This tutorial covers something that at first, seemed quite simple to me.  When I was given the original photo to work with, I figured it was just a matter of correcting a minor blemish and then moving on.  But I actually got a little frustrated here because I could not fix it right off the bat.  In fact, I had closed Photoshop and planned to come up with some excuse about not being able to fix it.  Rather than admit defeat, my pride and ego took over, combined with stubbornness, and the result was a corrected photo.

Here is the original photo:

From the data in the file, it appears that this was taken with an Olympus E-30 at f/3.5, 1/160^th, and ISO400. Not a bad photo at all.  I like the composition and the colors and Jennifer’s eyes really pop.  The main issue here, obviously, is the light spot on the forehead which detracts from the photo.

I tried a few different correction methods and none of them worked.  I first tried to burn out the spot a bit which left a really odd mark, even worse than before.  I then brought the spot into a new layer and attempted to adjust the exposure, which didn’t work either.

This is where I really got frustrated.

So what I did to correct this, was to add a new layer above the portrait layer and named it “Fix”.  I then selected a soft edged brush.  Sampling the skin color around the spot, I painted this solid color over the spot.  Lowering the opacity down some seemed to help the spot go away and the skin to appear a little more natural in that area.  Since it still was not where I wanted it to be, I opted to soften the skin to help it smooth out a little more.  The photo itself was really good skin-wise, and I probably would not have wanted to soften the skin otherwise, because I don’t feel that it needed it.  But to get that spot to blend a little better, I went with it.

After painting and then running my free skin softening action, I got the following:

That looks a little more natural than with the plain painting.  And since I could not just stop there, I went a little further with the processing. Using Nik Color Efex Pro, I ran a cross-processing filter on the photo which gave me the following:

I love how her eyes pop in the photo.  To bring that out just a tad bit more I hit each eye once with the dodge tool.  Had to be careful to not go overboard here.  She is lucky to have eyes that stand out and too much accenting can make them look overdone.

Next, I added some texturing using textures from Jessica Drossin (Note: I have also written up a review about these).  Namely, I used “Dream” and “Destitute”.

I first brought “Dream” into a new layer above all of the others and set the blending mode to “Soft Light”.  With a soft edged brush, and opacity on the brush set to around 40%, I masked out the face and skin.

Next, I brought “Destitute” into a new layer above all of the others and set the blending mode to “Overlay”.  I also dropped the opacity of this layer to about 95%. As with the previous step, I masked out the face, skin, and more around the body, giving a vignette type feel.

Here was the final result:

Check out more results from of my “Post Processing Series“. Feel free to submit your own photos for me to process and write-up tutorials on.  I love this stuff!

Here is another post-processing series which shows some quick and simple steps you can take to tweak a photo and not spend a ton of time on it.  I believe I spent about 10 – 15 minutes processing this photo.

Here is the original shot (Nikon D700, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, ISO200, f/2.8, 1/1250s):

This was taken during a local Independence Day parade and the lady was sitting on a moving float.  I took several shots as the float moved passed me and managed to get a few of her looking directly at me.  This one was one of my favorites.

I wanted a bit tighter crop on the shot and also did not like the direction in which the flag was blowing, making it look backwards.  This was quickly done by flipping the image horizontally and correcting the crop, bringing it in a little more.  Wanting a bit more vintage look to the shot, I dropped the opacity down a notch as well.

Next, I ran the Vintage Film Photoshop action (download for free here).  To draw the eye in a little more, I wanted a subtle vignette.  Rather than add a harsh layer of black, I duplicated the layer and then set the blending mode of the new layer to Multiply.  I added a layer mask and trimmed out everything except the edges, giving a little more natural vignette effect.

For the texture effects here, I used some of Jessica Drossin’s textures, which are truly superb textures.  I first used the “Worn” texture pack 1.  I placed this texture layer directly under the group that the Vintage Film action created.  I changed the blending mode of this layer to “Soft Light” and then slightly masked out the lady.

I then placed another one of Jessica Drossin’s textures directly under the “Worn” texture.  For this texture, I used “Destitute” from her Texture Pack 2.  I set the mode to soft light and I was done!

• Larger version on Flickr
• Previous post-processing series articles

As part of this post-processing series, readers are encouraged to send in their files for me to work with and write something up on after processing it.  This was one of the first images sent to me and I really had a tough time with it.  After looking at it, I really did not want to do anything at all with it.

The main reason I did not want to touch the image was that I really thought it was great already.  The natural light in the background is great and their colors are wonderful.  Being a portrait, the photographer clearly understood that as the focus here is more about the eyes and the face.

So what would I do?  If this were a client of mine they would certainly get this image with just a few minor adjustments (just to give it a little more punch).  But the more I thought about it, what really could I do to work this image when it was already good to begin with?  It was really tough to decide what direction to go in. What I would normally do, if I liked the shot enough, would be to give the client the shot as it was.  I would also work on an additional shot which had the post-processing in it.  So that is where this explanation comes into play.

As with 99% of what I shoot, this was first imported into Lightroom.  The photographer was kind enough to send over a raw file to work with so I was able to treat the photo just as I would any other.

Here is what you need:

• Adobe Lightroom & Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Lightroom presets by Sarah J (Autumn Presets) {Free}
• Ghostbones “Gray Matter” texture {Free}
• Shadowhouse texture set {Free}
• My skin softening Photoshop action {Free}

Here is the original image:

From the data in the file, I see that the image was taken with a Nikon D50 with the following settings: f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO-400, and at 50mm.

After importing the photo into Lightroom, I bumped the clarity and saturation of the photo with the sliders in the Develop tab.  Then, I applied the Retro Warm preset from Sarah J.  I love this preset with this image because it really goes well with her skin.  The warm tones are soothing to me for some reason.

Next, I brought the image into Photoshop for some additional processing.  The first step was to soften the skin just a notch.  Run my Photoshop skin softening action which should give you a bit softer look:

Since the portrait is all about the eyes, the next step was to bring the eyes out just a little bit more.  Here is where you have to be a little careful.  Too much emphasis pulls the eyes out too much and rather than it appear normal, they look artificial.  You want people to notice the eyes but they cannot be too strong or it just comes across overworked.

Using the Rectangular Marque Tool (M), I copy the eyes and bring them into a new layer (Command+ J or Control + J).  I then run the Unsharp Mask filter on the new eye layer with the following settings:

If you find that the results are too strong, lower the Amount from 84% down to 50% and/or lower the radius to 1.0 pixels.  You can always lower the opacity of the eye layer to reduce the effect as well.

Next, to balance out the sky a bit, I wanted to bring back in some of the colors that were in the original image, namely the purple.  So I created a color fill layer with a layer mask (I used a color hex value of #290a59).  Using the Linear Gradient Tool (G) (Foreground color set to black and background color set to white) I placed a gradient to mask out the purple over the subject yet leave some in over the sky.

If you want to see the layer mask and your image at the same time, simply hit Shift + | (pipe). I then changed the blending mode to “Soft Light” and dropped the opacity down to 80%.  Here is what I ended up with:

Since I absolutely love working with textures, I thought something placed in this image might make for a cool effect and also help punch the overall warm tones up even more.  First, I started with this texture by Shadowhouse Creations:

I added this texture on top of all of the other layers and set the blending mode to “Overlay” and dropped the opacity down to 80%.  Keep in mind this is still about the subject, so not wanting to leave a texture over the subject, I masked it out.  I created a layer mask on this new texture layer.  With a soft-edged paint brush and black as my foreground color, I painted on the areas I wanted to mask off, leaving the texture to appear more in the background.

Next, I used this texture:

As with the previous step, I changed the blending mode to “Overlay”, dropped the opacity down to 80%, and masked out the subject.  Here is the image so far:

I think that this is a pretty good stopping point, actually.  To enhance the effect of the sunset, I did add a little lens flare.  Yea, I said lens flare.  Poor lens flare.  What used to be a cool filter was so quickly abused and overused by Photoshop users worldwide.  Should you want to take that risk, create a new layer above the “Color Fill” layer and under the two texture layers.  Fill this layer with black and drop in your lens flare.  To have it blend a little better with the overall image, I changed the blending mode to “Screen” and lowered the opacity down to 80%.

So this article has two purposes. The first was for me to test a new screen recorder application that I have been wanting to use. I am working on some Photoshop screencasts and figured this might be a great testing ground.  The second purpose was to offer a little insight into some post-processing that goes into some of my work.

The image I used was one that I did not take.  A special thanks to Monroe Harbour Marina in Sanford, Florida for permission to use the photo.  I was born in Florida and have family in Sanford, so this is a frequented spot.  If you look in the original photo, down toward the bottom left area on the bulkhead was where I took my own Marina Nightfall image .

Back to the topic at hand. Here is what I started with:

Is this a bad image?  Certainly not.  Could I have taken better?  Who is to say, really?  The point here is not to critique the photo or label it as bad by any stretch of the imagination.  The thought process here is to take an existing photo and build upon it.  Many times I take a shot and like it in-camera.  But my desire to tinker and improve in Photoshop carries the image further. What I tried to focus on with the image was making the colors pop a little more and sharpen it up.  I also threw in a little tilt-shift effect.  Here is the video (I sped this up to make it look like I really knew what I was doing):

In total, I spent about 15 minutes on the image.  This is a little longer than average as I normally know what I want to do with the image before starting to process it.  Having a direction in mind will save you a lot of time in the long run.

Here is the final image:

If you would like to see a larger view, check out my Flickr page.

Photo Credit:
Monroe Harbour Marina
Sanford, Florida
(407) 322-2910

This month I was fortunate enough to have an article of mine included on the Tuts+ network. 

It is always great to have a fun shoot an end up with some results that everyone is pleased with, especially the client.  It is another when you are able to write about your experiences and share them with others who are interested in achieving the same results.  Here is an excerpt explaining the purpose of the article:

I have long been a fan of rim lighting and, given the opportunity, would prefer to use it over a single light source. Rim lighting, which is often referred to as back light or even hair lights, is simply light placed on your subject which gives the appearance of a light outline. This technique pulls the subject off the background and offers some depth and dimension to what you are shooting.

This article outlines how to setup your lights to achieve such an effect and also covers some simple post-processing to help improve the final product.

My article “Make Your Subject Stand Out With a Rim Lighting Effect” is now available on Photo Tuts+.

Above, is the final image.  I was using a single Genesis 400 light shot into an umbrella directly above the camera.  My D80 with nifty fifty was mounted on a tripod, firing the flash with a Genesis remote.  My wife applied the make-up (which freaked her out just a bit) and the rest was history.

Rather than post a before and after shot, which is a little boring, I opted to create a short video to show the steps involved in creating the image.  Enjoy!

The above image is one that I took of my daughter. [The technical aspects of the photo are as follows: Nikon D80; Sigma 18-200; Focal Length: 18mm; No Flash; F/7.1; ISO 100; and Exposure 1/200 sec.].  Personally, I love the photo.  Naturally, it is of my daughter so that is the top reason.  Second, it just conveys fun and makes me smile.  However, there are a few things that one can do to improve the photo without spending too much time in Photoshop.

The first step for me was to remove some of the tennis shoe marks from the slide.  I cleaned up the image using the healing brush tool.  A minor tweak to the levels gives a cleaner and brighter image.

The next thing I want to do is give the image a bit more depth by blurring the image.  Duplicate the image layer into a new layer and from the menu, select Filter > Blur > Lens Blur and with a minimal amount.  This blurring method appears to have a more natural effect than other blurring methods such as Gaussian blur.  Next, add a layer mask and using a soft round brush, paint over the areas you want to remove.  For this image, I wanted to keep my daughter in focus, obvious, but I also wanted some of the main slide to her left and to her right as well.  The background behind her should have a subtle blur as follows:

Again, nothing too drastic but I feel this adds quite a bit to the image in terms of depth.

Now I want her to stand out a bit more, so I used the lasso tool to select her and promote that selection into a new layer (Control + J).  I made some minor adjustments (you can use Brightness & Contrast or Levels) to brighten the image up so it stands out even more.  Don’t get too crazy with this because you want it to stand out but not contrast too much with the lighting of the image.

The final step is to bring out the eyes a bit more.  Again with the lasso tool, I made a selection of the eyes and promoted that into a new layer.  Change the blending mode to Screen and drop the opacity down so it is not overpowering (I have the opacity set to 41%).

So while I did not touch up the image that much, the minor adjustments that I made give the image just a little more punch than what was there before.

I am a little hesitant about labeling this as a tutorial as there are other sites that cover this method.  It would perhaps be more appropriate to describe this as following me along my creative processing of an image.  Basically, after processing several images from a recent model shoot and getting the usual images out the door, I then moved to do something a little bit different with some of the other images.

With this image, the model Zan J has an awesome serious look, but an even better smile.  I want to play on that and bring in some vivid colors and show some movement and dynamics with the imagery.  To follow along, you will need Adobe Photoshop, Nik Color Efex 3.0, and a free account with SXC.

As always, I do not pretend to know everything in Photoshop.  I am sure there are always better ways and possibly easy ways to accomplish these effects.  I am merely working as I know how.

Here is the image that I started with:

First, I wanted to wash out the image and give the contrast a bit of a blast.  With the image in CS3, I then used Nik Color Efex bleach bypass filter.  The filter processes the effect and then places the results in a new layer on top of the photo layer, offering non-destructive editing.  From there, promote the bleach bypass layer into a new layer and change the blending mode to Hard Light.

Using a large and soft eraser brush, trim out the center of the newest layer.  What this will do is further wash out the edges.  Here is the worth:

Next, I wanted to apply a color gradient to the image.  Using the settings

Create a gradient layer above the current layers and change the blending mode to overlay.  To allow the model to stand out more, I added a layer mask to the gradient layer and masked out the model.

To give the image a little bit more strength in terms of color, I added a solid color adjustment layer. I selected a dark red (Hex # 492222) and then changed the layer blending mode to Soft Light and dropped opacity down to 75%.

With the image pretty much where I want it, now it is time to add in a few effects.  Following the lead from a tutorial on PSDTuts.com, I snagged some brushes from Brusheezy, namely these.  I then used them, with foreground color set to white, on top of the model in a new layer.  From there, I applied a layer style of outer glow using the following settings

The brushes are nice, but I feel that they interfered with the model too much and she should be the focus, not solely the effects.  So I masked out the model.

Next, I grabbed some images from SXC, namely this image, and applied it in a new layer on top of the recently added brush layer.  I changed the blending mode to screen.  After some rotating of the image to get it lined up the way that I wanted it to be lined up, I duplicated the layer and rotated it again.

Next, I added another image from SXC, namely this image, above the most recent abstract images.  I set the blending mode to soft light.  I brought a copy of just the model above this most recent layer and set the blending mode to Soft Light and also dropping the opacity down to 60%.

Again, this was not really meant to be a tutorial as it was to explain some of the processing.  I get a lot of questions about how I process certain images and want to explain images a little more here on this site.

Hit me up with questions.

A lot of the photos and tutorials, and to some extent the resources, have a serious tone to them.  Last night I decided to have a bit of fun and what better way than to create a project which enables you to laugh at yourself? Creative self-portraits are fun, but can be a little tricky.  Resources are important, however, a plan is even more critical to your success.

First, here are the items I used:

• Nikon D80
• Sigma 18-200mm
• SB800 Speedlight
• Tripod
• Two different outfits
• Giggling daughter (optional)

The first piece is to have a plan.  Think of a theme.  Think about how the image will come across.  You do that anyway (or you should) when you take pictures any other time, so this should be no different.  In fact, here is where it is more important because you are telling a story with the images you are creating.

I was initially inspired by fellow creative Kriegs who setup a self-portrait shot in a pool setting.  The photo portrayed him sitting on the edge of the pool with his feet in the water.  He brought in another photo of him as if he was about to push himself into the water.  I thought it was a really neat shot and thought that I could try something similar.  But I have no pool and if I did, I wouldn’t want to just duplicate what he did.  Being limited in what I could actually do at the time I wanted to do it, I thought about something in the living room.  I wanted to portray two sides of my personality, one serious and one playful.  So that would need two different sets of clothes.  The idea came to me about sitting down trying to read but being bothered by my own practical joke side.

With an idea in place, it was time to put it into action.

Since I was setting up in the living room, I setup the tripod where I wanted.  I took a few quick test shots to make sure the settings were what I wanted.  Then it was time to put on outfit #1 (serious mode).

I will be the second to admit that I am still learning when it comes to taking my D80 off auto and moving into more manual settings (the first person is my friend Dave).  Would you be surprised to know that up until last night, I did not know how to set the timer on the camera, or if I would even be able to do that.  So let’s start with that first.

A quick plug to The Complete Guide to the Nikon D80, who offers an extremely wonderful resource on the D80 camera.  For those who want a manual for their camera, I would start there.

On the top of the camera, you will need to locate the frame advance button.  Press it until you see the timer indicator.

The camera will also allow you to change the timing of the shots, but I found that 10 seconds was enough for me.  I pressed the button to fire off a shot, which triggered the timer, and then ran around to the couch to try and look somewhat serious.

The next shot, with outfit #2 (not-so-serious mode), took a few tries to get correct.  Obviously I am standing over the other me and looking down, so I wanted to make sure that everything was as seamless as possible.  For example, I tried this with another position in the living room, and the me that was standing up was not directly looking at the me sitting down.  So it took some planning and going back and forth to and from the camera to check the image.  The standing shot needed my eyes looking down at the me sitting.  I also needed to have the brown bag close enough to the other me so that it would make sense what I was doing.  I actually had to take this shot about 9 times to get the position and lighting correct.  When I was done, I had the following two images:

Since I used a tripod when taking the shots, merging the two images in Photoshop is relatively easy.  I opted to use the first image as the base image and the second one was imported into the first.  I then took the photo of me standing and trimmed away the background.  There were some slight lighting differences in the two so I used a combination of levels & brightness/contrast adjustments to match them up the best that I could.  The merged image was as follows:

Notice that I also did some slight cropping and resizing.  In the photo of me sitting down, you can see that I am wearing the same black Nike shorts as I am standing up.  So I cropped that out and sized the photo up just a tad so you can’t see them.

We all know that I seem to be unable to stay completely away from Photoshop and knowing that, you can understand why I kept going with the post-processing of the image.  I made a copy of the entire image and then pasted that into a new layer in a new group.  This way I have the original merged layers (if I want them) and can continue to edit with a new group using a copy of the merged photo as a base.

I copied the merged photo into a new layer and converted it to black and white using “Desaturate” (Control + Shift + U).  I changed the blending mode to multiply.  I also brought out the colors of the brown paper bag and my watch to help punch up some of the colors.  I also made a copy of the black and white layer (with blending mode again set to multiply) and applied a Gaussian Blur to it.  After that, I trimmed away me from the image so that only the background was left.

The next step involved applying some subtle textures to the image from Ghostbones and Paul Grand.  The last step was to add one final adjustment layer for curves to help accentuate the final image.

Feel free to drop a comment here or on the actual Flickr page.