Studio photography - Headshot

Today I worked on some photographs I had taken in the studio a while back, below you will see a before and after ad see how I achieved it.

1. I cropped the picture into a nice rectangle.
2. Used levels to brighten the picture correctly and used the select white tool to get rid of the background.

3. I then made the curves into a very slight "S" shape to improve the contrast.
4. Next I airbrushed the face a little by painting on a layer of her skin tone (used eye dropper) then added noise Filters > Noise > add noise, and blurred it appropriately Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur.
5. With this layer on top I reduced the opacity to about 40% - play around with this until it looks right. Turn the layer on and off to see the difference :)

6. The final two steps were a small adjustments to the levels again just to neaten up the airbrush layer.
7. Then I flattened the image.
8. Lastly, I added a vignette Filter > Lens correction > Custom > Vignette (The "midpoint" and "amount" sliders)

Before.

 After.

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 - 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.

Dark & Dramatic images - Photoshop Tutorial

Creating atmosphere in photography is one of the hardest things to do. I find that keeping the photo interesting, while dark and gloomy proves very difficult. I've recently discovered a way to make these look brilliant in very few steps.

You will need: a Red Filter, Photoshop.

1. Take a photograph of a landscape with your red filter on.
2. In photoshop - Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation  - Take the saturation all the way down.
3. Adjust your levels to match the end of the graph (CMD/CTRL + L)

And you should end up with something like this!!!

The importance of tripods.

I'd just like to stress how important a tripod is, and how it is absolutely vital that it is in every photographers army. This is something that you really want to splash out on as it WILL make the difference between a professional looking shot, and a poor amateur shot. If you have the budget go for Manfrotto, these are "Industry standard" and are well respected, well worth saving up for and worth the money in my honest opinion.