The before and after of a magazine cover.

This Photoshop tutorial by SweetBeat will show you how to design and use your own background brush

Making the brush

-Make a new document 60x37cm and make sure that the foreground and background colours are set to black and white.

- Create three new layers by clicking  3 times on the new layer icon underneath the layers palette.

-Select layer2 and go to FILTER –> RENDER –> CLOUDS and click it.

-Select layer3 and do the same thing.

-When layer3 is selected we change the blending options to color burn.

-The same thing with layer2 but here we choose overlay.

-Select the brush tool en choose the soft edge brush of 300pixels.

-Now select layer1 and put your brush in the middle of the ‘image’ and  click 1 time. You can also adjust your opacity or brush to your wishes.

-Select layer3 and go to FILTER-SHARPEN-UNSHARP MASK and set the amount to 176, the radius to 31,7 and the threshold to 0 and click ok

-Lower the opacity of layer1 to 75%

-Now duplicate layer1 and go to filter-distort-wave and put in the next settings: number of generators 43, wavelength min48 max120, amplitude min1 max 24, scale horiz100 vert100, type=sine and click ok.(foto5)

-By pressing ctrl+f we are repeating this step. do this 2more times.

-Now lower the Opacity of layer1 copy from 75% to 60%

-Select the crop tool and draw a rectangular around the spot and double click.

-Go to EDIT-DEFINE BRUSH PRESET and call it “sweetbeat” of your name of choice.

We are almost there. Now you have a simple ‘grunge’ brush but with some effects added, like in my rainbow tutorial, we will get a cool brush.

-Now open a new document big enough for your brush.

-Select the brush tool and choose the sweetbeat ( or how-you-named-it ) brush. Then go to the brush panel.(foto8)

-Put the settings like you see in the following images. (foto9-10-11)

-When you have done that click in the bottom right corner on the create new brush icon.

-Now you will have 2 brushes one with the effect en one without the effect.

By changing some of the settings in this tutorial you will get other effects. Just play with it and you will find out.

Using the brush

Here you can see what my endresult is by playing around with one brush. (fotobackground)

I used 2 colours of green 54c442 for the background and 49c334 for my brush. You almost can’t see the difference but when you change the blending mode it gives a cool effect.
Some of the layers I’ve sharpen with unsharp mask or I’ve put a wave effect to it and erased some of it to make it look clean.

Here are the layers

-Layer background

I used 54c442 as a backgound color.

-Layer 4

I used my brush to paint a bit and used the same brush with the eraser tool to clean it up a little. I used 49c334 for the color.

- layer5

I did the same thing like layer4 but set the blending mode to overlay.

- layer6

the same like layer 4.

- layer7

Here i have drawn  a little and I’ve put an unsharp mask filter  to it.

- Layer7copy

I’ve dulpicated layer 7 and put a wave effect to it. then I erased some of it with the eraser tool but with the same brush to make it look clean.

© SweetBeat

More tutorials

How to draw custom 3-D arrows in photoshop

Color – Black and white – sepia mixing photoshop tutorial.

How to draw custom rainbows in photoshop.

How to draw an ‘Asian sun’ with photoshop.

Add textures to an image for a dramatic effect in photoshop tutorial.

In this tutorial I’ll retouch this girls portraits by enhancing the skin, eyes and lips.

For the start i type Ctrl+j to make a copy of the layer ..to see at the end what we`ve done..
We see she has some imperfection..so we use the Healing brush tool ..to make the skin smooth ..

I  select the nose,i copy layer, type Ctrl+T,and then Warp to make it smaller,after that we took the eraser tool (hardness=0) to erase the parts that don`t belong there.

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Next generation professional pen tablet delivers new proprietary pen technology and an elegant, ergonomic design loaded with new features

Vancouver, WA – Mar. 25, 2009 – Wacom® today unveils the long anticipated Intuos®4, a revolutionary new professional pen tablet that delivers new features and unparalleled performance to photographers, designers and artists seeking optimal control and improved productivity. Inspired by members of Wacom’s professional community, the next generation Intuos is anchored by the Intuos4’s amazing new pen performance, capable of capturing the slightest nuance of pen pressure against the tablet surface, as well as offering 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. Other innovative product enhancements include a refined and intelligent industrial design that provides real advancements in looks, comfort and control. Specific workflow and productivity tools to savor include the customizable shortcut and modifier keys with accompanying OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) displays, which allow users to see, via the displays, what the keys are currently set to.

All New Pen Performance
The Intuos4 Grip Pen features Wacom’s new proprietary Tip Sensor technology, offering users near-zero (one gram) starting pressure for the most natural-feeling experience of any digital pen to date. “Now, any writing, art or design tool can start with an incredibly light touch, emulating the same feel, response and result derived from working with traditional media,” said Don Varga, Senior Product Manager for Wacom Technology Corp. Additionally, the Intuos4 pen delivers 2048 levels of pressure, doubling the resolution of the pen’s pressure curve to further enhance feedback and expand the creative effects within software applications that support pressure sensitivity. “Delivering a consistently responsive and fruitful pen tablet experience starts with the pen. The Intuos4 Grip Pen provides a broader range of input options that will delight even the most discriminating professional,” continues Varga. “In addition, our latest pen technology should encourage Wacom’s software partners to continue to expand pen-related features and functionality.” The Intuos4 Grip Pen also features a pressure-sensitive eraser and two customizable side switches for setting commands such as double-click and right-click on the pen. For those looking for a pen with a thicker barrel, a wide-body Intuos4 replacement grip is being made available as an optional accessory.

Breakthrough Design Improves Workflow, Boosts Productivity
With its ergonomic design, the ultra-slim Intuos4 pen tablet is the ideal creative instrument for working with digital content. Its new reversible (ambidextrous) design puts all of the shortcut and modifier keys in the ideal position for right-handed or left-handed users. The ExpressKeys™ are conveniently located on one side of the tablet, making them all available to the users’ non-dominant hand. To move from right-handed to left-handed use, simply rotate the tablet 180 degrees and change the orientation of the illuminated icons within the Wacom Tablet driver software. These application-specific ExpressKeys are instrumental in helping improve workflow and boost productivity by placing commonly used commands right at the fingertips. The close proximity of these tools to the actual work area is efficient and comfortable and helps save valuable time by minimizing dependence on the keyboard without taking focus away from the pen hand. New to the Intuos4 are illuminated (OLED) displays (not featured on the Intuos4 small) that provide a helpful reminder as to the current function of each ExpressKey. With past Intuos versions, users had to rely on their memory to recall the position of their specific settings. As these settings can be application specific, the displays will update immediately as the user changes between applications.

Also new to the Intuos4 is the introduction of a user-defined Touch Ring capable of controlling up to four different functions in any application. A button located in the center of the ring “toggles” the ring between functions such as zoom, scroll, brush size adjustment, canvas rotation and layer selection. One of the four LEDs located along the perimeter of the Touch Ring indicates the current function. “The Intuos4 design carries form and function to new heights,” said Varga. “Never before has a Wacom pen tablet so elegantly provided such tangible workflow and productivity enhancements.”

More Intuos4 Innovations
A new weighted pen stand not only provides a convenient pen holder, but also functions as a handy twist-off storage compartment for pen nibs and handy nib removal tool. Standard, felt, stroke and flex nibs ship with the Intuos4, allowing users to simulate working with a variety of traditional art and design materials. If users have a task for which they prefer a mouse, the Intuos4 includes the most advanced, cordless, battery-free mouse that Wacom has ever developed. A technology upgrade in the mouse allows the cursor to move based on both the direction and orientation of the mouse, delivering smooth and accurate tracking across the tablet surface. Each of the five buttons and the scroll wheel can be customized by the user.

Valuable Software
Intuos4 ownership entitles professionals to pick and choose valuable software titles based on individual needs. A selection of software applications from such industry leaders as Adobe®, Autodesk®, Corel® and Nik® are available to users following installation of an Intuos4 pen tablet. In addition, Intuos4 users will appreciate the significant upgrades to Wacom’s powerful, user-friendly driver software, including the introduction of radial menus for quick “penpoint” access to additional shortcuts or to launch applications.

Noteworthy Accessories
Intuos4 owners are encouraged to take advantage of some additional tools. For example, the 6D Art Pen supports the barrel rotation feature within such applications as Adobe Photoshop®, Illustrator® and Corel Painter® X to deliver natural brush effects, much like a calligraphy pen. The Intuos4 Airbrush offers users the ability to create and define paint patterns within certain creative programs. Intuos4 accessories are conveniently located at the http://www.wacomdirect.com Internet site.

“By listening to our customers we are able to deliver today a revolutionary pen tablet packed with new technologies and features that exemplifies Wacom’s commitment to the professional creative community,” said Joe Deal, President of Wacom Technology Corp. “The Intuos4 is a sophisticated pen tablet that artfully addresses their needs with exciting new pen performance and thoughtful detailing,”

The Intuos4, available on March 25, 2009, comes in four sizes to meet varying workflow and workspace requirements – small ($229 SRP), medium ($369 SRP), large ($499 SRP) and Extra Large ($789 SRP).

About Wacom
Founded in 1983, Wacom’s vision to bring people and technology closer together through natural interface technologies has made it the world’s leading manufacturer of pen tablets, interactive pen displays and digital interface solutions. The advanced technology of Wacom’s intuitive input devices has been used to create some of the most exciting digital art, films, special effects, fashions and designs around the world and provides business and home users with the ability to explore digital content creation in a comfortable, natural way. Today, millions of customers use Wacom’s cordless, battery-free, pressure-sensitive pen technology to express their creativity.

Combining body parts with Photoshop

In this tutorial I will complete a professional photographic retouching from start to finish. Before watching please note that there is a lot of information in this video to absorb, so watch and re-watch areas that you find more advanced.

This is a 40 minute video, I’d recommend pausing it at regular intervals before continuing so that you fully understand all the processes. Some of the areas covered in this video are:

– Colour Correction
– Reshaping Features (Figure, Eyes, Lips, Cheeks, etc)
– Adjusting tonal values
– Grading the image
– Simulating a Realistic Depth of Field Simulation
– Selective Enhancement of areas

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Portrait Retouching in photoshop video tutorial

Fantasy art scenes are usually handled with a liberal sprinkling of Photoshop plug-in fairy dust – but you don’t have to slavishly follow that route. By creating your own brushes in Adobe Illustrator, and using scanned elements with Photoshop, it’s a simple process to create otherworldly scenes that are alive with glow effects and shafts of virtual light.

Obviously, the final result is down to you, but you should also experiment with colours and blends once you’ve mastered this technique to create your own look. The best thing is you can create images like this without using a single plug-in.

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Curves for advanced lighting control photoshop video tutorial

EV, short for Exposure Value, can be defined as the various combinations of camera shutter speed and relative aperture that give the same exposure. For example, 1/30th at f/8.0 is the same EV as 1/60th at f/5.6, and so on. So, if we have a scene with a dynamic range of between 5 and 6 EV our cameras can record detail in both the highlights and shadows areas of the scene. Beyond 6 EV and we must sacrifice details in one extreme or the other.

If we think back to our first example – the shot of the tower and the pier – we can calculate that we would need a camera with a dynamic range of 11 stops to capture the entire dynamic range of the scene (assuming that the native range of our camera is around 6 EV). This is because our overexposed image was +2 EV from the original exposure and the underexposed frame was shot at -3 EV.

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Nothing gets me excited like a good process and when it comes to photo editing its something that evolves as your eye becomes more aware of your shot. My personal feeling is that you stop at the step that leaves you feeling most complete when looking at your photo. More is not always better with editing. Often times less is more

Always use a RAW file when you can and make a copy so that you can compare your Before and After at each step. I currently use Aperture with a little Photoshop CS on the side. I’ve also used Photoshop Elements, Windows Picture Editor, and Picnik. (I think that a look into these tools is worth a post of its own, so keep your eyes peeled for that one.)

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Here’s a video tutorial about retouching lips techniques in Photoshop

For most folks, curves is the weapon of choice, and for good reason. Curves is one of the easiest way to dial in just the right amount of contrast to make photograph “pop”. Today though I’m going to share 5 simple ways to make your photos pop without curves. Each provides a slightly different look to your photograph, and I present them only as potential tools in your arsenal of tricks. In general I use some combination of all them in almost all my work, in addition to curves to take my photographs to higher levels.

I know I said no curves, but this is curves in Lab mode, and it’s a very different beast than RGB curves. Everything about it works differently, and it’s a topic worthy of it’s own post or posts even. I’m not going to get into the hows and whys now, but Lab provides some beautiful color transitions, and a distinctly unique look. For now though, as before convert your image to lab color.

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How to remove objects from a photo photoshop tutorial

How to Reduce the Age of people and de-age in Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials – Color Space

Photo Restoration of Black and White Scans

Photoshop Video Tutorial: Advanced Selecting Hair

Alpha channels are basically specialized selection processes. Alpha channels are used to make, store or edit selections made using tools such as Lasso, Magic wand or Pen tool.

Alpha channel is another type of image masking. When we say mask, it is an 8-bit channel using 256 levels of Gray, ranging from 0(black) to 255(white). With that being said, alpha channel is a masking technique which defines a selection in black, white, and varying shades of Gray pixels. White acts as the selected pixels; black acts as the unselected area and the levels of Gray define what is partially unselected or selected depending on your view point.

Here you will learn how to mask out hairs or in this case fur using the Alpha channel technique. Let’s begin:

Open the image of your choice, select the pen tool and make a clipping path on the part of the image you want to edit. If you’ve noticed, I have two images with the labels “1” and “2”. This represents the two clipping paths I’ve made for this image. For the image with the label “1”, I did a clipping path on the inner part of the hood. (Notice the faint clipping path line).

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This Photoshop tutorial is written for experienced Photoshop users and will show you unique techniques for retouching photos. You’ll learn how to enhance backgrounds, dodge and burn, brighten eyes, and add hair shine while keeping a low count of layers. The techniques you learn from this tutorial can be used for other portrait photos.

The first step is to isolate the model from the background. I used the extract and color range tool to create this. First I used the extract tool (Filter > Extract) but it didn’t work very well for the hair.

With the mask created, I can add a gradient to the background. Adding a gradient to the background is a simple and effective way to enhance a boring background. Here is a preview of what the layers will look like in the end.

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Ideally, 14-bit RAW files contain 4 times more information than 12-bit RAW files in the shadows. Realistically the gain may be limited somewhat by noise, but the noise levels also improved, leaving us with more bits to use. This much dynamic range just begs being made visible.

The picture above was taken in Central Park. The picture on the left side was processed via this HDR method.

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If you’ve been learning about digital imaging, whether by shooting with a digital camera or by scanning your film images, you’ve probably come across the concept of 8-bit and 16-bit images. Support for 16-bit editing seems to be all the rage these days, especially since the release of Photoshop CS. Even the new Photoshop Elements version 3 supports many 16-bit operations. Given that 16-bit images are by definition twice as big as 8-bit ones, you may be wondering why anyone would even want them.

An 8-bit RGB (red, green and blue) image uses numbers from 0 to 255 to represent each constituent color, or “channel” in the image. Zero is the complete absence of that color while 255 represents the maximum amount of that color. Thus, a value of (255,0,0) represents pure red, (0,255,0) would be pure green, (0,0,0) and (255,255,255) would mean pure black and pure white respectively, and so on. Zero through 255 gives 256 total distinct values that each of these three channels can have. If you multiple 256 times 256 times 256, you get 16.7 million different combinations. That’s a lot of different colors, hues and shades.

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” I have received a lot of positive feedback from the first set of hi-res grunge textures that I released back in May. I like the idea of throwing out some large images for others to use without locking it down so there are a ton of silly rules.  I always get frustrated when I locate a resource but run into an obstacle placed there by the creator. So without further delay, here are ten more hi-res grunge images suitable for photomanipulations. ”

“+ You may use these stock photos (and only photos marked as such) in any project: personal, commercial, profit, non-profit.
+ You are not required to link back to me, give me credit, shake my hand, walk my dog, bake me a cake, or do anything else aside from use the stock photographs.
+ However, a link back and credit is appreciated. I would, however, appreciate it if you would tag your photos and post a small version of how you used the photo here.
+ You may use these in printed publications, graphics, artwork, etc without obtaining prior permission from me.  If you are using any of the stock photos in a printed publication, flyer, etc, I would love to see a final version of how the photos were used.
+ If you have a fish tank, you have to rename at least one fish after me. If you do not have a fish tank you are required to write my name on at least one bathroom mirror in your home.  Please use either pink or purple lipstick.
+ You may NOT modify these and redistribute.”

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“First, open an image that needs some work. Now make a copy of your background layer by dragging its layer thumbnail from the Layers palette to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Since Shadow/Highlight doesn’t work as an adjustment layer, having a copy will let you put some of the original back later if you find you prefer it. All your adjustments will be done to the copied layer. You can ignore the original background layer for now.”

“Photoshop Shadows/Highlights settings windowNow go to Image >> Adjustments >> Shadow/Highlight. The basic dialog has only two sliders, one for Shadows and one for Highlights. If that seems too simple, it is. Click on “Show More Options” to access to the real power of Shadow/Highlight. This will give you three sliders each for Shadows and Highlights plus several bonus sliders and controls in a section labeled “Adjustments.” More sliders means more control.”

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Digital photography requires a solid workflow, allowing for professional preparing of digital photo files for the web and print. For the Digital Photography Workflow series, we consulted with a number of experienced professional photographers who are also stellar photo.net members and frequent contributors to the Photo.net Digital Darkroom forum, to walk us through their specific photography techniques and tips on post-processing images.

In this article, Jean-Sébastien offers advice on how to achieve skin softening using low and high pass filtering. The article is enhanced with illustrative figures and screen shots, and includes example images from Jean’s portfolio. Whether you are just entering the world of digital photography and need some tips and advice on how best to post-process your images, or are a seasoned pro, the insights shared here should be helpful with your own digital post-processing techniques.

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Photoshop Video Tutorial : Learn the Basics of Curves

When I think of the perfect sunset photo, my mind immediately fills with lots of warm reds, oranges and yellows as the sun gently sets across the water or beyond the hills. Sunsets are one of the most commonly photographed aspects of nature, and yet photos rarely manage to capture their intense beauty. What was once a sky filled with rich, golden hues often ends up looking cooler, less vivid, and ultimately less interesting.

In this case though, we’re going to be using one of Photoshop‘s adjustment layers, and one of the great things about adjustment layers is that they allow us to work non-destructively

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from Yanik Chauvin

Most traditional photographers will be familiar with the range of aesthetically pleasing toners available in the wet darkroom, as well as their ability to infuse images with subtle, and more evocative moods. Traditional photographic prints have been toned since their beginnings for archival stability purposes and creative interpretation. Selenium, sepia, brown, copper, gold and blue toners are but a few of the time honored chemical processes for achieving tonal variations in prints.

With the dawning of the digital age, we can now not only emulate the toning of traditional processes, but also utilize a whole new spectrum of toning possibilities never before possible; creating unique and wonderful new effects in the print-making process.

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One of my favorite techniques for removing (i.e. make transparent) dark or light areas of an image is to use the blending sliders available inside the Layer Style dialog box within Photoshop. These blending sliders are easily overlooked in pursuit of the more commonly-used Layer Styles available in this dialog box.

To demonstrate this technique, I am going to combine the water image on the left with the shell image on the right. I want the end result showing the splash and runoff of the water over the shells – giving it more of a ‘being on the beach’ feel and almost hearing the waves going in and out.

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from Yanik Chauvin

Peachpit TV: Photoshop CS4 Camera Raw Vignette Tip – The top video clips of the week are here

One frustration of mine is finding a great resource and then having your hands tied by some overly exhaustive guideline provided by the creating artist.  Sometimes I believe that people get too carried away with the rules and restrictions they apply to their resources. Especially when they might be searching for some resources and become frustrated by restrictive guides as well.  A recent rant of mine talks about people uploading photos to a FREE stock photo site, yet requiring the user to contact them, etc.  I digress. I want to avoid all of that with my textures, which is why I am encouraging the outright abuse of these textures.  Well, you get what I mean. So these textures are for your use and abuse.

I do have a few guidelines (scroll down) , but I believe you will find them relatively easy to follow.  If not, then perhaps you should stop using the computer all together.

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from Yanik Chauvin

Soften skin with Lightroom 2

Here’s a tutorial in order to be in control of a lens flare and be able to make adjustments at will after the implementation of it :

Get an image you wish to add a lens flare to, click on ‘new layer’ or go to Layer –> New —> Layer

Fill that layer with a solid black color.Go to EDIT –> FILL or press Shift + F5 and choose BLACK

Now it’s time to add our Lens Flare

Go to FILTER —> RENDER —> LENS FLARE ( Kai Power ToolsPlugin Series have  a nice lens flare collection as well )

Now we’re going to change the blending mode of this layer, set it to SCREEN

This will hide all the blacks and keep the lighter values , your flare.Now you can move the flare at will, adjust the opacity , transform/distort or erase some areas with a layer mask.This gives you better control of your lens flare.

Photoshop Tutorial: Face shaping

One of the great new features in Lightroom 2 is the graduated filter tool. Though simple, It can have a very powerful effect on one’s photos, as we’ll see. From darkening a washed out sky, to emphasising the billowing clouds of stormy sky, the graduated filter tool in Lightroom 2 is incredibly customizable.

Rather than me tell you about it, I have included an example of the tool in use, and some screenshots of my workflow in Lightroom 2 as I was working on an image of a longtail boat in Thailand.

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from Yanik Chauvin

The concept behind this tutorial is simple. To use this technique, you must manually adjust the various “zones” of an image to your liking. For example, if the ground is too dark, you brighten the ground. If the sky is too bright, you darken the areas that need editing. This is much preferable to something like High Dynamic Range plugins or software that use “Tone Mapping”, which don’t allow you to adjust the individual areas.

The key to proper exposure is to expose as much as you can before “blowing” the highlights. This means to make the image as bright as possible until your image has areas that are pure white. Most cameras will display this with a “highlights” feature, where areas on the screen will flash or blink. Take the photo one third of a stop lower than the exposure which gives you “blown highlights”, then follow this tutorial.

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from Yanik Chauvin

85 Lightroom Presets

Included in this free collection Lightroom presets designed by Jack Davis:
8 White Balance presets
11 Tone Curve presets
4 Vibrance presets
18 HSL presets
12 Black & White presets
5 Warm Tinting presets
5 Cool Tinting presets
8 Dark Vignette presets
8 Light Vignette presets

Designed to provide you with a streamlined workflow, these presets for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom were designed by Photoshop Guru Jack Davis to help you get the most out of Lightroom. Organized and setup in a traditional workflow, these presets will help you quickly set the correct white balance, choose a tone curve, adjust vibrance, HSL, convert to black and white and add a vignette.

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Hold on tight now. I’ve just finished these 10 (!) Dave Hill presets and guess what, They work pretty well on some of my images. Wait a second….Who the heck is Dave Hill then? Well if you don’t know that, you’re not reading this because of your Google search, I suppose? . Dave Hill is a famous photographer which uses a special technique on his images (have  a look for yourself: www.davehillphoto.com). With the right light in your photos together with these free Dave Hill presets, you might get a smile on your face. Each preset has a black & white version as well. Go go go…

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Cosmetic Eye Adjustments With Adobe Lightroom 2

from Yanik Chauvin

Fixing over exposure in photoshop video tutorial.

In this tutorial I will show you how to remove hair in front of someone’s face, retouch skin and apply makeup using Photoshop (any version).

To remove blemishes, acne, scares etc. I suggest you to be moderate when doing this as we don’t want to make an alien face, just to improve the look of the skin.

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In photography, timing is everything. Light changes often throughout the day, with the early morning or late afternoon lighting giving landscape photographs a soft appearance, without the harsh light of midday but with the edge definition that makes photos “come alive”. However, when traveling, you cannot always view landmarks when the light is best, and you often have to settle for hazy view that never appears as well in a photo as you remember it.

With Photoshop, however, you can clean up your landscape images and remove the blue tint from the atmosphere seen most during over long distances at mid day.

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We all love Photoshop and its effects, but sometimes it’s great to get your hands dirty when creating elements for your graphics. Ink drops can add a creative and energetic element to your designs. This tutorial demonstrates techniques to creatively work ink drops into your compositions.

Tips: Constantly take pictures while the ink drops, as the shapes will change considerably over time. Photograph the ink drops in front of a white background to produce clearer pictures. Experiment with dripping the ink using pipettes and any other device you can get your hands on.

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There are many ways to soften skin inside Photoshop; some methods are more effective than others, but each method typically gives you different results, however slight they may be. It can be confusing and frustrating to try out each of these techniques to find out which works best with your particular photo or photographic style.

This tutorial will walk you through an easy way to setup and compare three of the most popular skin softening techniques inside one Photoshop document while maintaining realism and skin texture. This not only gives you insight into what each softening technique has to offer, but also gives you more flexibility with your images.

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In this tutorial we will apply the same effect as dodging and burning but with more control and options and in my opinion better effects on the highlights.This works for isolating a subject, bring out more detail in certain zones, apply slight vignettes, etc …

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to transform a fairly typical road-trip image – with a big blue sky and wide-open spaces – into an apocalyptic battle scene, complete with tanks, guns,parachutists and a hail of incoming missiles.

In Photoshop, open your landscape image. Search for images of guns and tanks similar to those I’ve used here, and place them onto new layers. Duplicate the tank layer and make the new one smaller, as though they’re in formation.

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This tutorial will show you how to take an image and split it into two personalities. One side will be dark and evil, the other light and sparkly.

This is a very trendy form of artwork and the tutorial should take about 20 to 45 minutes to complete.

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There are quite a few trends in web design right now. Some still use a lot of twirly flowerly ornaments, others, following the trends dictated by psdtuts.com and abduzeedo.com have proceeded to glowing lines and starry psychedelic effects but the problem remains with creating the shape in the first place. While some designers, like myself, prefer working with Photoshop shapes, it looks like brushes are still a far more popular and accessible tool for many, so here are the top 10 brushes releases for Summer 2008, which can help you greatly in your artwork or web design.

Twirly Glowing Lines Photoshop Brushes

Abstract Glowing Lines Photoshop Brushes

Scanlines Photoshop Brushes

Da Vinci Tarot Cards Photoshop Brushes

Old Maps Texture Photoshop Brushes

Victorian Botanical Photoshop Brushes

Enchanting Flowers Ornaments Photoshop Brushes

Slightly Oriental Ornament Photoshop Brushes

Halftone Grungy Photoshop Brushes

Bubbles Brushes for Photoshop

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Add Eyelashes in photoshop video tutorial.

In this tutorial we’re going to recover detail from the skin area and have it on a separate layer for full control

The brush engine of Photoshop is a powerful tool and can be the key to simulate real paint. But in the wrong hands it can create awful things, making your pictures not look like painted, but just like they were done in Photoshop really bad. Especially when using prefabbed brushes, where you don’t understand how they are working. So it’s always better to build your own brushes that suit your needs as best as possible.

The Photoshop brush engine allows you to create your own brushes, starting from a brush tip shape that can be just a circle or a sampled image. This shape is repeated along the stroke. To avoid this looking boring, Photoshop gives you some tools to vary these shapes along the line to get a more complex look.

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Giving photos and old and sepia look photoshop video tutorial.

One of the best free stuff Graphic Designers can find on the Web for free are high resolution backgrounds and textures. Long gone are the days when you had to buy very expensive CDs in order to obtain good quality backgrounds for your design projects.

By that time, marble and granite textures were all the rage. But now it seems that paper is becoming the new king. Lots of Web Designers are embracing the delicate look of a piece of paper with a subtle shadow. And if it is torn or folded, much better.

This gallery shows some paper backgrounds I collected from different sites. If you would like to add some nice effects to some of these textures, you can read a tutorial I wrote about creating paper folds and creases to paper textures in Photoshop.

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Learn the Basics of Curves Photoshop Video Tutorial.

Enhance your photos with Highlights, midtones and shadows photoshop video

It seems computers can do most anything with an image now a days. So why bother with all those cumbersome filters? The answer is that most of them are still superior to the techniques used with a computer. Plus, if the image is more accurate coming out of the camera, less time and effort will be needed in post processing.

Lastly, understanding the play of light and filtration is an important cornerstone to understanding photography, which is simply put, capturing light.Bumping up contrast and adjusting color is as easy as a couple of mouse clicks nowadays. My goal in this post is to compare the two techniques and let you draw your own conclusion. Knowing that good polarizing filters cost more than $100, I hope you can be a little more informed if you wish to go that route.

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An other approach to PS from the you-suck-at-photoshop guys :

At first, I have been using many applications for image editing like Adobe Photoshop, Lightzone, and Apple Aperture, but I really love the ease of use and file handling in Adobe Lightroom. The handled methods in Lightroom can be used for any given photographs in Lightroom. Not only RAW files, but also jpegs (though with some restrictions because less bits per channel).

I have a total B&W working procedure from the photograph making to the post processing. I set up my camera in RAW mode and select the B&W setting. In my case, the Ricoh GX100 will save a B&W jpeg and an unprocessed RAW file. I import the RAW files in Adobe Lightroom with a B&W preset.

continue at Seriouscompacts

A different approach compared to your average PS video :

Distort, Warp, Layer Effects Photoshop Video Tutorial.

In this tutorial, we’re going to take this image :

And make it look like the following one thanks to a texture, blending modes and layer masks :

This process works best for images with a grayish neutral background, so I took one shot during a cloudy day.

I’m going to use the following texture :

This image was created shooting old canons, the rusty, green/brownish structure / texture is just what I wanted.

Take the texture ( you can find them on stock sites, shoot your own, license an image, etc … ) and place it above your original image.Hold your SHIFT button while dragging one layer into an other for a smooth centered drop.

With the new layer in place, go to the blending modes menu on top left of the layers palette, and choose OVERLAY.

This will give you this result :

Now we’re going to ease on down the opacity of this layer on specific areas of the face with a layer mask, so we can always go back and forth :

Go to LAYER —> LAYER MASK and choose REVEAL ALL , a new icon will appear next to your layer now.

Now select a standard brush, not too ‘hard’ ( right click your button to choose the hardness when the brush is selected ), and make sure your FOREGROUND COLOR is set to BLACK and your BACKGROUND COLOR is set to WHITE.The BLACK color is now chosen, when painting now with the layer mask selected ( click the icon, though the layer mask is selected automatically right after creation ) you will erase part of the texture layer, if you switch the color to WHITE you will bring back the layer.Play with the opacity of your brush to get the result you are looking for.

I cleaned most parts of the face and tux for this image :

The part of the image you erase will show black on the layer mask icon, as showed above.

You can now make the image more dramatic with more contrast layers and curves :

More tutorials :

How to draw custom 3-D arrows in photoshop

How to draw custom rainbows in photoshop.

How to draw an ‘Asian sun’ with photoshop.

Color – Black and white – sepia mixing photoshop tutorial.

This photoshop tutorial will show you a fast technique to enhance eyes and make them stand out.

Let’s start with a typical flat image.This technique works best for light-colored eyes.

first off go to the DODGE tool and choose MIDTONES, Let’s set the exposure not too high, I choose 26 percent with this image.

Hover your dodge tool over the iris for a few times up and down and let the eye lighten up a bit.

After dodge tool application on midtones :

Now discard the setting ‘midtones’ and choose the HIGHLIGHTS at the dodge tool panel, and apply the same process to the iris.

Dodge tool applied at higlights setting after midtones :

If you go too far you can always go to EDIT —> FADE and have a smoother transition to choose from, I tend to put a lot and then ease on down via a FADE after the application.

Now select the burn tool, choose midtones, and go over the black border of the iris for more contrast.I set the exposure not too high, choosing for a 21 percent value. :

After the burn tool is applied on the borders of the iris :

Now make use of the selection tools available and select the iris / eye color, after your selection is made, right click the mouse and choose ‘feather’ of roundabout 5 pixels for a smoother transition of the selection you just made.

Go to LAYER —> LAYER VIA COPY in your navigation menu.Now your selection is a new layer and stands alone above the rest.

Get to the blending options menu and choose the blend mode SCREEN

If the result is overdone you can always change the opacity of the layer in the layer palette and adjust the transition with the layers below.

Here’s the original compared to the process above.You can always choose to what extent you apply this modification.

More

How to draw custom 3-D arrows in photoshop

How to draw custom rainbows in photoshop.

How to draw an ‘Asian sun’ with photoshop.

e tutorials : Add textures to an image for a dramatic effect in photoshop tutorial.

“If you have a nice photo of a model, but she or he wasn’t smiling and you want the photo to feature a smiling face, or vice versa, you can use Photoshop to slightly tweak the facial expressions.

The key is to be subtle in your approach, unless you are creating a caricature or cartoon. With the Liquify tool, we can create some subtle changes to model photos that can affect the overall mood of the face and therefore affect the mood of the photo.”

continue at PhotoShopTutorials

Bram from SweetBeat shows you how he drew the arrows on this image :

- Open a new document at for example 20×20 cm

- Create a ‘new layer’ by going to LAYER —> NEW LAYER or clicking the ‘new layer’ icon in the layers palette

- Select the pen tool

- Make sure that PATHS is selected,on the top left-end corner of the screen, and draw an arrow like you see on the picture.

- When you are finished click your right button, choose FILL PATH (the color used doesn’t matter) and click OK.

- Once again click your right button an choose DELETE PATH. Now you must have something like in this image :

- Copy the layer pressing CONTROL + J or going to LATER —> DUPLICATE LAYER in the menu on top and select the first one.
- Now set the foreground color to BLACK and the background color to GREY. I used 9b9b9b for grey.

- Double click on the first layer or right click the layer in the layers palette and choose the second option to open the blending options. select gradient overlay and use the foreground to background gradient.select reverse and click ok.

- Now select the other layer and place him like you can see in the next image :

- Again, change the background color. this time I used cdcdcd as color.

- Open the blending options of the last layer. choose gradient oerlay and again select the foreground to background color gradient select reverse and click ok.
- Now select the pen tool again . to make it look 3d we need to conect the ‘open corners’.

- The best way to do this is to zoom in and start from point 1 to point 2 like you can see on the picture :

Make sure that you cover the complete ‘open corner’.
- When finished with every corner like on the picture

Make sure that the last layer is selected.

- Now right click, choose FILL PATH and click ok

- again, click your right mouse button and choose DELETE PATH

There you have your custom arrow

Photoshop tutorial by SweetBeat

More :

How to draw custom rainbows in photoshop.

How to draw an ‘Asian sun’ with photoshop.

Add textures to an image for a dramatic effect in photoshop tutorial.

Ever compose a great landscape shot only to realize that when you expose for the land, the shy becomes a pure white? This is a a common limitation photographers have to deal with when shooting landscapes in sunny conditions. You can either expose for the sky or the land?

There are ways to tackle the problem: shoot in RAW or shoot multiple exposures and combine them later. But sometimes you just can’t plan for these things.

continue at NYfalls

” In this tutorial I will show you how to repair some image noise from a low quality shot and I will show you an extremely quick and easy way to smooth out a person’s face.”

“The technique can be applied to a beauty shot as well, you would just have to adjust the settings on some of the steps to get a more extreme smoothing effect.”

Facial skin smoothing and retouching photoshop tutorial at PsdTuts

“When we last saw our friend’s head you remember he was plagued by that problem of residual color from his original background. If I used the lasso to un-select these areas, I’m afraid we’d lose too many hairs and his hair would look too much like a helmet.”

“We need those stray hairs to make his blend into the new background look more believable. But how do I get rid of the yellowish color you see in some of the pixels?”

continue at TeamPhotoShop

Lightroom presets by Matt Kloskowski

How to draw an ‘Asian sun’ with photoshop tutorial by SweetBeat : -open a new document 5cmx10cm 72dpi -select the rectangular marquee tool and draw a rectangular of 4cm width and 5cm height. -go to paint bucket tool and fill in the selected rectangular with black.

“There are many methods for using hair extraction. Some are more perfect than others of course. The colour range tool for example can often be used, but it gives an overall amateurish effect.”

“For this tutorial, we will take this cropped picture of a woman, who has obviously just been sky diving.”

continue at DevCustoms

related tutorial :

Deep Etching 1: Removing an Image’s Background

“This Photoshop CS3 video tutorial is the first in a series demonstrating methods of separating an image from its background. The image is separated via use of a vector path, using the pen tool and the path selection tool to create a selection that matches the edge of the image very closely, whilst retaining a very smooth and crisp edge. ”

continue at GraphicsDistrict

“High dynamic range (or HDR) technique allows you to reveal detail and contrast that are missing from normal images. Generally, HDR is used to deal with high contrast subjects to allow you to capture more highlight and shadow detail than conventional photography meaning it’s great for low light/night images.”

“But you don’t have to wait until twilight to get loads out of this relatively new imaging method. For example, it can be used in dull, overcast conditions too. Strictly speaking this isn’t true HDR, because you are only working with the tones available in your normal, single shot. ”

continue at PhotoAnswers

This tutorial will show you how to transform a standard color photo into a mix of colors, black and white and sepia in a fast and easy process.

Start with your original and add an adjustment layer of channel mixer.

Layer —> New adjustment layer —> Channel mixer.

Choose ‘monochrome’ and play with the sliders until you are happy with the black and white version.This gives you more options than a plain desaturation with CRTL+SHIFT+U .For portraits I personally like the blue channel most quite often.I let the total set to 100.

Change the ‘opacity’ of this layer to 50 %.You can re-adjust to personal taste later.

Now come the sepia tones.

go to Layer —> New adjustment layer —> Hue/Saturation.

check ‘Colorize’ and add your wished sepia values.I tend to use 30 Hue and 20 Saturation as values.

Adjust the opacity of this layer to 50 percent as well or adjust to personal state later when you have the final overview.

Now duplicate this sepia layer ( CTRL + J or Layer —> Duplicate Layer ) and set the blending mode to Soft Light to add more tone and get more contrast.Set the layer’s opacity and fill both to 50 % or adjust to personal taste.

For the final contrast, add a ‘curves’ layer, it will give more control than a ‘contrast’ layer.

go to Layer –> New adjustment layer —> curves

I add a little s-curve with three points.

Which gives a final result of :

compared to the original :

[ --> Download the small .psd with layers version here <-- ]

Other example :

More Tutorials

How to draw custom 3-D arrows in photoshop

How to draw custom rainbows in photoshop.

How to draw an ‘Asian sun’ with photoshop.

Add textures to an image for a dramatic effect in photoshop tutorial.

“This tutorial will show you step by step on how to create a “Badass Bling Effect” using layer styles in Photoshop. Once you create the layer style, you can easily  ” blingify” any layer.

click here for this golden and bling effect in photoshop tutorial in step-by-step text page

“In this article I will guide you through a series of steps to improve skin tones, modify shadow and light patterns to increase the impact, and enhance the eyes and hair to create a striking portrait.”

“Our first step will be to improve the skin tones – make the skin look better or even give it some tan. Women know that before actually putting on a makeup you would put the base – even the tones, and openly after that you can apply the makeup. And here we will do the same – do the base first.”

continue at RomanZolin

“Photoshop and Elements allow for layer blend modes that change the way layers react with each other. Some of them you will use in every day work. If you have a photo that is too dark, for example, many times a quick fix is to duplicate the photo layer in the layers palette and change the duplicate layer mode to Screen. If a photo is too light it can sometimes be corrected by duplicating the photo layer and changing the layer mode to Multiply. ”

Photoshop Blending modes at Northlight

Blend modes at DigitalArtForm

Blending modes tutorial at PhotoshopGurus

Blend modes at Arraich Photoshop tips

Give skin a cracked or peeling look with this tutorial.

Dave Hill look at Flickr

Beers with Dave Hill at Strobist

Creating that Dave Hill look at DIYPhotography

Cool gritty look in camera raw photoshop and lightroom by Scott Kelby

Lucisart Photoshop plugin review at Scott Kelby

Dave Hill Photographer

Digital Foundation – skin retouching and make up in photoshop video tutorial.

Firstly, we need to adjust the levels; So Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels.
Rather than manipulating the layers together as RGB, we’ll do them one at a time to create the desired effect.
Here are the settings I’ve used for each and a small picture of the result at that stage.

In the layers window – Right click on the original picture layer and select Duplicate. Then move this above the levels adjustment layer

Now – with the duplicate layer selected, Ctrl + U to open the Hue/Saturation controls. Increase saturation to around 55-65 to accentuate the colours.

Cross Processing Photoshop tutorial.

Getting started using white balance, tone & vibrance presets.
Monochrome: Using the Black & White conversion, tints & vignette presets.
Color Effects: Using HSL presets and manual adjustments.

See it in Action: Full workflow with several examples.
Workflow tips for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

Bram from Sweetbeat.be tells you how he got the rainbow in the photo above using photoshop :
- Open new document 20x20cm.
- Make a new layer and select it.
- Select the pen tool en draw a bowed line.Make sure when you have the pen tool selected to have the paths icon selected and not shape layers or fill pixels

- I select the brush tool and on the top right-end corner of the window I open the brush menu (brushes).

- Select a hard basic brush of 28px and at the lower part of the window you put spacing on 1%.

- On the top left-end corner in same the window I choose ” Shape dynamics “.

- I ensure that the size jitter, angle jitter, roundness jitter stands on 0%.

- At size jitter I put the control on fade, give in the number 400 and choose 10% minimum diameter (dependent of the size of the document you must play with this).

- Now I select the pen tool.
- Click rightbutton and choose stroke path.

- As tool I take the brush and click on ” ok “.
- Click your right button again and choose ” delete path ” and voila.

Now you can change the colour with the blending options and for a rainbow duplicate the layer, rotate them a bit but make sure that they start all from 1point if you put them under each other

Repeat the process with a colorful approach, cut the layers borders.

© SweetBeat

More tutorials :
Add textures to an image for a dramatic effect in photoshop tutorial.

How to draw an ‘Asian Sun’ with photoshop.

How to draw custom 3-D arrows in photoshop

Get the color – black and white – sepia mixing look

Photoshop video tutorial on using layers for effects.

This Photoshop tutorial will show you how to beautify a face. The corrections that we’re going to do will make the face look different, but at the same time we avoid to make the results look unnatural like we tend to see in other Photoshop tutorials.

Of course, the face we’re going to work on is not going to look the same when we’re done, but we will only make necessary and subtle changes. We will use Photoshop to fix skin, remove blemishes and wrinkles, whiten and fix teeth, fix hair, fix eyebrows, increase definition in the eyes and crop and sharpen the image in the final steps.

“Beautify a face” tutorial at Lunacore.Eyes,eyebrows,wrinkles,teeth,skin,tones, etc …

Here’s a list of the most popular photoshop-gone-wrong effects / ‘techniques’ !

As reference, the original image :

Let’s start :

10 -  Black and lots of  white with a vengeance for the Neo-Warhol look :

9 – Let’s set the saturation higher than the Everest :

8-  More Gaussian blur than Mr Gaussian had in his basement :

7 – Dropping a S-curve / contrast layer so extreme Red Bull takes the bus :

6 – Schlinder’s list attempt with a good ole Color and Black and White Mix gone wrong :

5 - Liquify it until it becomes corn syrup :

4 – Lame brushes as foreground, everywhere = super fashion

3 – Super-neato background copy-paste :

2 – Design-your-own-’magazine’-cover :

1 - No car without gas, no photoshoppin’  without three gallons of diffuse glow :

Welcome to the official, Russell Brown tips & techniques page. This is your one-stop shopping location for the latest in hot new tips from the one, and only, Dr. Brown. Beware, these QuickTime movies are large and will take time to download with a slow connection.

Also, if you are viewing them using Internet Explorer, the movies may take several minutes to appear. For best results, Dr. Brown recommends that you use the Safari, or Firefox browser. These tutorials have been provided to you as a free service from Adobe Systems and Russell Brown.

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color presets and tones from Inside-Lightroom.com :

Color Lightroom Presets

Point Curve Lightroom Presets

Cross Process Lightroom Presets

Black and White Lightroom Presets

Split Tone/Old Processes Lightroom Presets

Calibration Lightroom Presets

Free plugins for photo processing at Photo-Plugins.com

GetBrushes.com is free Adobe Photoshop brushes directory, featuring handpicked collection of the best brushes for Photoshop on the net, all free to download and use.
Here you’ll find PS brushes for every style and taste, ranging from always popular decay & grunge brushes, over abstract and tech, to gothic, coffee spills, hair, or fractal inspired brushes for photoshop. Have a look around.. and, well, have fun

Free Photoshop brushes at GetBrushes.com

More brushes at Brusheezy.com

Lunacore Smooth Skin tutorial

PhotoShop Skin at TutorialBlog

Quick Skin Tone retouching

Texturing Skin

Learn how to sharpen an image on the edges only with this Photoshop tutorial. Ordinary sharpening methods sharpen the entire image including the areas that you don’t want sharpened such as the skin, clouds, etc. But with this tutorial, you’ll learn how to sharpen only on the edges so that artifacts don’t appear.

We begin by duplicating the layer. The top layer will have the sharpened version of the image and the bottom (Background) layer will have the original untouched image with its default sharpness. To duplciate the layer, press Ctrl+J or go to Layer> Duplicate Layer.

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Post Processing HDR images – Tone mapped HDR images are rarely perfect when the HDR program finishes with them. They can look flat, lack overall contrast, and can suffer from artifacts, ghosting and halos. Ferrell McCollough of www.beforethecoffee.com explains how to correct such problems.

Many problems can be corrected in post processing using:

* Levels/Curves
* Simple cloning
* Blending of the tone mapped image with another image to restore realism.

1. Blend the RAW single image with the HDR image. You can blend the 0EV, -2EV or +2EV.
2. Tone map the RAW image and then blend with the HDR. A pseudo-HDR with the HDR image.
3. Blend two HDR’s each processed with a different tone map setting.
4. Blend an HDR image created with a local operator such as Details Enhancer (Photomatix) with an HDR image created with a global operator such as Tone Compressor (Photomatix).
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light : monoblock in large softbox close to model, no reflectors

post : mix of desaturations, colorizations and contrast boosts.

I really love the lion Bram put up there.The original photo was taken outdoors during a semi-overcast day with a slave speedlite pointed at the model directly as primary light.

I’m going to start this essay with a provocative statement: Anyone who is, or wants to be doing image editing at a professional level needs to be as comfortable with Curves as they are with breathing. Is that bold enough? Do I have your attention now? If I were forced to give up all but one image adjustment tool, the one I would keep would be Curves. Think of Curves as your one shopping source for improving images the way the pros do.

Let’s clear up some misconceptions right away:

• Curves are not a filter
• Curves are not hard to understand
• Mastering Curves will make you dramatically more productive

read article

© TheGoldenMean.com

Devoted to the exchange of Photoshop actions among users as a service to the image editing community.

check : AtnCentral.com

Fashion White Skin (video tutorial)

Hide Cover Title (video tutorial)

Correcting Yellow Photos Quickly (video tutorial)

Very happy with Bram‘s graphics on Stefanie’s photo.

Light on the model in a monoblock flashead in the Octalite softbox.Sealed and covered for the softest spread of light and some shadows playing with the distance of the source.Light was reflected on the other side with a foam board.

Teamed up with SweetBeat.be for some graphic design mixture with digital photography :

The Art and Science of Printer Profiling, part I

Why Use the ProPhoto RGB Color Space?

GretagMacbeth Eye-One Display

The Color Management Wave

Eye-One Match: An Eye for Color

Learn how to use the amazing black and white conversion tools in Photoshop CS3. This new tool makes turning a color photo into a stunning black and white photo easy. Learn how to make the right adjustments so that your pictures look perfect @ PhotoShopSupport

In this Photoshop CS3 video tutorial you will learn the following:
How to call up the black and white adjustment conversion tool.
How to control the black and white conversion sliders.
How to create various effects using the sliders.
How to add a tint to your photo.

PhotoShopSupport

Worth1000 is the top creative competition and photoshop contest site on the web. Don’t take our word for it. Let our 8,074 galleries of 298,598 original images speak for themselves.