Tonight I was giving CS4 a good workout and thought I’d work on some portrait images just for fun. These both came out a bit better than I expected and you’ll see in the second image, I added a gradient to neutralize the skin tones as well as some textures on the outer edges. I was also going for a more creamier feel to the skin. Unfortunatly the web image just doesn’t come out with the right tone as a large .PSD file does.

I did a bit more work on the first image above, with Edna, shaping her nose and mouth somewhat but not wanting to make it look unrealistic. I also tried to maintain the skintone and pores when working with the skin which is always a challenge. This work can be tedious and there really is no way around it other than having a great makeup artist and lighting to get it right.

I have been driving around my Macbook Pro with my new version of Photoshop CS4, trying to learn all the little nuances hidden under the hood. Somehow I got sidetracked and ended up at istockphoto.com looking at textures. Don’t ask me how, it just happens when one has a period of boredom, followed by flashes of inspiration and then some temporary forms of ADHD. Anyway, so I did a search on textures as I wanted to work with some layers in Photoshop and play around with some images I shot over the weekend in Seattle. Not having any textures at the ready, I found this one of a tuscan wall that I figured would work perfect. Yeah I had to pay for it, but I wanted it now and did not have my Europe images close by and the time to spend hours hunting for a texture. Besides I I started looking at my old Europe CD’s, I’d end up on some other tangent and never accomplish my goal , so I bought it.

Originally I was going to use and image of Post Alley by the Pike Place Market, but felt that the Seattle image would work a lot  better. In the upper left corner, you can see the original texture file as well as the Seattle photo I used.

So, let’s see step by step how I created this.

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Photographer Bill Simone steps through some of his workflow in creating the above image. Though I think HDR can be a bit overdone and has become the rage for the past two years or so, but Bill really created a beautiful image without overdoing it. Also check out his Boxer post. This was a great composite image, taking you step by step through the process.

Seeing work like this convinces me I need to use more post processing. I have always been a minimalist when it comes to working my images, because I think the job needs to get done in the camera and not on the desktop. I also fought moving to digital from film and going back to film would be pretty tough at this point. My CS4 upgrade arrives next week, so I guess I’ll need to get to work and get some help from the masters like Bill Simone.

The other day I was talking to a friend about photography and was trying to explain the concept of how depth of field works and how an aperture controls DOF. He was asking me how to make image backgrounds fuzzy in Photoshop, he didn’t understand I had done it in camera. With our automatic cameras, I understand people really become lazy and do not understand how changing a shutter speed or aperture settings can change their photos. I went over to one of my favorite websites, Deviantart.com and shared a tutorial I had bookmarked a while back, to explain the concept. I know for me personally, I shoot 95% of my work in aperture priority mode. So for me, I think it is important for others to understand this concept.

Also check out this link for many more excellent tutorials. They have done a great job of clearly explaining each concept from Macro Photography to High Contrast Black n’ White

Model Ashley has beautiful green eyes, but I wanted to enhance
them even more, to bring out the contrast and highlights as well
as adding more color. I also wanted to keep the enhancement subtle, yet realistic.

This is a quick simple task,. First I choose a bright green color,
by going to the eyedropper and then clicking on the color
palette.

This will bring up the Color Picker dialog box. Choose a color
closest to the tone you want to enhance the eyes with. In this
case I chose a green that was not too bright.

Choose the paintbrush size to be about the same size as the models
eyes. Click one or two times on each eye, depending how much you
want to enhance the color.

Then we will want to enhnace the highlights in the eyes. Right click
on the button, just above your text tool. This will allow you to choose
the Dodge Tool.

Click a few times on each eye for the desired result and that’s
it! Though it is a subtle change, the eyes have more life and color
with the highlights being brought out.

Styling and makeup credit: Shawn Alexander from Los Angeles

Model Credit: Ashley

You can download .jpg version of this tutorial Here

I am sharing this knowledge under the Creative Commons License. Feel free to post this tutorial on any non commercial website. Please link the image
back to www.pixebian.com as well as a text link, to same in your post. All content is © Terry Divyak

Photoshop Digital painting tutorial by Dianae - Licensed under Creative Commons License

From time to time I am going to add creative Photoshop tutorials to the site. All tutorials will be licensed under Creative Commons. This is a great way for everyone to learn about photoshop and some people are way more creative than I am.

Dianae is a perfect example of a talented artist and this tutorial is fantastic. The videos are even more amazing as this was all drawn freehand and not from a photo. But, it is a great tutorial for photographers who want to bring their images into a fantasy style. Continue Reading