Tuesday 29 January 2008

Monday 28 January 2008

They're finished!



After a few weeks working on the best methods I have finally finished my first set of photoshop actions for CS3.  These are not ground breaking new processing techniques but simply convenient actions for the most commonly used processing techniques.  The example shown is my vintage action, examples of the rest can be found at my flickr account and they can be purchased through QXL for a very small price, the listing can be found through the title link :)

Sunday 20 January 2008

Sunday 13 January 2008

A quick texture tutorial for photoshop.


Part of my daily posting diet on flickr yesterday included project365 shots for myself and my kids. As it was the weekend and we've all been ill this week I opted for a lazy home based-shoot and some photoshop editing applying textures. I used Michelle Black's new freebie texture which you can find by clicking the title link. After posting a few people posted comments asking how I'd done it so decided it might be a good idea to post a tutorial here to help and PS new comers out.

Firstly, the original photo was shot against a white background, that makes editing later easier. You don't nee a back drop I often use a white wall in my house with good lighting. Today I used a projection screen but thats not particularly necessary as long as you've got a good contrast between your subject and background.

Firstly I should make it clear this tutorial is to use the texture as a background and not to apply over the entire shot. I will probably cover that later. I opened both the files in photoshop firstly. Then I selected all of the texture file and copied and pasted it into a new layer over the photograph. You can do it the other way around but will loose your EXIF data is you do.

Once the texture is pasted over the photograph you will alarmingly be unable to see your image. At this point reduce the opacity of the texture layer to around 50%. This will allow you to see what's underneath. Now with the eraser tool set to 100% opacity and 100% flow begin erasing the texture from your subject, I always start with the face and work out. Erase just almost to the edges then refine your eraser brush. Set to a smaller diamter, around 19 pixels, with opacity at 37% and flow around 74% and erase the edges in smooth strokes. Once this is done increase the opacity of the texture layer back to around 95% so you can see and spots you've missed. Once this is tidied up run the blur tool around the edges to give a smooth finish.

Don't worry if you make a mistake, you can use the undo tool if you are not using very long strokes, if there is a white area left when you increase opacity you may also be able to use the clone tool to even it out.

Have fun!

Saturday 12 January 2008

Glorius in the garden - new free preset.

Winter may seem like an odd time for me to be advocating getting outside to shoot, but winter sun (as any driver will tell you) can be more intense than spring and summer. It gives fantastic contrasts on frosty days particularly. This image has been processed with my new garden glory lightroom preset. It will enhance shadows and emphasise the natural greens and reds in your shot to make the most of the winter sunshine.

This is my garden I did not have to wander too far to get what I wanted, I'd love to see what anyone else comes up with & how the preset looks, please feel free to post links to your pictures in the comments section.


Saturday 5 January 2008

New year new preset


Not a fantastic photo but this is a shot from New Years day, I started the flickr 365 days project on boxing day and this is my SP. The violet doze preset is perfect for those lazy days shots and works on black & white conversions to add a little splash of colour. You can download the preset by clicking the title link, C+C welcome as always especially as this preset was exported on my mac and not the windows machine I had had to use for the others so please let me know if there are any compatibility issues.