Photoshop tutorial - Computer generated movement.

Computer generated movement.

Sometimes in photography, a photographer may want to capture the movement of a particular subject which he wishes to do, However cannot do for whatever reason, be it the subject moves to fast, or the subject moving is harder to find. This is where computer generated movement comes in, we take a still image of the subject then make it look like it’s moving in photoshop.

1. Take a still image of your desired subject
2. Put that image inside of photoshop
3. Select the subject you want to be blurred
4. Inverse the selection
5. Filters > Blur > Motion blur
6. Select 90 Degrees
7. Ensure preview is ticked
8. Adjust the blur distance slider as appropriate

5 Photography things it's NOT ok to buy cheaper

1. Tripod - You need these to be stable.
2. All other Filters
3. SD Cards
4. Lens'
5. Camera bags/Cases

Photoshop CS5 - Skin smoothing - How to smooth a models skin.

In this tutorial I will show you how to achieve that magazine-finish skin every time, in a few simple steps.

Here is the picture I am working with

Step 1 is to crop the image to the correct size, as I've done below.

Step 2: Create a new layer and label it "Skin"

Step 3: Using your EyeDrop tool found in the colour palette, select a colour from the models skin

Once you've done this you'll need to draw on a very crude mask of the particular colour. I KNOW it looks dodgy at this stage, but bear with me. 

THE NEXT STEP:

Is add a Noise filter of about 12 radius, I don't have a screenshot but the filter can be found here. 

Filters > Noise > Add noise

No we need to blur our skin by going to Filter > Blur > Guassian Blur

Blur this from between 20 and 25 pixels.

Once you've done that all you need to do, is to bring the opacity of this layer down to around 20 %

Here's the before and after!!

All I did here was a basic crop, a basic skin smooth, and a few levels and curves tweaks!

How to create flame photography with smoke - Photography Tutorial

Smoke photography is something I love doing, today I took a different spin on it and using the simple set up you can see here created some amazing shots.

After opening the photographs in photoshop I cropped them appropriately and used levels to completely darken the background. Ensuring I used the red channel to lighten the flame.

I then lightened the blue channel slightly in curves, and improved the contrast overall as a photo.

Here's one of the original images. 

And heres the results..

Photoshop for beginners: Drop Shadows

When used correctly, the drop shadow tool in photoshop can create very professional images.

Looking at the image above, we can see that a more subtle shadow looks more professional, the version at the top is the standard set for photoshop.

To create a drop shadow on some text, start by double clicking the text layer to reveal this window:

Go ahead and tick the "Drop Shadow" option, then select it to reveal the controls.

It's often a good idea to set the "Size" value larger than the "Distance", to achieve the affect above, I used an angle of 90, distance of 1px, size of 2px and set the opacity to 41%:

you can use a variety of sizes, blend modes, colours, distances and contours to achieve different effects

Photoshop Tutorial - Selective Colour.

Selective colour is a really nice technique to be able to master. It gives the photograph the ability to have a main focal point, and you get to chose the focal point.

Step 1. Open the photograph you want to use in photoshop

Step 2. Select the object you want to remain in colour using the selection tools.

Step 3. Use Standard Mode (Q) to adjust the selection like you can see I have done here.

Step 4. Press Q again to get back to normal selection, now you'll want to feather this by about 5 pixels. Select > Modify > Feather 

Step 5. Now invert your selection (CMD/CTRL + Shift + I). 

Step 6. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation

Step 7. Drag the saturation slider all the way down (Although I like to leave a tiny bit of colour in, so you can adjust this as you wish)

Press Enter and here is the finished product!!

Time lapse of a clock - Photography

Following on from my time lapse tutorial i've decided to share one of my more recent ones. Take a look.

Photoshop tutorial - How to add brushes in Photoshop

Adding brushes in photoshop is easy and so useful. I add brushes and fonts on a regular bases just so that i've got more to chose from when i'm designing. Just follow these few simple steps:

First you'll need to download whatever brushes from the web, there are loads about so just google what brushes you want, for example I searched "Horse photoshop brushes download"

1. Select the brush tool from the left hand side

2. From where you select your brush on the top bar press this arrow.

Now you're ready to load your brush.

3. From the drop down list select "Load brushes..."

4. Select this then locate your downloaded brushes and double click.

5. Select your brush and start drawing!! Here's my finished result.

Photoshop for beginners: Strokes

People that create images in Photoshop, in particular Photoshop CS3 and above, will use strokes. They also use them with text and shapes. Photoshop provides different variations of what strokes you can add to your image.

Using Photoshop CS5, select a file that you wish to use to implement a stroke with. Choose the layer in which you want to use to apply the stroke. You will fnd this in the Layers palette. When it is chosen, the layer will be highlighted.

Using the right click button from your mouse, select “Blending Options”. You will see the Layer Style dialog box.

In the Layer Style box, you will find the “Stroke” component in the Styles listing. You will see it on the left side of the box.

This is where you can set up your stoke with a variety of different options:

• Stroke size - This is how many pixels think you want the stroke to be
• Position - This is where you select wether the stroke lies on the outside, inside, or on the perimeter
• Opacity - This is where you can select exactly how solid the line appears, this is good for adding transparency and making your stroke more subtle
• Colour - This is where you can choose the colour of the stroke

More advanced options like blend mode and fill type are also present.

Photoshop tutorial - Creating Clipping masks

Clipping masks are a great way to add colours to shapes. As we've previously learnt how to make gradients i'll now show you how to create a clipping mask.

Step one create a new layer above your shape:

On this layer create what you want to be masked. This can be anything from a simple block fill to an elegant drawing, I normally use gradients..
It is 100% Vital that the background is transparent and not white as you can see above.

In your layers table on the right hand side, right click your top layer and select "Create clipping mask"

Your shape should now have the top layer, masked into it!!

So after using what we've just learnt & tweaking - Which i'll go through in future tutorials, this is my design!

Photoshop Tutorial - Using the gradient tool

The gradient tool is a really nice feature to Photoshop CS1 and above. It can create really nice backgrounds, textures, font colours and is key if you're into web design.

The gradient tool is found over the fill tool.

A few tips when using the gradient.

- Dont gradiate colours that don't go in real life, or that you wouldn't use together.

- Try to gradiate two shades of the same colour where possible.

- The darker colour 99 times out of 100 should be at the bottom.


Select the gradient tool Paint bucket tool > Gradient tool

Select you're foreground and background colour as to what you want it

Select weather you want Radial or Linear gradient :

Then simply click and drag where you want to on your document and you're done!!

A good use of gradients can be seen here: