dcw03 09 photoshop tips

8/6/2019 DCW03 09 Photoshop Tips

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PHOTOSHOP

This model was shot for amagazine cover. We needed tomake her more obviously blonde,adjust her eye colour to fit with theother cover colours, and brightenup her lips. We did this veryquickly, using the techniquesdescribed opposite


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DIGITAL CAMERAMAGAZINE 063

Practise with the Pen tool much of the time it's quicker to

cut out by hand and then smudge a mask than it is to use the

Extract or Colour Range tools

ONECLICKFIX

PAINT THE HAIRDouble-click the Quick Mask icon and set it to

the selected area at 100 per cent. Choose Quick

Mask (Q), a black brush (D) and start to paint over the hair

with the brush. Use a white brush to make a hole in the

mask on the forehead (see red circle).

01 APPLY COLOUR CURVE LAYERCome out of Quick mask (Q) and you willnotice that the mask has become a selection.

Choose Window8Layers and from the bottom of the layers

palette curves. A mask will be created automatically from

the selection. Select Channel8RGB8Red.

02 CHANGE THE COLOURWith only the red channel selected, click themiddle of the curve and a point will appear.

Type 55 into Input and 39 into the Output field. Click on

Channel8Red and change to blue. Click again and enter

Input 50, Output 59, then OK.

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SELECT THE EYESGo into Quick mask (Q) and select one

eye using the Elliptical Marquee tool.

Drag to fit the eye and hit D to default the swatch

to black and white.

01 REFINE THE MASKUse Alt Delete to fill. Repeat with the other eye,then deselect the selection using Command D.

Remove excess Mask using the white brush. Press the X

key to flip the brush from black to white.

02 ADD COLOURCome out of Quick mask and, from the Layerspalette, select Hue/Saturation. Click Colorise

and set Hue to 202 and Saturation to 56 per cent. You

may want to experiment with other colours, too.

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DRAW A PATHCheck the Path and not the shape layer is

active in the top tool bar. Go to Window,

select Paths. Select the Path tool and draw a path around

the mouth. Check the path is active in the top tool bar.

01 MAKE IT A SELECTIONClick in the path and click on the first pointmade to make one sealed shape. From the

Paths palette (with the path still selected), click the Load

path as selection icon from the bottom of the palette.

02 COLOUR THE LIPSFrom the Layers palette, choose Colour Balance.Drag the magenta green slider down to -50

and the yellow blue to +10 and press OK. Try playing

around with your own settings to colour this image.

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CONTACT US!

[email protected]

HAIR

APPLYA COLOURCURVEHere we paint over the hair

and apply a colour curve togive our model a new look

QUICK MASKSWith the clever use of a

Quick mask we can change

the colour of the eyes, too

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EYES 2

LIPS

DRAWINGPATHSBy drawing a path around

the mouth its then a simple

step to play with the colour

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Fast facial retouchingNEW SERIES! Each issue, Chris Stocker reveals quick ways you can improve any digital image inPhotoshop. This month: faces
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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nspired by my three-year-old niece and her

vivid imagination, I set out to create a

picture book for her. In this book she is the

central character, meeting magical creatures along the

way. I asked my family to pose in costumes and, using

my digital camera and a bit of Photoshop magic, I

conjured up a world of pixies, giants and wizards.Once Id decided on the theme, I started to collect

macro shots from nature. Most digital cameras have a

good close-focusing capability that enables you to fill

the frame with leaves, toadstools, butterflies and so on.

Tools of the tradeBack at home, I put together the image. A favourite

tool for this kind of project is the Free Transform tool in

Photoshop. This enables you to adjust the size of

subjects so that they fit in their new macro setting. By

shrinking your subject or making it giant size, you can

create your own, fantasy world: put wings on tinyhorses, make houses nestled in trees and have fairies

flying on leaves.

For this image, I duplicated the pixie, attached

wings, then brought the picture alive with movement

using Motion Blur settings and added masses of

autumnal-colour leaves with the Paint Brush tool.

Now its your turnThis project was great fun to create, and has become a

real family treasure. Its easy to copy the images are

on this months coverdisc. Once youve completed this

pixie image, why not develop your own, originalfantasy image using the skills and techniques that

youve learnt?

From pixels to pixiesWith Photoshop and a digital camera, Karen Spychalski shows you how to conjure up a magicalworld of dancing pixies!

064 DIGITAL CAMERAMAGAZINE

I

EXPERT TIP0KAREN SPYCHALSKISCLEANING TIP

DANCING PIXIES

KEY DETAILS

SKILLLEVEL

TIMETO COMPLETEMINSPERIMAGE

3

2

2

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CONTACT US!

KARENSPYCHALSKIwww.dcmag.co.uk

PHOTOSHOP DANCING PIXIES

How to mimic Photoshop plug-ins worth 100s for free!

NEXT MONTH

Sky.psd, PixieWings.psd,Pixies.psd

FILES ONCD

[1] COLOURFUL SKYThe sky is a genuine photograph,tweaked to boost the colours.

[2] MOTIONBLURPhotoshops Blur tool enables you to add

fake motion effects to static images.

[3] PIXIE WINGSThese pixie wings are based on a

photograph of a normal leaf.

[4] A MASS OF LEAVESThe twirling leaves on the ground are

created with a Photoshop brush.

IN DETAIL

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2

3

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MAGNIFIER TOOLWhen working with Layers, theMagnifier tool is a real asset.

There can be rough edges orspots not visible when working inthe regular screen mode. Theseflaws will show up when youprint your work, though. To keep

your work clean, choose the

Magnifier tool, then take a lookat every inch of your work.
http://www.dcmag.co.uk/http://www.dcmag.co.uk/


4/5DIGITAL CAMERAMAGAZINE 065

STAGE1

OPEN THE SKY.PSD FILEOpen the Sky.psd background Layer and then

the Pixies.psd. Using the Move tool, drag PixieOne onto the sky background. This is the first pixie in the

dance sequence all the other pixies will be layered on

top of Pixie One. Apply Motion Blur as below.

USE MOTION BLURYou can find the Motion Blur tool by going to

Filter8Blur8Motion Blur. Set it to 47. Drag PixieTwo onto the background and position her in front and to

the right of Pixie One. Repeat the Motion Blur technique

from step one.

02 PIXIE THREEDrag Pixie One from Pixie.psd onto thebackground and rename it Pixie Three.

Place her in front and to the right of Pixie Two. Using the

Lasso tool, select her head and right arm, Motion Blur to

95, Deselect, Lasso her extended arm and dress, set

Motion blur to 18 and Deselect.

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PIXIE FIVEDrag Pixie One onto background and rename it

Pixie Five. Position this Layer on top and to the

right of Pixie Four. Using the Lasso tool, select the full bodyand head leaving the extended arm free. Motion blur (67),

Deselect, Lasso the arm and Motion blur (32).

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PIXIE SIXApply Motion Blur to the dress (32). Use the

Blur tool to clean up any rough edges. You can

set the Blur tool to 100% and go over each Layer where

the Lasso might have left a distinctive line.

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MAKING THE MOSTOF THE MOTIONBLUR TOOLThe Motion Blur tool enables

you to make a static image

come alive with movement.

It can be used on the entire

image or just on selected

aspects of it.

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EXPERT TIP0

BRUSH SELECTIONPhotoshop is a wonderland of

opportunity. Its fun to explore its

various tools and brushes(available in the Tool Options bar).

Its worth spending some time

working with all the individual

brushes. Play around with different

sizes, shapes and opacity.

KAREN SPYCHALSKISBRUSHWORK

New in Photoshop 7, the Healing brush allowssmoother blending, matching the texture andtone of a correct area to the area to be fixed

There are many options when creating a dropshadow (opacity, width, position, colour). Experimentwith the choices to create the most realistic effect

ONECLICKFIXES*

04 INFOCUS THE ILLUSION OF MOVEMENT

Pixie Four

UNSUNG HERO

In order to get the right composition, you often

need to reposition different Layers. The Move tool

is an indispensable tool and will help you organise

your image.

CREATING MOVEMENT

By selecting separate parts of the pixie and

applying different Motion Blur settings, you

can make a static group of images come alive

with movement.

Drag Pixie Two from Pixie.psd onto background and rename it Pixie Four. Position this new Layer on top of Pixie Three.

Using the Motion Blur tool, blur the whole body (39). With the Lasso tool, select just the dress, set the Motion Blur to

92 and Deselect


5/5066 DIGITAL CAMERAMAGAZINE

EXPLAINED0BLUR TOOLUse the Blur tool to soften roughedges or specific parts of a photo.

This tool, like most Photoshoptools, can be set to different

levels of pressure from the

Tool Options bar. Also from thesame palette as the Blur tool is

the smudge tool. This is useful

when you want to smear one

colour into another. The amount

of surface you can smudgedepends on the size and softness

of the brush.

PHOTOSHOP DANCING PIXIES

STAGE2

TAKE FLIGHTNow its time to learn how tochange an everyday leaf into

magical pixie wings.

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OPEN PIXIEWINGS.PSD

There are just a few steps to colour yourimage, and once youve mastered the

technique you can experiment with different colours of

your own. To begin colouring the wings, Invert the

image (Image8Adjustment8Invert.), then Equalize it

(Image8Adjustment8Equalize).

CHANNEL MIXER

Next, go to Image8

Adjustment8

ChannelMixer. Here you can adjust the three (red,

green, blue) different Source Channels and the three (red,

green, blue) Output Channels. Using the Mixer gives you a

wide range of colour options.

08 SET THE LEAF COLOURSSet the leaf to red (Ctrl+1). Set the slides to+200 (red), +104 (green), -154 (blue). Use the

pull-down menu to change the Output Channel to green

(Ctrl+2). Adjust the slide to -164 (red), +96 (green), -30

(blue). Change the Output Channel to blue (Ctrl+3). Adjust

slide to +30 (red), 0 (green), +100 (blue).

0907

DUPLICATE THE WINGSWhen youre happy with the colour, change

the opacity of leaf to 68% and drag it onto

the sky background. Use the Free Transform to sizethe wings. Duplicate this Layer until you have all the

wings you need.

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LAYER THE WINGSLayer the wings in among pixie Layers 1, 2, 3, 4

and 5. Make use of Skew, Distort, Rotate and

Flip Horizontal when youre working with individual

wings. Apply Motion Blur to some of the wings. Note: the

object here is to create a sense of movement.

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www.digitalphotocontest.comThis contest site features ten dailywinners in different categories (one digital art). Let this site and

its photographers be an inspiration for you

FURTHERINFORMATION*

12 INFOCUS FINISHING TOUCHES

Blowing leaves

PAINT ANYWHERE

It doesnt take a steady hand the brush blows

leaves in a random pattern when you drag the

mouse and release. Try half circles with the

mouse and continue painting until it looks alive

with leaves.

Select the Paint Brush tool. On the Tool Options bar, pull down the brush choices. Youll see brushes in various sizes and

shapes. Choose the brush that looks like a maple leaf. Set the brush size to 45 with 100% opacity

AUTUMN COLOURS

You can pick any colour for your leaves. Weve

chosen to use an autumn palette. Choose a

dark orange colour for the foreground and a

light orange for the background colour.
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dcw03 09 photoshop tips

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