|
I have been tinkering with Photoshop for a while. I started to get serious with Photoshop when I was using version 5.5, but I am currently using Photoshop 7 but will probably bestir myself to upgrade to Photoshop CS soon. I first learned about Photoshop when I worked as a professional photo retoucher. However, at the lab where I worked we didn't use Photoshop. Instead we used special photo dyes and painted directly on the prints. It could be painstaking at times. That's why Photoshop is so exciting to me - something that could take hours with dyes and brushes takes mere minutes with Photoshop! Most
of the techniques I show here are geared more towards "traditional"
retouching tasks. But I am enjoying branching out, and exploring more
of Photoshop's capabilities!
|
|||
| My
model for some of these Photoshop exercises is my friend Bill. I had some
good pictures of him, and I thought I might as well use them for my Photoshop
practice!
To the right is a picture of Bill, as it was originally scanned. As you can see, it is too dark, and too blue. The scan was pretty bad, actually! But I like the picture, since it has Bill (who is a patriotic fellow) looking at the flag against a nice cloudy blue sky. The photo has possibilities... |
|
||
|
|
I decided that the thing to emphasize in the picture was Bill, and the flag. So, I made a copy of the picture on a new layer, and turned the original layer (so it was no longer visible). I then extracted Bill from the original background using several selection and extraction tools in Photoshop (mostly the Magic Wand). I used Curves and Levels to adjust his contrast and color, so he doesn't look so dark and murky. On another new
layer, I made some generic clouds with Photoshop's "Render"
filter, and put it behind Bill's layer. I then found a stock photo
of a flag. I put on its own layer, lowered the opacity, and blurred
it a little so it looks like it is in the distance. I plop them
all in together, and voilà! A nice picture of Bill and flag,
without the confusion and distraction that was in the original photo! |
||
|
Hey, this picture belongs in my Yosemite Photos section! Well, it will eventually end up there, I am sure... (This scene is from Yosemite Valley.) I had scanned some Yosemite slides a few years ago, when I had a bad scanner, and bad software. (Plus, I didn't really know what I was doing!) I ended up with these extremely dim, blue images. I set the scanned files aside, hoping I'd be able to salvage them later, when my software skills increased. I
will confess that I don't think the "after" picture is quite
"there" yet - I think I could do more with it. Or better
yet, I should just re-scan the original slide! I gave some contrast (and got out some of the blue) by using Levels and Curves. I adjusted the Color Balance, putting some more red and yellow in the picture. I selected the trees, foreground, and background rocks all at separate times, (feathering each selection by a few pixels) and adjusted their color and contrast as I saw fit. This was tricky at times, and required me to do a little airbrush retouching to fix up trouble spots within each selected area. Another way to fix the trees and background rocks would be to make an Adjustment Layer (perhaps of Levels) to get the trees, etc. the way I liked. Then, apply a mask to the Adjustment Layer, "erasing" everything but the now-corrected rocks and trees. Voilà! There are so many different ways to color correct in Photoshop! Frankly,
I am amazed that the picture ended looking as good as it does. I now
consider it "passable". The original photo was so
blue, and so dim - I just didn't think there was anything
left there to salvage! But that is the wonder of Photoshop.
All images and graphics © J.R. Dunster 2001 - 2006 Last updated January 21, 2007
[Distorting Images] [Color Correction] [Photoshop Text Fun] [Photoshop Portrait Tutorial] [Photoshop Book Reviews] [Changing Backgrounds] [Photoshop Newbie]
Privacy Policy | Feedback Form/Questionnaire | Site Map | Awards | Search | Disclaimer | Home | Yosemite Photos | Travel Diary | Pottery | California Photos | Portrait Art | Scenic California Photography t-shirts
|
|||
