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…)

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…)

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…)

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.

While working at Image Arts Etc. I had the opportunity to create and experiment with digital mattes. Some simple and others becoming more complex and creative. One of the most important things you will need is your creativity; second, some good high res texture files. Different cloth and destroyed images produce some great mattes, although solid color mattes will work as well (no texture files needed).

One way of creating an interesting texture is to take an image, turn it black and white, then go extreme with Levels and Curves. Copy and paste the image, play with opacity and blending modes. These are some ideas which will hopefully help you get the creativity flowing and create some good texture files.

[Look for the doc I wrote while at Image Arts. Have a simple version and an extended version]

Go to the channels pallet and create a new channel. Click on the RGB eye. On the new ‘alpha’ chanel use the gradient tool set to default.

Click on the middle of the object you want in focus and drag up to the top of the object (not the screen).

Then change the ‘mode’ on the gradient tool to ’screen’. Click on the middle of the object you want in focus and drag down to the bottom of the object.

Go to the RGB chanel and select the object. Go back to the ‘alpha’ chanel and fill the selection with black. From the ‘Chanels’ pallet, go back to the ‘Layers’ pallet.

On the image layer, choose Filter > Blurr > Lens Blurr… On ‘Depth Map’ change ‘none’ to the ‘alpha’ chanel just created. Also for better quality click on the ‘More accurate’ radio button.

Select just the teeth with the ‘quick mask’ (located under the color swatch in the tool bar).

Go back to standard mode and inverse the selection. Choose the ‘Hue/Saturation’ adjustment layer.

Edit > Yellows from the dropdown box. Then desaturate to -100 or desired.

Edit > Master and add some brightness to remove the grey from the teeth. “Ok” out of the dialogue box.

Change the layers ‘opacity’ if it’s too white. Then you can paint black, white or grey over the darker teeth to change those as well on the layer mask.