Conserving the Resources
Plug-in save time, but they’re a bit resource-fetching; at least, they
increases Photoshop’s start-up time. Your plug-ins might have
functionality that you rarely use, so deactivate them until you need
them. To do so, create a new folder by going to Adobe → Adobe Photoshop
CS5 (or whatever your version) and name it something
like Plugins_deactivated.
After disabling some plug-ins you can see.
Now you would move all of the extensions that you don’t need for the
moment. When you restart Photoshop now, those plug-ins won’t load, so
the program will start up quickly. Your RAM will be relieved. Because
you neither deleted nor uninstalled the plug-ins, they’re available to
use anytime. If you need them, just move them back to the plug-in
folder.
Identifying Layers
If you’re the one who is ambitious with your collages, then you’ll be
familiar with this problem: meaningful layer names are often neglected
during the creative process. This can result in layer names like “Layer
4” and “Layer 5 Copy 2,” which are not very helpful when you need to
quickly identify the contents of a layer.
Photoshop offers a number of methods for our laziness. For example, you
can click on the element you want to select by using the “Move tool” and
holding the right mouse key; you’ll see which layer contents are below
the tool. Photoshop will display a list in a drop-down menu, from which
you can easily select the desired element.
Right click with the help of Move tool
Control/Command + left-click with the Move tool selected and, in most
cases, you’ll select the corresponding layer of the element that your
mouse is over (unless Photoshop can’t distinguish between the multiple
layers).
You could also Control/Command + left-click on a layer’s miniature icon
to get a selection of the content of that layer. The marching ants will
show you what is on that layer and where it is.
Another option is by clicking on the Layer palette’s Options icon, in
the top-right corner, and select “Layers Palette Options.” From here you
can adjust the size of the layer’s miniature preview and concentrate
the miniature’s content to the layer’s bounds, which should cut down on
future guesswork when it comes to layer contents.
Layers Palette options
Retro Look Using Curves
Just go to Layer → New Adjustment Layer → Curves and switch from RGB to
Reds. Then drag the line downwards a little for the shadows and upwards
for the highlights, creating a slight “S” curve. Do the same for the
Greens. For the Blues, drag the highlights little down and the shadows
up (for an inverted S shape). The shadows should now be slightly
blue-ish, the highlights slightly yellow-ish.
Adjustment Layer: Curves
To create a new layer with Shift + Control/Command + N, and fill it
with #000066 (RGB 0, 0, 102). Set the blending mode to “Exclusion.” Now
copy the background layer by clicking it and pressing Control/Command +
J. Set the blending mode for this copy to “Soft Light.”
And to decrease the effect overall, activate the top-most layer and then
click on the background copy while holding the Shift key, thereby
selecting both the layers. Alternatively, you can add them to a group
withControl/Command + G. Reduce the layer’s (or group’s) opacity. Note
that in Photoshop versions prior to CS5, you’ll have to reduce the
opacity for each layer individually.
Achieve a simple retro look in a few steps.
Reducing Noise
Big Noisy images are annoying. One way to reduce noise is through the
channels in PS. Copy the background layer by pressing Control/Command +
J, switch to the Channels palette, and select the channel that shows the
least noise. Drag that channel down to the “New Channel” icon (next to
the trash can) and go to Stylize → Find Edges. Then apply a Gaussian
Blur with a radius of about 3 pixels.
Look at the copy of the red channe herel.
Click on new channel’s miniature icon while holding
the Control/Command key to select the content. Activate the “RGB
channel” (top-most), and switch back to the Layers palette. When the
duplicated background is selected, click on the “Add Layer Mask” icon.
Click on the Layer Miniature icon, and select Filter → Blur → Surface
Blur from the menu. Play around with the Radius and Threshold sliders
until the noise has been reduced as much as possible. Thanks to the mask
you created, the contours are safe.
Matching Skin Tones
Sunburn or a blush can disrupt a photograph, simply if there is a
contrasting pale person nearby. Photoshop has a tool to correct that:
“Match Color” offers control over skin tones. Open your image and use
the Quick Selection tool to roughly select the red skin areas.
You should hold down the Alt/Option key and subtract areas from the
selection. Click on Select → Modify → Feather and enter a value of about
15 pixels. Use the Control/Command + J shortcut to copy the selection
to a new layer.
Adjustments: Match Color
By using the same method, copy the non-reddened skin to a new layer. In
the next step, you’ll have to differentiate between the source layer and
the layer to edit, so rename these two layers meaningfully; all it
takes is a double-click on the layer name. You could use the naming
scheme shown here and call them “Beautiful skin” and “Reddened skin.”
Activate the layer with the red skin, and select Image → Adjustments →
Match Color from the menu. For “Source,” select the current document,
and for “Layer,” select the one with the beautiful skin. Control the
effect using the “Luminance” and “Color Intensity” sliders in the Image
Options area. Once you confirm, you can control the effect’s strength
with the Opacity slider.
Skin Color
If your skin is not perfect after retouching, it might be because of the
general hue. You can change it by moving to New Adjustment Layer →
Hue/Saturation. Click on the miniature mask, and press Control/Command +
I to invert the mask.
Adjustment Layer: Hue/Saturation
Using white color and a soft brush, paint over the skin areas so that
only they get treated. For this adjustment, switch from Standard to
“Reds” (found in the Hue drop-down menu of the Adjustment layer), and
use the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders to adjust the skin color.
Switch to “Yellows” and optimize the skin tone however you want. Getting
the colors exactly right depends very much on the image material. Rely
on your common sense.
Colorful Water Drops
Macro shots of water drops are very awesome, and shapes can be further
added with discreet coloring. You could retrace the bland surface with a
linear gradient from #772222 (RGB 119, 34, 34) to #3333bb (RGB 51, 51,
187). If the photo is on a layer of its own, click on Layer → Layer
Style → Gradient Overlay or double-click the layer next to its name.
Layer Style: Gradient Overlay
Set the blend mode to the Color, the opacity to 50%, the gradient to
“Foreground to background color” and the angle to 90%. The gradient will
be saved as a layer style, so you can come back at any time to adjust
the values. Double-clicking the style name opens up the dialog window
once more.
Creating Smiles
Roughly select the area near the mouth with the Polygon Lasso tool. Go
to Select → Modify → Feather, and enter a radius of 10 pixels. Confirm,
then click on Layer → New → Layer via Copy (or pressControl/Command +
J), then Edit → Puppet Warp. Photoshop will put a mesh over the entire
layer in the shape of your previous selection.
Here’s the mesh that is over the layer.
You can change the size of the mesh with the “Expansion” value in the
Options bar. Increase the density to “More Points” for increased
precision. Press Control/Command + H to hide the mesh, then set the
first pins to the corners of the mouth. Add more pins to distinctive
spots of the mouth. By clicking and dragging the mesh, you can shape a
nice smile.
Sunset
A
sunset, especially at the sea, can be an amazing spectacle. The hues
will depend only on the weather, but you can push them a bit more with a
gradient map. Click on the “New Fill/Adjustment Layer” button in the
Layer palette and select “Gradient Map” from the list. Click on the
gradient to open the “Gradient Editor.”
Gradient Map
Click
on the first color patch below the gradient, and change the color to
the red. Set the color patch on the opposite side to yellow, and click
“OK.” Set the blending mode to “Soft Light” and reduce the opacity to
about 50%. This will create a warm, almost golden sunset.
The
crop tool allows you to select an area of an image and discard
everything else outside this area. When making icon, some people like to
crop first then proceed to do the coloring from there.
Now For a good Cropping we need to follow the following steps:-
1.
Most part of the face is cropped out..this might be too extreme for
some people but then again, there's no limit to creativity, right?
Careful though..not to be too extreme until it's impossible to identify
who the person is.
2. Visible shoulder with cut-out upper-head with a fair amount of background to the left or right.
3. As corny as this may sound..I'll have to say, focus on the emotion, guys! Happy, love...whatever.
4.
Fair amount of background with smaller focus image positioned to the
left or right because center is boring. Make the icons tell you the
story. It's better that way.
5.
Cut through the nose and discard the upper-head. Looks a little bit
weird or funny depends on your point of view, but I still like it.
6. Place the focus subject a little bit to the left or right instead of center.
7.
Discard the upper-head and place the image to the left or right. Be
sure to cut a little closer to the eyebrows to avoid the subject looking
bald.
It's just a very simple tutorial on how to create a border around your picture in photoshop. It's very easy..you can probably do this in less than 30 seconds.
1. Open your image.
2. Go to Select > All.
3. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool, or press M on your keyboard.
4.
Right click on your image and choose Stroke. The stroke window will
open. Set the width (how thick you want the border to be) and the color
of your border. Leave everything else to their default settings. And
you're done!
There
are many ways to blend images together in Photoshop. But as a start,
let's find out the easiest way to do this for all the beginners out
there who just discovered Photoshop.
But
Layer Mask and Gradient Tool are two basic techniques to get you
started with image blending. Example of the final result is shown below.
If you don't watch Smallville, let me introduce the guy as Clark and
the girl as Lois for your easy reference later when you read the
tutorial.
1.
First, open the images you want to blend. I have two images here, one
of Lois and one of Clark. Then, open a new document. Select the Move
Tool (V) and drag both images to that blank document. Re-size the image
if needed. I re-sized them both to 40%.
2.
Working with the Clark image (have your Clark image selected on the
layer palette), click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layer
palette. Make sure the foreground color is set to black and the
background color is white. Then, select the Gradient Tool (G).
4. Click at the left edge of Clark image and drag until you reach the middle of his mouth, then release the mouse.
You'll get this:
Now,
if you're satisfied with the result, you can stop here. Sometimes, for
some situation, you can still see the edge of the image below it. Now,
to eliminate this edge, we can go on with the tutorial.
5.
Set the Clark image to invisible. You can do this by clicking the eye
icon beside Clark image on the layer palette. We're gonna work with Lois
image now. Select Lois image on the layer palette.
6.
Repeat step 3, select Layer Mask icon, set foreground color to black,
background color to white and choose the Gradient Tool (G).
7.
Start from the right edge of Lois image, drag your mouse until the
middle of her coffee mug, then release your mouse. You'll have this:
8. Set the Clark image layer back to visible and you have the final result. Easy right? Well, that's one technique you can use to blend images together in Photoshop.
