I have dabbled on the edges of photoshop but a bit too scared to use it much. I am really excited that in March I will study photoshop at a local polytech. The course is for 4 weeks ,2 nights a week , 3 hours a night!
I also recently aquired CS2.
So with all this I want to try a bit myself first and go to the course with a bit of knowledge.
I figured with all its faults this photo has alot of potential to be improved. Things that personally think needs work is sharpening it, cleaning up drool(!) and his dirty face also I would like to change the background.
If anyone can give me any help it would be much appreciated remember when describing to me what you have done please assume no prior knowledge of photoshop.
I would also love to see what others would do with this photo.
As always any help is much appreciated (",)
I used a little of unsharp mask ( though what are good settings to use?)
Desatuarated ( there must be a better way to convert to B & W)
Then played with levels including the colour channels within levels.
I tried to clone out drool but as you can see was unsuccessful! How can I make it look not so obvious?
A tip for using the healing tool, which is what I would use to get rid of the drool.
- set angle to around -45
- set roundness to somewhere around 15%
- hardness at 100%
- spacing at 25%
- then set the diameter of the brush appopriately to what your trying to heal away
This is usually the formula I use anyways and it works for me. It just seems to leave a more natural blend.
You could also just try using the spot healing tool in small strokes. Then you don't have to sample anything.
You will want to do as much and try as many things with photoshop as you can before your class. Photoshop is not very intutive and has a steep learning curve. The class will help solidify your understanding of this program but you will get a lot more out of it if you have worked with it as much as possible beforehand.
There are hundreds of free online tutorials available that you can learn a lot about PS from. You will want to familiarize yourself with what is available.
A couple good free online resources:
Adobe Photoshop Basics Though written for PS7 or earlier it is a comprehensive introduction to the basics of photoshop.
The Radiant Vista Probably the best source for passive Photoshop learning on the Internet. It teaches through video tutorials where the viewer can see every step on-screen and the teachers are exceptionally knowledgeable and exceptionally good communicators. Just by following along in their 'daily critique', 'photoshop workbench' and/or 'video tutorials' you will learn more about photoshop than you will likely learn anywhere else outside a classroom.
A 'must have' resource from The Radiant Vista for anyone that wants to understand fundamental image processing AND Photoshop is about a 1 hour video found on this page with the following title:
Most important things when starting to learn photoshop is:
A: Have FUN!!!
B: Realize that no matter how long you use it, you will probably NEVER know everything about it
C: Get a good book on it.... Something like "Adobe PhotoShop CS2 for Photographers" by Martin Evening
Thanks everyone for your replies :) I will look at tutorials over the next few days.
Jenesis and Oscar just what I was looking for and they worked a treat!
Have to go out now but will continue to work on photo later
Any tips on how to remove a background and add one?
... Any tips on how to remove a background and add one?
That is an advanced Photoshop topic. The difficulty level of background replacement varies greatly depending on how much fine detail there is between the background border and the main subject.
Russell Brown, a very entertaining guy and Photoshop guru, has a video tutorial on the subject located below that covers even the most sophisticated background replacement. It was originally done for PS7 but there has been no improvements to PS since then to make it easier. His tutorial covers the most sophisticated background replacement you likely will encounter. It is the very last tutorial listed on this page and titled:
I used Cindis move the light tutorial to lighten his face and darken the background but somehow the Gaussian blur has gone over his eyes as well!
I think you must have used the wrong blend mode to get the blur over his face. It should be 'soft light'.
I tried the tutorial using your black and white version (applying black for darkening and white for lightening) on separate layers. This was the result:
I think it's a gorgeous photo and you were right to try Cindi's tutorial on it. It certainly brings out his eyes beautifully.
------ Original -------- Color edit --------- B & W edit -----
The color edit was done by using a backed-down version of my Model Makeover tutorial.
The B& W was simply a basic B&W conversion, a little dodging and a light warm tone applied.
@ Steve ok will look at tutorials any other suggestions how I can make the background not so unattractive or was darkening it up like I did with cindis tutorial enough?
@Gina your edit looks great! I didnt try doing the dark and light on seperate layers maybe that is the trick. Im very new to layers so its a bit scary!
@ Brad as usual amazing editing particualrly with the eyes. Will look at your tutorial soon, hope its easy enough for beginners to understand!
For those that like to edit / fix images, drop on over and join us at PPChallenge.com smurfguy was gracious to set up a website where we can choose to enter a challenge, download the full-resolution version of it, then using DPChallenge editing rule sets, edit / fix the shot, save at 640px/150k and resubmit to the challenge, anonymous voting after, etc. One thing a little different, is that when we submit, it is requested we list what post-processing steps were used, that way after the challenge is over, we all can learn.
Oh - and we get really cool paintbrush trophies too:
- 1st Place
- 2nd Place
- 3rd Place
For those that like to edit / fix images, drop on over and join us at PPChallenge.com smurfguy was gracious to set up a website where we can choose to enter a challenge, download the full-resolution version of it, then using DPChallenge editing rule sets, edit / fix the shot, save at 640px/150k and resubmit to the challenge, anonymous voting after, etc. One thing a little different, is that when we submit, it is requested we list what post-processing steps were used, that way after the challenge is over, we all can learn.
Oh - and we get really cool paintbrush trophies too:
- 1st Place
- 2nd Place
- 3rd Place
Just checked out the website and I think I may sign up. I'm not that great at editing photos but it would be a good learning experience. Thanks for the link :)
- 1st Place
- 2nd Place
- 3rd Place
