What Would You Do (#66)

[starrylaurie]

My more fanciful take on the lil' one...



EDIT: AHH!! Sorry! Forgot to add steps...note to self - don't post when exhausted...

Sharpened original, did some color correction, cloned & healed to clean up messy face. Took original photo and duplicated; took dup. and made it an overlay @ 60% after using scissors to erase background and added "ducky" via airbrush and brush selected as "sunspots". Then made dup. of the duplicate and added space at the bottom of the pic to complete ducky - scissored and merged. New layer white and used the ripple effect @ about 35% merged with upper layer; resized those to make smaller; erased hard edges. Added texture of water at 100%, added sparkles, erased area of face/body. Merged visible layers...

Pshew! Had fun, but was way too late when I posted. lol. Learned lesson to wait until next morning to post, so as not to forget stuff!

[windrider86]

Great couple of edits, would you guys mind sharing the steps you took to acheive these looks? After all, this is what this thread is all about! Thanks a million

[starrylaurie]

OOOPS! Done in original. :embarrassed:

[zespri]

Nicely laid out steps, I just tried them and got a really good result. I learnt a few things I didn't know existed, such as 'extract', though I found it really difficult to get a tidy result. Also I hadn't considered using gradient to create fake DOF. And I had never used curves to set a white point, that one is a hum-dinger, I'll remember that one for sure. Thanks for writing them out so clearly.

I think the skill in doing these edits is in putting it all together in the right order with the layers, which I'm useless at right now, but practice makes perfect.

I only discovered these threads last week, and think they're a really good idea. People come up with things I hadn't imagined, and often get a similar result with different steps. As yet I don't have many skills of my own, so will lurk for a while before submitting anything

Originally Posted by iNeegma

[Duplicate] (Ctrl+J) original layer
[Curves] (Ctrl+M) to uncover background
[Filter -> Noise -> Reduce Noise] to reduce background graininess
[Clone Tool] (S) to get rid of flash shadow
[Duplicate] (Ctrl+J) newly adjusted layer
[Filter -> Blur -> Lens Blur] to blur background
[Add Layer Mask] to blurred layer
Apply [Gradient Tool] (G) to bottom of layer mask to imitate depth of field
[Duplicate] (Ctrl+J) original unmodified background layer, place it on top
[Filter -> Extract] to separate subject from background
[Clone Tool] to get rid of flash shadow near left chin
[Curves -> Set White Point] (Ctrl+M) to adjust white balance
[Duplicate] (Ctrl+J) layer with 'separated subject'
[Filter -> Sharpen -> Smart Sharpen] to add a little sharpiness
Place 'sharpen' layer underneath layer with 'separated subject'
[Add Layer Mask] to layer with 'separated subject'
[Brush Tool] (B) to delete around eyes, nose and lips
[Dodge Tool] (O) to lighten eyes
[Merge Layers] (Ctrl+Shft+E)

[iNeegma]

Zespri, you might want to check out Russel Brown's website for photoshop video tutorials. His lessons are free and very fun to watch..

http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html (there are several sections, scroll down for videos).

P.S. The extract tool is very cool once you get used to it. Try 'Smart Highlighting' checkbox when defining the edge around subject.

[private]

Originally Posted by windrider86

Thanks private. I love your version (the brick wall especially)...

Ms Rider, you make me blush! And I KNOW he loves his granny! ifthat is what youare called...

[zespri]

I did try the smart highlighting, but I'm too wobbly. I was about to say that I didn't see that it was any better than using magnetic lasso or the pen tool etc, when I went to the Russell Brown link you suggested. It's not a very well laid out website so I almost gave up on finding anything, but then stumbled upon a video tutorial to do exactly this, work with the extract tool.

You're right, he's very easy to watch, and I downloaded the photo he was working with so I could do it along with him. And this is absolutely the best thing I've learned all week!

If anybody wants to learn a fabulous way of neatly extracting something from a background (including little wisps of hair!), have a go at this tutorial:
http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/Stroked_Extract_SM.mov

I'm very pleased with myself for having learnt this, thanks for the tip iNeegma

Originally Posted by iNeegma

Zespri, you might want to check out Russel Brown's website for photoshop video tutorials. His lessons are free and very fun to watch..

http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html (there are several sections, scroll down for videos).

P.S. The extract tool is very cool once you get used to it. Try 'Smart Highlighting' checkbox when defining the edge around subject.

[keys_to_imagination]

basically what i did was got rid of background added a new one then i did some cloning to clean up face and shirt then i converted it to black and white then iadded some contrast sharpening then i used a pl;ugin to do out of region and i added emboss to stones then i added text and voila here it is

[NotYourAvgJoe]

Here is my revision of the Grandson Shot.

1-Duplicate the layer
2-Remove background using first by selecting around the child and delete, then cleaning up the remainder with a layer mask and soft brush.
3-Adjust Brightness / Contrast to liking using an adjustment layer
4-Clean Face and Shirt using patch tool and clone stamp
5-touch up cleaned areas with blur tool
6-Soften Skin with Surface Blur
7-Remove Surface Blur from Eyes and Teeth using a mask
8-Remove Noise using DFine Filter (a external Plugin Product from NIK)
9-Added Warming Filter 85 TWO TIMES ON TWO LAYERS
10- Brighten Eyes using a 50%grey layer in overlay mode
11-Added FRAME by the following method
a-select all
b-modify selection - contract by 5 pixels
c-edit / stroke 2.5 pixels
d-Add Blending options of drop shadow
e-Add blending options of bevel
f-color overlay to match the DARK Blue of the shirt
DONE

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

[windrider86]

I loved them all.