go to the half circle icon on the bottom of the layers window and choose 'photo filter'. I chose the sepia at 75% density. I like. :)

Photoshop Tutorial #2

Before I got my dslr, I relied on my p&s to take half decent photos. Well with a p&s, some come out ok and others are just eh. I relied heavily on Photoshop to fix the lighting, colors and overall, to just make it look better.

Here's a shot a took a few months ago with my Olympus FE-170. Looks pretty drab, so I'm gonna fix all that with Photoshop. Btw, I'm using Photoshop CS2. Need to upgrade to CS3 soon.



























1. I use LEVELS to bump up the lightness and contrast. Take the white slider and slide it to the left... more or less depending on the exposure of the orig photo.




















Already looking better.



























2. Create a new layer (command J on Mac) and change the layer blend mode to HARD LIGHT. Lowered the opacity to 60%. Then flatten the layers.



























3. Take the blur tool with a medium size brush and blur the background some.



























4. Now take the burn tool (my favorite!) using a large brush and darken the outer edges. I then took a smaller brush and spot burned some shadows for more intensity.



























And that's it! Look at the difference side by side! Pretty cool!

Photoshop Tutorial #1

Even with a DSLR, photos don't always come out as perfect as you'd like. Here's a simple way to saturate the photo with more color and contrast to make it pop!

Original photo-SOOTC (straight out of the camera).
First thing I did was to straighten the image simply by selecting all and slightly rotating.


























Next thing to do is to click on the half circle icon on the bottom of the layers window to bring up the Hue/Saturation adjuster.


























Then select the 'Reds' and move the 'saturation' slider to the right.


















Now the triangular roof is already a richer red.


























Do the same with the 'Blues' and pump up the saturation. Then flatten layers.





















The sky is now a brighter and prettier blue.


























Now take the 'burn' tool and select a fairly large brush and burn the top and bottom of the photo.


























Then duplicate the layer (command J) and put the layer mode on 'soft light' at 50% opacity.


























Looks so much better than the original, but I'm gonna keep going for the extra oomph.

Create a new layer. Select an orange color, then take the gradient tool and make sure the gradient is set on the foreground (orange) color to clear.

Click and drag from the bottom up to about half way up and release the click.

Set the layer mode to 'multiply' and at 50% opacity.


























You'll see the gradient on the bottom like the below pic.


























Now take the eraser tool with a large brush and erase around the structure, so the background sky isn't orange and that's the final step! I like the results, so I'm gonna stop here.