Fashion Stage in Photoshop

Final Image Preview

Start working by creating a new file (File>New) of 1920×1200px/72 dpi. Next we’ll apply the Paint Bucket Tool (G) to give the new background layer color #470000.

Download the texture of wood planks from CGtextures.

Add the downloaded texture to the new layer. Using Free Transform option, put it the way it is shown on the picture:

Make a copy of the texture’s layer and move the copy to the left side (using Free Transform option)

Put together both layers of the texture (holding on CTRL button, mark out the layers and then press CTRL+E). Using Free Transform option, try to represent the effect of the perspective.

Set the next styles by making a mouse click on this layer on the layers’ panel.
Blending Options>Inner Shadow

Blending Options>Gradient Overlay

Gradient’s parameters:



Click on the bottom part of the layers’ panel on Create new fill or adjustment layer>Curves


Press Alt button and click between the Curves layer and the layer with the planks’ texture.


Click once again on the bottom part of the layers’ panel on Create new fill or adjustment layer>Hue/Saturation


Press Alt button and click between the layers (on the layers’ panel)


Create a new layer and choose the Gradient Tool (G) to apply it here with the color #F50300


Select for the layer with the red gradient the next option: Filter>Distort>Wave

Using the Free Transform option, try to stretch out a little the layer with the red rays until the lowest edge.

Select the next styles for the layer: Blending Options>Inner Shadow

Blending Options>Outer Glow



Make a mouse click on the same layer on the bottom part of the layers’ panel on Add a Mask selection and choose a standard brush of black color (Opacity 15%) to clean out the rays on the top part and along the edge of the planks’ texture, getting the effect of the reflection.


Make a copy of the layer containing the red rays and choose Free Transform option to turn over the copy, placing it the same way as below:

The layer’s styles: Blending Options>Drop Shadow

Tips on doing photo editing in photoshop

Top 3 Retouching Tidbits from the Master

11, May 2009

So here it is…what you’ve all been waiting for; no hoax, no blurring, no quick, easy, fast, one-action techniques from your friends at ThePhotoshopGuru .com. Just you sitting in your chair, or on your couch, or in your bed, (the way I like to do it) with your eyes. Let me introduce myself… My name is David Skyler, and if you haven’t heard by now I’m the full time in-house retouch artist/graphic designer/all around tech-geek for Melissa Rodwell and of course her loving husband and business partner. Here are some retouching tips that might lead you in the right direction and help you make your fashion photographs much stronger.

Tip #1 : Learn to Squint, Tilt your head, and TRAIN YOUR EYE.

Do the small details count? The answer is…ENORMOUSLY! Have you ever heard of the “Butterfly Affect“? This is serious, people. No joke. Where would you be right now if that plane you’re sitting in had a tiny screw stuck in its turbine?

The question you need to ask yourself is this: why does a simple website, with no large outer-glows, fast moving effects, or swirly illustrations move you and grab your attention? Let’s start with the 3 primary colors. The designer decided to use these specifically to keep your eyes circling towards the center of what he/she wants you to read. The font matches the logo so well, that they almost move as one. Or how about the navigation that is placed at exactly the right place (x and y values), to keep you navigating through the site? So, I ask you again, do the small details count?

Do this experiment for me. Open up any 1 of the 10,000 images you have on your computer right now. HOLD ON! DON’T OPEN THE ALL-IN-ONE PLUG-INS FILTER JUST YET!!! Now I want you to very carefully, and with ease, take a moment to notice what is distracting you from this image. When you squint your eyes, tilt your head, zoom-in and out, what details/elements are DISTRACTING you from experiencing the full effect of this image? Is it the white sparkly spots on the background? The extra set of Lawn Mower Hair flying over her lip? Dirt from the lens that appears on the model’s shirt? Or the strange hue of green emanating off her arm zoomed in at 200%, also known as moiré (an effect that only digital cameras have on images, by trying to recreate a color that doesn’t exist in its spectrum)? Here is an image I have just randomly pulled up and have circled ALL of the spots on the body that are a distraction to me.

(click here to view image full size)

A lot eh? Maybe next time it will make you think twice before opening those Amazing Bill and Ted Excellent Adventure Filters. My technique with retouching is to START AT THE GRASS ROOTS LEVEL. Learn how to notice the distractions because removing these alone will vastly improve your image. This is always my first step when retouching an image, and if you want to be good, which you do because you’ve gotten this far with my sarcastic ass, it should be yours too.

*Constantly “zooming-in and out” is also a very important tip, as sometimes being so close, or so far away from an image for long periods of time can start to hinder your eye and the way you see an image, so it is important to remember this tip:

Every 3-5 minutes you should have zoomed-in and out on an image to view it from:

far away(33%)

medium (75%)

and large (100%). (Approximate Percentages may vary, depending on your screen size)

Tip #2 : Using SKIN HEALING FILTERS, ACTIONS, EVIL “I DESTROY PIXELS” TOOLS = BAD . Make sure the final product looks as amazing on PAPER as it does online.

Seriously guys, how many people out there do you think have the SAME EXACT photoshop filters/actions as you do, use the same exact things you do, with the same kinds of cameras and the same kind of lighting? Look at the download numbers, they don’t lie. In fact, I won’t lie to you and tell you that, yes it will take more time, but it will ultimately pay off for you in the long run. The long run meaning, when you want to get your images off a 600 pixel size backlit screen and onto a piece of REAL PAPER. Simply put, blurred pixels do not look good printed. In my opinion, HDR 2001 space oddity color hues don’t look good printed, nor do I think you will find many REAL art directors who are going to hire you for a fashion campaign who don’t agree. They are old-school, the darkroom is old-school, dodge and burn is old-school, real colors that work on real PAPER is OLD SCHOOL. Photoshop was created as a digital darkroom; it has all the tools you will ever need. Yes, it does have a healing brush and it’s amazing, if you use it correctly. But don’t make your brush size bigger than 10 pixels and try to swipe over half an arm in 2 seconds. Make your brush as big as the spot, and if the spot is too big, well guess what, there are other tools for that. It’s important to use each tool for the purpose it was created, everything you need is there!

GOOD: Regular Skin Texture

BAD (for fashion): *Nik Color Efex Skin Softener*

When people ask me on this blog how shots are retouched and what kind of post-production is done, the answer I give them is “Try your best not to use automated tools, such as skin softeners”. What these tools are basically doing is indiscriminately using algorithms that blur pixels and take away the sharpness and texture of an image. Skin and clothing texture are some of the most important parts of making your images stand out when printed, as the printer is reading 300 dots per inch rather than 300 of the same blurred dots per inch. This is not to say the skin shouldn’t look flawless. Fashion, for the most part, (unless you are working on males) is pretty flawless, but it takes a lot more time than you would think. If your images are taking anything less than 4 hours to finish (especially if you’re just starting out), there is something wrong. In the beginning, 1 image would take 2 days for me to finish. Now, because I am a lot more aware of the areas I need to attack and the structure of my workflow, it will only take me around 4 hours to complete an image.

A small example of my layer setup:

• Original Layer
• Healing Layer (Includes, blemishes, pimples, background spots, hair fly-aways etc.)
• Dodge and Burn Layer (explained in later tutorials)
• Liquify Layer (this should always be your last layer, because all of the hard work you’ve done beforehand can always be saved without distorting the image first.)
• Color Correction Smart Objects (you can begin adjusting color from the beginning, as this will make for easier retouching)

This is really a good idea of what I do when retouching it is pretty much all my steps; and I usually end up with 4 layers and my color adjustments.

Tip #3 : COLOR + REAL PEOPLE = REAL COLOR!

I touched on this a little bit in the last tip, using certain HDR Filters, Bleach Bypass Effects, etc. to make your image look “Cool” is fine and dandy and all. Sometimes it turns out great, but I have to say, “you’re in the WRONG industry”. If you like to tweak your images this way, I recommend becoming a sports, art, car, or product photographer. There’s nothing wrong with it and I’m not trying to dismiss these techniques… but the fact of the matter is, Fashion and Beauty photos in particular have very natural skin tones. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen images that are OVERLY SATURATED, have too much RED, GREEN, or ORANGE, or are just so over the top, there’s too much of EVERYTHING, or not enough of ANYTHING.

When working with color and trying to keep a natural quality to skin tone, try to remember the model in real life; what their skin tones were, etc. Sounds crazy, but try to imagine them right in front of you; this is always the best technique. It takes a very trained eye to learn color, it has taken me years of trial and error, to finally realize how to balance it and see it. It should be done in very small increments. If you feel there is too much red, don’t go to your hue/sat and try to take out 20% red. Take out 3% red and see how it feels to you, maybe add or remove some blue, to create more yellow. It’s NOT always just about taking out 1 thing, because you are not JUST taking out 1 color, you are decreasing a whole spectrum of colors, just like mixing paints, you have to mix and match to find the perfect balance. Sure, there are plenty of other color tones used in fashion, but at a very minimal increment. That’s why it’s important to balance your colors out first and go from there.

A lot of times, you will see images that have a lot of desaturation in the skin tone, making them look “pale”. This is a very common tone, but it’s based on a very small increment of desaturation on many levels and very “selectively”. I say selective, because of course there are going to be times where the skin tone looks perfect, but the dress looks too green or not “prominent” enough. It’s okay to go in and selectively “pop” the dress, but make sure you do this while keeping in mind the overall tone of the image, so it doesn’t pop out at you like IMAX 3D.

On other images, you will sometimes see a “gold skintone” or very shiny colors, (usually used in advertising campaigns). Although the colors are a “bit over saturated” usually these models have been made to look this way even before post with the type of make-up, (spray-on-shine), the type of lighting, and the atmosphere and spectrum of colors used in the shot, as well as camera settings. Trying to tweak a shot that has not been already pre-arranged for this kind of color tone is a lot harder to do.

Although many things can be “added/fixed in post”, it’s important to keep in mind:

1. If the shot really needs it.

2. If the clothing, skin tone, and background compliment it.

3. If you are not destroying the quality of shot while tweaking it.

Okay, well that’s it. You’re left to your own devices now to go out there and enhance the original moments you have captured on camera and translate it to the ever-growing digital world. Remember, there are 101 ways to do just about everything, so you don’t have to follow my word like it’s god’s, although I’d be happy to hear if you have done so with success : )

TRON Minimal Design in Photoshop

TRON is definitely one of the geek’s dream-come-true movie. It’s suit and vehicles are perfectly slick which is why the attempts to assemble objects that replicates tools in TRON has been surfacing around the Internet. As for designer’s, with the right clicks and tricks using Photoshop, a TRON fiction does not neet to be hard.
Today we will create a TRON wallpaper in Photoshop using stock photos and vectors. We will give you a precise guidance on how to do it and why certain method is better. You will get an in-depth comprehension of what you are doing. Buckle up for digital dream!

You will learn how to:

• Analyze your design from out-of-the-box point of views
• Create structured designs, based on hidden or related elements in your composition
• Use shortcuts for a faster work flow
• Make complex selections and cutouts via Channels
• Effectively use general tools
• Add perspective to your design
• Combine vectors with pixels
• Create light effects
• Use blending modes
• Use layer styles

Difficulty: Beginner – Intermediate. Completion time: 1 hour. Tools: Photoshop CS3, Illustrator CS3 optional.

Resources:

• Model 1 by Marcus J. Ranum
• Model 2 by Marcus J. Ranum
• Tech Vector Pack 3 by designious.com
• V5 Prophit font by dafont.com

NOTE: To install the font, extract on Desktop the .zip archive containing the font, then copy them. Go to C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\ directory and paste them in.
Why can’t I just extract them directly to the Fonts folder?
Your operating system won’t allow your archiver to modify or add any file within the C:\WINDOWS\ directory, so that’s why you need to do this manually. If you have opened Photoshop, restart it, or else you won’t be able to see the newly installed font.
After I chose my resources, I started sketching up some lines based on the model. Below is a schematic of the inspiration sources for the glowing lines on the body: pose, muscles, apparel, body shape, weight distribution and bones.

To enhance a model’s pose or body features, it’s not enough to just throw some random lines on.
Everything must have a source, be it shown or hidden. Keep in mind that my sketch is only one of the infinite possibilities you have, I encourage you to experiment.

Let’s begin!

Step 1

Go to File > New, and set it to 1920x1080px in RGB color mode at 72 dpi.

Step 2

Open the Veteran_of_the_Psychic_Wars_11_by_mjranum_stock.jpg. In the Layers palette, F7 double-click the lock near the layer thumb. This is compulsory if we want to edit the image via Channels. You should now have a "Layer 0".

Step 3

Go to Layer > Duplicate Layer, CTRL+J. Now go to Filter > Other > High Pass. Use a 5px setting and hit OK. In the Layers palette, F7, set Blending mode to Overlay.

This will make the image more clear and it will allow you to make a more precise selection of the hair.

Step 4

Go to Layer > Merge Visible, CTRL+SHIFT+E, then go to Layer > Duplicate Layer, CTRL+J. Set Blending mode of the copied layer to Screen, then duplicate it two more times. Now we have a nice contrast between the model and the background.

Step 5

Go to the Channels window Window > Channels and select the "Green" channel. Right-click it and select "Duplicate channel".

The "Green" channel provides the highest contrast of all the channels. We duplicate it because we need dummy channel to work on to further improve the contrast.

Step 6

Go to Image > Adjustments > Curves, CTRL+M and shape the curve as shown below. The lower half will darken the shadows and the upper half will lighten the highlights. Do this twice.

Step 7

Go to Layer > Adjustments > Levels and use the settings below.

Step 8

Grab the Brush Tool, B, set Hardness to 100% and cover with black the interior white spots in the hair, the face and the rest of the body.

We don’t need any details in the channel, just the outline of the model.

Step 9

Grab the Dodge Tool, O, set it on Highlights and lighten any extra grays in the image.

Step 10

CTRL+click the "Green copy" channel thumb, go to the Layers palette, F7, Go to Select > Inverse, CTRL+SHIFT+I select the bottom-most layer and copy it, CTRL+C.
CTRL+clicking a thumbnail whether it’s channel or layer loads a selection of the contour of the clicked layer/channel.

Step 11

Go to Window > Untitled-1.psd our document and paste it, CTRL+V. Go to Edit > Free Transform, CTRL+T and resize it to fit the canvas, like below. Hold the SHIFT key to preserve its proportions. Hit Enter to exit Free Transform mode. To clear the clothing curls, use the Clone Stamp Tool, S: use ALT+click to pick source, then click on the curl.
Do the same for the sword in the "model 2" picture, but use the Path Tool, P to cut it.

Step 12

Open the "Tech Vector Pack 3" .eps file. When prompted to input a file size, type in about 3000px for width. Hit OK.
For Illustrator, you simply open it in vector format. Photoshop can open .eps Illustrator 8 files, but in raster format. You can however open it in any size you want – the .eps file is vector!

Step 13

Grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool, M, select a round tech shape click-drag to create the selection rectangle, copy it, CTRL+C, go back to our document Window > Untitled-1.psd and paste it, CTRL+V.

Step 14

Go back to the vector pack file Window > designious tech shapes 4. eps, copy another shape and paste it into our document, like in Step 13.

Step 15

Grab the Selection Tool, V, check the "Auto Selection" box and click the first tech shape pasted in and duplicate it, CTRL+J. Now go to Edit > Free Transform, CTRL+T hold the CTRL key and click-drag the the top left corner, like below. Do the same for the top right corner. Hit Enter to exit Free Transform mode.

Step 16

Duplicate the first shape (original one) and place the copies as shown below. Grab the Path Tool, P, set it on Shapes and draw each glow line on the body, based in the sketch.

In the Layers palette, select all these shapes and hit CTRL+E to merge them.

Step 17

Grab the Line Tool, U, set it to Shape Layers and 7 px Width, draw an oblique line, then hold SHIFT key. Now change the line to "Add to shape area (+)" and draw a horizontal line. Hold SHIFT key to make it perfectly horizontal.

Step 18

Grab the Horizontal Type Tool, T, click-drag to create a type box and input a random text. Set the font to "V5 Prophit".

Step 19

Select the "Shape 1" layer and go to Layer > Duplicate Layer, CTRL+J. Place several copies like below. Do the same for the text. To change the type input, double-click the layer thumb in the Layers palette.

Step 20

Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid color. Select a dark blue color and hit CTRL+SHIFT+[ to send it to back.
This will be a nice background for our image.

Step 21

Select the large shape, and click the "fx" button in the Layers palette, F7. Select "Blending Options". Use the settings below.

Step 22

ALT+click the "fx" icon that appeared near the layer thumb and click-drag it to the other round shapes. You can recognize them easily, they aren’t named "Shape …" and don’t have a "T" on the thumb.

Step 23

Create a new layer above it (select the layer and hit CTRL+SHIFT+N to create a new layer, then select both layers and hit CTRL+E (merge layers)). For the selected shapes, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Use various settings from 2 to 6px, as you see fit.

To add more perspective, add more tech shapes over them.

Step 24

Grab the Selection Tool, V, select the small shape and lower its Opacity. 29% will do nicely.

Do the same for the other blurred shapes, but vary the Opacity a bit.

Step 25

Create a new layer, CTRL+SHIFT+N, Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool, M, set Feather to 50 px and make a selection like below.

Step 26

Grab the Paint Bucket Tool, G, ALT+click one of the tech shapes to pick the color and fill the selection. In the Layers palette, F7, set the layer’s blending mode to Overlay. Do the same for the bottom side.

Step 27

Create a new layer, CTRL+SHIFT+N, grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool, M, set Feather to 30 px and make a selection like below. Grab the Paint Bucket Tool, G and fill the selection.

Step 28

Repeat Step 28 for the shape behind the model.

Step 29

Grab the Selection Tool, V and click the model. Now go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast and Black & White. For each, use the settings shown below. For the Black & White layer, set Opacity to 70%.

I prefer using Black & White over Hue/Saturation because it also provides a tones control, not just a desaturation.

Step 30

Create a new layer, CTRL+SHIFT+N and ALT+click between it and the adjustment layer beneath it. Set Blending mode to "Color Dodge".

Step 31

Grab the Brush Tool, B, hit "3" to set the brush Opacity to 30%, set Hardness to 0%, ALT+click on the teal tech shape and paint over the body highlights, part of the hair and face.

Step 32

Change the brush Opacity to 70% and paint over a few highlights, but in smaller areas.

Step 33

In the Layers palette, F7, select the top-most layer and go to Select > All, CTRL+A, then hit CTRL+SHIFT+C to copy a merged version of the document and hit CTRL+V to paste it.

Step 34 – Last step

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Use the settings below or feel free to use your own. Don’t overdo it though, else the image will look too sharp.

Here’s the final view of what you’ll be getting assume you followed through the entire tutorial correctly.