Thread: A question to all the photographers/photoshop whizzes

Hi All,

As some of you know, I'm currently on a pin up project for photography at college. Now I've taken some pictures and I have many more to come, but how can I edit them nicely on photoshop?

I mean all I can do on photoshop is the contrast and brightness :wallbash::worried::help:

Has anyone got any ideas or some useful tips for general editting?

I've been taught at college but I didn't really understand :cry:

Thanks,
xxxx

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Hi

I'm self taught on Photoshop and have learnt some pretty neat stuff.

I'll have a look through some of the books and tutorials I have and i'll get some stuff together for you.

What exactly are you looking to do with the pics? Tidy them up or really go to town with them?

Flash

It was mainly to tidy them up a bit

Thank you xx

No problems then! I'm not at home at the moment - when i get back i'll put something together for you!

I'll post some of the stuff in here for others to look at and if there is anything specific you need just drop me a PM!

Flash
x

I use photoshop to add my signature style to my pics. Polishing them up is always a priority and is nearly always applied to my shots.

Not the best example is the one i have already used on another forum..



On the left is a "technically perfect" image - the right, thats the edited version.

The processing took roughly 3-5mins. Below is a list of the edits i tend to apply.

Skin - on a copied layer (CL)

1. I use the Surface blur option at a radius of aprox 3 and Threshold of 5 - but this does vary pic to pic. It is then given an opacity of 50% on average.

2. (CL) Increase the saturation of the reds and sometimes the yellows - adjust opacity to suit.

3. (CL) Dodge and burn any highlights and shadows to give a depth of features. I use my brushes at 15% to allow me to build up - can also be used to give better definition of cheekbones.

Merge layers.

Facial Features

Eyes
1. Use the liquify tool to enlarge the eyes - only slightly and doesnt always need doing

2. (CL)Brighten the whites of the eyes and the teeth by dodging at 20% and adjusting opacity to suit.

If the eyes are reddened - select the eyes and copy to a new layer - reduced the reds and blend with a soft edge rubber and merge to the original layer.

3. Burn the edge of the eye colour to add definition.

4. Add Extra highlights by the following.
-New layer
-White soft edge brush
-Draw a slight curve opposite the catch light on the eye colour of both eyes
-Go to Filter>blur>gaussian blur> radius of around 5 (it needs to be very soft)
-If any white has overspilled the eye colour, delete with a soft brush
-Go to your layers pallet and select "Soft Light" From the drop down menu

5. Mouth was adjusted with the liquify tool - again not always applied

Colours

I always add a small amount of saturation to my images to give them better ping

To this shot i also added a warming filter.

Other

1. Use the clone tool to slowly delete out any flaws missed during the shoot - ie the shadow on the wall and the rocking horse base.

2. Dodge and burned shadows and highlights

If you need any more help or step by step picture guides let me know

Ooh that's brilliant - I've used clone & heal to get rid of stuff that shouldn't have been there. And I've adjusted the levels/curves to make it look brighter & stuff. We only have an older version of photoshop (7.0.1) but its ok.

It depends what you want to do really, I found this website really useful when I first started to learn Photoshop

Good-Tutorials - Photoshop Tutorials

It has a collection of a lot of tutorials from different websites, and you can search for specifics. If you have any problems though PM me or email me at mail@iheartjoan.co.uk and I'll try to sort you out

You get the hang of it after a while xx

Thanks for the great advice everyone!

I will have to print this all off and use it as a Bible at college

xxxx

Photoshop Tutorials - PSDTUTS i would say that this is the best photoshop tutorial site out there. i mainly just play once u know the basics. what kind of affect are u going for? i find that layers are the most usefull tools in the world! once u have those sorted and opacity ur sorted. if u wanna have a look at my work its Flickr: sugar_snaps' Photostream might give u some ideas. like i sad tho layers are the most amaizing thing eva! if u want me to explain how to use layers a bit more just say and give a brakedown

Gaussian blur on a 1.0 up to 2.0 radius does wonders on selected areas of skin, clearing up blemishes and the like