Photoshop Projects - Volume 14

E EESID FRC IN

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164 TIPPACKED PAGES WITH FREE SOURCE IMAGES!

Photoshop VOLUME 14

!

Expert tips for Photoshop®, Illustrator® and more!

PROJECTS

Industry insight!

Priceless tips from Photoshop superstars!

400+

TUTORIALS!

Match the pros

handy shortcuts

Improve your Photoshop technique today! MAKE A SPLASH!

Create art that breaks the rules!

Step-by-step photomanipulation Composite creations Awesome wallpapers

Embrace the

future A masterclass in giving your retouching a futuristic flair

PLUS!

I’m with the band

Learn how to make sensational album covers that really sell!

PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS AUS $19.95 NZ $19.95 inc GST

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EDITOR’S WELCOME The Snake For more from Faroe Islandsborn photographer Jonfrid Eliasen, see page 80

Editor’s welcome P

hotoshop knows no boundaries. Whether it’s age, skill or training, you’re only limited by your imagination. In this issue, we talk to young guns like Sebastian Andaur, who’s making a name for himself as a freelance art director while still in high school. Then there are the illustrators and lettering masters who maximise the tools and techniques of Photoshop to suit their own needs. Check out Gabriela Fuente’s patterns, designed for high-end fashion clients and created in Photoshop. The beauty of Photoshop is that it has almost limitless possibilites. Use it to take ordinary photos into the realm of the extraordinary. Shane Monopoli and Mark Gardner show us how to composite a gothic drama at Windsor Castle, while Rachel Lewis goes behind the scenes to create highenergy cosplay images. There are also loads of tips and tricks, interviews and inspirational articles on everything from lettering and 3D work to complex layers and high-end retouching. Happy Photoshopping!

Lisa Perkovic Editor

PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS | 3

Contents Photoshop Projects: Issue 14

16

6 Creative Insights

Photoshop art designed to inspire

Features 10 Photomanipulation Tips Ben Foertsch shares his tips for taking on photomanipulation and doing it well

16 Calvin Hollywood

Germany’s superstar photographer and master retoucher on making your mark

28 The Money Shot

Professional retoucher Anthony Pugh goes behind the scenes of the advertising game

40 The Glamour King

A look at award-winning photographer Shane Monopoli’s portfolio

54 The Letter Player

Inside the world of lettering with Spanish graphic designer Baimu

74 Texture Truths

Texture and pattern designer Gabriela Fuente talks shop

80 Faroe Princess

Emerging photographer Jonfrid Eliasen takes us inside her world

88 The Queen of Punch In the studio and inside the new reality of photographer Rachel Lewis

94 French Toast

54

108

Inside the studio of Antoine Collignon

96 Starting Young

Young gun Sebastian Andaur is still in high school but that’s not stopping him

108 Otherworldly

Marta Bielsa’s images capture the imagination

Tutorials 12 Photomanipulation

36 Wallpaper

60 Lettering

22 Capturing the Mob

46 Composite creations

68 Metal Taste

Ben Foertsch takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary

Professional photographer Lisa Saad goes to the track to get the best results

4 | PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS

Create a wallpaper that hops with artist Vlad Gerasimov

Shane Monopoli and Mark Galer create a period drama with a perfect composition

Artist and lettering master Baimu shows us his tips on mastering lettering

Bernardo Henriques puts the wow factor into sketching in Photoshop

CONTENTS

94 THE TEAM EDITOR Lisa Perkovic COMMISSIONING EDITOR Ewa Samulska SUB EDITOR Adam Scroggy ART DIRECTOR Carol Tang CREATIVE DIRECTOR Paul Cook

120

GROUP EDITOR Alex Mead CONTRIBUTORS Lisa Saad, Shane Monopoli, Mark Galer, Calvin Hollywood, Anthony Pugh, Rachel Lewis, Jonifred Eliasen, Antoine Collignon, Sebastian Andaur, Diego Penuela, Denitsa Toshirova, Moe Pike Soe, Hugo Ceneviva, Nicolas Andrade, Galima Akhmetzyanova, Timothy Meakins, Quinny Vu, Kristina Alegro, Baimu, Bernardo Henriques, Vlad Gerasimov, Ben Foertsch

ADVERTISING

Alex Brereton (02) 9186 9109

MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR Jim Flynn

FINANCIAL CONTROLLER Stuart Harle

96

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Richard Ryan

126

102 Life’s a Beach

Lisa Saad takes Barbie to the beach and plays with perspective

PRODUCTION MANAGER Ian Scott Distributed by Network Services Company in Australia and Netlink in New Zealand. Printed by Paramount Printing.

106 Painterly Way

Diego Penuela defines digital painting

PUBLISHED BY

114 Breathe in the Air

Citrus Media PO Box 20154 World Square NSW 2002

Denitsa Toshirova flips art on its head

© 2013 Citrus Media. All rights reserved. No article or images may be reproduced wholly or in part without prior written permission from the publisher. Citrus Media is a division of Media Factory Pty Ltd.

120 Utopia Beauty retouching by Moe Pike Soe

126 Flying Island

Nicolas Andrade constructs fantasy worlds with his word

134 Tap’s On

Digital Artist Hugo Ceneviva’s water works

142 RAW Pop Colour

Using RAW techniques to take your image to the next level, with Quinny Vu

148 Trophy Beer

Packaging design by Galima Akhmetzyanova

154 Album Covers Creating album art with Timothy Meakins

While every care was taken during the preparation of this magazine, Citrus Media cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information or any consequence arising from it. All judgements are based on equipment available to Citrus Media at the time of review. ‘Value for money’ comments are based on prices at the time of publication. Citrus Media takes no responsibility for the content of external websites whose addresses are published.

158 Soul Transmission Kristina Alegro makes a splash

162 Editor’s Choice PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS | 5

Creative

insights

Broaden your horizons with these inspirational images


RIO TYPE This is a tribute to the city of Rio in Brazil! It’s a personal work with an Artist from Brazil called Ots. Artist: Hugo Ceneviva Website: behance.net/hugoceneviva


IN CORPO I did this piece in an inspirational rush in just three hours. It represents the point where two lovers become one; from that way forward there’s nothing you can do to go back. Artist: Bernardo Henriques Website: behance.net/BeBernard

CITY Artist: Jane Mendes Website: regular-jane.com


CORONA Artist: Diego Peñuela Website: Diegoillustration.com

THIS IS NOT SIMPLY a Photoshop project. All pieces were put together like that with strings and metal. Photoshop was used to get rid of these countless lines. Artist: Daniel von Stephani Website: art.Davonstart.com


PROFILE

BEN FOERTSCH

Tips and Tricks for

PHOTOMAN Photographer and graphic designer Ben Foertsch on making the most of photomanipulation Beginnings I started out using Photoshop back in 2006 during the year I spent living in New Zealand for high school. Back then I’d just started photographing and learnt how to use Photoshop (self-taught) to improve my (amateur) photography. Now I do freelancing as a photographer for various local businesses and business portraiture for private clients.

Style I keep it minimalistic and straightforward. After years of using Photoshop, I realised the artworks that stand out are the ones that are so simple and straightforward that you can easily recognise them amongst the ocean of artworks.

What do I wish I could do in Photoshop? Convert **** into gold? Well, there’s so much you can do, I just don’t have the

IMAGES BRAND PICTURE

» (LEFT) A personal project that has become my business card picture: “You are what you eat”

BOXED THINKING

» (FAR LEFT) They always say “think outside the box”. I took this “problem” and visualised it

RESIZED KEY

» (TOP RIGHT) Losing your keys makes quite an impact. It was very difficult combining huge objects with really small ones!

PICK IT

» (MIDDLE RIGHT) If you had all the money in the world, you could pick anything you liked

BITTERSWEET

» (RIGHT) Love and affection, what a bittersweet feeling. The background of this is an actual bed 10 | PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS

PHOTOMANIPULATION

IPULATION

Top 5 tips to creating an effective photomanipulation

01 02 time to learn it all… but I’ve always wanted to try using Matte Painting in Photoshop.

Three key elements to a good photomanipulation 1. A clear overall light structure (shadow/light/contrast). 2. A perfect colour balance between the layers. 3. The alignment of textures and transitions.

The three Photoshop techniques I use the most: 01. Brushing on layer masks 02. Converting and adjusting RAWs 03. Colour balance adjusting If you’re just starting out, take time to master the art of brushing transitions and edges on a layer mask Check out more of Ben’s work at art. davonstart.com and davonstart.com

DON’T OVERDO IT The fewer steps/filters you need, the more real it will usually look. LAYER MASKS, LAYER MASKS, LAYER MASKS! Using layer masks with an interesting brush is perfect for blending layers. A BRUSH FOR EVERY SITUATION There are endless brushes so take the time to look for some good, high-quality ones. It will make working easier and your work look better. WORK ON YOUR CONCEPT If you want to stand out, you need something in your artwork to do so. Think about what would be nice to see or how it will be remembered. Funny sayings are always a good start. KNOW WHEN TO STOP Sometimes the idea just might not work out as expected. Sometimes it’s better to stop working on it and pick it up some other time.

03

04 05


TUTORIAL

Eating Orange CREATE AN EASY PHOTO MANIPULATION with great impact. Ben shows how to convert an idea into an artwork without needing many layers, filters or a lot of time. You’ll be left with something timeless and memorable – like this orange.


PHOTO MANIPULATION

Level: MEDIUM | Time: 1 HOUR

TUTORIAL BEN FOERTSCH IS A FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER, VIDEOGRAPHER AND GRAPHIC DESIGNER. HE EXHIBITS WORK UNDER THE NAME DANIEL VON STEPHANI IN HONOUR OF HIS DECEASED GRANDFATHER. HE HAS HAD SEVERAL EXHIBITIONS DESPITE BEING ONLY 24. CHECK HIM OUT AT ART.DAVONSTART.COM.

01

Convert from RAW If you shoot your own photographs, it’s best to use RAW as you can easily adjust colours and light without decreasing quality. In this case, a bit of brightness and contrast is needed.

02

Replace and repair The background needs to be replaced to get one white backdrop. Create a new layer and use the Brush Tool (B) in white to paint over all unwanted background. Use a brush with a large diameter and no hardness to get a good transition.

03 Adjust brightness As you can see, the background is not as bright as the white replacement layer. Select the layer with the orange on it and carefully change the brightness using Levels (ctrl/cmd + L) until you see no hard transition.


TUTORIAL

EATING ORANGE

04 Insert mouth Copy your picture of the mouth into Photoshop as a new layer. Change the layer’s transparency to 70%. Use the Transform Tool (ctrl/cmd + T) to adjust size and position of the ‘mouth’ layer. Then change transparency back to 100%.

05 Integrate mouth Create a Layer Mask (Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All) for the ‘mouth’ layer and select it. Erase all unnecessary parts of the layers by painting over it with a large brush with medium hardness.

06

Adjust colour balance Using the Colour Balance Tool (ctrl/cmd + B) you can tint the layer a bit more with yellow and red to make it look more realistic.


TUTORIAL

07

Alter orange Now you need to get rid of the unnecessary part of the orange. First, change the transparency of the ‘mouth’ to 50%. This will help you to see where to work. Select the ‘orange’ layer and use the Stamp Tool (S) to copy the background onto the orange.

Finish up Change the transparency of the ‘mouth’ back to 100% and you should be done. Repair any unwanted dark spots on the orange if necessary or adjust the colours and crop the way you like. And don’t forget to save it.

08 PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS | 15

PROFILE

CALVIN HOLLYWOOD

MR Y L L O H D O O W Calvin Hollywood is Germany’s superstar photographer and master retoucher. Travelling the world to teach workshops and shoot stars, he takes some time to tell Lisa Perkovic a few secrets to his success. When did you first start retouching? I first started using Photoshop in 2005. In 2006 I realised I needed to buy myself a camera because I wanted photos to retouch. My photography got better and better, and I noticed my retouching was getting better too. People were suddenly interested in my retouching technique and by the end of the year I was doing coaching and seminars. In 2011 I left the military, where I’d been as an instructor for a decade. Since then photography and retouching have become main job. I live near Heidelberg in Germany, I have a wife and two kids. My life is my family and my job. 16 | PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS

Why did you choose to specialise in portraiture? I love to work with people and I love strong, unique characters. I do a lot of landscape shots just for myself, and street photography too, but I don’t publish it. I’m more interested in working with humans. Do you already know what you’ll do in Photoshop when you’re photographing? Yes, most of the time before I take the picture in the camera, I know what I’d like to do later in retouching. I’m not that guy that likes to play around all the time, yes at the beginning to see what’s possible, but then I have a plan and I work with that.

MR HOLLYWOOD

IMAGES BATTER

» (LEFT) A shot for a German baseball team who were playing in the first league. This is a compositing of two images for an edgy look. The background is an HDR shot.

GOLFER

» (BOTTOM LEFT) For this shot of a German golfer I used a three-light setup. Two lights coming from the back (striplights) and one main light (beauty dish).

Gear I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark II and two lenses, an 85mm f/1.2 and a 25-105mm f/4.0 lens. For lighting I use gear from Hensel, a great German company. I’m not a technical freak; I don’t care too much about the technical stuff so I’m not the best person to ask which camera to buy. I know what works for me.

I definitely recommend having a plan, a goal and then doing the retouching. Who are your major clients? In seminars there’s a mix of professional photographers and people who take photos for fun, but it’s mostly industry; Adobe, advertising agencies, companies etc. My photographic clients are usually artists, singers and actors. I occasionally work on big advertising campaigns. Why do you think clients choose you? The images are one part, but I think they choose me because of my personality and the way I handle things. Of course, first

impressions are always made based on my images – that makes me interesting – but you still have to be able to talk budget and logistics. Other people can create the same images I do, but the personality is unique. I try to increase my personality as much as I can because my clients want to have me, not my competitors. What do you want your images to say? My images have a strong impact. There isn’t always a message, but I want people to look at an image and feel like they have to look at it, like they’re being drawn in. It’s not necessarily a message, it’s more of a thought process: “Wow, so many details,

look at the colour and harmony, I like that.” My goal is always to make people look longer than five seconds. I don’t like to apply too much, because everyone sees something unique in an image. Can you explain your “Calvinize” technique? Somebody called my style Calvinize, and it stuck, but it’s not my overarching style. I think you could define it as working with a lot of details and doing everything just a little bit more than necessary. There are a lot of people using a similar style. I don’t want to be bound by one style. I don’t care about rules, I just do it. My pictures are PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS | 17

PROFILE

CALVIN HOLLYWOOD

Workflow I open my images in Bridge then I make a decision on which image I want to retouch. Sometimes I make this decision with the client, otherwise I’ll send through a few suggestions. I then open my image in Camera RAW, where I only do necessary adjustments like sharpness, adding detail, brightness, colour corrections. In Photoshop I think about who is looking at this picture. Is it a picture with a cold mood, warm mood, strong, soft? I have keywords in my mind and with these keywords I can give the retouching a direction. The workflow is always the same. Making the decision, RAW conversion, retouching on blemishes, maybe a little liquefying, then adding the look. The look is all about colour, contrast and adjusting the lighting.

What is the longest time you’ve spent working on one image? I once spent around 60 hours on an image for another photographer. It was a composition of 10-12 shots so the first part was bringing them together and then there was a lot of adjusting; colour, contrast, light. I try not to spend more than an hour on an image but that was a bit different.

noisy and grainy; it’s something many people don’t like in their images, but I don’t care. I do it my way, the way I like it, and that’s my style. If you want to develop your own style, do it your own way and don’t listen to other people. Listen to a few good friends who have a good knowledge of photography but ultimately do what you want. That works best. Do you have a favourite Photoshop technique you use? I don’t have a special Photoshop technique, years ago I guess I did a lot of dodging and burning. Now I enjoy colour corrections. Any kind of colour corrections. You can give an image so much impact by adding a Colour Cast. Again, some people don’t like Colour Casts but I love applying them. My favourite tool for this technique is the Selective Colour Adjustment layer. 18 | PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS

MR HOLLYWOOD

IMAGES I WILL

» (LEFT) This shot was taken in a studio on a grey background. I added the texture of the wall and floor in the blend mode soft light. A very easy way to create fast compositings.

FACE

» (BELOW) I wasn’t happy with the beauty image so I added a texture of water reflections and blurred them. I used the blend mode screen and was very happy with the final result.

SLAVE

» (RIGHT) This is one of my most popular images. There isn’t a lot of retouching. I added the golden colour cast with a selective colour adjustment layer. You can change the neutrals to get very cool colour looks.


PROFILE

CALVIN HOLLYWOOD

Five Tips for Portraits My portraits aren’t realistic, they’ve got a more arty look. However, if you’re trying to create a realistic portrait, here are a few tips.

01

LESS IS MORE Don’t spend too much of your time retouching

02

IN CAMERA Do as much as you can during the shoot

03

PLAN Don’t change backgrounds. Each time you change a background, your portrait looks more like a painting. Use what you have on the shoot

04

GET ADVICE Show the pictures to other people – trusted people – to get opinion. Sometimes you can lose perspective on your own

05

TAKE A STEP BACK Sleep one night and the next day your image will look different. You’ll go “wow, I did a little too much last night”

What’s your opinion on plug-ins? I like plug-ins, I use them at the end of the retouching process, sometimes a little at the beginning to add detail, but I never use them very heavily. I use Topaz Detail to add more detail to my images and I use Nik Software’s Colour Efex Pro 4. I definitely recommend them because they make things a lot faster. Your works have amazing texture – how do you achieve that? I’m using a technique called Freaky, Amazing Details. I’ve done a free YouTube video that explains it. It works really well with my portraits, where I need power. I need strong contrast, a lot of detail and plenty of texture. People love it because

“I need a strong contrast, a whole lot of detail and plenty of texture” 20 | PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS

they’re naturally more interested in images with strong highlights and contrasts. This is what works for me but there’s plenty of different techniques out there for you to experiment with. What’s the most important element to get right during post-production? Time, take your time. Think about it. Don’t just retouch. That’s what I did years ago. I started with retouching and ended with retouching, and the result was just an image. These days I start retouching, but I think a lot while I do it. What kind of person will see this picture? What will they think? Once I have an answer, I can support my answer by retouching with colour, contrast and lighting. Check out more of Calvin’s work and online tutorials at: Calvintraining.com Photoshopfreaks.com, YouTube: Calvin Hollywood

MR HOLLYWOOD

IMAGES TION-LEE

» (LEFT) This is the face of my son TionLee when he wants something and I say no. This shot was taken on a lighter grey background: you can easily add colour with the blend mode colour.

MISS YOU

» (ABOVE) Another shot of my son, taken with available light. I added some warm colours and detail to get the gritty look.


TUTORIAL

Capture the Mob

PHOTO MANIPULATION

Level: INTERMEDIATE | Time: 1 HR

I TRULY BELIEVE THAT in order to change your point of view, you need to change your perspective. The brief was to photograph the dogs racing from the rabbit’s point of view at the track. This image demonstrates my tenacious attitude towards my craft and also life. I love the fact that I have the ability to create something from nothing and to continually push the boundaries past my wildest imagination.

PRO TIP Something as simple as CHANGING PERSPECTIVE can make a huge difference to a subject. Try experimenting with different angles in camera 22 | PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS

TUTORIAL LISA SAAD IS A MELBOURNE-BASED, AWARD-WINNING PHOTOGRAPHER WITH 25 YEARS EXPERIENCE IN COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHY. CHECK OUT LISASAADPHOTOGRAPHY.COM.AU

01

Getting the shot ‘The Mob’ was shot at the

greyhound track in Lara, Victoria. The image was a year-long project to shoot and complete, including all post-production. This is a constructed image. Each dog was photographed individually. The technical challenge was to shoot each dog in motion whilst the camera (Kodak DCS 35mm digital SLR) was travelling backwards at 40-50 km/h firing on a programmed time of eight seconds with an approximate delay at the start. The eight seconds of shooting could only be on the straight just before the first turn as the lure the camera was attached to became too shaky and violent after that point. The camera was mounted in the position of the rabbit and was controlled by the lure operator so it sat at a distance of approximately 1.2 meters from the lead dog. Each group of greyhounds, around four to five dogs per group, were suited up in race gear and started in the gate in a simulated race. The lure was fired up at different starting points until we could work out the correct sequence. Time management was crucial as the greyhounds could only run once around the track and I had six starts with about 30 dogs available each time and could only stretch the owners’ helpfulness to experimenting with their greyhounds on four occasions. The first day was a disaster, with the camera dropping to the bottom of the lure and being dragged in the sand. The second day was not any better and I felt very frustrated as the rigging on the lure was failing. It couldn’t deal with the weight of the camera verses a fluffy bunny. After much thought we arrived at day three, which involved numerous phone calls to the owners, track management and a few engineers. We managed to secure the camera but the images weren’t pin sharp and the greyhounds were too far away in the distance. On day four I was extremely nervous because this was the last chance. And it worked! (There were six months between day one and day four.)

Original images

Images of the dogs from test shots


TUTORIAL PHOTOSHOP

02

Composition

Each dog was removed from its background and then placed on a blank canvas. As you can see below, my first attempts at the grouping weren’t successful. It took me four days to arrive at the final composition. When a friend saw this attempt she asked, “What is it that you truly see?”

PRO TIP One thing I realised from this shoot is the importance of having a good plan at the beginning and a CLEAR END GOAL. I knew I wanted to “photograph the dogs racing from the rabbit’s point of view” but it still took me a few days to pull the composition of the dogs together.

03

Background removal The removal of the background is pretty straightforward. I used the Pen Tool (P) to draw around each dog and then made a mask to delete the background. This left only the subject visible and the background transparent.


TUTORIAL

04 Shadows

Once the final grouping was created, a shadow was added to the dogs. Each shadow is the individual dog image flipped, grey scaled, blurred slightly then reduced in opacity on a separate layer.

05

Backgrounds The original background image is a frame from the lure/camera set up from one of the days we shot so the motion blur is natural. I added a new sky to the background by placing another version on top of the existing image. I used a mask and brush to add/remove areas I didn’t want and to blend the two skies together.

06

Adjustments Using the Burn tool (O) I darkened areas to help with composition.


TUTORIAL PHOTOSHOP

07

PRO TIP

Light beams

To help with composition, I added a beam of light to each of the flood lights on the right-hand side. This was achieved by drawing a cone shape on a blank canvas with the Pen (P) tool. The shape I drew needed to represent a beam of light, so smaller at the top and wider at the bottom.

08 09

Layer tweaks

For each light I then changed the layer mode to screen and the opacity to 11%.


Adding elements like artifical light can help an image make an impact. Think about how the light would fall and how the beam strength will change

Creating light I filled the shape using the Gradient Tool (G),

and then blurred the shape using Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur set to about 30%. I then erased out (E) the bottom right-hand corner of the beam so it wouldn’t fall onto the line of the dogs or on the railing.

10

The Layer palette

You’ll see here the order of my layers palette. I kept the image structure organised. That’s very important with any image.

TUTORIAL

11

The blending and adjustments

Turning to the dogs and their shadow layers, I adjusted the opacity of each shadow layer and did a few final repositions to each dog.

12

13

For this piece I’ve used a technique I call “lighting layers”. They add some contrast and also help with the blending of the layers within the image. I use this: Knoll Light Factory: redgiant.com/products/all/knolllight-factory/ and make light shapes again using the layer blending modes to incorporate them into the final image.

Using Adjustment layers, I adjusted the Hue/ Saturation and also the Brightness/Contrast. I also used a Levels adjustment to change the overall exposure slightly.

Lighting layers

Final adjustments

The final image


PROFILE

ANTHONY PUGH

THE MONEY Creative digital retoucher Anthony Pugh transforms everyday images into something extra special. Lisa Perkovic goes behind the scenes in the advertising world and finds out what Anthony does to create the money shot. How did you get started in the industry? I started my career in a pre-press studio in England as a scanner operator, where I formed a strong knowledge base for tone and colour values. After four years I was given the opportunity to learn retouching on what was then state-of-the-art retouching high-end stations from companies such as Hell, Dainippon and Scitex. I went from strength to strength and was soon leading the entire department. When Apple Mac computers first came on the scene with a little-known program called Photoshop, I relished the environment. When layers came along in version 3, my world changed. I taught myself through video tutorials. After 10 years of retouching I was

introduced to web development, where I developed online image libraries. The work was interesting but after looking at code all day, every day, I was glad to get back into retouching. I migrated to Australia where I worked in one of the first digital photographic studios in the country. I was involved directly with photographers, creative directors, art directors and the end clients. The work was far more creative as it was agency work with higher budgets. Before long I was freelancing – I’d built up a great network and wanted the challenge of working for myself. I created my own website, anthonypugh.com, and started to learn Internet marketing. I continue to network and to build strong relationships with photographers, art directors, Studio/

IN DETAIL Title: Sewed Lips Brief: To sew up lips using a cotton thread. Funny story – I was on my way to Byron Bay when a client called with this brief. I really wanted to do the job and didn’t want to let down the client. Luckily I had my laptop and Canon 5D with me, which left me needing a Wacom, so I bought one en route. Unfortunately I was camping so I had to do the entire job from my powered tent site using my mobile to upload and download the images. I think the client would have been horrified to know their work was being produced in a tent. I bought some cooking string from the local supermarket and coloured it with a red marker. I then traced the outline of the lips on white paper directly from my screen and sewed across the mouth. I shot this and etched it onto the stock shot and added shading and bruising for effect. Agency: Cabana Boys Photographer: Stock Image Client: Mission Australia 28 | PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS

THE MONEY SHOT

SHOT

IN DETAIL Title: Absolut Brief: To create the Absolut Vodka bottle morphing into a squeezed paint tube with finger prints in the three colours of the vodka flavours. I took a shot of a squeezed tube and retouched it onto the stock shot. I then liquified the bottle text through the tube alpha channels so the text wrapped around the folds of the tube. I used 3D to create the main label text. The fingerprints were coloured and warped onto the bottle in the same way. Agency: Totem Communications Photographer: Stock Image Client: Absolut Vodka


PROFILE

ANTHONY PUGH

Favourite Photoshop plugins? Liquify Vanishing Point Alien Skin

IN DETAIL Title: Dalmatians Brief: To produce a series of three images of dalmatians replacing their black spots with the colours of the inks the client produces. There was a sniffing, a balancing, and in this one, a smiling pose. I used several shots of the dog in each case to create the final images along with human eyes and teeth for that comic look. The spots were created through colourising the black spots and randomly painting them in. Agency: Blood Sweat and Tears Photography: Hugh Hamilton Client: Calidad Inks production managers and clients alike. I don’t specialise in a particular type of retouching as there isn’t enough work out there to specialise. Having said that, most of my work is fashion, beauty and jewellery followed by alcohol.

What are the main characteristics of advertising briefs?

01 02 03 04

DESIGN There’s usually less images on a campaign than editorial. DETAILS You’ll be expected to show a lot more attention to detail and quality. BUDGETS The budgets are higher so you’ll spend more time on one image. CREATIVE ELEMENTS There’s a lot more creative functions involved, maybe even other software packages, 3D, etc.


How much of what we see in the media has been retouched? Everything in the media has been retouched, even the images some companies maintain are not. Some more than others, but absolutely everything is retouched. Not a single image you see in the media is definitively true to life. Unless I’m doing a composite image, which is clearly a constructed piece, most of my work is delicate. The clients don’t want it known that their images are retouched at all. I like to think my work for those clients isn’t noticeable, although sometimes I am asked to push the images past that point. What’s the most popular element you’re asked to retouch? Next to general clean ups, it would be colour correcting and fitting garments, along with skin tone.

THE MONEY SHOT

What are the standard post-processing techniques clients expect you to do? Clean up, correct colour and tone, correct sharpness, stick to the brief and deliver work on time. Do you receive specific instructions on what to modify or are you given artistic licence when retouching? Mostly it’s specific instructions, but it’s up to me how I get there. I’m able to make suggestions if I see a way of improving the creative. Occasionally the brief is loose and I take on more of the creative process. This doesn’t happen often as the client needs more control over the budget. Is there an extra cost for a specific type of retouching? If the retouching requires a lot of illustration or a higher level of creative skill, it costs more. I don’t charge extra for last minute or late work, although I do introduce a hidden a-hole tax for awkward or late paying clients. Luckily I haven’t had to use that yet. Do you need special equipment? These days an iMac with full RAM and hard drives is more than adequate. I do have a Canon 5D and small studio lighting, and of course a Wacom. Clients never ask for proofs as most images are going online. Your client list includes a lot of photographers, how does that relationship work? It’s a win, win relationship. I get work before anyone has altered it and I get to have a say in the photography, which saves money on the retouching. Also if I need to select another image, it’s quick and I haven’t got to go through several people to get it. How many of your clients are using medium format cameras? Can you see a difference in quality? Very few as the majority of work is online and medium format would be overkill.

IN DETAIL Title: Baileys To create a silky smooth image of Baileys dripping into someone’s mouth. This was basically a composite of images distorted and liquified into position. The liquid coming out of the glass was illustrated as it couldn’t be shot. Agency: David Chambers Creative Photographer: Zahn Pithers Client: Baileys


PROFILE

ANTHONY PUGH

Five tips for retouching

01 02

LESS IS MORE Consider this for composition STAY SUBTLE Don’t overcook the image; simplify. Remember, you’re not supposed to be there! SAVE TIME Automate as much as possible and save all presets, actions, curves, etc. SAVE FILES It’s an old one, but save regularly, even with CS6. BE PREPARED Remember to back up and archive.

03

04 05

“Most of my work is delicate. The clients don’t want it known that their images are retouched”

IN DETAIL Title: Stop Spoon Brief: To create a stop sign from cough syrup in a spoon. The liquid was shot on a flat surface and I used liquify through a hexagonal alpha mask and retouched it into the hero spoon. Agency: Fame Advertising Photographer: Chuck Bradley Client: Duro Tuss

IN DETAIL Title: Bundy Brief: To combine various shots of the three subjects and blend fur and feathers naturally. Shooting it was fun, the emu didn’t want to play ball! As the animals wouldn’t stay still on their own, let alone stand together, it became a rather large composite of heads, bodies and limbs. Agency: Leo Burnett Photographer: Chuck Bradley Client: Bundaberg Rum


THE MONEY SHOT

IN DETAIL Title: Dell Computer Brief: To create an image of a Dell computer which faded from a wire-mesh 3D effect into the original picture. The wires were to take on the look and feel from the film Tron. I deepetched the computer onto black with a blue grid behind it. I then created the wire mesh frame around the computer in Illustrator using the path tool and blending shapes together. This was then imported into Photoshop and masked away to reveal the original. The lines were applied using various layering techniques such as screen and softlight. Agency: Euro RSG Photography: Client supplied stock Client: Dell

IN DETAIL Title: Diageo Brief: To create the second step in a three-step series of images. Ice only Ice, Spirit and Mixer and Final Cocktail. I achieved this by using a combination of shots at different stages along with illustration where the liquids met in the middle. Agency: Station Agency Photographer: Ben Rollison Client: Diageo


PROFILE

DAMIEN BREDBERG

34 | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

THE MONEY SHOT Are you ever asked to salvage a photographic disaster? How do you go about that? Usually the disasters are clients trying to save money and doing it themselves. Often it’s faster and cheaper to start all over again. If there’s no time and little budget, I’ll try and help where possible. I’m hesitant – after all, my name is on this. Other than that, you get people missing from group shots, or constraints on the photography, which leads to composite retouching work. How much batch processing do you do? As much as I possibly can, my time is my money. If I do the same thing more than once then I automate it (within reason). What’s your backup strategy for files? Ever since my computer was struck by lightning through my studio window, I’ve become anal about backing up. I mirror archive to two drives and store onsite and offsite in fireproof cases. I use Apple Time Machine to back up regularly. Anything I’m working on which is really important syncs with Cloud backup. To see more of Anthony’s work, check out anthonypugh.com

IN DETAIL Title: Cuban Text Removal Brief: To delete the text from a painted Cuban poster. I created the texture of the paper and used it as a layer above the image in overlay mode. This enabled me to smear out the text and maintain the texture of the original image. Agency: Amanda Rollison Photographer: Stock Image

IN DETAIL Title: Yellowtail Brief: To repair the creased foil top to the bottles, delete the air bubbles and deep etch. The labels were supplied by the client as vector files and I warped them into position before liquifing them the rest of the way. I then used dodge and burn to create the appropriate highlights and shadows. Photographer: Dario Gardiman Client: Yellow Tail


TUTORIAL

Frog Shadow CREATE A WALLPAPER BY following these simple steps. Design an impressive artwork that looks like a macro photo.


WALLPAPER DESIGN

Level: MEDIUM | Time: 30MINS

TUTORIAL VLADSTUDIO IS THE PROJECT OF RUSSIAN DIGITAL ARTIST VLAD GERASIMOV. IN 1998 HE STARTED TO DESIGN USER INTERFACES FOR WEBSITES AND SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS. HOWEVER, WHEN HE HAS SOME FREE TIME, HE CREATES DESKTOP WALLPAPERS. CHECK OUT VLADSTUDIO.COM

01

Open new document Start with a new document, fill the background with solid green. Apply the following layer effect: Gradient overlay, 150%, white-to-black, radial, blend mode = colour burn, effect opacity = about 25-30%.

02

Foreground Set the foreground colour to a very dark green (almost black but not entirely), select the Pen tool, and draw a very thin curve, like this. Resize the curve (Ctrl-T) so it takes up a bit more than half the image.

03

Path selection tool Duplicate this vector several times, similar to what’s shown here. There are several ways to do so. One way is to select a path with Path Selection Tool (A) and hit the Down arrow while holding the Shift and Alt keys.


TUTORIAL

CREATE A WALLPAPER

04 Duplicate When ready, duplicate this set of shapes and flip them horizontally.

05

Layer effect Set the following layer effects for these shapes: blend mode = screen, black drop shadow with blend mode = overlay and size = 2-3px.

06

Pen tool

In a new layer, select the Pen tool and create a shape with the silhouette of a frog. When ready, duplicate the layer (you’ll need two copies of silhouette). Hide one of the duplicates.


TUTORIAL

07

Leaf

Create a layer mask (Layer menu > Layer mask > Hide all). Then, with a large soft white brush, draw inside the mask to reveal parts of the frog silhouette touching the leaf.

08

Gaussian Blur Next hide this layer, select duplicated silhouette, rasterize it, apply Gaussian Blur (with large radius, 10-30 px), and set layer opacity to 80%.

09

Final touches The last touch is creating a new layer between the frog silhouettes and the leaf background. Set layer blend mode to overlay, select a very large white brush (300px or more) and make a very big dot – it will be our light source.


PROFILE

SHANE MONOPOLI

The Glamour King IMAGE EXTREME GLAMOUR

» (RIGHT)This image is an example of perfection and beauty. I’ve used a lot of reflectors in the image to give it the glow I was after.


THE GLAMOUR KING

Award-winning photographer Shane Monopoli has carved out a nationwide niche in glamour photography, transforming everyday Aussies into their alter egos. He chats to Lisa Perkovic about his special skill set. There’s quite a strong fantasy element in your work – where does that come from? What inspires your work? I love the unbelievable, and creating images people think are just impossible to do drives me. Even watching a movie, my choice would always be one with a fantasy element, like magic or time travel, anything that is impossible in normal life. This is what makes life exciting for me and keeps me motivated.

Paris-based retoucher Cristian Girotto lives and breathes the world of high fashion. Here’s his path to high-end retouching and how you can get there too.

You had been photographing for a long time before Photoshop was released. When did you start using it? What did you think of it at first? I began using Photoshop pretty much as soon as Canon brought out the first 1DS back in the late 1990s. I waited until then as I wanted to be able to edit the best-quality image in Photoshop and felt at the time this was the perfect camera to do so. When I first started using Photoshop, I was blown away. All my dreams were coming true. Being a lover of fantasy and fiction, Photoshop enabled me to do the impossible – with no more dodging and burning in the dark room to get there. I just loved it, anything was possible! How important a role does Photoshop play in your work now? Without Photoshop I am only half the man. Obviously as a skilled professional photographer, and a photographer that has won many awards pre-Photoshop, I can still take amazing images using the correct lighting, etc. But Photoshop is the


PROFILE

SHANE MONOPOLI

icing on the cake; it enables me to make a good image great. It also enables me to achieve the things that would definitely be impossible without it. Another very important factor is that it keeps most of my clients very happy. With it I can remove those unwanted lines and wrinkles, blemishes, even birthmarks. How much do you try to capture in camera and how much do you add in later? It’s really important that when I’m shooting, I still aim to get the perfect shot when it comes to lighting, composition, expression, etc. Sometimes I do already know what I’m going to do in Photoshop, like dropping in another background, scene or texture, but Photoshop will also help me give an image the edge that’s required for it to

be an award-winning shot, and sometimes it’s more subtle adjustments that you think of later. Do your clients come to you for a specific style of work? A lot of our clients know exactly what they want, they might have seen something in a magazine, on a TV show, or even our website. We provide the look they want. How much do you use Photoshop for clients? Do they request it? We use Photoshop for every client, without fail. Everyone can use a little enhancement. The skill is in how you use Photoshop. We try to keep it looking real, ensuring it doesn’t look like it’s been Photoshopped. That’s key to what we do.

“The skill is in how you use Photoshop. We try to keep it looking real...”

IMAGES INTENSE MOMENT

» (ABOVE) This image shows how to create drama and mood using studio lighting.

OLD PAREE

» (TOP RIGHT) Shot in studio and placed at La Louvre in Paris, thanks to Photoshop.

FORMIDABLE FOE

» (FAR TOP RIGHT) Windsor Castle in the 16th Century, all subjects shot in studio and placed in the setting.

GHOST WHISPERER

» (BOTTOM FAR RIGHT) Shot in the studio, overlaid with clouds to create the look of the heavens.


THE GLAMOUR KING

Pro Tip Creating the perfect image

I like to create drama and mood from my lighting, have an open mind about the end shot and nail the exposure. And with Photoshop, the possibilities are endless. You’re only limited by your imagination

How long do you usually spend on one image in Photoshop? The amount of time we spend on images in Photoshop varies from image to image, sometimes hours, sometimes days. I’ve personally spent weeks on award-winning images. It really depends on what needs to be done to achieve the required result. You’ve won almost too many awards to count – what do you think makes your photographs really stand out? I think for me, every award I have ever won has been a personal project. I have a vision of how I want an image to look and I won’t stop working on it until I achieve that look. What tool do you use the most in Photoshop and why? Layers play a huge part in my workflow, and because I photograph a lot of women who want to look more beautiful than they are in real life, the cloning and healing brush tool get a work out.


PROFILE

SHANE MONOPOLI

IMAGES BLUE BAYOU

» (BELOW) A fashion magazine asked me to do something different with one of their journalists. They were pleasantly surprised.

PARISIAN MOMENT » (TOP RIGHT) Shot in studio. Background Palace of Versailles and sky from another shot.

TAKE ME AWAY

» (BOTTOM RIGHT) This image expresses freedom and weightlessness, and the use of silhouette lighting.


PATH TO PERFECTION

“I definitely consider Photoshop as a creative tool. We are artists and this is our paintbrush” What do you wish you could do in Photoshop that the program isn’t capable of? I don’t think there is anything I can’t already do in Photoshop. I think the software already lets you do everything imaginable, but I guess in time they will surprise me with something I hadn’t even thought of doing. How big are the finished file sizes? The final Photoshop sizes do vary a lot but normally they’re around 200 to 300 MB. I shoot mainly with the Hasselblad H4D; most of my final images are 1 GB plus. Is the way you use Photoshop a creative or more technical process? I definitely consider Photoshop as a creative tool, and feel that’s how everyone should use it. We are artists and this is our paintbrush.

High Drama The Parisian series was done all in one day. Each of the three models spent an hour and a half with my amazing hair stylist. It’s their own hair – no wigs were used at all. A foam mould is made and she arranges the hair around it to create amazing Marie Antoinette styles. I then Photoshopped them onto Versailles backgrounds. One of the models was my daughter’s best friend. The work hangs on her wall like a painting. If you go to the Louvre and see the size of the paintings on the wall, you’ll understand why it’s okay to do huge prints of photographs. They look like art. To see more of Shane’s work, check out shanemonopoli.com.au or visit his professional photographic studios in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth exclusivephotography.com.au

Five tips for working with models During a shoot I always try to stay calm, cool and relaxed. I try to be inspiring, I talk to the person and encourage them. I show them the back of the camera. It’s about getting their confidence up and helping them feel good. None of the people I photograph are models, they’re just people, friends, family, with the characteristics or looks I wanted. I talk to them and show them what I’m doing.

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STAY COOL AT ALL TIMES The subject can sense your mood ALWAYS KEEP A SMILE Again, the mood has to stay positive if you want a good shoot KEEP THEM AT EASE Make sure the subject feels comfortable, try using music SHOW THAT NOTHING IS A PROBLEM Whatever you do, don’t let them know if there’s anything wrong TELL THEM HOW GOOD THEY LOOK Don’t forget, they’ll be worried about how they look as well

05


TUTORIAL

Refine Edge

A common task in professional digital image editing is to strip out the subject and place it against a new background – the simplest form of composite image. The effectiveness of such a composite image is often determined by whether the image looks authentic and not manipulated. In order to achieve this, the digital photographer often needs to modify the edge of any selection so that it is seamless against the new background. A crude or inappropriate selection technique will make the subject appear as if it has been cut out with garden shears and is floating above the new background. A few essential masking skills can turn the proverbial sow’s ear into the silk purse. Mark Galer shows you the essential skills you need to complete the task.


CREATE A COMPOSITE

Level: ADVANCED | Time: 2+ HRS

TUTORIAL AWARD-WINNING PHOTOGRAPHER SHANE MONOPOLI AND RMIT LECTURER, RETOUCHER AND ADOBE AMBASSADOR MARK GALER TEAM UP TO CREATE A COMPOSITE. TAKEN FROM SHANEMONOPOLI.COM.AU, MARKGALER.COM


TUTORIAL

COMPOSITE

01 Combine files In a non-destructive professional workflow it is preferable to hide or mask the background pixels rather than delete them. In this project we are going to learn how to make an accurate selection in order to create a layer mask. We will then need to modify and refine the edge of the mask so that is suited to its new location. To start the project I have opened my background image and then dragged the subject file onto the image preview (this can be from your desktop, a folder of images or directly from Mini Bridge). Hold down the Shift key as you drag the image to centre the image in the host file.

02

Scale and position Your subject will appear as a Smart Object and you have the option to scale or move the image at this point. You can temporarily lower the opacity of the layer if you need to see how the subject interacts with the background layer. Hit the Commit transform icon in the Options bar when you have resized and positioned your subject. The final position of the subject is to move it to the right slightly so that the centre of the castle is visible. Note: A Smart Object is a non-destructive container for an image file that allows the file to be re-scaled multiple times without progressive loss of quality. The downside to using Smart Objects is that the pixels cannot be directly adjusted.

03 Make initial selection

Select the Quick Selection tool in the Tools panel and a 125 pixel hard-edged brush. Deselect the Auto-Enhance option in the Options bar and select the Sample All Layers option. The Auto Enhance option is best left off in this step if you intend to use the Pen tool or Magic Wand to complete this selection. Make an initial selection of the background rather than the subject by dragging the tool over an area of the background (it is easier to select areas with fewer differences in tone and colour).


TUTORIAL

04

Perfect selection Continue to stroke all the areas of the black background behind the subject and any areas of the background layer that may be visible either side of the subject layer. Hold down the Alt key (PC) or Option key (Mac) and stroke any areas that you want to remove from the selection until only the black background is selected. When the background selection is complete, go to Select > Inverse so that the subject is selected rather than the background.

Quick Mask

You can perfect a selection using the Quick Mask feature. Set the foreground and background colours to their default setting in the Tools panel (press the D key). Double-click on the Edit in Quick Mask Mode icon to open the Quick Mask Options. If needed, you can click the colour swatch to open the Colour Picker and select a colour that contrasts with those found in the image you are working on. If you cannot easily see some of the dark edges of your subject you can add a temporary Levels adjustment layer and drag the White input slider to the left so that it reveals the edge. You can modify a Quick Mask by painting directly into the mask or by making a selection and then filling the selection with either the foreground or background colour. Zoom in on areas of fine detail and reduce the size of the brush when accuracy is called for. Editing the mask will change the resulting selection when you exit the Quick Mask feature. If the initial selection was made using the Magic Wand or the Quick Selection tool (with the Auto Enhance option switched off) it is important to paint into the Quick Mask with the Brush set to maximum hardness and/or make selections with the Feather radius set to 0 in the Options bar (this will ensure these modifications match the current edge quality). Painting or filling with black will add to the coloured mask, while painting/filling with white will remove the mask colour.

Modifying a mask using the pen tool

Making a path and then turning the path into a selection will create the smoothest edges and is often the easiest method for modifying the curved edges of a mask. Right-click after creating a path to access the Make Selection option from the context menu. Choose a Feather Radius of 0 pixels and then select OK. Fill the selection with Black to add to the mask or with White to remove a section of the mask (Edit > Fill).


TUTORIAL

COMPOSITE

05

Scattering

Now click on "scattering". I have chosen to scatter at 1000% with a count of one and count jitter of 0%.

Select Refine Edge When the mask is complete press the letter Q on the keyboard or click on the Quick Mask icon again in the Tools panel. The selection is now ready to be refined or enhanced so that it is a comfortable fit with the new background. If you have used a temporary Levels adjustment layer you can now delete this layer by dragging it to the trash can in the Layers panel. If you have a Selection tool selected, click on the Refine Edge button in the Options bar. If you have another tool selected you can access this feature from the Select menu.

06

Refine Edge: stage one

In the Refine Edge dialog select the On Layers option from the View menu. This subject has a mixture of sharp edges (the face) and soft edges (the feathers on the hat). To optimise the sharp edge quality I have raised the Smooth slider to +5 (usually required when working with selections created by the Magic Wand or Quick Selection tool) to smooth out the ragged edge quality. I have raised the Feather slider to 0.5 to soften the edge (essential when using either the Magic Wand, Pen tool or Quick Selection tool with Auto Enhance switched off). Contrast can be added if some edges appear semi-opaque and move the Shift Edge slider to the left to hide any remnants of the old background. Note > When using the Refine Edge with very different edge qualities the outcome is often a compromise between achieving fine detail in the softer edges and high quality sharp edges. The Refine Edge dialog box works globally (on the entire edge) so compromises are often necessary if you want to refine a complex edge in a single step. It is possible, however, to process images that have edges that are both soft and sharp twice, and avoid the compromise.


TUTORIAL

07

Refine Edge: stage two Select the Refine Radius tool and paint over the feathers. When using the Refine Radius tool it is important to paint into the areas of transition (where you can see the new background) but not extend into areas of the subject that should be 100% opaque. Any remaining evidence of the old black background can be removed by checking the Decontaminate Colours option, in the Output section of the dialog, and then by raising the Amount slider (approximately 75% for this project image). The Decontaminate Colours option requires Photoshop to adjust the colour of the pixels as well as refining the edge of the selection. Select OK to create a new layer and refined layer mask. Note > When using the Decontaminate option the subject should be in approximately the final location as Photoshop will be using the background information to calculate the changes to the pixels required to hide the old background colours.

08 Apply a blend mode Select the original Andre layer in the Layers panel, switch on the visibility of the layer and set the mode of the layer to Screen. This action will provide the maximum detail in the feathers and will avoid the need to refine the edge of the mask a second time in order to optimise them. Note > If the black background is not absolutely black you will need to clip a Levels adjustment layer to this Screen layer and raise the Black Input slider until no evidence of the old background is visible in the composite file.


TUTORIAL

COMPOSITE

09

Restore fine detail Where the brightest feathers on the side of the hat have been placed over a bright area of the sky, the decontaminate option in the Refine Mask dialog has not been successful. This is where the Screen layer below is useful. Select the layer mask on the Andre copy layer and then select the Brush tool from the Tools panel and set black as the foreground colour (hit the D key to set the Defaults and then the x key to switch the Foreground and Background colours). Paint into the mask with a small soft edged brush to hide the feathers on this layer so that the feathers on the screen layer are visible. Although the Decontaminate feature is very good at hiding the old background it cannot work with extreme differences, e.g. although the feathers on the top of the hat are OK, the feathers on the side of the hat still show remnants of the old background.

Scattering

Now click on "scattering". I have chosen to scatter at 1000% with a count of one and count jitter of 0%.

10

Masking

Although the Screen layer improves the fine detail in the feathers, it also compromises some of the harder edges that were previously refined. We can mask these problematic edges to create the perfect composite. Select the original Andre layer and click on the Add layer mask icon at the base of the Layers panel. Select the Brush tool and paint over any hard edges to mask them on this screen layer.

11

Adjust Hue/Saturation Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer from the Adjustments panel and clip this adjustment layer to the layer below using the clipping icon at the base of the Properties panel. Lower the saturation until the subject and its background sit comfortably together. The white point and contrast of the subject matches the background image, so no further adjustments are required. In other compositing projects it may be necessary to make further colour and/or tonal corrections to achieve a good match.


TUTORIAL

Adjusting a section of a layer mask after refine edge

There are a number of ways we can modify the position or quality of the edge of a mask in localised areas if required (remember the Refine Edge is a global adjustment). Click on the layer mask that you want to edit to make it active. Make a selection of the edge you wish to modify. When a selection crosses an edge of a mask be sure to use a small amount of Feather (in the Options bar) so the changes to the edge do not result in a step. You can now modify the selected edge by applying a Levels adjustment. Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and then in the Levels dialog box move the central Gamma slider to the right or left to expand or contract the mask edge. The edge of the mask can be made harder by moving the white and black Input Levels sliders in from the edges of the histogram. Note > You can also use the Minimum and Maximum filters to adjust the position of the edge of the mask. Go to Filter > Other > Minimum to expand the mask (the Maximum filter contracts the edge of the mask by moving it in the opposite direction).

12

Add a border

To complete this project we can add a creative border (available from markgaler.com). Select the top layer in the Layers panel and then drag a creative border onto the composite project preview. This will add the file as a Smart Object above the group that can then be scaled to suit the composite image. After dragging the handles of the Transform bounding box out to cover the composite image you can then proceed to hit the Commit transform icon in the Options bar. When the blend mode of the layer is changed to Screen only the white border remains visible. If you would prefer a black border you could rasterise this new smart object, invert the layer (Ctrl + I [PC] or Command + I [Mac]) and set the mode to Multiply instead of screen.

This is an excerpt from Photoshop CC Essential Skills Concept and photography by Shane Monopoli of Exclusive Photography (edited by Mark Galer). Photoshop CC Essential Skills by Mark Galer is available from Focal Press: focalpress.com/books/ details/9780415715713/ and Amazon.com Mark Galer is a Senior Lecturer at RMIT, the Adobe Ambassador for Photoshop and the Sony Alpha Ambassador for Australia.


PROFILE

BAIMU


THE LETTER PLAYER

Spanish graphic designer Baimu loves letters. He takes us inside the world of lettering. I’m a graphic designer, illustrator and lettering lover, born and raised in Barcelona. I don’t really consider myself a typographer, I prefer to think I’m a typography modeller, a letter player. I’ve been involved in this exciting world since 2002 and try to keep evolving; always looking for challenges that allow me to further develop my creativity and test my skills. I love experimenting with different styles and learning new techniques.

Getting started in lettering

THE

Designing type graphics led me to develop my passion towards lettering. Since I was a child I’ve loved to draw but back then I had pretty bad handwriting and I was forced to do some writing exercises in a booklet. Over and over again, the same letters and phrases, I think it was my first contact with calligraphy. Later, during adolescence, I discovered graffiti. It opened up a thousand and one possibilities, and got me interested in graphic design.

Finding your style I love mixing typography with illustration. I wouldn’t say I have a defined style, and that’s good because

you need to be as versatile as possible. Trying to make the result as aesthetically pleasing as possible and striving to give your best with each project means you need to be flexible.

Design production I always carry a small notebook with me. It’s where I write down or sketch ideas that come to mind – you never know where you’re going to have that moment of clarity. You always need to be prepared. From these annotations enters the computer game, where I finish polishing and shaping those ideas. The tools I use the most by far are Illustrator and Photoshop. It really depends on the type of project, but I usually spend a lot of time on the computer. I’m quite a perfectionist and sometimes I have trouble knowing when to stop retouching. I started with Photoshop V7 at school. I’d discovered an incredible tool, where I could draw directly on the computer with an overwhelming amount of resources. At first I didn’t use a table and the mouse was somewhat awkward to draw with.

Skills I always try to stay motivated and excited about what I do, I always try to be aware

PLAYER PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS | 55

PROFILE

BAIMU

IMAGES FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW

» This project is a tribute to my tools of work. The first thing I do is to take a pencil and white paper. I start to draw something. The next step is to take my Wacom tablet and start the digital process.

GOLD DIGGER

» (OPPOSITE, TOP) My version of Kanye West and Jamie Fox’s song

THE DEAD WORDS

» (OPPOSITE, BOTTOM) My contribution to a project called ‘The Dead Words’, a collective of lettering for omitted words


THE LETTER PLAYER


PROFILE

BAIMU

IMAGES SELF PORTRAIT » Made entirely in Photoshop with my trusty Intuous 5 for the Wacom talent audition: PIONEERS OF NOW. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

HOP

» (OPPOSITE) The premise was a modern and colourful image that had some movement in reference to urban dance and the name of the event (Hop).


THE LETTER PLAYER

Getting started Believe in yourself. It may seem like a cliché, but without trust in yourself you’ll find things a lot harder. Above all, hard work is what you need to do. No work, no result. Our profession is based on what we can show we do, and for that we must do – and that means work. You have to be passionate about what you do. Remember to have dedication and patience – you need the ability to work every detail with care and detail because that’s where it makes a difference.

Five favourite Photoshop tools

01 of the influences of my surroundings, but I try to always go further as well and seek inspiration in other fields. You need to stimulate your imagination and constantly think about personal projects or simple sketches that might serve on any project. I think it’s very important to always have your eyes open.

Working with clients There are plenty of scary stories about clients being too demanding or ones that don’t let you work effectively, but at the end of the day the customer experience is the most important. I like to hear what the customer has to say, because if you can understand what they want to communicate, and if they know you’re listening, everything will be easier. I always try to give my point of view so we can reach a consensus, a balance between functional and artistic. That’s what you need.

There’s no easy or difficult project – it’s all about whether you’re in a moment of inspiration or not. Fortunately, when a customer comes looking for my work, it’s because they like what I do and want just that. Then it’s easier. I’ve had the experience of having a commission from a project with a lot of time to complete it, and the more sketches I did or more ideas I had, the less results I got. It’s easy to fall into discouragement and that’s the worst of our enemies, so in those moments I’d suggest shutting down the computer and going out to do some exercise. It’s in those moments when the mind disconnects and the best ideas come to mind. I’m not saying it’s a magic formula, but it works for me. Check out more of Baimu’s work at be.net/baimu, or Twitter: @baimu_studio

BRUSHES Obviously, I love creating my own brushes because they give my work a personal touch.

02

SMUDGE TOOL I rediscovered this tool recently and I must say it’s quite funny, my self-portrait is made with brush and smudge tool.

03

PEN TOOL This tool allows me to draw vectorially and create better ways to define.

04

FREE TRANSFORM TOOL A great ally when you want to generate fake 3D lettering.

05

NOISE FILTER It’s amazing how you can lift a flat image with a touch of noise.


TUTORIAL

Always


CREATE AMAZING LETTERS Level: ADVANCED | Time: 2 HRS

TUTORIAL BAIMU IS A GRAPHIC DESIGNER, ILLUSTRATOR AND LETTERING LOVER. BORN IN BARCELONA. ALWAYS EVOLVING, LOOKING FOR CHALLENGES THAT ALLOW HIM TO DEVELOP HIS CREATIVITY AND TEST HIS SKILLS. CHECK OUT BE.NET/BAIMU

MAKE AMAZING LETTERS using a graphics tablet. It is more convenient and useful and it allows to use the pressure to change both the thickness and the intensity of our tracing lines.


TUTORIAL

CREATE AMAZING LETTERS

01 Sketching After scanning the sketch, place it on a layer and adjust the opacity to 50% so it’s visible but more subtle.

02

Creating shapes Create a new layer and select the Pen Tool (P). Trace the outline of the sketch carefully – take special care to ensure the curves are as smooth as possible. Try to use low number of clicks. This will give a smoother look and feel.

Colour basis

03

It is preferable that each path element occupies a separate layer for subsequent amendments and selections give us that. To colour the basis for the various layouts use the tool “new fill”, located in the “Layer” window, located at the lower end. With our selected path, click on the tool and select “solid colour”.


TUTORIAL

04

Gradient glass Similarly, in the case of the glass of Coke from which the liquid of our lettering emerges, we will make a selection with the pen tool (P) and give a gradient fill with different levels of red.

05

Volumizing To start Volumizing lettering, create a new layer and select a golden hue and adjust the flow of our brush (B) to 50%. To be able to paint more comfortably go to the path you want to layer colour and, positioning the cursor over the thumbnail of the layer, the select using the command “Cmd + click on the layer.”

06

More details We will create a new layer and apply a red tint with the same flow in our brush (B) and varying the size (ctrl+alt+drag your mouse) as we are interested in each case. It is highly recommended to go looking at reference images – in this case, of a cola drink – to orient better in colours and shapes.


TUTORIAL


07

Ice

We started with the ice. As in previous steps, start by creating a base layer and select the pen tool of our ice forms. In this case I’ve cast two layers, one for the ice in front of the liquid and a different layer to the ice in the background. In both cases we will give a white base and adjust the layer opacity to 8%. Select the contour using the command “cmd + click on the layer” and carefully painted selections edges to delimit the form of ice.

08

Ice inside Create a new layer to define the interior of the ice cube: Layer Opacity to 70% and Softlight layer mode. Brush Tool (B) select white base with a brush opacity of 10%. The interior of the cube is quite irregular, so you have to paint in a circular motion, planning on giving depth to the cube.

Lights

09

Now we will focus on giving a light to the whole. This point is very delicate, poor lighting can take harmony from the final result.


TUTORIAL

10

Lights II

Create a new layer and with the pen tool (P) we will create the shapes most like. Click “Make selection”. Fill the selection with white, and switch to the Erase tool (E). Fill the selection with white colour and erase tool (E) with a flow of 22% to subtly delete both ends of the stain.

11

Bubble time Create a layer above all the layers we already have to add the details of the gas bubbles.


TUTORIAL


12 Creating a custom rush Cmd + N to create a new file of 500 x 500px. With the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M), create a Circle holding the Shift button + drag to create a perfect round circle and fill it with black colour. Now go to the top menu and Select > Modify > Contract current selection 30px to create a circle within the one we have already drawn. Erase the content of that new circle to obtain something like a ring. Now to create our brush, with the layer selected go to the top menu and we click on Edit > Define Brush Preset. Put the name that we like, in my case “bubble_brush”.

13

Preparing the gas

Select the brush tool (B) and go down on the window to locate your custom brush (“bubble_ brush”). Adjust the flow to 30% and resize the brush to a small enough size.

14 Brush

Before you start drawing, select the Brush panel from the tools column on the right. Once here do small changes to make the brush work properly. With the Brush Panel open, select the following sections: - Shape Dynamics> Size Jitter> 100% - Scattering> Scatter> 1000%


TUTORIAL

15 Blur

Select the desired amount of blur. I’ve chosen 95.8 pixels, as it gives the edges a soft feathering effect. With this we will make our brush draw bubbles in a more random way, and it will be more easy and fast to draw.

16 Adding textures to the background Finally add some noise in our background with the Filter > Noise > Add Noise and select an amount of 5%. And then on a new layer on the bottom will draw some shadows cast from our objects with a “soft round brush opacity” and playing with the flow and opacity of the layer to get the right result.

17

More depth

To give a little depth to our lettering, add a radial gradient from black to transparent in a new layer multiplied over the background and adjust the opacity of the layer to 40%.


TUTORIAL

Metal Taste


DIGITAL PAINTING SIMPLE CONCEPT Level: MEDIUM| Time: 4 HOURS

TUTORIAL BERNARDO HENRIQUES IS A STUDENT AT THE FACULTY OF FINE ARTS IN LISBON, PORTUGAL. HE IS EXPLORING ALL THE FORMS DIGITAL ARTWORK CAN TAKE – INCLUDING AT THE 3D LEVEL.

01

Shape and sketch First of all I tried to make a shape and start on a sketch of what I wanted to achieve just to know about composition settings and to get a sense of space. I need to say that this piece was done without any visual references but in many of my artworks I trend to use photography as a visual aid to get to the point of my concept. In this initial phase I pretty much wanted to do this freaky mouth in a hardcore way.

02

Shape and sketch II

As I continue to work on this piece I extend my hardcore feel into it, so now you can see that this mouth is just on a piece of skin. At this point I’m starting to “block” the visual value of the mouth, applying the darkness from the inside out as well as progressing on the main sketch. From here forward it’s going to be all about the mouth realist appearance.

03

Painting and anatomy Now I’m more focused on the realism of the mouth and how the mouth is expressing an emotion. This is the part where I get more creative and have more fun by giving personality to a mouth not caring about the whole face. I’m using one single brush for the whole painting part of the tutorial; it’s not the usual way to do it, but it provides a real controlled feeling of the brush stroke allowing you to know exactly how to define your own boundaries.


TUTORIAL

SIMPLE CONCEPT

04

Painting and anatomy II I’m moving forward and reaching a point where the mouth is a concrete piece, and you can see all the elements with the right size and place. Around the brush I just change some settings where I feel the need to, mainly on hardness and opacity values.

05

Detail

I started to isolate both inside and outside of the selected area to reach a sense of distance between the elements of the mouth. In this case it gets the realistic form in a fast and easy way.

06

Detail II

Now I reach the detail levels on the upper lip (the darkest one of the two) as well as a more “teethness” feel on the teeth themselves. On both corners of the lips I paint with the same brush but with a low level of hardness.


TUTORIAL

07

Clean

At this point I organise the image and erase the nose and all the others elements that were part of the initial sketch. You can feel the gradient coming from the boundaries of the image; those are the lines that guides my light and your eyes.

08

Environment and final composition I have done all my painting textures on the lips, tongue and tooth with brush painting. I may use textures from photos, but in this way I get a much stronger line of composition. I tried to redefine all the visible parts of the image with one of my favourite tools, Liquify, as you can see in the lip corners.

09

Personality and character feeling I wanted a hardcore feeling to my piece, so I create those three elements like piercing holes just using some strokes and arrange them with Liquify on a new layer. Next, the piercing itself, which I do on a new layer with the usual brush where I’m trying to give a metal light effect.


TUTORIAL

SIMPLE CONCEPT

10 Work it all together Adjusting the composition and all the elements involved and, in addition to simple touches, to redefine edges. I create a couple of layers just to more easily manage the secondary elements.

11

Final touches With the Liquify tool and different gradients I create the rip-off tissue of skin, and with a low hardness level I create the skin reaction and mouth muscles in a simple and discrete way.

12 Tone and contrast I manage all the contrast of the image using a low opacity level on the brush to reach it in a clean way as well as the contrast tool to accentuate the darkest spots.


TUTORIAL

13

Light and shine Little steps to give a more human sense to the elements with a white value brush. I add a noise texture on the skin for a bit of realism.

14 Colourise

As a finishing touch I just create a new overlay layer and paint with a soft brush the elements I wanted to pop up in the composition.


FEATURE

GABRIELA FUENTE

Truth

about 74 | PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS

THE TRUTH ABOUT TEXTILES

IMAGES CARLOS MIELE COLLECTION » (ALL) Gabriela Fuente Studio for Carlos Miele Collection Spring Summer 2013

CUSHIONS

» (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) Blast of summer; Splash; Spring Fell; Vintage Flower II

Textile designer Gabriela Fuente uses Photoshop to create patterns and prints for studios around the world. She explains what’s involved in her niche industry. Getting started I first started to use Photoshop in FASM (Faculdade Santa Marcelina – it´s a well known Fashion College in Brazil). We started to use it for presentations and photo manipulation, collages and other artwork creation. My first job after college was as a product developer for Adidas apparel. At the time it was my dream job and dream company, until I realised I didn´t enjoy designing or developing clothes. What I really wanted was to create textile prints. I decided to go to London to take a few courses, to get a better understanding

of the print creation process. I did some short courses at Central Saint Martins and, during a course on digital print, I learned a few very useful techniques and tools. I learned how to create an artwork on paper and how to make it into a pattern in Photoshop. I also learnt how to ensure a pattern works. Freelance work and internships at design studios in London and Copenhagen helped me develop better ways to work with patterns and designs in Photoshop. Now I’m back in Brazil and I work as a freelancer for a print studio in Copenhagen called Fusion CPH. I have

my own studio where I create and sell my work to some of the big names in Brazilian fashion. I also love creating new artwork for websites like Society6, Kess Inhouse and Front Row Society.

Print Design 101 A print designer is a person who will create a design that will be placed or made into a repeat. Designing a print can take anywhere from one to nine-plus hours. It all depends on the result you’re after and the complexity of the piece. Photoshop helps with everything from composing the pattern to making sure


FEATURE

GABRIELA FUENTE

IN DETAIL Title: Wild Brush – iPhone cover (Top) Aim: I started this with a pen and paper design scanned into Photoshop. I used the Photoshop pen to paint in another layer with the bucket. The next step was defining the inside colour of my design, also using the bucket. The design is nice and clean. Title: The Vintage Flower – iPhone cover (Bottom left) Aim:- I started this with a pen and paper design scanned into Photoshop. I used the Photoshop pen to paint in another layer with the bucket. The next step was defining the inside colour of my design, also using the bucket. The design is nice and clean.


I get the colours I want or need in the print. It helps me to get to a clean and perfect final design. I start a design in Photoshop or on paper – it depends on the brief. I always think about the result I’m after, before I start to design, so I can decide on the best tool to use. Often I use watercolour, pens, pencil and ink to create the first part of the print. I then scan the art and open

the file in Photoshop. I correct colour and light if necessary, then clean up the image so it’s nice and fresh. The next step is pattern design. I create a nice repeat area with good balance. I test the pattern and save. Next I put in the right colours and save the final version once I’m happy with it. Sometimes I hold off from saving the final version until the end of the day because I like to do the colour last,

If you’re an emerging designer… Design as much as you can and don´t give up. It takes a lot of time and hard work to be a designer.


“Photoshop helps with everything from composing the pattern to making sure I get the colours I want” especially if it’s part of a collection and all the prints need to be balanced.

Designing textiles for objects I love to design so it doesn’t matter that much to me what the object is. Of course

you need to take into account the object if you’re going to make a design that will relate. You need to think about the size, colours and shapes that will make that specific object look nicer and be more appealing to people’s eyes.

IMAGES SPEZZATO

» (TOP LEFT AND OPPOSITE TOP) Gabriela Fuente Studio for Spezzato Spring Summer 2013

Top five tips for an emerging designer

STRIPED GLITCH

01

WIND

02

» (TOP MIDDLE) Gabriela Fuente pattern

» (TOP RIGHT) Gabriela Fuente pattern

IPHONE COVERS

» (OPPOSITE, BOTTOM) Wild Brush, The Vintage Flower

SWEET GIRL BACKPACKS

» (LEFT) Gabriela Fuente Studio for Sweet Girl

PRACTICE Design as much as you can. You can never get too much practice if you want to be excellent at what you do FEEDBACK Look for critiques from people in the market whom you’d like to work for. And also from people you trust. It’s important to have people looking at your work INDUSTRY WORK Do internships but never do unpaid internships. Always make sure they will at list cover you travel and food expenses. The experience is great for your portfolio STAY AWARE Observe and research as much as you can. You need to know trends in the industry HAVE FUN Enjoy what you’re doing and have fun

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FEATURE

IMAGES HUIS CLOS

» (ABOVE AND TOP RIGHT) Gabriela Fuente Studio for Huis Clos Spring Summer 2013

GABRIELA FUENTE

“Clients pick me because they know I can deliver the result they need” Style and inspiration

Working with clients

I think I’m a chameleon. I’m always changing and I can work with any style of design. I feel the need for change and will constantly try new things. My main inspiration comes from nature. I live and work surrounded by huge tropical trees that inspire me all the time.

I don’t have one major client, although I do work with some clients that demand very exclusive and specific pieces. I’ll always try to meet the needs of my clients. I’m there to make sure their vision will be well translated to the design, so I try to go above and beyond.

Client challenges Last year one client came up with the idea of working with a very low resolution photo they took with a bad camera and I had to redesign the image first. That took me a long time and required a lot of patience before actually starting the design process. Then they wanted new textures and a completely different colour pattern. It wasn’t easy to recolour because of the design contrast. In the end I was happy with the final result. It didn’t remind me of the first low-resolution image at all – it was a completely new image that looked amazing.


Five tips for keeping the clients happy

01 02 03

INFORMATION First know your client, know their needs and wishes PERSPECTIVE Always try to see your work from the client’s perspective LIMITATIONS Understand your client’s limitations in terms of techniques or budget so you can advise them on the best technique for them to use when printing BE REALISTIC Never sell what you can´t deliver, it doesn’t work HAVE FUN Enjoy what you’re doing and have fun

04 05

And remember, every client will be different, so take each one as they come. Don’t be afraid to ask for more information and find out what they see for the final product.


Five P’shop tools I use the most:

01

MAGIC WAND It’s a huge help when you need to select and clean in your design. Don’t underestimate it PAINT BUCKET Use it to recolour the selected image. It’s simple yet extremely effective LIGHT AND SATURATION for experimenting new colours and changes of light or saturation. Great for getting texture EYE DROPPER Keep your colour palette open so you can pick the exact colour and use it in your design. It will make your workflow a lot smoother DODGE AND BURN great for adding shade and light when you want to create a deep sense of space in a design. A sense of space makes a big difference in the long run

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04 05

IN DETAIL Title: Spring Stroke – iPad Cover (left) Aim: It’s a design you can see on Society 6 and Kess inhouse. This design was made from a watercolour design that took me a long time to create. It’s full of watercolour layers; I scanned them into Photoshop and then decided to change the colours. I added more layers in Photoshop and made a Photoshop collage. I experimented new colour changes and WOW, it became this amazing colorful collage Layer design that I really love. society6.com/GabrielaFuente/SpringStroke_Print

Clients pick me because they simply know I can deliver the result they need. I always ask the client what techniques they’ll be using in production (I have a product developer background). That can really define how and what I can design. Some of my clients want a two colour way print because they want to save money on printing and they have minimalist aesthetics. Other clients like to print using digital prints so I can make the most of the colours and just blow them away with a really

IMAGES

rich design. Ultimately my main goal is to make sure they are happy and end up with the right design.

IPAD COVER

See Gabriela’s work at gabrielafuente.com or facebook.com/GabrielaFuenteStudio.com; check out her designs at: society6.com/GabrielaFuente kessinhouse.com/pages/gabriela-fuente

» (BOTTOM LEFT) Spring Stroke

QUEENS HANDBAGS AND PURSES » (BELOW) Gabriela Fuente


FEATURE

JONFRID ELIASEN

FAROE Princess Jonfrid Eliasen grew up on the Faroe Islands. This Scandinavian-born, Brisbane-educated photographer takes us inside her creative world.

Artist at Work

IMAGES SELF-PORTRAIT » (ABOVE)

PROWLESQUE: THE FOX

» (RIGHT) The brief was to create a fashion series with archetypal women taking on the personalities of animals. I captured the landscape in the day so I changed it to night by taking out the reds and adding blues.


I’ve always wondered where my interest in photography came from. Many people have known all their life they’d grow up to be artists. I wanted to be an astronaut – until I realised I wasn’t good at maths or science. I’ve always had big ideas and dreams. When I was little I thought anything was possible. I wouldn’t just dream about being a princess, I was going to be one. No discussion. My parents have been wonderful in that regard. They’ve been right behind me, in every crazy adventure I could think up or attempt to pursue.

I’m sure it’s because of them I remain convinced that no dreams are too big and no idea is unachievable. We never really had artists in the family. But we’ve always been crafty people and my grandmother was one of them. She also liked to snap the occasional photograph. I think that’s where I got introduced to it. I didn’t know I wanted to be a photographer. It hadn’t even occurred to me, after I’d packed all my stuff and travelled half way around the globe to Brisbane to study a Bachelor of Photography. I’d never owned a DSLR prior to my arrival in Australia. All I left home with was the feeling that I might have the ability to perceive things differently; to see photographs and beauty in things others disregard. As it happens, I graduated my Bachelor degree three years later in 2011 with an “Excellence in Creative Advertising” award and later my Honours degree in 2012 with a Griffith award for “Academic Excellence”. I was lucky enough to be asked to work as a university tutor while I was studying Honours. Moving to Brisbane was without a doubt the scariest thing I’ve done. I realised later that it was the best decision I’ve ever made.

FAROE PRINCESS

Gear I’m a Nikon user. I still use my first DSLR, a Nikon D90 and the lenses that came with it. I’ve got some old film lenses that I like to use too. I find there’s nothing like solid metal and glass. At the moment I have no lighting equipment or studio, so I use natural light, reflectors and improvise my results mostly.


FEATURE

JONFRID ELIASEN

“A photograph reflects the vision of the person who pushes the trigger”


FAROE PRINCESS

Style My style is commercial fashion fused with art photography, and a dash of fantasy and imagination. My personal projects tend to be vastly imaginative. They’re highly detailed worlds with hundreds of things happening all at once, and much more artistic. The commercial work needs to be simplified; I usually like to keep work and personal projects separate. It keeps the passion alive. Then again, it depends how much freedom and time the client gives me.

Inspiration I find inspiration in everything. I was born and raised on the Faroe Islands, a tiny group of islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The landscape and its people are still left untouched by big-city craziness. You’re surrounded by nature

wherever you go and you can always see to the end of the horizon. Nature is therefore, undeniably, a huge inspiration for me. I believe that my culture, with its rich myths and legends, and my Scandinavian heritage are closely connected to the more fantastical and dreamlike aspects of my work. I find inspiration by continuously looking at other peoples’ work; modern and postmodern, not only in Photography. I find inspiration in fine art, installation, design, games, books, music and cinema. Occasionally I’ve had a dream that will spark a new idea. I’ll watch a movie that will give me lighting or compositional ideas. I might listen to a piece of music that inspires a certain kind of mood or takes me on a journey to somewhere else. To be able to create something new and different as an artist, you have

IMAGES

to know what was before and what is now in all the arts.

SUSANNA HERALVSDOTTIR

Purpose I think all photographs are works of art. A photograph reflects the vision of the person who pushes the trigger. The photographer has made a conscious creative choice, in terms of perspective, lighting, crop, etc. They show you what they want you to see. I think my photographs have the most artistic flair when I get creative in Photoshop. My models are often placed in environments that I’ve built from scratch, by combining different images that I’ve captured. By doing this, I introduce the viewer to a place that doesn’t actually exist, in the form that it has been presented. It becomes surrealistic. The audience gets to peek into my

» (LEFT) The Faroese/ Danish singersongwriter. Through her music and texts she seeks back to her Faroese roots. I wanted her surrounded by the rough yet beautiful Faroese nature that’s a big part of her music and background. She wears a traditional Faroese nationaldress of black silk

Top Tip One of the most useful things I’ve learnt is to keep a visual diary. I’ll research images by other artists and put all my inspirations in the book. I’ll write and draw the ideas as they come to me. Through this process I’ll find lighting techniques, poses, environments, etc., that I want to try out and I’ll preplan most of the image before the shoot. If anything needs to be absolutely certain before a shoot, it’s how to achieve the lighting that I want. Everything else is subject to change. I find that the images never turn out exactly as I’ve planned it though, it always evolves to something else – and that’s really what you want to happen anyway.


FEATURE

IMAGES SUSANNA HERALVSDOTTIR » (ABOVE) The Faroese/Danish singer-songwriter.

PROWLESQUE: THE SNAKE » (TOP RIGHT) Part of the same series as “Fox”.

HAMFERD “EVST” » (FAR RIGHT) This was a promo cover for Hamferd’s album. I turned the boys into ghosts by using a low opacity brush on the layer masks containing each figure. Dodging was used to make them look more 3D

NORRONAR DOTTRAR BYRJAN

» (TOP NEXT PAGE) This translates to Northern Daughters – Beginnings xxx

NORRONAR DOTTRAR SAGNIR FRA VATNI OG VINDI

» (NEXT PAGE, BOTTOM RIGHT) This translates to Northern Daughters – Myths from Water and Wind

PROWLESQUE: THE ZEBRA » (NEXT PAGE, RIGHT) Part of the same series as “Fox”.

JONFRID ELIASEN

imagination. They would never have seen the place in the photograph, if I hadn’t created it in the first place, and that’s what captivates me about this method. It’s the same way a painter can paint scenery based on his imagination alone, or the fantasy writer speaks of places and things that don’t exist in reality.

Clients My client base seems to change with each new project. I always experiment with new things and make sure to be as versatile as possible – thus the clients and projects change. They’re presented with more possibilities. I’ve found that I need to work on the things that keep my creativity and imagination active. For me, that’s fashion, beauty and portraiture photography, where I can express my artistic side rather than just technical. Photography is not just my job; it’s my passion. At the moment most of my clients are in the Faroese music scene, both in terms of photography and video. I’ve only worked professionally in the industry since early 2013. But I’ve worked with others on personal projects and assignments whilst studying, since around 2010.

Using Photoshop I experimented with Photoshop before starting at QCA in 2009, but I knew nothing about working with layers and masks. We had one single course for one semester about the basic principles surrounding the vast world of Photoshop. Other than that course, I’m self-taught


and have learnt it all by getting tips from Photoshop-savvy friends, and combing the Internet for workshops and tutorials. Most important were the countless hours spent by myself working with images on Photoshop. That way I’ve gradually built up a workflow that works with my style. Photoshop is important to my images because that’s where I can really bring in my own personality and style. With it, I can create the impossible. I never show my work unless it has gone through some sort of post-production

Five tips for using Photoshop to retouch beauty images/skin/faces

01

PERFECT SKIN Beauty images are closely cropped on the face, so the skin is crucial. We want to see pores, beauty spots and freckles. Remove blemishes carefully and prepare to spend a lot of time making it look natural. BURN/DODGE This tool is your best friend, but should be used carefully on the skin. CORRECT MAKEUP No matter how professional your MUA’s are, there’ll always be places that need cleaning up when you’re shooting this close. Particularly the eyes and lips. The studio light will make makeup look dull and this needs to be picked up in contrast and saturation. ENHANCE ITEM OF SALE If it’s jewellery, create focus on it. Make sure that what the model is selling is absolutely flawless. Whether it is jewellery, nail polish, makeup, hair products, etc. GOOD HAIR DAY There will always be flyaway hair, so remove anything that is out of place. Burn and dodge tool is great for creating shiny, healthy looking hair.

02 03

04 05

FAROE PRINCESS

“It’s the same way a painter can paint scenery based on his imagination alone”


FEATURE

JONFRID ELIASEN

Five tips for using Photoshop on fashion images

01

BURN/DODGE TOOL It’s your best friend. But don’t go overboard with it.

02

RETOUCHING SKIN It shouldn’t look creamy and blurry. Go nuts, and play with opacity and mask out/in until it’s where it looks natural. The Healing brush is great for smaller corrections – always sample similar quality and tone of skin, as what surrounds the imperfection you want to remove.

03

LAYERS Use them continuously; one for facial skin, one for makeup, one for hair, one for body skin, one for clothes, etc. This way it’s easier to control what you’re doing.

04

EXPERIMENT Have an initial idea of the final outcome, but don’t be afraid to do something out of the box. If you work smart with layers, you can always go back.

05

REST YOUR EYES When you’ve reached a point where you think you’re done, leave the image for a day and then look at it again. The mistakes will pop out at you. 86 | PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS

FAROE PRINCESS

process. Not until I feel it’s at a quality that I’m satisfied with and that lives up to industry standards. That being said, I’m very careful with over-retouching an image. There’s nothing worse than skin without pores; obviously warped body shapes or heavily Photoshopped landscapes with extremely over-burnt skies. It really gets to me when I see photographs like that. It’s like telling people they’re fat or throwing litter into nature for good measure. I don’t like the message that it sends to the audience. We must not forget that there is beauty to be found in the imperfections too. It depends on the brief and the client, how much Photoshopping is involved. I often shoot images where I capture everything in camera, where next to no Photoshopping has been done.

Photoshop 101 1. When the image opens in Camera RAW, I always take out all the black, which they for some reason add on automatically. This way I have as much range as I can get before I do anything. 2. When opened, it varies what I’ll do first. Usually I’ll correct skin, dust, remove things I want taken out first. Then I’ll do sharpness, contrast, burn/ dodge, etc. When satisfied with the image, I’ll move onto the ‘creative process’ of adding filters, colours or similar until I’m happy. 3. The very last thing I do is to flatten the image, size it, and crop it. To see more of Jonfred’s work, check out jonfrideliasen.com PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS | 87

PROFILE

RACHEL LEWIS

The Queen of Drama and

IMAGES THERE’S NO WAY I’D REGRET THIS

» (BEFORE) Aim: capture the sadness and loneliness felt for this character. » (AFTER) Increased overall vibrance, blacks and clarity, split toned with dark blue in shadows, light blue in highlights.


Punch

THE QUEEN OF DRAMA AND PUNCH

Coffs Harbour-based photographer Rachel Lewis goes beyond the realm of the real into the imagination with her cool images. We find out how she turns the ordinary into the extraordinary.

How long have you been a photographer and using Photoshop? I first learnt to shoot with a Film SLR in a photography course 16 years ago. I learnt how to use Photoshop at a different course and through trial and error 10 years ago. Now I shoot with a DSLR and external lights. My entire workflow is managed in Adobe Lightroom. I process in LR and finish off with Photoshop. How would you describe your style? Drama and more drama. My style would easily be a meld of fashion, film, theatre and fantasy; the fantasy aspect heavily influenced by comics, video games and animation. I shoot almost exclusively with off-camera lighting and I apply my

technique to portraits, fashion, modelling, wedding and, of course, costuming shoots. What inspires your work? How do you come up with the ideas for your elaborate images? For costuming I’m usually re-creating from an existing film, animation or videogame, so the ideas and inspiration come straight from the work in question. It’s easy to get excited as it’s almost guaranteed to be a work or subculture that I’m already passionate about. For fashion, wedding and portraiture, I like to bring some of those fantastical elements to the table. If I can, I love to stray away from the industry standards for these areas of photography so I can imagine I’m still


PROFILE

RACHEL LEWIS

working with costuming and a theatrical type arrangement even though I’m not. Who are your main clients? Models and competitive costumers dominate, and then come a mix of roller derby, families, couples and everyday folks wanting pictures to be proud of. What do you love most about using Photoshop on your images? Easily one word: PUNCH! I always strive to get my work in camera as close as I can to the final product; postprocessing adds the punch I need to finish it off. I almost always do my colour grading in Lightroom first though, and then move into Photoshop.


What tools do you use the most? I’ll talk about tools and filters as I’m always using a mix of them. Tools-wise, I mainly use the spot heal. I remove distractions from the image on both the model and the background and do basic retouching for blemishes, stray hairs, etc. I’ll use the clone tool to tone down harsh shadows, which are sometimes a problem with off-camera lighting, and a combination of clone, spot heal and content aware fill to remove major unwanted elements from the shot. Filterwise the most common would be pre and post sharpening. I use these techniques because they’re what give the images the punch I like. With pre I’m looking at a “surface blur sharpen” and for post a

Pro Tip Get the look

The clarity slider in Camera RAW and Lightroom is your tool for creating a faux HDR look or getting the most details out of the RAW file. Couple that with the contrast, blacks and shadows slider, increase the vibrance and you’ll really bring your image to life before it’s even in Photoshop.


IMAGES IN THE TORRENT OF GUILT » (ABOVE)

MY BELOVED

(FAR LEFT) » (BEFORE) Aim: capture a theme of forbidden love. » (AFTER) Lightroom: clarity, shadows, vibrance increased, split toned with amber in highlights and blue in shadows

standard “unsharp mask.” I also cannot live without my layer masks. While layers allow for less destructive editing, masks allow this even moreso. Applying an effect to an entire image (even pre/post sharpening) is something I rarely do. I only apply it to certain areas that I’d like to pop; like eyes, hair, details in outfits, etc. Do you envision what the photograph will look like after post processing when you’re actually taking it? Never – except for cloning out items. I never envisage what the photo will look like post processed because I can’t. I was never good at art in school and even doing multimedia in further studies, I just couldn’t envisage a final product when planning the most basic projects.

It was because of this shortcoming that I decided to go full steam ahead into using off camera lighting so I could undergo a process of shoot, modify, experiment and shoot again, watching each manifestation of the shot unfold and studying it in real time to learn. As mentioned, I will often shoot knowing what I can clone out. That’s the only time I do consider post processing while shooting. I regularly shoot with my light stands and lights in the frame and other objects that shouldn’t be there; this is usually because I cannot achieve the photo otherwise. For example, some may say move your light stands out of the composition or move in closer, but lights lose power when they are pulled further back and composition can be far too cramped if you move in.


PROFILE

RACHEL LEWIS

How do you use deviantArt? What role does it play in your photographic style? When I joined dA there was no Facebook and MySpace had only just started. I initially used it for networking and now I use it to showcase my favourite images in high resolution because Facebook’s resolution hurts my heart. It also has a large community of users with similar interests as myself and I can keep up to date with the progress of costumers and photographers that I enjoy. This is where dA wins over other sites that allow high-res showcasing. I also use it to gauge the quality of my images, not just through comments but also with views, favourites and how regularly my dA images are shared on larger sites. While views and favourites are not the end all of what makes an image good, when I have some images that have 200 views and others which have 20K or 50K, it’s makes me stand back and critique my work to see what patterns I can see and I’ll look for areas to improve. The role it plays in my photographic style is as a learning tool. I find works on dA which make me think “How did they shoot that?” and then I’ll go off and try to figure it out how they did it. This way of thinking helps to expand my knowledge so I’m always learning.



IMAGES FLCL – HARUKO HARUHARA » (LEFT)

OUT OF MY WAY (BELOW) » (BEFORE) Aim: Capture the determination & strength of the character. Taken atop a WWII Bofors Anti Aircraft Gun. » (AFTER) Exposure increased but sky kept dark, clarity, shadows, highlights increased, extensive cloning and healing.

THE WORLD ISN’T JUST ONE

(BELOW) » (BEFORE) Aim: Showcase the outfit with a fairytale feel » (AFTER) Reduced exposure on background, cloned out modern elements, yellow added to highlights and shadows for warmth

What’s the most elaborate shoot you’ve ever worked on? The shoot that required the most refining and perfecting would be the 2013 Roller Derby Calendar. Each shot had a different theme, each image shot over two and a bit days. Some of the shots required five different off-camera lights and some of the locations were cramped. All of the shots needed to have punch (like nothing else, considering the content) and none of them allowed for preparation. It was fast moving and a dive-in head-first situation. There were 25 models and a big team to organise hair, makeup, wardrobe and brainstorming. Both myself and my assistant got the biggest photographic workout we’d ever collaborated on together. The only exception was the group shot – it was basic in comparison. What’s the most elaborate post production you’ve ever done? I’m fairly slow when it comes to photo manipulation, but retouching is my forte.

Of the few manips I’ve done, the most elaborate would be a toss-up between a “Hope and Alexander” picture and the “What Creates Life is a Wish” (which I didn’t actually shoot). “Hope and Alexander” involved heavy colour grading and a massive amount of cloning as the subject was manipulated to be standing in the hand of a giant robottype creature of which the source material was actually not photographic. It was probably drawn, coloured and rendered on a computer, so it looked more like a painting. The two subjects needed to look like they were both real, somewhat. This one took around five hours to finish. “What Creates Life is a Wish” was a rescue picture to show the true power of post processing and the power of using the RAW file format when shooting. You can check out the final edit online on my YouTube channel as I did a three-part tutorial on this one because it was so extensive and it involved bringing together three versions of the photo, all rendered

first in Lightroom to expose and colour grade for each component, then masking them and blending them accordingly in post. As LR doesn’t have layers, I felt this was the best course of action to regain detail and achieve the effect I wanted. The skin was very noisy once the exposure was brought up and I prefer LR’s noise reduction. The sky barely contained any detail as it was overexposed and the subjects and background were underexposed. Overall I wanted an intense sunset-meets-fantasy feel, with a bit of a post-apocalyptic mood to the final image, so the colour grading was a challenge. The crop needed to be redone and items in the background had to be ‘created’ using a combination of content-aware fill, healing and extensive cloning. This took six hours. To see more of Rachel’s work, check out fiathriel.deviantart.com; facebook.com/pages/Rachel-LewisPhotography/ 206601839352294; youtube.com/user/fiathriel

“All of the shots needed to have punch like nothing else, considering the content”

PROFILE

ANTOINE COLLIGNON

IN DETAIL Aim: We wanted to create something mystical yet powerful around the strong Code Black DJ. Inspiration: Egyptian pyramids, geometric objects and old-school movies. Challenges: The challenge was to create something black’n’ white and deep. Techniques: We used a lot of standard vector tools from Photoshop. Triangle, lines, custom shapes. Then we added some brushworks with the pen tablet.

FRENCH TOAST

Belgian designer Antoine Collignon takes us behind the scenes and into the team required to run French Toast Design Studio. It’s been 10 years now since I first opened Photoshop. At the time, it was probably the version 6.0, but I knew even then that it would be my passion. I was already spending hours and hours trying to create something artistically appealing. After a few years of freelance media designing and working on various other artistic endeavours, my best friend Tarek Okbir and I decided to create French

Toast Design Studio. Our common goal is to reach the best artistic skill level possible. We’re both media designers and we split all the work we have week by week. So we’ll both do everything from artwork and logos to T-shirt designs and posters. At French Toast, we mainly work with people involved in the music scene and we love it. It gives us more freedom than

IN DETAIL Aim: We wanted to create an amulet fading into an abstract background with a deep feeling. Inspiration: Old amulet, jewellery. Challenges: Usually we work with restricted tint schematics but this time we worked with a lot of different colours with ease. Techniques: 3D/pen tablet.


FRENCH TOAST

IN DETAIL Aim: We wanted to create something minimal yet powerful. Inspiration: Minimal design, geometry, glitch... Challenges: We wanted to make something new and this work was very technical. We were experimenting with glitch mixed with 3D modelling. We still used basics tools, because sometimes less is more. There was some brushwork with the pen tablet.

Top Five Tools 1. Density 2. Path 3. Brush 4. Healing brush tool 5. Smudge tool

you’d usually have with a lot of clients. Having said that, we still work with all kinds of clients from different industries. We have the ability to adapt our style to the client 100%. Sometimes we get clients that don’t understand the artistic feeling you’re going for. You’re trying to do your absolute best, but they won’t appreciate that. They want the basic work. It’s rare, but it does happen. You adapt to that. Social media is a key to expanding our business. We’re using it to keep in touch with our best fans, but we also use it to promote our artwork and get new clients. We’re actively involved in the digital communities too. We upload our works in galleries so we can get peer feedback.

We shoot our own images or we get them from stock, here and there. It always depends on the job.

Process

IN DETAIL Aim: This piece was about an escape into happiness so we wanted to create something warm, something like the sunrise at the horizon, something magical, evoking a sense of freedom. Inspiration: Nature, magic kingdom. Challenges: It was a real challenge this time. We wanted to achieve the right mix between a dream artwork with elements of the mainstream, because at the end, it’s still for a Festival event. Techniques: Lot of fusion mixes, lots of photomanipulation and Red Bull!

At the beginning, every project looks bad. Then you work on it, again and again, and finally something happens and it will go from “cool” to “OMG AMAZING.” That’s what I like about it. The process is always interesting; you never know where it’s going to end up. I’m personally inspired by music and nature. I can find inspiration just looking at clouds, with some drum’n’bass going on in my ears. Inspiration is everywhere, you just have to be in the right mood to catch it. Founding and working at French Toast is my dream job and that really helps the process. Although, I would love to do my job with some sun. We’re based in Belgium and it’s always raining! Check out more of Antoine’s work at frenchtoast.be PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS | 95

PROFILE

SEBASTIAN ANDAUR

Five top Photoshop tools Brush, gradient, curves, pen tool and the shape tools. I use those tools on every work; they're useful for any kind of situation. Curves are a really vital part of my work and I’m always amazed at how the shape tools have become powerful tools on CS6.

Starting Young Age is no boundary

Sebastian Andaur is a young gun in the design industry. He tells us how he got started and what you can do to get there too. 96 | PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS

I’m Sebastian Andaur, and by the time this magazine is out, I’ll be a 19-year-old Art Director and self-taught designer based in Santiago, Chile. I’ve been working for about five or six years. I started young, doing simple projects, and over the last few years I’ve been working with clients like HBO, Puma, Nestlé, Samsung and a few others. I love colours and I love getting paid to play with them. I’m still in high school – yeah, I’m that young! The plan is to go to design school next year and end up working on something I’m already planning called ‘Polygono’. It’s a multidisciplinary design, TV and media agency. I think clients are starting to understand that age doesn’t matter if you have the taste, the talent and a great portfolio. Of course, it’s difficult find the right

clients and get older people to trust you to take on a complex job, but lately people are more and more accepting of young guys, especially when there’s so much young talent out there.

Design in Chile The Chilean design scene is diverse. We have designers working at an office eight hours a day and guys like me working from home with clients in Australia – there’s a lot of talent. Shout out to Joia Magazine, a Chilean design magazine which does an amazing job of getting the community together and searching for emerging talent to be featured in their pages. I think you have to be inspired by your environment. There’s no other way to be happy with what you make. Santiago is a pretty diverse city – there’s almost

SEEING IT THROUGH

IMAGES METAL MEAL » (FAR LEFT) This was a quick experiment I made in CINEMA 4D – using simple elements to create a minimal scene of a floating meal (sounds like a lot of fun right?)

CORE

» (LEFT) An experimental journey through design and digital art. I’ve been working with 3D for a few years but this is a new one. e

and everything here to be inspired by, from the downtown to the hills.

Colour play Colours, shapes and the feel of the work – they’re the three key elements in every work I do. I’ve realised that I’ve literally been playing with colours for the last five years, so it seemed like an obvious choice to be my tagline. I’m inspired by music, colours, and other artists. I feed my mind with music, I search for colours and look for inspiration on the internet and in magazines.

Getting started Your work needs to be on the internet. Get yourself a Behance page and start using Cargo Collective – it’s amazing for folios. That’s where someone sees my work and sends an email – I obtained clients like

HBO, Nestlé, Puma and more all the same way. They all saw my work online and wanted to get in touch. I don’t have main clients – lately I’ve been working a lot on a motion graphics studio called Feels, doing style art and art direction for a lot of projects and briefs. Often there’s a script with a palette and a brand behind it that I have to implement into their new ad or video.

Using Photoshop I learnt how to use Photoshop by watching other people work in YouTube and by following very basic tutorials on each tool in Photoshop CS (the first version I started with). I’ve been using Photoshop for about six years and it’s a powerful tool – my number one tool. In some cases, 100% of my work is created in Photoshop, but I also use

IN DETAIL Title: Core Brief: Core is a personal project, and the main aim was to make a 3D work that combined all the techniques I’ve learnt to do with the Photoshop 2D tools. Combining these tools and CINEMA 4D gave me a new look and an incredible result. Inspiration: 3D works are all over the internet these days, but my main inspiration was the core idea of the heart being the centre of the work – while I was looking for reference pieces, I stumbled upon an image of a gold 3D type piece and I loved that look so I used it as a part of the final artwork. Post-production: Loads of layers and adjustment layers on Photoshop. I brought the heart from CINEMA 4D with an alpha channel and made all the corrections from there, adding background and making the shapes using Photoshop CS6.


PROFILE

SEBASTIAN ANDAUR

CINEMA 4D with VRay for a lot of the 3D work. Lately I’ve been using more CINEMA than Photoshop – 90% CINEMA with all the tweaks and colour correction in Photoshop CS6. It makes everything looks awesome – that’s the only way to describe Photoshop. The most complicated technique I use is colour correction. I know it sounds simple, but little tweaks have taken weeks of work. I just want to get the colour right; it’s one of the key elements, so colour correction is pretty time consuming. I also spend a lot of hours playing with curves and levels.

Workflow My workflow is pretty straightforward. I get the brief, start thinking of ideas, research for reference and watch what others have done on something similar. I then start using Photoshop or CINEMA 4D. There’s no sketch, just notes on the note app that comes with Mac. Loads of ideas come to my mind at night, so I write them down

IN DETAIL Title: Puma Clyde Brief: I love this work — my favorite magazine is Joia Magazine, an amazing Chilean design and visual arts magazine. I got an email last year asking to be part of a section called Puma King. I had to make a piece based on the new Puma Clyde shoes, which included an interview and a photo shoot. Inspiration: The white sneaker is just inspirational – a blank canvas to make whatever I want really stand out. I decided to keep it simple. Challenges: Time. I had to make everything in four days – two illustrations for Puma, along with the interview. I did well though, even if it was a fast project. Post-production processes: I only used Photoshop. They sent me the RAW image of the show so I cut it off and composited everything inside Photoshop using adjustment layers and a bunch of tools and blend modes.


“It makes everything looks awesome – that’s the only way to describe Photoshop”

SEEING IT THROUGH IN DETAIL Title: GO / Make — Playground project Brief: Since June I’ve been working on a series of 3D works made on C4D + VRay. I’ve been having a blast experimenting with these kinds of geometric pieces and playing with colours. Inspiration: Life. Everything we see in our daily life is 3D so everything can be made on it. Colourful and powerful colour palettes have been a big inspiration too. Challenges: The challenge is making a bunch of pieces and I have five so far, but only two completely done. Post-production processes: Photoshop – just colour correction so far. Usually that’s enough for 3D work.

IMAGES PUMA CLYDE » (OPPOSITE, TOP) A piece for Joia Magazine.

CHEVROLET

» (OPPOSITE, BOTTOM) This piece is a personal experiment. I made it as a challenge to play with new tools in Photoshop – loads of colours and loads of work.

GO/MAKE PLAYGROUND » (THIS PAGE) Experimenting with 3D tools.


PROFILE

SEBASTIAN ANDAUR

IMAGES MAKE

» (THIS PAGE) Part of the Playground Project, this is one of the many 3D posters I’ve been making, all colourful and shiny.

DIGITAL DECAY » (OPPOSITE, RIGHT) Exhibited at OFFF Barcelona

THE POWER OF NATURE

» (OPPOSITE, LEFT) My first Threadlessselected design! I made this for my shop and shortly after sent it to the online T-shirt community Threadless.com. A month later they selected it and now sell it.


STARTING YOUNG AND SEEING IT THROUGH IN DETAIL Title: Digital Decay Brief: DesignCollector magazine was holding a contest to exhibit in OFFF Barcelona and win cool prizes. The jury selected me over hundreds of portfolios and then I started working on this piece – I was one of the 15 selected and the fifth winner. This work was exhibited at OFFF Barcelona in front of thousands of people. Inspiration: I’ve been doing a lot of 3D work lately, and since there was a ‘digital’ theme, I thought I’d make a 3D piece. Challenges: The main challenge was time. This piece is based on a test I did some months ago, and the colour palette is based on my Core work – so those elements helped me stay on time when working on the lights and the model, along with the rendering. It took 12 hours to render for full resolution. Post-production processes: Basic compositing in Photoshop, some glows and obviously adjustment layers were used to make the piece look way more appealing than when it came straight out of CINEMA.

on my iPhone and they’re magically in my computer the next day. Then there’s a few emails with the clients, some tweaking of the work and just like that, you’ve got a work completed and get paid at the end of the month.

Wacom tablet I’ve been using a Wacom since 2010 and I haven’t used a mouse since. I’m currently using the Intros 5 Medium and it’s great. It makes everything faster and simpler and for me it’s just a more natural way of working. The major change in Photoshop is pressure sensitivity; the fact that we now have the ability to change the brush size depending on how hard we want to make a stroke is just phenomenal. Kudos to Wacom for making awesome products for everyone to use.

3D work I do loads of 3D these days. I’m currently working on a series called ‘Playground’ -

just 3D works and little Photoshop tweaks. The most important tip for using 3D is to remember lighting – please, please light your scene well and ALWAYS colour correct your stuff in Photoshop. No work is 100% done straight out of your 3D software. It may look awesome but trust me, a set of curves can make your work look 1000 times better. Just light it well and play more in post-production.

What’s the longest amount of time you’ve spent on one image? Well, I have images that have taken more than four months to complete because I haven’t had the time to make them – I work on personal stuff in between client work so there’s a lot of unfinished work in my design folder waiting for final touches and to be uploaded to Behance. To see more of Sebastian’s work, check out work.andaurstudios.cl and behance.net/andaurstudios

Five tips for setting up a studio

01 02 03

DO MORE WORK What you have is not enough! You need work to showcase plenty of your work to clients. BE ORGANISED Keep everything in a specific spot. Try to work in a place that doesn’t make you get out of there. WORK HARD AND LIVE YOUR LIFE I did a poster with that phrase on it and it makes a lot of sense. You need to follow it if you’re working on your own studio and your own brand. BRAND Please, have a logo, an identity and a portfolio. Those things will make your work unique to someone who’s trying to hire a designer. PROMOTE YOURSELF Get your studio online – a portfolio is the first step. Put your stuff on Behance, promote it on Twitter, Facebook.

04 05


TUTORIAL

Life’s a Beach BRIEF: Shoot a full size scene and pop bite-sized Barbie in it. Yep the doll!

PRO TIP Always have a plan of where you want your final image to end up


PLAYING WITH PERSPECTIVE

Level: INTERMEDIATE | Time: 1 HR

TUTORIAL LISA SAAD IS A MELBOURNE-BASED, AWARD-WINNING PHOTOGRAPHER WITH 25 YEARS EXPERIENCE IN COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHY. CHECK OUT LISASAADPHOTOGRAPHY.COM.AU

01

This tutorial is about mixing

real, lifesize backgrounds with a regular Barbie doll and giving it a realist feel. Pre-production for this type of imagery is important as you’ll need to work out what backgrounds and which foregrounds you’re going to use and also how Barbie will be interacting within it. I suggest you shoot the backgrounds/foregrounds and Barbie at the same time, with the same lighting set up so you have some consistency when you merge the two together. Start with a plan!

Original Images

Lifesize beach and umbrella and Barbie on a beach towel

Use layer tint effects as well as the lens effects as much or as little as you want. I used the layer tint effects for colour and masked out areas that I didn’t want effected. The lens effect was used to give it a more fantasy feel and also helped with the selected focus and depth of field. Have fun with this tutorial. It’s a starting point but the possibilities are endless.

02 To make a layer mask

Open the file you want to contour or remove subjects from the background. Choose the Channels window. Window > Channels and duplicate the green channel.

03

Select the object using the Pen (P) tool and use your brush (B) to fill in.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY | 103

TUTORIAL

LIFE’S A BEACH

04

Choose black for what you don’t want

and white for what you do want. Use the X on the keyboard to change the Brush (B) fill from Black to white. Make sure all the areas that are brushed in, either Black or White, are completely filled in so there are no gaps in your mask.

05

Open the background image

and drag the Barbie image using Move Tool (V) onto it. Position and resize her until she’s on scale with the scene. Free Transform (command T) or File > Free Transform, to select the layer and size as required.

06

Because Barbie has a layer mask , you can now fine tune her edges so she blends in better, using your Brush (B). Any objects that should be in front of the subject, in this case Barbie’s cup, you should select using the Marquee Tool (M) and copy and paste it onto a new layer. Blend by making a mask. On the bottom of the layer window, select the circle in the rectangle to add a layer mask to that layer). Using your Brush tool (B) delete and blend as required.


TUTORIAL

07

Using the clone tool (C) and

the Healing tool (J), clean up any areas that are distracting. I cleaned up the sand and removed the seaweed in the foreground.

PRO TIP Don’t forget to use Dodge & Burn (O) to darken or lighten. You can also selectively change colour of objects in the scene.

08

Using the Dodge and Burn tool (O) dodge and burn any areas that you want to be darker or lighter. Use a light-hand as you don’t want it to be noticeable. I burned in the top of the umbrella, along with some of the beach boxes in the background.

09

Add some colour/ tint and lens effects. These effects will give Barbie her glow. You can make these effects but I’ve decided to use ones that were readymade. These effects are from florabellacollection.com and are a great resource to use when you’re enhancing images. If you’d like to make your own layer tints, Select the Gradient Tool G, click to edit the gradient (usually a window with a sample gradient).

10

Change the colour of the

gradient via the paint cans along the bottom. To add a paint can, double click just under the colour gradient. To change the paint can colour, click on it and the colour selection window will open.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY | 105

TUTORIAL

LIFE’S A BEACH

11

Add each effect on a different layer and play with each layers blending mode. Soft light, Overlay, Multiply and Screen are the ones I would use if adding this effect.

12

You’ll notice there’s one

layer of the tint (the pink hued effect) and three layers of the lens effect. I’ve added an adjustment layer at the top of my layer in order to adjust brightness and contrast.

PRO TIP By adding an Adjustment Layer you’ll affect all layers directly underneath. You can add any sort of adjustment layer, choose from Colour Balance, Vibrance, Curves and more

13

Selectively change the colour of a specific object in the scene if you want. I changed the stripes on the umbrella to red by using the Lasso Tool (L) to select the area, then using Image/Adjustment > Hue/Saturation panel, changed the colour of each stripe.

14

Nearly there. We’re going

to keep playing with levels and effect layers as well as adding a Vibrance layer.


TUTORIAL

15

PRO TIP I used BARBIE DOLLS in this series just to create something different. Apply these techniques to any sort of image

Finished image You can see the final image looks a lot more realistic than if I’d just plopped Barbie on the beach.

16

Options. Think about

the light in each scene your using. That’s what makes it look real.


PROFILE

MARTA BIELSA

TIPS & TRICKS

to Illustration Artist and illustrator Marta Bielsa’s otherwordly images capture the imagination. She shares her story and a few tricks to mastering the trade. Background

Photoshop techniques

I live in Madrid, Spain and have a Fine Arts degree and an Art History degree. During the last three years I’ve exhibited my work in different galleries and art fairs. I started using Photoshop a few years ago, during my courses. I learnt how to use basic tools, but I learnt the most when I jumped into the experimentation. I’d describe my style as Oniric, romantic and with a touch of humour thrown in.

I usually start by using different pictures to build the main lines of the composition. After this comes the most important step: digital paint using layers. To finish, I create the atmosphere through different textures.

Clients A few years ago I opened a small design studio with two friends. Back then our clients were companies and freelancers. Right now, I spend my time working on personal projects for exhibitions in art galleries and fairs.

Process I usually work with the pictures I take myself. I bring them all together in a photo library to make my compositions. Sometimes I also work with handmade items that I use to add to my images. The amount of time I spend on each image depends on amount of picture elements, complexity of background, number of figures and details. The idea and how it develops is by far the most difficult step. Once I have the concept, I make a sketch including the composition and the chromatic range, and then I usually spend anywhere from one to two weeks finishing the picture.


The three key elements to a good illustration I think a good illustration needs to tell an interesting story, be original and have good technique.

“The idea and how it develops is by far the most difficult step”

IMAGES BLUEBEARD » (ABOVE) Digital illustration printed on cotton paper

FISHERMEN

» (LEFT) A piece from Landscapes Collection on Dibond at 130x84cm

DANGEROUS IDEAS

» (MIDDLE RIGHT) Digital illustration printed on cotton paper

LANDSCAPE WITH MONKS

» (TOP RIGHT) Dibond printing 140x89cm

SOUND OF THE SEA

» (BOTTOM RIGHT) Digital illustration printed on cotton paper

Top 5 tips for creating an effective illustration

01 02 03 04 05

BACKGROUND WORK Start researching everything about the illustration topic to get more inspired PLANNING Make a sketch to define the structure of composition and the chromatic range SAVE, SAVE, SAVE Save all the files of each different version. You may want to turn back later to a previous rough EXPERIMENT Don’t be afraid of experimentation, it’s a great way to discover new possibilities. DON’T GIVE UP Never settle, work hard to get the best result. See more of marta’s work at martabielsa.com


TUTORIAL

The Painterly Way


TUTORIAL

DIGITAL PAINTING

Level: MEDIUM | Time: 1 HR

DIEGO PEÑUELA IS A COLOMBIAN FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR, CURRENTLY BASED IN THE USA. HE LOVES COOKIES. DIEGOILLUSTRATION.COM

Take your traditional media illustrations to the next level by using Photoshop as your digital canvas.

01

Open traditional and digital I usually start my pieces with a traditional technique – in this case, an acrylic under painting that’s scanned at 400 dpi and saved as a TIFF file to ensure I’ve got a good-quality image to work with. Once scanned, I open a new PSD file, usually 13 x 19” at 300 dpi, and bring in the acrylic piece as a new layer. If I need to, I’ll adjust the levels of the scan using adjustment layers. (Layer > New adjustment layer). Since I try to give my illustrations a traditional look, with heavy textures and brushstrokes, it’s good to start with a traditional media piece, since it gives an initial surface that has a better feeling than trying to get the same texture digitally.

02

Selections

Using the Lasso Tool I select the different elements of the scan layer, and create new layers out of those selections (ctrl + shift + J or Layer > New > Layer via cut) so I can work on each element separately. Sometimes, when the selections are too complex and I know that I will use them more than once, I save them as new channels (Select > Save Selection), which allows me to load the selection from the channels panel quickly at any point (ctrl + click on the channel thumbnail on channels panel or Select > Load selection).


TUTORIAL DIGITAL CANVAS

03

Digital Painting The next step is to create new layers and start painting over the original scans layers with customised brushes. The idea is to highlight and darken areas, define shapes and contours, correct structure problems and refine details and colours. I always create new layers for the digital painting and leave the acrylic scan layer untouched so that I can go back to it if necessary. The main objective is to carefully combine and balance both the digital and traditional media. My digital painting technique is similar to that of digital matte painters. I rely entirely on the brushes and the colours I’m using and treat Photoshop as canvas; hence I rarely use too many digital filters or tricks and, if I do, I try not to lose the traditional look of the image. Another important part of my process is to use good references, and I usually take my own references based on the image I’m working on. It will save you time and effort.

TOP TIP: To achieve ideal results, it’s worth spending some time customising brushes with the Photoshop brush engine. Depending on your preference and style, you can create really funky brushes or nice traditional medialike brushes that will blend nicely with real media images.

04

More layers!

From here on, I continue painting until I feel fairly confortable with what I have, always trying to save as much of the acrylic painting as possible. Since I like keeping the number of layers reduced, I merge the digital and original layers when I think it’s appropriated. It’s worth playing with the brush modes to see what colour variations you can get; I often use screen or soft light modes for darkening and lightening areas. You can get similar results if, instead of changing the brush mode, you create a new empty layer, change its blending mode on the layers palette and paint on it.


TUTORIAL

05

Time to experiment I like to experiment a bit with the layer blend modes and see what colour, texture, or shape variations I can introduce to the image (sometimes you can get unexpected but really interesting results). In this case I created a layer with some abstract and geometrical shapes (using a customised brush), set it up to screen mode and reduced the opacity to 80%. I liked the result and, after adding some adjustment layers, (Selective colour and Levels), I merged the layers once more in a new group and continued painting.

06

Put in some colour In this step I created one more Photoshop file exclusively to do colour correction with adjustment layers; then I worked on some details and added one more layer of painting to refine details and colours. I never have specific values or numbers in mind when I use the adjustment layers; I try to trust my intuition and move the values until I see something that I like. What I do know is that I generally use Levels, Selective Colour and Colour Balance since they give me a lot of options to manipulate and change colours. I will often use masks to block pixels and have more control over the areas that I want to be affected by the adjustment layers.

07

Final touches The final step is to create one last PSD file with all the layers merged so that I can concentrate on final colour adjustments and fine details. Once more I used adjustment layers and even used the masks to leave some transparencies and have more colour nuances. With the final layers, I enhanced the highlights and created the bubbles with the aid of layer styles, in this case Inner, outer glow and stroke.


TUTORIAL

Breathe in the Air

PHOTO MANIPULATION Level: MEDIUM | Time: 1 HR

CREATE SOMETHING using ordinary-at-first-sight portraits and one very well-known technique – double exposure. All you need are three key concepts: preparation, experimentation and imagination. 114 | PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS

TUTORIAL DENITSA TOSHIROVA IS A BULGARIAN-BORN PHOTOGRAPHER CURRENTLY BASED IN EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND. SELF-TAUGHT AND TENACIOUS, SHE IS CURRENTLY AT EDINBURGH NAPIER UNIVERSITY. BEHANCE.NET/TOSHIROVA

01

Choose your image As this photograph is part of an ongoing project, I composed it so that I could use the dark scarf space for the double exposure effect. I usually have in mind exactly what I want to create and which photograph I’ll use for the double exposure. It’s good to have prepared everything before beginning the postproduction process.

02

Black and white This series is in black and white, and most of the photographs are “high key”, so the first thing I do is turn the photograph into a black and white shot, making a few minor brightness and contrast adjustments. You might decide you want your photographs in colour, so this is up to the author. I use the Burn and Dodge tool to straighten or lighten shadows or certain details from the face and the body of the model and to make the photograph a bit more expressive. In this case I wanted the lips and shadows darker. Save this version of the photograph and then continue.


TUTORIAL

DOUBLE EXPOSURE PORTRAIT

03 Double exposure effect Import and select the photograph for your double exposure effect. After you’ve imported the desired image, use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select the image.

04

Paste the selected area After you’ve selected the area of the photograph you want to use, use the right button and select Layer via Copy. After that you can just go on the other photograph and choose paste. You can also just “drag and drop” the image using Move tool.

05

Place your photographs The next thing I do is rotate the photograph and place it in the desired spot. I already know that in the end I will vertically flip the image, so I vertically flip the forest photograph.


TUTORIAL

Pro Tip You’re going to stare at this image and work with it for a long time. Sometimes, when the position of the model, the framing, etc. are too unnatural and awkward for the eye, this can result in mistakes you didn’t see at first. Take a step back, take a break and look again. It will help.

06

Scale

Using Scale you can place the image in the perfect position and size for your work.

07

Apply an image This step is where the magic happens. Using the Apply image option from the Image menu, choose from a couple of different options to connect to two layers. In this case I’ve used the Lighten blending option. Make sure that the Layer is set to Background.

08

Remove the unwanted parts Using the History Brush Tool (make sure you’ve used a saved black and white and adjusted version of your photograph newly imported, because otherwise the History brush will erase all the changes made since the importing of the photograph) I get rid of the parts of the exposed image I am not happy with. Usually these are the parts going through the body and the face. Of course, this is up to you, because sometimes the exposed image creates interesting effects you wouldn’t want to get rid of.


TUTORIAL

DOUBLE EXPOSURE PORTRAIT

09 Adjustments When you’re happy with the created photograph, you can do final Brightness and Contrast adjustments, but make sure you don’t over or underexpose the photograph. With digital photography it’s always tricky because of the different settings of the different monitors, but you can always use the Histogram to check if everything is ok.

10

Extra effects (optional) This isnt necessary, but because I wanted a more dynamic photograph, I decided to use one of the ready-to-use filters and effects from Photoshop called Radial Blur. Again, you can use the History brush and remove whatever you feel is needless (as I did), applying the same rule about the use of the History brush tool.

11

Flip vertically

And here is the final step. I flip the final image vertically to create the interesting and surreal effect I was looking for. And this is it. Use your creativity!


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TUTORIAL

Utopia SOME SAY THAT people with symmetrical facial features are the most beautiful and the most attractive. This similar concept is behind ‘Utopia’.


PHOTO MANIPULATION

Level: ADVANCED | Time: 8 HRS

TUTORIAL MOE PIKE SOE IS A 20-YEAR-OLD SELF-TAUGHT DIGITAL ARTIST/ DESIGNER FROM YANGON, MYANMAR. HE’S THE FOUNDER OF “THE BEAST” STUDIO AND CURRENTLY STUDYING AT AN ART COLLEGE IN THE UNITED STATES. THEBEASTSTUDIO.COM

This artwork is created for the 7th chapter of BlankHiss Art Collective. The theme is about Utopia and perfection. The artwork is constructed using only one side of a stock portrait photo. Hence the facial features of the model become symmetrical and able to imitate ‘perfect beauty’. Following this tutorial and you’ll learn to create a ‘full’ face using just half of a portrait, with the help of tools such as cloning, adjustment layers and blend modes.

01

Setting up Download the image from Dreamstime. If you want to test out the tutorial without using the same picture, try finding the photo that is shot directly in front of the model’s face. Once the stock is ready, create a new document at the size of 3500 pixels by 5600 pixels. Fill the background with #c49db9 and place the model as shown.

02

Breaking down the face

This is the part where we will half the model’s face. Create a mask on the model layer and mask out the extra part just like in the reference picture. The trick is to create both hard edges and soft edges using the brush tool and pen tool.


TUTORIAL PERFECT BEAUTY TUTORIAL

03 Full face If the model’s face is masked out, duplicate it and put both layers into a group. Flip one of the layers horizontally using transform and arrange it so that the face becomes ‘full’.

04

Editing the face The face will be not perfect and it’s possible you’ll see a visible line between the two halves. Grab the clone tool (S) and clone the part from one of the model layers. Paint carefully on the center of the face to fix the line.

05

Adjustment layers

Now we’ve figured out how to combine to get the face, we’ll improve it using adjustment layers. We’ll use more than one adjustment layer to achieve the ‘blend’ between model and the background. So create the adjustment layers according to the reference picture.


TUTORIAL

06

Creating the cap Creating the cap is quite easy. On top of the model’s group, create a circle and fill it with white. Then select circle marquee tool (M) and create a selection in the bottom center part of the white circle. After selecting it, create a mask with the invert selection. That will leave you with the cap shape.

07 Improving the cap Create a new layer and clip mask that layer upon the cap layer. Then paint in shadows using a darker shade of the background colour. After that copy the white cap and nudge down about 20 pixels using shift + down arrow keys. Now we’ve got ourselves a ‘thinking cap’.

08

Improvements Put all the cap layers together and create a group. Duplicate the group and place it below the model layer. Within the duplicated group, delete the mask of the white circle and adjust your shadow layer to make it look like the inside of a cap. After you’ve finished it, create a mask on the group layer. Grab a big soft brush and mask it out behind the model to appear faded.


TUTORIAL PERFECT BEAUTY TUTORIAL

09 Creating atmosphere Now we’ll focus on the background and foreground to create a light atmosphere for the artwork. Create a new layer above the background layer and paint with white using a soft brush from top to bottom. After you’ve finished, open the ‘sphere.png’ and place it above all the layers. Now you’ve got the sense of the model floating among white haze or fog.

10 Details

We will now add mode details to the model face. You can do this in many ways, and the simplest way is to create a new layer on top of the layers of the model group and set the blend mode to ‘soft light’. Start creating different shapes and lines on the face. With the soft light blend mode, you will still be able to get the highlights and shadows of the layers below.

11

Adjusting exposure The top part of the face is underexposed compared to the bottom and the background. We will fix that by creating a new layer within the face group and on top of all layers. Paint a soft white brush onto the top part of the face and set the blend mode to ‘soft light’.


TUTORIAL

12

Final touch-ups Now everything looks great but still lacks the feel of Utopia. Create a new colour balance adjustment layer and move the blue slider in the highlint tab. Then reduce the vibrance with a new vibrance adjustment layer. Congrats! You’ve just created Utopia. Hopefully you’ve learnt a few new techniques along the way.

Check out thebeaststudio.com for more works


TUTORIAL

Flying Island

THIS WORK STARTED AS AN ATTEMPT BY THE ARTIST TO CONNECT WITH HIS HOMETOWN, BUT AS HE LET THE MIND FLOW, THINGS TOOK A LITTLE BIT OF A DIFFERENT CONNECTION


CONSTRUCTING FANTASY WORLDS Level: ADVANCED | Time: 5 HRS

TUTORIAL NICOLAS ANDRADE IS A BRAZILIAN MUSICIAN AND DESIGNER WITH 7 YEARS EXPERIENCE FOCUSED ON WEB DESIGN AND DIGITAL ART. CHECK OUT HIS WORK AT:BEHANCE.NET/ANDRADE_NICKO

01

Creating the ground The first thing we need to do is to set the basis for everything, and for this you must first define what will be the foreground. Create a circle using the Ellipse Tool (U). Use the Warp Mode to give the wavy shape, which will give the idea of proportion to the ground.

02

Growing grass Open the image “grass.tif” and cut the grass to fill the ellipse. After making sure that you fill in all the form, create a Clipping Mask and create a new layer for the shadow. Draw a black line, using the Soft Round Brush at around 100px at the base vector and then apply the Blend Mode Overlay.

03

Base work This process is very similar to creating the floor – you must create a stone base with a vector and define the Warp Mode shape that will be used as a mask.


TUTORIAL

CONSTRUCTING FANTASY WORLDS

04 Earth + stone Open the images “land-and-water.tif” and “land.tif”, cut out the parts that best fit (Stone and Earth) to fill the base of the Flying Island. At this stage you should use Reveal Masks to erase and overwrite elements so you get the right look. Next, create a new layer for shadow and repeat the final step of Growing Grass, only this time on top of the vector.

05 Cracks

To give a more realistic feel to the island, you need to create small cracks, both on the ground and in the base. Create a Reveal Mask on the vectors and erase with various-sized Hard Round brushes.

06

Gears

Open figures “gears-1.tif” and “gears-2.tif” to cut gears, place them behind all the layers already set up here but ensure they’re in position so the island looks like it’s being raised up to the heavens. Add more cracks in the base Reveal Mask for added realism – only this time use the default format of the cogs so they’ll appear embedded. No need to overdo this part, because two or three gears are enough to make it look real. Create a shadow layer on top. Use several layers for the small sections of the shadows because they provide proportion.


TUTORIAL

07

Closing the base Open the image “house.tif” and cut some bushes for the end of the island. These will serve as the base for the flying city. Use Masks to Reveal, the same way as was done in step 4, cut and overlap the elements.

03

08

Buildings This is one of the easiest parts of the tutorial. Simply cut out the buildings of “land-2.tif” and “building.tif” and position them behind the greenery. If you’re going to repeat some of them, ensure they’re different heights and sizes. A good option for better aspect ratio is to use the Blur Tool (10%), to give a little blur to the background.

09 Trees

Open the image “trees.tif” and select the trees you want to mount. Cut them out and scale them proportionally to the ground. For most shadows on objects, I use the Soft Round Brush, and in some cases a little blur, depending on where I want it to come to light. In such cases, I usually get as close to the shape of the object reflected on the floor and then apply and let Overlay with an opacity enter 40 and 60%. Repeat this for all the trees, noting that the direction of light should always be the same, but with slight differences in size, depending on the distance.


TUTORIAL


10 Lake

The lake should follow the same vector for the construction of the floor and the base. After positioning and giving shape to the vector, place the new layer behind the first, taking half the opacity for the shadow. For objects that are glued to the ground this is the best way to make them seem part of the assembly. The concept of shadows is too complex to explain, but it’s important to remember that we have several incidences of light by multiple angles and with different intensities, which results in various shades. Every shadow has colour. It’s important to pay attention to these details so that the shadow doesn’t get fake looking. To fill the lake, use the image “lake.tif” and adjust size and shape. At the end use the Clipping Mask into the vector.

11 Ship

The whole assembly was based in the city where I live, Campinas, Sao Paulo, in Brazil, so I sought local elements to compose the Flying Island. This is a replica of one of the caravels which arrived in Brazil from Portugal, with those responsible for the colonisation of our country. It’s one of the most popular parks in the city, the Portugal Park, and currently found in restoration period, but as it’s an important landmark of the city, I found an image that was more quiet to work, with respect to angle and proportion, and found the image “boat.tif”, which is a 3D reproduction of this replica. To apply it, and adjust the size of the lake, used a Reveal Mask to crop and then redo the shadow, as in the previous steps (Tree and Lake) for added realism.

12 Appearance of objects Here’s a secret that I use to light the bright objects with similar aspects. I duplicate the same object once, twice or even more (depending on the case) and leave these layers with one Overlay, adjusting opacity as needed to make the brightness close to the other objects. I prefer to do it this way because I find it easier to control intensity. Depending on the image quality, use the second duplicate layer to add the High Pass filter (between 2 and 5), and add Overlay to highlight more clearly.


TUTORIAL

13 Tower

For the image of the tower (Fig. “tower.tif”), you need to complete the sides of the base. Use a vector in the same format and the Stamp Tool to fill the spaces. After positioning it, use the same vector to create the first shadow (follow the Lake Step), creating a layer to Overlay. Ensure the shadows work with the light direction for the tower, footpath, grass and left side of the tower. Try repeating some of the pieces over the grass so all the elements fit together.

14

Street and bus

Import Bus Station (Fig. “bus-station.tif”). You’ll also need to build a street. In the same way you built the lake, make a vector (which we’ll also use to shade the ground) and applied the Gradient Tool to end it. Then use the image “street.tif” and apply the part of the asphalt as a Clipping Mask. Repeat the Appearance Step for the image of the Bus (Fig. “bus.tif”) and snap it on the street.

15

Street Light After applying the statue (Fig. “statue.tif”) following the same steps used for the tower, put some light poles (Fig. “bollard-light.tif”) in so it looks like Bollard Lights. After fitting them and leaving them with overlay, use the Lighting Brush in white colour and apply Overlay to leave the lights with aspect lit.


TUTORIAL


16

Balloons, birds and airplane For these elements (Fig. “house.tif”, “birds.tif”, “airplane.tif”) apply an Overlay in a second layer and use the Reveal Mask to add cuts to them. Once positioned in the sky, trying to fit the objects proportionately.

17

Heaven

To create heaven, make a layer and degrade the Blue (C:100 M:94 Y:17 K:5) for White, before applying the clouds, and then with a white bottom layer, apply 60% opacity.

18 Clouds Cut out the images clouds “land-2.tif”, “sky.tif” and “cloud.tif” and go about applying the sky. Leave some above the base of the island, to give the impression it’s floating on the clouds. For transparency use rubber opacity of about 50%.


TUTORIAL

19 Sun

To make the sun, you should use the Lighting Brushes. Try two different sizes with different arrangements. The first with 1200px in white with 60% opacity, and 1800px, in the same colour, Overlay and 90% opacity and a second, more defined with lighting 800px white in colour, in which you must delete the centre with 500px of Eraser Tool.

20 Texture

Open the image “texture.tif” and with the Colour Range choose the darkest corner and Fuzziness 200 with Selection. Crop the image left and position on the mount of the island. Apply Multiply with 50% Opacity.

21

City

Finally insert “landscape-city.tif” behind the clouds repeatedly to Darken Blend Mode and Opacity 30%. It will add even more realism to Flying Island. To cut use Reveal Mask and overlap for a better result.


TUTORIAL

Water Hand

AD FOR WORLD WATER DAY - CLIENT: ELEKTRO Art Director: Andrew Morelli Editor: Demetrius Rock Retouching: Hugo Ceneviva Posted on the website Ads of the World, We Love Ad and others. 134 | PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS

PHOTO RETOUCH

Level: ADVANCED | Time: 1 HR

TUTORIAL HUGO CENEVIVA IS BRAZILIAN DIGITAL ARTIST WORKING FOR ELEVENDY INC, USA. HIS PASSION IS RETOUCHING AND CREATING UNREAL IMAGES FOR HIS CLIENTS. BEHANCE.NET/HUGOCENEVIVA

Taking a concept from a rough idea and bringing it to life with image fusion.

01

Open original image Open an image with the texture of bathroom tiles. I’ve put it on a perspective angle as the first step before we manipulate it.

02 Gradient adjustments Make a gradient using soft light and direct the light to come from the right side of the image. Add another gradient and adjust until the light looks good.

03

Saturation and curves Use saturation to make the scene all black and white, then use curves to add more light to the scene.


TUTORIAL

PHOTO RETOUCH

04 Start on shadow

Grab an image of a tap and adjust the perspective to fit on the wall you’ve created. Now you need to add a simple shadow on the wall. To do this, duplicate the image, put it on black and then add on soft light, with a gradient to make it look more realistic.

05

Brush up

Use the brush to add more shadows on the tap on the left side. Again, use soft light.

06

Colour the tap Use the blue colour to add colour on your tap. Use blend mode colour at 20%.


TUTORIAL

07

A helping hand

Open an image of a hand, then create three duplicate layers. Invert the image using cmd + I to that. You’re going to put one in multiply, one in soft light and one in luminosity. Use masks to make it look more realistic. Start to add in the water splashes. This will help you model your water splash with more perfection.

08

Water direction

Use your brush to make the water look like it is flowing in one direction so it looks more realistic.

09 Add details Start to model water into the shape of a finger. Use your water splashes on multiply to make it more realistic. Remember that water is transparent.


TUTORIAL

PHOTO RETOUCH

10 Extras Use the water splash to create one more finger over the tap.

11

Splashes Start to play with the splashes by using a mask to get the directions right and perfect the shape of your hand.

12

Water drops

Put some water drops around your image. Use all the drops on multiply.


TUTORIAL

13

Multiply

Now we want to create a splash coming out of the tap. The water should fall naturally – you can work with a different splashes in multiply and use masks. Remember to pay attention to creating a good curve. The form of the splashes is important when it comes to design harmony.

14

Final splashes Add more splashes to balance out your composition. Remember to always use multiply.

15 Mask

Fill your composition with a lot of splashes using mask.


TUTORIAL

PHOTO RETOUCH

16 Top of the tap Now you’re going to fix the water splash on the top of the tap. Make a mask to adjust and make it go beyond the water.

17

Contrast Use the contrast tool to put more contrast on your scene, it will help the water look more realistic.

18 Overlay Make a gray layer, on 50% black, put the filter noise with 4% monochromatic, and use overlay to add a little noise to your scene.


TUTORIAL

19 Lights

Make a black effect with the brush so you can regulate the light of the scene. Ensure light goes on the water splash, put this layer on soft light.

21

Final touches

To finish, put a layer in blue, in colour on the blend mode, set up to 18% on the fill. Now you’re done!


TUTORIAL

RAW IMAGE

DISCOVER BASIC FEATURES of Photoshop Camera Raw and learn how to turn your work into a striking attractive colour. You also learn different techniques in masking and apply various masks on each part of the image.


CREATE COLOUR POP FOR YOUR IMAGE Level: ADVANCED | Time: 4 HRS

TUTORIAL QUINNY VU IS A YOUNG DESIGNER FROM VIETNAM, CURRENTLY STUDYING AND WORKING IN SINGAPORE. QUINNY IS A CONCEPTUAL THINKER, WITH A GREAT BELIEF IN THE LANGUAGE OF IMAGE AND TYPE. BEHANCE.NET/QUINNYVU

01

Open RAW image At first I focus on bringing out the shadow by decreasing the Dark and Shadow. My favourite tool is Clarity, where a small adjustment will make a big difference.

02

Colour adjustment To bring out the pop and striking colour, I need to fix each of the channels. In this picture, we focus on Red, Orange and Yellow. Don’t worry about spending a lot of time on HSL/ grayscale until you get the correct colour.

03

Sharpen image Go ahead and sharpen. The more you adjust the sharpening, the more you adjust the noise reduction. Tip: Zoom in 100% while adjusting.


TUTORIAL

CREATE POP COLOUR

04 Clean up Always duplicate the original image as a back up. I create a new layer and use the clone tool to clean up all unnecessary elements on the image. Always tick the Current & Below box so Photoshop can copy from all the layers.

05

Masking for specific adjustments In order to get a sharp selection of the fork, use the pen tool to draw around it. Then hit right click > Make selection. Choose Select > save selection to use it later. Create a new level adjustment layer by Adjustment > New adjustment layer > Level. Create a mask by clicking the mask button, click Cmd/Ctrl + I to invert to black. Load the fork selection, Select > Load selection and fill it white. Now you can make any adjustment on the fork without affecting other parts of the image.

TUTORIAL

06

Type adjustments

Follow step 4 for sharpness. I’ll still use the pen tool because I want my selection to be sharp. Brighten the dark area on the type by reducing the darkness level.

07

Adjust background Now let’s make the background pop. Create a new level adjustment layer, pull down the Green curve and pull up the RGB curve. The new adjustment affects not only the background but also the type, so in the next step we’ll need to mask the type again.


TUTORIAL

CREATE POP COLOUR

08 Masking background Create a new mask, then Select > Load Selection and fill it with black. Use the brush tool, set the softness to 0% and start to draw on the shadow area to bring it back.

PRO TIP

Option/alt + click on the mask to see your mask in detail so you can make changes

TUTORIAL

09

Lighting adjustments To lighten the dark area in the conner, create another level adjustment layer, and pull all the arrows to the left. Then create a mask, invert it to black by clicking Cmd / Ctrl + I, and use the white brush to paint white over the corner.

10

Final sharpen

The final touch is to sharpen the image. Cmd + Option + Shift + E (Ctrl + Alt + Shift +E) to copy a new merged visible layer. Filter > other > High Pass and set it to 1.2px. Change the blending mode to Linear Light, then change fill to 30%.


TUTORIAL

Trophy Beer THE TROPHY BEER concept was designed in collaboration with a friend. Each of the four illustrations was represented by an animal with an associated distinct personality. We identified the ram as the wild one.


TUTORIAL

PACKAGING DESIGN

Level: ADVANCED | Time: 4 HRS

GALIMA AKHMETZYANOVA IS A GRAPHIC DESIGNER/ ILLUSTRATOR AND FREELANCER. CHECK MORE AT BEHANCE.NET/HELLOGALIMA

BEFORE YOU START: Search through different stock photo sources in order to find a useful image. Google search provides miracles. Keep all your findings in one folder.

01

Research

Do a bit of research on the internet to find images for your intended illustration. It might be funny accessories, drawings or realistic photos of animals. This stage is the basis of your work.

02

Making a rough sketch

The main idea in this particular stage is to work on the whole image. So, don’t work on a single detail. Try to see the composition. This approach is also applicable with other stages as well and will keep your composition balanced. Create a new file. My particular need was to create an illustration which would be used in 3D visualisation and didn’t require a very high resolution. Compose all main elements such as background, ram’s head and horns. Separate the right horn from the head so you’ll have two layers: head and right horn. Create tongue, mouth and left horn using the Pen Tool.

TIP: A combination of freehand Lasso (L) and Pen Tool (P) will help you do selections quickly and accurately. Pressing Shift while you’re choosing a tool switches between different options.

TIP: Always use Auto-Select and Show Transform Controls options. They allow you to select and transform every layer quickly. PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS | 149

TUTORIAL

PACKAGING DESIGN

Ram (part I) fur

03

First, you need to create a brush for fur. Create a new file (100х100 px, Grayscale). Make four or five different circle selections and fill them with black colour. Select your circles, go to Edit Menu and Define Brush Preset, then name your brush. You’ll be able to change presets in the Brush pallette. Duplicate a layer with the ram’s head (Ctrl+J). The original image should stay the same the whole way through. It gives you an idea of how far you’ve progressed. Start to work on the fur with the brush you’ve created. Keep the same direction of the fur and place every stroke accordingly. Also, consider using the Dry Brush Tip Light Flow, which is a custom Photoshop brush. Just change spacing to 38%. The main concern at this stage is to create the correct construction of the head by using a combination of light and shadows. Sometime later, you will find yourself adding more natural highlights to the fur.

IMPORTANT: Press Alt when using dodge/burn tool to switch between the two. Exposure can be changed by pressing numbers on your keyboard. For example, 1=10%, 3=30%, etc.

04

Horns (part I) You need to now put colour on the right horn by using Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U). Using the soft brush, fill in the gaps in the selection. Add a layer mask to the right horn and start to slice it.


TUTORIAL

Tip: Changing Opacity and Fill gives different results with Dodge Mode. Experiment with them.

05

Details (part I) Now you can work on smaller details such as ears and tongue. Add leaves to your composition. As you can see, there’s just one image, which I duplicated and transformed. This diversity makes the illustrations more dynamic.

Horns (part II)

06

To make a pattern for the horn, you need to use Illustrator. Create a new file in Illustrator and place your psd file into it. Lock the image (ctrl + 2). Create four lines with equal anchor points. Select these lines and apply Blend Tool to them. You can edit lines in order to make them look natural. Copy the blended lines and paste them in your psd file as pixels. To make the pattern look more realistic, you need to create shadow and light on the horn. Change the mode from normal to multiply and reduce the opacity from 100% to 60%. This is the shadow side. To create a light side you need to duplicate the layer and move it to a couple of steps. Invert the colour from black to white (Ctrl + I). Then change the mode of the layer to Colour Dodge and reduce the Opacity to 20-30%. Intensity of the shadow layer should be reduced on the borders. Make a mask and brush away to reduce texture as desired on the layer. Add the polka dot pattern to the left horn.


TUTORIAL

PACKAGING DESIGN

07

Background

By using the Pen Tool, draw an abstract shape. Use a Gradient Layer Effect to apply the gradient you need. Duplicate the layer and move it a couple of steps below. Lighten it by using Hue/Saturation or Curves (Ctrl+M). The floral pattern was chosen for the illustration in order to make it look more sophisticated. I found a random pattern and colourised it so it didn’t look like a patch. Then I applied Overlay Mode (Alt + Shift + O) to it and reduced the Opacity to 16-20%.

IMPORTANT: Try to experiment with different layer modes. You might discover a cool visual effect.

08

Details (Part II) Here you need to work on small details such as a string, tassel, leaves, etc. Use Transform Tool if you want to change a shape of an object. It’s pretty difficult to make a transformation of the string according to the horn, but you can still cut it to different layers and move them accordingly. Don’t be afraid to make changes in your illustration. This is a digital work, so every action can be undone. But being a little bit mad will make an illustration more emotional. At the beginning I was going to hang a bottle with acid on the horn but then changed my mind and inserted another object.


Tip: God is in the details

TUTORIAL

09

Tip: Keep your eye on the bone structure. Use soft brush for dodge/ burn to sculpt the shape.

Ram (part II) Go back to the ram and continue to work on the fur by using the dodge and burn fur brush. This will help to add depth to it. I don’t use option Protect Tones because the resulting colour looks nasty in my opinion.

TIP: After all the final touches, Stamp visible layers by pressing alt + ctrl + shift + E and change the mode from Normal to Linear Light. Then reduce the opacity from 100% to a small number. This will provide your illustration greater depth and contrast.

Shadows and sharpness

10

At this stage, you’re about ready to finalise your masterpiece. You need to add shadows to every object to give it depth and make the whole illustration more realistic. Use a pan tool to create a shadow under the head. Use Multiply mode for the layer and reduce the Opacity from 100% to 40%. Then apply a mask to it and use Gradient Fill Tool to reduce the intensity of shadow as it goes away. Create a new layer with Multiply Mode. Bring the layer to the top and use soft brush and erase tool to draw other shadow parts. After all the final touches, you might like to add sharp your illustration. Stamp visible layers by pressing Alt + Ctrl + Shift + E. Go to Filter > Other > High Pass and apply it to the layer. Then change the mode from Normal to Linear Light. If it is too much, you can reduce Opacity of the layer. In my opinion this operation helps to bring every element of your composition together.


TUTORIAL

Simple Album Covers

CREATING ALBUM COVERS can be hard without direction. Use photography and turn these simple images into a stunning space scene.


TUTORIAL

CREATE INTRIGUING ALBUM COVERS Level: MEDIUM | Time: 1 HR

TIMOTHY MEAKINS IS A 19-YEAR-OLD PERTHBASED GRAPHIC DESIGNER CURRENTLY STUDYING BEHANCE.NET/TIMMEAKINS

01

Gather the images

Pick two images that provide the basis of the design. I chose an image I took of a hedge and a tree, both overlooking the sky. Choice of image is extremely important. The images must be of high quality and resonate with each other.

02 Additives For the colour adjustments I fiddled with brightness and contrast then started using a radial gradient, playing around with the blending modes until I was happy with the result. Try to use block layers of colours to give the image a more interesting look. It’s always a good idea to use texture – grab one of the many free textures out on the web. Saturate the image and multiply to give it a more vintage feel.

03

Multiply the 2nd image Now with the second image (of your choice) multiply it on top of the image already adjusted for the front. For my needs I used this image primarily on the back.


TUTORIAL

CREATE ALBUM COVERS

04 Add the planet Add a circle with blank colour (colour choice is totally up to you) Put this circle beneath the texture so it will blend nicely. Add specks and a large spot with the dodge tool at roughly 50%. This will give the circle a 3D feel.

05

Stars and light leaks Add extras such as stars/nebula (create your own using noise and colour selection) and light leaks as I’ve done. I like to grab a colour and erase it until I get the right result.

06 Type As this is an album cover, I had to put type on the back/ front but you can still do this to keep the image interesting.


TUTORIAL

07 Finishing the back When designing the back, keeping the typography simple, effective and readable is a balance that’s hard to grasp. Depending on the design, try to position everything according to image; i.e., as the front is centred therefore the back is centred as well. I created the type on Illustrator CS5.

TUTORIAL

08 Mock up the design Mock up the design to make it look professional and also to get a different outlook.


TUTORIAL

Soul Transmission

ABSTRACT PHOTO MANIPULATION Level: ADVANCED | Time: 3 HRS

IF YOU WANT TO ADVERTISE, sometimes a mixture of liquids and its splashing effect is good idea to stand out. In this tutorial we will explain how to use different textures to add dynamism to our dance shot. 158 | PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS

TUTORIAL KRISTINA ALEGRO IS A SLOVENIAN FREELANCE GRAPHIC ARTIST WITH PASSION FOR DIGITAL ART AND GRAPHIC DESIGN ALLEDESIGN.DEVIANTART.COM

01

Background

First we need to set the background, so we go to Rectangle Tool (U) > Blending Options > Colour Overlay # f5f5f7. In the middle of the background, draw the eclipse using Ellipse tool # 7c7c7c > Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and lower the opacity down to 8. Play with different options and colours until you get the background that’s the most suitable for your further work.

02 Adding model stock Load ‘girl_jump.psd’ from project files into Photoshop and copy/paste to our previously made background. Duplicate the ‘model stock’ layer and hide it, so you’ll have a backup in case you don’t like the way the next step turns out.

03

Adding nebula and circles First load the nebula image into Photoshop and set it under our image model. Change the blending mode to Overlay and use the Eraser Tool (E) to delete parts you don’t want to have on the picture. After that we need to add some circles. Grab the Ellipse tool, set the colour to #b6c9e9, lower the opacity to 41% and draw some circles as you can see on the picture.


TUTORIAL

ABSTRACT PHOTO MANIPULATION

04

Adding water splashes to our image Import “water textures – splashes” from project files. Use the transformation tool and warp tool to combine them as you can see on the picture. You can also use your own technique with other textures, other settings, blending modes, etc.

05 Changing blending mode You can add different textures, play with the warp tool and change blending modes as you wish. I used several blending modes: Overlay, Linear Burn and Divide, but you can try a few and find what works out best in your case – be creative.


OUT 20TEHR NOE-VOREDMERBNOW

PR

*

“2”, “PlayStation”, “PLAYSTATION”, “ ”, “ ” and “ ” are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “SONY” and “ ” are registered trademarks of Sony Corporation. “make.believe” is a trademark of the same company. Tearaway™ ® 2013 Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Developed by Media Molecule. “Tearaway” is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. All rights reserved. *At participating retailers.

EDITOR’S CHOICE Church in Novgorod

by Marta Bielsa Metallic paper on Dibond

Church of Design

“I learnt the basic tools from my courses, but I learnt the most when I jumped into experimentation” Marta Bielsa


ON THE DISC

Use the image resources on your free CD to help in these tutorials PLUS many more! TUTORIAL

Eating Orange

TUTORIAL

TUTORIAL

PHOTO MANIPULATION


TUTORIAL

Metal Taste

BEN IS A FREELANCER WORKING FOR BUSINESSES AND INDIVIDUALS. HE IS PHOTOGRAPHER, VIDEOGRAPHER AND GRAPHIC DESIGNER. UNDER THE NAME DANIEL VON STEPHANI HE PUBLISHES HIS OWN ARTWORKS AND HAS HAD SEVERAL EXHIBITIONS DESPITE BEING ONLY 24. CHECK HIM OUT AT ART.DAVONSTART.COM.

DIGITAL PAINTING SIMPLE CONCEPT Level: MEDIUM| Time: 4 HOURS

01

BERNARDO HENRIQUES IIS A STUDENT AT THE FACULTY OF FINE ARTS IN LISBON, PORTUGAL.HE IS EXPLORING ALL THE WAYS THAT DIGITAL ART WORK CAN GIVE ME AND OF COURSE ENTERING IN THE 3D LEVEL.

01

Convert from RAW

Shape and Sketch First of all I tried to give a shape and start on a sketch of what I wanted to achieve just to know about composition settings and to get a sense of space. I need to say that this piece was done without any visual references but in many of my artwork I trend to use photography as a visual help to get to the point of my concept. In this initial phase I pretty much wanted to do this freaky mouth in a hardcore way.

If you shoot your own photographs it is best to use RAW as you can easily adjust colours and light without decreasing quality. In this case, a bit of brightness and contrast is needed.

02

02

Shape and Sketch II

Replace and repair

As I continue to work on this piece I extend my hardcore feel in to it so now you can see that this mouth is just on a piece of skin. At this point I’m starting to “blocking” the visual value of the mouth, applying the darkness from the inside out as well as progressing on the main sketch. From here forward it’s going to be all about the mouth realist appearance.

The background needs to be replaced to get one white backdrop. Create a new layer and use the Brush Tool (B) in white to paint over all unwanted background. Use a brush with a large diameter and no hardness to get a good transition.

03

03

Painting and Anatomy Now I’m more focus on the realism of the mouth and how the mouth is expressing an emotion this is the part where I get more creative and have more fun by giving personality to a mouth not caring about the whole face. I’m using one single brush for the whole painting part of the tutorial it’s not the usual way to do it, but it provide a real control feeling of the brush stroke allowing you to know exactly how to define your own boundaries.

Adjust brightness As you can see, the background is not as bright as the white replacement layer. Select the layer with the orange on and carefully change the brightness using Levels (ctrl/cmd + L) until you see know hard transition anymore.

CREATE AN EASY PHOTO MANIPULATION with great impact. Ben shows how to convert an idea into an artwork without needing many layers, filters or a lot of time. It makes it timeless and rememberable like this orange.




PHOTO MAGIC

DIGITAL PAINTING

Turn the ordinary into the extraordinary!

Tips and tricks for brilliant compositions!

© Citrus Media

TUTORIAL

Breathe in the air

TUTORIAL

PHOTO MANIPULATION


TUTORIAL

DENITSA TOSHIROVA IS A BULGARIAN-BORN PHOTOGRAPHER CURRENTLY BASED IN EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND. SELF-THOUGHT AND TENACIOUS, SHE IS CURRENTLY IN HER SECOND YEAR AT EDINBURGH NAPIER UNIVERSITY.

TUTORIAL

Flying Island

01

CONSTRUCTING FANTASY WORLD

Level: ADVANCED | Time: 5 HOURS

NICOLAS ANDRADE IIS A BRAZILIAN MUSICIAN AND DESIGNER WITH 7 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE FOCUSED ON WEB DESIGN AND DIGITAL ART. CHECK OUT HIS WORK AT: BEHANCE.NET/ANDRADE_NICKO

01

Choose your image

Creating the Ground

As this photograph is part of an ongoing project, I composed it in a special way so that I could use the dark scarf space for the double exposure effect. I usually have in mind what exactly I want to create and which photograph exactly I will use for the double exposure, so I could pretty much say that I have prepared everything before the postproduction process.

The first thing to do is to set the basis for everything, and for this you must first create a circle using the Ellipse Tool (U) to define that it will be the ground. Use the Warp Mode to give the wavy shape, which will give the idea of proportion to the ground.

02

02

Black and white The series are black and white, and most of the photographs are “high key”, so the first thing I do is to turn the photograph in black and white and make some brightness and contrast adjustments. You could always decide you want your photographs in colour, so this is up to the author’s will and point of view. I use the Burn and Dodge tool to straighten or lighten shadows or certain details from the face and the body of the model and to make the photograph a bit more expressive. In this case I wanted the lips and shadows darker. I save this version of the photograph and then continue.

Grass

Open the image “grass.tif” and cut the grass to use it to fill the ellipse either be used as a Clipping Mask. After making sure that you fill in all the form correctly, create a Clipping Mask and create a new layer to create the shadow. Draw a black line, using the Soft Round Brush at least 100px at the base vector and then apply the Blend Mode Overlay.

TUTORIAL

RAW IMAGE

CREATE SOMETHING using ordinary at first sight portraits and one very well-known technique – double exposure. All you need is the three key concepts: preparation, experimentation and imagination. 80 | PHOTOSHOP PROJECTS

Level: ADVANCED | Time: 4 HOURS

QUINNY VU IS A YOUNG DESIGNER FROM VIETNAM, CURRENTLY STUDYING AND WORKING IN SINGAPORE. QUINNY IS A CONCEPTUAL THINKER, WITH A GREAT BELIEF IN THE LANGUAGE OF IMAGE AND TYPE. SHE IS OPEN FOR ANY OPPORTUNITY TO DISCOVER AND INVOLVE IN ART AND DESIGN.

Basis

CREATE A FANTASY WORLD THAT MADE A BRAND CONNECTION WITH HIS HOMETOWN WAS THE BEGINNING OF ALL THIS WORK, BUT LETTING THE MIND FLOW IS THAT THINGS HAPPEN.

01


03

TUTORIAL

CREATE POP COLOUR FOR YOUR IMAGE


Open raw image

The process is very similar to the floor, because you must create a stone base with a vector and define the Warp Mode shape that will be used as a mask.


Open a Raw image in Photoshop will turn up the Raw image adjustment. At first I focus on bringout the shadow by decrease the Dark and Shadow. My favorite tool is Clarity, a bit adjustment here make big difference.

SIMPLE TECHNIQUES

02

Layering and masking techniques for creative situations!

Colour adjustment

To bring out the pop and striking colour, I need to fix each of the channel. In this picture, we focus on Red, Orange and Yellow. So dont worry to spend sometime at HSL/grayscale box till get the correct colour.

03 DISCOVER BASIC FEATURE of Photoshop Camera Raw and learn how to turn your work into a striking attractive colour. You also learn different technique in masking and apply various mask on each part of the image.

Sharpen image Sharpen the image and the more you adjust the sharpening, the more you adjust the noise reducing. Hit Open the image once when we ready. Tip: zoom in 100% while adjusting.



STUNNING LETTERING Everything you need to know about 2D and 3D lettering!

ADVANCED SKILLS Master techniques to create complex designs!

Photoshop Expert tips for Photoshop®, Illustrator® and more!

PROFILES

Interviews with some of the world’s biggest Photoshop names

PROJECTS

INDUSTRY EXPERTS

Behind the scenes with professional retouchers, directors and designers

TIPS AND TRICKS

Everything you need to know on Photoshop techniques and styles

MANIPULATION TECHNIQUES

Transform ordinary objects into the extraordinary

RETOUCH AND REVAMP

Take portraits to the next level with these cool sci-fi techniques

Photoshop Projects - Volume 14

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