Selective Coloring

So here we are again.

Today will be about using coloring to bring focus to your subject.

This is what I started with.

First, I’d like to get rid of the button on her shirt.

It distracting and hard to read anyway.

I’ll start by using the lasso tool to select around the button.

Then go up to Edit and Fill from the drop down.

Under the Content options, make sure Content-Aware is selected.

Everything else should be fine, so hit okay.

Now, I really should have done this first, but now I’m going to fix the photo’s cropping.

Then fix the Brightness and Contrast.

Now I’m going to clean up her face a bit, just so it looks nice and polished.

Now to use color to focus on the subject.

First, I made a careful outline around the girl’s face.

Then hit Command+Shift+I to select the inverse.

Now the Hue/Saturation tool can be used to turn down the Saturation of any and

all colors as much as you want.

The face will stay the same color.

I decided to put it all in black and white.

Now I’m using the Gradient tool just so the right side of the photo isn’t so distracting.

The settings I used are visible at the top.

Now I’m going to add a Curve.

I used “Toes in the Ocean” by Julia Trotti on this one.

I’m going to go ahead and use two, actually.

The other one will be “Wild at Heart”.

And I think I’ll stop at that.

Now that her face had the brightest/only colors in the photo,

it draws you towards it instead of of, say, the guy in the background.

As always, If there’s anything you’d like me to discuss, let me know.

This time I’m leaving you with an amazing music video for

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros’ song “Man on Fire”.

_{Happy Halloween!}

Vintage Black and White Photos

Today I’m listening to a collection of old Ink Spots albums…

So making photos look vintage seems appropriate.

Of course, having friends that love dressing up in vintage clothing helps for this one.

First, I’m going to up the contrast a little bit since the photo got a little washed out by the sun.

I’m going to merge this adjustment layer with the original photograph layer so that it won’t interfere with changing it to a black and white photo.

Now to turn the photo black and white I’m going to use the Black & White tool in the Adjustments window.

This way to turn things black and white is nice since it lets you play with the color sliders to make colors brighter or darker.

Play with these until it looks good to you, or you can even play with the options in the drop down box.

The Infrared option in there usually brings out an interesting effect.

Now I’m merging the black and white layer with the original again.

Then I’m going to up the contrast just a bit then since I’m personally rather fond of high contrast black and white photos.

Now I’m just going to clean up the skin and such.

In older photographs they sometimes used green powder on the skin to make it shine less while still making the highlights stand out.

It makes a nice and even skin tone for black and white photography.

Since I didn’t have green powder at the time though, I’m just to fix it up in Photoshop.

And now, since black and white photos never seem to manage to stay black and white for long, I’ll put a curve layer over all of this.

I’m going to use Julia Trotti’s “Alice in Wonderland” curve again.

_{(Once again, the link is at the very bottom of her post.)}

I think the purple hues will go nicely with this photo.

And then I think I’ll call this one done.

If you want to give it an extra vintage feel, you can always overlay a super grungy texture or even put coffee stains on it.

As always, if there’s something you’d like me to talk about let me know.

Today I’ll leave you with a little bit of Dame Vera Lynn.

_{(Fun fact: that song’s been covered by both the Ink Spots and Johnny Cash.)}

Making Abnormal Skin Tones

Hello once again,

Last week someone asked how to change skin colors so that’s what this week is.

Here’s the photo I started with.

First off that pink is way to bright so I’m going to turn the saturation down on it.

Using the Hue/Saturation option in the Adjustments window will let me do this just to the pink of her dress.

To do this, I used the drop down to select the Magenta hues, then used the slider to turn the saturation down.

And this same tool will allow us to change skin colors too.

Skin generally falls into the Red hues option.

You can use the saturation and lightness sliders together to change natural tones.

If you want an unnatural tone like say, green or blue, instead you can use the Hue slider to completely change the color.

To keep this from spreading to other areas of the photo that might also be Red, it’s best to select the general area of the skin first.

It can always be cleaned up afterwards.

Here, it has gone onto her hair.

So for that, you can use a layer mask.

With the mask, black paint will take away the blue that’s been added, and white paint will put it back.

Then just use that to clean up the blue.

Make sure you have the layer mask selected instead of the actual layer.

And now we have a little Smurfette.

Now I’m just going to keep selecting little bits and pieces I want to change the color of until I think it looks right.

And I end up with a little alien girl, or maybe young Mystique.

As always, if there’s something you’d like me to talk about, let me know.

Today I’ll leave you with a really cool music video for Gotye’s song “Bronte”.

Adding Overlays

Hello again everyone.

This week I’m going to be playing around a bit with overlays.

I’m going to start by choosing which two images I’d like to combine.

For best results they should be somehow related.

In the case, I’m going for sort of the fantasy of the book having jumped out of the pages so anything beautiful will sort of apply.

Now to simply overlay, copy your second image on top of your first. Then set the opacity down on the top layer (this option is in the top right of the Layers window, displayed as a percentage).

Set the opacity to whatever looks good to you.

I set the one here to about 75%, but this covers up the figure in the picture.

I want him to stand out against the “imaginary” background that is supposed to be coming out of the book.

For this, I’m going to use the Lasso tool to select my figure.

(It may help to briefly make your first layer invisible while outlining the figure.)

I used the Polygonal Lasso tool because I wanted a sort of cut out feeling to it.

Now, with this area selected, go to your other layer.

Make sure you have the overlay image selected in your Layers window.

Now hit delete.

This will clear that area in the layer, and now our figure is visible.Now it’s time to play with curves again.

Since I’m going for a storybook feel here, I’m going to use “Alice in Wonderland” by Julia Trotti.

(The link for this one is at the very bottom of the post.)

This curve adds lots of purple hues that bring out sort of a fairy tale vibe.

Now I’m going to add a quote by William Nicholson.

The font I’m using is called “Delicious Cake” made by Jellyka Nerevan.

And now I’ve completed my Public Service Announcement.

Again, if there’s anything you’d specifically like me to talk about, let me know.

And this time, I’ll leave you with this awesome dance video that goes through all the fashion and some of the history from the past 100 years.

Touch Ups

Hello once again,

Last week I said this week was going to be about using Photoshop to touch up blemishes or any other undesirable marks on the skin (or really anything else).

So here we are.

I’m starting this week with a very old photo I took of a friend of mine.

My original edit wasn’t very good because I was still learning how to use Photoshop so now seems like the perfect time to fix it.

Now, she doesn’t have bad skin, but due to some bad editing choices I made, her freckles makes her skin look flawed.
To fix this we’ll be using the Patch Tool (it’s hidden under the Spot Healing Brush Tool in the Photoshop toolbar).

This is one of the simplest and most helpful tools I’ve found in Photoshop.

All you have to do is click and hold down to draw a circle around the area you want to fix.

Now you should have that area selected.

Next click in that area and hold; then drag it onto a spot of skin that is clear.

And when you let go, give Photoshop a minute to do it’s thing, and the area you originally selected should be clear.

Now simply repeat this process to all areas you would like to fix.

When you’re done it might look something like this, but the extent to which you do this is all up to you.

Now I’m going to play with the colors.

First I’m going to use Hue/Saturation option in the Adjustments tools to turn down the saturation on the bright reds in the picture.

Then I’m going to add a curve like last time.

This one is also by Julia Trotti, but this one is called “Ghosts in Your Head”.

She says it works best in flash-lit photos, but I like it on sun-lit photos as well since it softens them up a bit.

Here it also makes her eyes pop again.

And since her skin got a little bleached out, I’m also going to layer on another curve called “Wild at Heart”. Once again, instructions on how to install curves is on the page.

It gives it a slightly yellow-ish, vintage feel.

And then I added a vignette for more of a focus on her face.

And there, not so bad anymore.

Taken from a very harsh, overly saturated wreck to a soft, almost vintage portrait.

If there’s anything you would like for me to talk about next week, let me know.

Until then I’ll leave you with this awesome song.