sketch

Open the curves dialogue box. Double click on the shadow eye dropper. Enter 10 for all the RGB values.

Double click on the greytone eye dropper to set the midtones to 130. Double click on the highlight eye dropper to set the highlights to 245. “Ok” out of the dialogue box.

Click on the ‘adjustment layer’ half moon icon in the layers pallet and select ‘threshold’ to find the darkest part of the image. Select (shift + click) the darkest spot with the eye dropper. (more…)

1. Choose a mid to dark flesh tone
2. duplicate the image
3. Levels - highlight slider to the left for a dramatic lighting effect  (more…)

Want to make your night photos pop?  Duplicate the layer, change the blending mode to ‘overlay’.

I’ve used the “outside the border” effect before, here is a new approach.

1. create a new layer
2. select the area that will be white and fill it with white
3. select the image layer and select what you want to stand out
4. ctrl + ‘j’ to put the selection on a new layer and hide the full image  (more…)

Simple backdrop effect for portraits or anything.

1. Foreground color: 215 182 122
2. Background color: 135 85 15
3. Filter > Render > Clouds
4. Create a big circular selection (best to go off the sides of the picture)
5. For high res images feather 170px and low res images feather 50px.
6. Adjustments > Levels - lighten the middle wil the middle slider
7. Inverse selection  (more…)

Some interesting articles on design from LayersMagazine.com. Good design explination of positioning and decisions.

• Simply Borderless
• Build A Picture Path
• Art of the Second Page
• Peekaboo Brochures
• What’s the Right Typeface for Text

Does your image suffer from too much yellow?  Do you need to bring back the greens?  Use the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, select the color you want to target from the drop down and adjust the ’saturation’ slider.  Sometimes using more than one color will help, for example greens get brighter with the ‘green’ and both ‘yellow’ options.

Have a photo with some dust or maybe some scratches? Want to get rid of them? Here are two solutions, depending on the image one maybe faster or produce a better quality image. Take some time to expirement to find what works best in different situations.

1. Take a snapshot in the ‘History’ pallet. (the camera icon)
2. Dust n’ Scratches Filter (an alternative would be to use the Gaussian Blur Filter)
3. Take another snapshot
4. Decided if you want to “Paint Away Dust and Scratches” or “Paint Back Detail” (more…)

To bring texture back into your image try using the healing brush. Works best after using the clone tool or paint brush, although you do need the texture on the image to target.

What happens when you have blooming colors?  Run and cower in a corner?  Not any longer.  Here is a quick solution that will get you started on your way to removing those unwanted colors or noise.

1. Snapshot in ‘History’ pallet
2. Gaussian Blur - use preview; blur enough to remove the color distortion
3. Snapshot
4. Select the ‘before blur’ snapshot in the ‘History’ pallet and check it’s checkbox.
5. Select the Art History Brush.
6. Paint the colors away.

This also works with noise, but other solutions are available.