Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Here is 1% of 99% You May Have Missed

Hey, have you seen the latest issue of Photoshop User magazine - the issue with 100 Hot New Photoshop Tips. The tips come from Scott Kelby, Moose Peterson, Corey Barker, R. C. Concepcion, Peter Bauer, Lesa Snyder King, Rick Sammon, Mark Fleming, Laurie Excell, and yours truly. This has always been my favorite issue of an already terrific publication. You know, 70,000 members who receive this magazine as part of their membership, can't be wrong.

For this Technique Tuesday, I'm going to share one of mine. I call it "DAZ Softar". The Softar filter was a very expensive filter for Hasselblad lens, but it gave a beautiful soft effect to the images. Here is how to get a very similar effect in Photoshop. First select a really nice portrait image - someone close up is a good choice. Duplicate the layer and change it's mode to "Overlay". Hit Filters>Other>High Band Pass and set to 10 pixels for starters (try different resolutions for different cameras.) See how the image got a lot sharper. That's because this is a good sharpening technique in some instances. But the next step is the "beauty step" - hit Control-I to inverse the effect. Very cool, don't you think? Just adjust the opacity of the overlying layer until you achieve the softened result you want. What I like about this technique is that you very seldom have to go back in and mess with the layer masks.

Hey, if you want the next 99% of the tips, and you are not a NAPP member, get right over to PhotoshopUser right here and sign up - it's the best Photoshop budget money you will ever spend.
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7 comments:

  1. Sean C12:24 PM, November 27, 2007

    I'm not much of photoshop guy, but that's fantastic.

    Thanks for posting!

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  2. Anonymous2:50 PM, November 27, 2007

    Hi Dave,

    Great job with the tips! We're thrilled that you could be a part of the madness (:

    ~Issac

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  3. Anonymous12:48 AM, November 30, 2007

    Thanks for the tip. I've been playing with the "Orton Effect" for some time now, but this equals or beats the "traditional method". In my opinion it's cleaner, easier, and gives more control, and doesn't mess with the colors as much.

    I've taken the liberty of passing it along with a link back to your site.

    Thanks again
    Sherweld

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  4. David Ziser9:28 AM, November 30, 2007

    Hey Everybody,
    Thanks for the nice remarks. I first saw Katrin Eismann do this as a sharpening technique. I like to ask myself the question - What happens if.... I inverse the effect with Contrl-I, and there I was with an easy fast softening technique. Keep asking that question - good things happen. --David

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  5. Brian Auer1:41 PM, December 02, 2007

    Hey David, this works great! Here's one that I tried it out on.

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  6. David Ziser8:23 AM, December 03, 2007

    Hey Brian, Nice shot - that little technique works pretty good doesn't it?
    --David

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  7. bizarotrips5:36 AM, September 26, 2011

    Thanks for the tips. I'll try this technique soon.

    ReplyDelete

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