Tuesday, March 11, 2008

"Evening Blues" - A Cool Photoshop Tutorial

Adding the spice to the image that really makes it sing - that's our topic for today. The techniques I'm discussing here are not difficult or complicated. I'm primarily adjusting the tonal values of the scene to show of the resulting image in its best light- so to speak. Let me say for the record that I shot all the images in JPEG mode - still my "workflow" favorite - please no long string of comments or emails here - it's just my choice, but I do give it a mention so you can also see what can be done in the JPEG world too. So let's take a peek at an image or two and see what we can do.


12 comments:

  1. David - this was super. From so-so to WOW in 10 minutes. I was surprised that the JPEG image could be modified so easily and so well. Thanks for taking us along.

    Gordon Lynn Hufford

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  2. HI
    great tips for retouching!
    I know you're usually paying alot of attention to detail but in that tutorial, when you made the initial color changes to the greens..you in fact turned the palm tree leaves blue as well as the pool :) I know you were going for quick and dirty but just thought i'd point that out.
    thanks again

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  3. No color space or printer/magazine can handle that high saturaton. as a small image for a webpage you might not notice it but to state that it is a pro technique is not fair to amatures seeing this.

    /erik

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  4. Great tutorial! It was fun to see the step by step process of the transformation.

    I have a question about how you removed the drain plugs in the first image. I saw you lasso the drains. Then you used some kind of a keyboard command to make them disappear. What did you do?

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  5. I second alaskateacher, I'm wondering about the drainplugs as well. Is that another technique for clone stamp tool?

    And thank you for posting that, I learned a lot from it. :)

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  6. Excellent tutorial. Thanks for sharing your expertise.

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  7. Super tutorial. Well done, good flow to the steps you showed and very practical in terms of adjustments most people might need to do on photos they have taken.

    Why didn't you shoot RAW? Just kidding. I like how the steps you showed are useful no matter how you shot it.

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  8. Well, good to see jpeg taking this much manipulation. My only complain is sound quality, get a good microphone, David.

    Cheers!

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  9. great techniques I like to see how others produce such great quality photos...

    The shortcut he used was the PATCH TOOL located under the healing brush toolset.
    Do a search on the internet for it and you will be amazed at its blending! To describe how to use it here would not give the tool or you all its justice.

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  10. Keep up the good work! Thanks

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  11. Nice work! Good creative use of layers, levels and all with JPEGs! Thanks again David!

    Curtis

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  12. David,

    I caught your comment about Saturday mornings and the John Nagy Learn to Draw show. Man, I LOVED that show! Of course the other Saturday morning biggie was Watch Mr. Wizard and his science show for kids. Were you a fan as well?

    We must be around the same age? I'm 57.

    Sincerely,
    Robert Jensen
    (Vintage pinup photography is my game)

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