PhLearn: Photoshop Tutorials

If you ever edited with Photoshop, you know there is not one and only one way to do the edits. You can go from the most complex and obscure to something very mundane and easy. PhLearn.com is an amazing source of photoshop tutorials. I just finished viewing all my backlog and instead of creating one post per tutorial I will today group them in one post.

1. How to create a sunset in Photoshop: Transform a regular picture in a photo with a gorgeous sunset light
   
2. How to clean background in Photoshop: A technique I had never seen used before based on the median blur.
   
3. How to create a double exposure in Photoshop: A artsy technique to blend 2 pictures.
   
4. How to create freckles in Photoshop: Always loved freckles and I am amazed how natural this technique is.
   
5. Change the color of anything in Photoshop: All is in the title…
   
6. How to create a lens flare: For all the JJ Abrams fans
   
7. How to change hair color in Photoshop: Not as easy as you might think due to highlights and color ranges…
   
8. How to remove anything from a Photo: A very detailed step by step tutorial to remove stuff you don’t want
   

I love these tutorials as you can understand the thought process behind it. Don’t hesitate to share your tips and tricks in the comments…

By Sebastien Grobelny

Macro

Macro is an extreme close-up.
I believe these links deserve a close-up 😉

• Challenges: You can still submit, vote and see results on Celine’s blog.
• Big News: As reported by PetaPixel and Greg, Getty made millions of photos available for free.
• Follow up: PetaPixel had some interesting thoughts about the move by Getty in this article.
• Mad Men: Hilarious video of Jon Hamm and Jimmy Fallon photobombing tourists.
• Mad Editing: If you believe that editing of models has gone too far, look at what College Humor has done.
• New venture: Zack Arias just launched a new website called DEDPXL. They have Q&A, news, Assignments, Critiques. I thank Celine for showing me Zack’s world through Photography Q&A
• Cool cool cool: Loved this very creative ad from Subaru
• Hit-Girl: Great idea from Kaija Straumanis showcased on PetaPixel. I love the creative use of composites and don’t think I could have thought about this on my own. Brillant.
• Magic: FStoppers gave us the secret of the levitation effect. *Mind blown*

By Sebastien Grobelny

Motion blur

If you have seen my Marseille post, you may have noticed the picture below.

A building in Marseille

This is an easy effect I have seen being used more and more recently. I will try to show you how to achieve it. I believe it creates an ethereal look and works very well when dealing with some king of pattern. Feel free to download the picture and try it for yourself.

Original file

1. Straighten (optional): depending on the direction you want to give, you may need to straighten up first. I wanted to give a 90 degrees angle here so I had to straighten the window frames. To do this open in Photoshop,  duplicate the layer, select the ruler tool either by picking it up in the Eyedropper tool group or clicking Shift+I until you get it. I did put my starting point at a window corner near the bottom and the end at an upward corner on the same column. The longer the distance, the more accurate you will be. Once done, go to Image -> Image Rotation -> Arbitrary. It will display the angle calculated. Just validate. Use the cropping tool on the result.

Just before the cropping

2. Selection: Use the rectangular Marquee tool (M) and select the zone you want to apply the effect to. I selected a zone that is about 1/3 of the picture and in the center. As I may want to redo this step in the future I will create a new layer with the selection. With the selection still active go to Layer->New Layer->Layer via Copy.

The new layer from Step 2

3. Motion blur: Duplicate the newly created layer and with the Magic Wand Tool select the empty space at the bottom by clicking anywhere in the empty space. With the Shift key pushed do the same thing on the top part. Then go to Select->Inverse to get your original Marquee tool selection. With the selection active go to Filter->Blur->Motion Blur. A box like the one below should appear.

Step 3 Options

Angle will give you the direction of the movement. Below are 3 different angles

0 degrees. Only the distance is a factor here.

45 degrees

Minus 45 degrees. See how the direction is opposite to the 45 one

As I want a downward direction here, I will use -90 degrees. Distance will impact the force of the effect. The lower the distance is , the more you keep  the forms.

Distance 100

Distance 300

Distance 600

I used the -90 / 600 px setting. As I want to also have this effect upward I do another copy and apply the effect with 90 degrees and still 600 distance.

Move the layers up and down to your liking. You should get something like this.

Result of step 3

4. Overlap : You can see that were the layer overlap you have some transition issues. To fix this I used a Polygonal Lasso (L) selection as follow

Step 4 Selection

I select the upward layer and a use the Erase tool (E) on it. Once done I do the same with the downward layer.

Step 4 Result

5. Integration: The last step is to integrate your motion blur with the rest of the picture and do the adjustments you wish.

Here’s a creative use by someone way better than me:

alone by Margareta Adela on 500px

By Sebastien Grobelny

Macro

Macro is an extreme close-up.
I believe these links deserve a close-up 😉

• Challenges: You can still submit, vote and see results on Celine’s blog.
• Cast: Saw this tutorial on FStoppers from Vibrantshot on how to remove a color cast.
• Cute: 500px just posted on their blog 40 baby animals in the wild
• Timelapse: I love Yosemite and I love timelapses so I do love this video.
• Kickstarted: Petapixel showed how Kickstarter was used to maintain and transform 2 old buses in mobile photobooth in this article.
• Ethical question: FStoppers ran this article about a woman suing a 3rd party for the use of her mugshot. The comments and article are interesting.

 

By Sebastien Grobelny

Macro

Macro is an extreme close-up.
I believe these links deserve a close-up 😉

• Challenges: You can still submit, vote and see results on Celine’s blog.
• Mind blown: In this article from PetaPixel shows a simple effect to transform your GIF in 3D GIF.
• Gravity: I know at least one person that preferred the Honest Trailer to the movie.
• Netflix: We recently changed our plan but didn’t find this plan in the list.
• J-Wow: The only Jennifer worth mentioning is the one who doesn’t need Photoshop on FStoppers.
• Cumberbatched: If you needed any more reason to love Benedict, just know that he’s also a pretty funny guy that does impersonation.
• Lego my Lego: the movie is out and the Oscars are coming soon. Here are the 9 Best Picture Oscar Nominees as Lego

By Sebastien Grobelny

Macro

Macro is an extreme close-up.
I believe these links deserve a close-up 😉

• Challenges: You can still submit, vote and see results on Celine’s blog.
• Say it is so: Pixar is rumored to be working on Star Wars on Gizmodo!
• Say it ain’t so: I put yesterday a feed on PhotoStealers and am saddened to see that they have post everyday to report blatant theft and usually poor answers/explanations from the “alleged” thief.
• Pop-Photoshop: Guess that by now you have seen already this video clip where the singer is retouched “live”
• Are you smarter than a 5th grader?: This video answers the question “Can Video Games make you smart?”
• Hobbitown: Beautiful timelapse from the gorgeous New Zealand. Like the poet said, I believe I can fly!

 

By Sebastien Grobelny

Long Exposure #5 : To edit or not edit?

As mentioned in “What is a photographer?” and again in “Fiat Lux“, a photograph is a succession of steps.
Once your camera caught the scene the next step is to deliver it to your public, but before you do that you need to answer the question that haunts a lot of photographers: Should I edit this picture or post it “as shot”?
For some people, to not edit their shot is a credo: the shot is over as soon as you push your shutter. For others the push of the shutter button is just one of the many steps towards their final picture. For me editing is a way to bridge the gap to my ideal shot.
Below is a before (left) / after (right) shot I edited recently using Adobe Lightroom 4. I played with the colors and tones a bit in order to get a picture more vivid. Don’t you think the right one looks better? (for a look at the final result just click)

Some photographer have more restrictions than others. If you’re a photojournalist you will not be allowed to amend details that alter the meaning of the picture. It means that cropping might be allowed, contrasts and tones amended but you won’t be allowed to remove or add anything from your picture. I suggest you have a look at this article on Gizmodo to see how pictures were edited in the past.
Recently, I went with Celine on another roadtrip and our starting point was Las Vegas. We have been there several times but never really thought of capturing the Welcome sign. Unfortunately for us we just remembered it on our way to the airport, during our final day. If I were to be a purist, I might end up with the shot below.

I didn’t like much all the cables or some of the buildings but it’s not as if I could just go an bulldoze the buildings or cut the cables down. The sky was also pretty uniform as the sun was high in the sky. With Lightroom and Photoshop I was able to get the result below, with more textures in the sky and a dreamy effect, closer to what I’d like my shot to be.

Editing is for me one more tool, a way to get more control on the final result but like a super power it must be used responsibly. One of my proudest edit is a very subtle one. People liked the shot below, but very few people know that it was one of my first edit (to see the original version just click the image).

If you want to see what edit can do for you I suggest you read Mike Campau guest post on Scott Kelby’s site.

By Sebastien Grobelny