Photography/Photoshop Techniques!!!!

[R|M|D Photography]

The goal of this thread is that if you have a specific technique on doing a type of shot or a B&W Conversion method, or any tips that could potentially help others learn please post it here. If I see other posts with this type of thing I will put it in here. If you have links to instructional video's or tutorials this is where to put them.

I want to keep this very clean and simple where it is easy for a user to browse and find the tutorial they are looking for. I will also give credit where credit is due. So if you send me something then I will put it was submitted by you.








To start with I will give you a few examples....

B&W Converesion Ala Channel Mixer

Firstly, with your image open, create an adjustment layer for the Channel Mixer - Layer/New Adjustment Layer/ Click 'OK'.

With the Channel Mixer palette open, check the Monochrome box. Your image will change to B&W.

You'll notice that you can adjust the three channels; Red, Green & Blue. You can change the values of these to get the conversion you want but try to keep the totals to 100%. For example Red +20; Green+70; Blue+10.

When you are happy with the look of your image click 'OK'. Then you can apply Levels or Curves to tweak the contrast. There are many other things you can do for different results but this is the basic technique.







Great Resource for Photoshop Photography Actions
http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm










B&W Conversion Via Lab Color Method
Convert the image to Lab color space, then under the channels tab--uncheck channel's "a" and "b". Next, convert to grayscale and discard color information, and finally convert back to RGB, then play with curves to get the contrast and density you want.

[HilgerAWD]

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/

Just a very very informative site

[BDoty]

Lomo Photography Technique:

http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/how-to-make-digital-photos-look-like-lomo-photography/

Great for grunging up a photo. Heres an example of the effect:


before:

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/4360/memorialunionclocklw0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

After:

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/6995/memorialunionclockmodjq3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[trevor]

Automotive Photography Tutorial

http://www.mattwatkinson.com/tutorial/

[BDoty]

Contrast Adjustment with Curves

Got some time to sit down with my father (Hallmark artist/Photoshop God) this weekend to get some photoshop tips. One thing he showed me that really helped me is setting contrast with curves instead of Contrast/Brightness.

http://www.thegoldenmean.com/images/technique/curves/curves_maindialog.gif

To do so, you need to set your black and white for your photo. Take notice of the eyedroppers on the bottom-right of the menu.

First, click on the left eye dropper (the black one) to set your photo's black. Now with the dropper, find the blackest part of your photo and click with it. Then use the right eye dropper (the white one) to set your photo's white. Do the same as you did with the black, except for the white.

This will typically give you very good contrast results, but adding a little brightness is a good idea to bring out the detail in the darkness. This technique will usually adjust your color balance, which will need to be set afterwards.

[HilgerAWD]

http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html

[R|M|D Photography]

Proper use of the Shadow/Highlight tool

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1077615

Using this tool it is really easy to ruin a photo making it look too fake and surreal. I just thought I'd share this tutorial to learn how and when to use it.


Here are a few pics to support what I am talking about.

Before
http://st10.startlogic.com/~importde/KCSR/anthony/ant12.jpg

Overdone S/H tool...notice the "halo's" around the darker objects
http://st10.startlogic.com/~importde/KCSR/anthony/ant12-2.jpg

Done correctly
http://st10.startlogic.com/~importde/KCSR/anthony/ant12-1.jpg

[R|M|D Photography]

Rule of Thirds

You hear a lot of photographers always talking about this "rule of thirds" thing, I know for a LONG time I had NO idea what it was. Basicly it is used to obtain a visually appealing composure.

To "follow" it you look through your diopter and imagine 4 lines that look like this....
http://st10.startlogic.com/~importde/images/ruleof3rds.jpg

Basicly it says that you make the subject of your composure near or on one of the points that the lines intersect. This will help to visually lead the eye around the image.

Note.....this is not for all images...it is just a helper tool.

[EA]

Please keep it up, this is great!
EA

[04PVO]

I don't remember where I got this originally but it is good information!

Fixing Underexposed Shots


1) Try using Curves, so that you don't lose information. On the diagonal line, about 3/4 of the way up, click and drag the line up and to the left a bit. Now at about 1/4 up, click and drag the line down and a bit to the right. This will create a semi-S shaped line. Now grab the higher point created when you clicked 3/4 of the way up and move it up a little bit more. This will bring out even more of the highlights. Sounds like a clusterf*** but it works 90% time.

2) try duplicating the layer in PS and changing the blending mode to multiply and using a layer mask to make the "burn". Never use the dodge and burn tools. dont destroy pixels. And always use adjustment layers so you can go back to make changes.

3) If you use the duplicate layer/screen method you can get even more specific in which areas of the frame you lighten.

The black paintbrush is removing the screen effect via that layer mask. The best part is, you can control how much you "burn" by changing the opacity on the brush.

4) Assuming you're using a duplicate layer, and have it set to "screen", then setting the opacity to 38% will give you a 1-stop push or dodge of the entire frame. 19% is 1/2-stop.

I've used the technique to recover shots that were three stops down due to firing before the strobe was recycled - some noise reduction software fixed up the added grain and noise.

5) Here's my steps to recover those occasional dark frames... Once I've lightened it up to the right level the contrast might be off, so I add a levels layer and pull in the light and dark sliders to tweak.

The color balance will usually be off when underexposing. I add a color-balance layer, and put the cursor over something that should be white and look at the information panel to see what the RGB settings are, and compensate with the color-balance sliders.

Keep in mind that some whites have a blue tint to make them look extra-bright. Then, adjust for a neutral gray and a dark/near black, and you should be good to go.

I've fixed shots that were even farther off, but the noise was pretty bad. Those became "artsy" after the addition of some Photoshop filters and masking. It's called making lemonade from lemons.
_________________
Student Loan Forums (http://www.loan-forums.com/student-loans/)

[R|M|D Photography]

Lighting Placement Techniques

Here is a site that shows a 3d rendering of a model and a virtual light cage to show different effects of light placement.

The 3d model is an animated nude woman so NWS
http://www.photoworkshop.com/public/3D_rooms/lightcage/index.html

[vtec_98prelude]

Making Your Images Sing - Image composition with people
(as seen in the photoshop user september 06 issue)

I found this to be a great article. So I scanned it for everyone to read if you allready havent.

pics are a semi big (700 x 1000ish)

http://www.uglyhatmafia.com/1.jpg
http://www.uglyhatmafia.com/2.jpg
http://www.uglyhatmafia.com/3.jpg
http://www.uglyhatmafia.com/4.jpg
http://www.uglyhatmafia.com/5.jpg
http://www.uglyhatmafia.com/6.jpg

[rpwsrw]

Contrast Adjustment with Curves

Got some time to sit down with my father (Hallmark artist/Photoshop God) this weekend to get some photoshop tips. One thing he showed me that really helped me is setting contrast with curves instead of Contrast/Brightness.

http://www.thegoldenmean.com/images/technique/curves/curves_maindialog.gif

To do so, you need to set your black and white for your photo. Take notice of the eyedroppers on the bottom-right of the menu.

First, click on the left eye dropper (the black one) to set your photo's black. Now with the dropper, find the blackest part of your photo and click with it. Then use the right eye dropper (the white one) to set your photo's white. Do the same as you did with the black, except for the white.

This will typically give you very good contrast results, but adding a little brightness is a good idea to bring out the detail in the darkness. This technique will usually adjust your color balance, which will need to be set afterwards.

where do you get to that screenshot you have?

[KCSRT8]

Contrast Adjustment with Curves

Got some time to sit down with my father (Hallmark artist/Photoshop God) this weekend to get some photoshop tips. One thing he showed me that really helped me is setting contrast with curves instead of Contrast/Brightness.

http://www.thegoldenmean.com/images/technique/curves/curves_maindialog.gif

To do so, you need to set your black and white for your photo. Take notice of the eyedroppers on the bottom-right of the menu.

First, click on the left eye dropper (the black one) to set your photo's black. Now with the dropper, find the blackest part of your photo and click with it. Then use the right eye dropper (the white one) to set your photo's white. Do the same as you did with the black, except for the white.

This will typically give you very good contrast results, but adding a little brightness is a good idea to bring out the detail in the darkness. This technique will usually adjust your color balance, which will need to be set afterwards.

where do you get to that screenshot you have?

Image > Adjustment > Curves.

Adobe Photoshop CS2.

[2slow4u]

Doe all these techniques work on Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI too?
I am new to this, so I really don't know were to start.

Ryan

[steambrick]

heres a link to a good photoshop tutorial all done with video/audio
theres about 11 episodes all covering different aspects of editing, from distorting and warping to 3d layers and patching.
the good thing is each episode is only a few minutes long

http://www.mydamnchannel.com/Big_Fat_Brain/You_Suck_at_Photoshop/YouSuckatPhotoshop1_398.aspx

[KansasCityGT]

heres a link to a good photoshop tutorial all done with video/audio
theres about 11 episodes all covering different aspects of editing, from distorting and warping to 3d layers and patching.
the good thing is each episode is only a few minutes long

http://www.mydamnchannel.com/Big_Fat_Brain/You_Suck_at_Photoshop/YouSuckatPhotoshop1_398.aspx

Episode 3 :lol2: . Kind of has a Dane Cook sense of humor.

[kellyrx8]

this thread rocks....keep up the tips guys!

[R|M|D Photography]

Just because there have been so many new people picking up cameras I figured I would post this.

http://digital-photography-school.com/digital-photography-tips-for-beginners

One of the best beginner sites I have seen. Take the time to read through it all and then if you have questions post.

[kellyrx8]

http://smashinghub.com/fresh-and-useful-photoshop-tutorials.htm

some more ps tutorials

[R|M|D Photography]

Whats up with the Trolls?