Post your creative edits with techniques & instructions.

[Village Idiot]

I got this from POTN, we should try it here.

Instead of people bickering over what/how much editing looks good or doesn't, post your creative edits and explain how they were done. This way, people can see different styles that can be anything from mild to wild and the associated steps it takes to get there. It'll give people a taste of what can be done and can inspire them to learn new things.

The photo was shot with two 430EX II's on stands with shoot through umbrellas behind the subject at a 45 degree angle. A third light with shoot through umbrella was being held above the subject by a VAL.

This started with my most basic steps of sharpening, and curves. From there I applied skin smoothing by using the selection tool to individually select the body parts doing first the legs, then the face. Then I used a mask to erase the smoothing over critical areas like the lips, nose, eyes, facial lines, etc... I then selected the eyes an boosted the brightness & whites just a little bit so they weren't lost in the shadow from the hood.

Once I was happy with the edit on the girl, traced her with the selection tool and created a top layer from the selection. I then added a texture in behind her and messed with the opacity & saturation until I was happy with it.

Next was a simple brush on around the outside for a border. I then went over it a second time on a new layer with a slightly lighter color and less opacity.

Final step was just adding the text for the name in the top left corner.



Share yours.

 

[Village Idiot]

Lighting: two speedlights with white shoot through umbrellas behind at a 45 degree angle to the subject. One B800 with 60" umbrella above.

This is a simple skin smoothing technique. I have several that I try (except this one is obsolete as Imagenomic does not support CS5 on OS X. Shame, Noiseware pro was the best noise reduction software I've used) from time to time. This is probably the easiest of the bunch.

For this, you need to use the spot heal and take care of any blemishes, wrinkles, or skin imperfections. Then do any curves adjustments, levels, sharpening, etc... that you want before continuing.

From there, use the selection tool and select the body part(s) that you wish to smooth. I believe I did each separately for this. You need to create a layer for each selection. Save the head for last. It's going to require the most steps. Once the part(s) is selected, choose your noise reduction plugin and hit it full blast. Give it the most plastic looking preview available and then let it process. After the plugin is finished doing it's thing, use the opacity slider and slide it back until you get the best balance of smooth skin. It's usually around 25%-40% for most of what I do.

For the head, you're going to do the same procedure, except create a layer mask and "paint" over the portions of the face that you want to retain detail. This is going to be eyes, lips, nose, and facial lines. Remember to definitely hit the lines in the face or else your subject will end up looking like a plastic doll. You need features like that to keep your human looking human.

This may not always work for you, but it's the quickest way I know how to do skin smoothing without having to go through a long list of steps. But that's why I posted that I use several techniques; when one isn't going to work, I'll pull another out of my bag and use that one.

 

[Boomn4x4]

Great thread.. however, "befores" would help to understand what exactly it is you were doing.

 

[pmsnel]

^+1 I can see what you did in #1, but with #2 you lost me...

 

[Village Idiot]

^+1 I can see what you did in #1, but with #2 you lost me...

Simple skin smoothing by selecting the body part you want to add smoothing to, creating a new layer off of it, and using a noise reduction pluging and adjusting the opacity to create a skin smoothing effect.

 

[pmsnel]

Thanks.... I guess....

I do think it's a good thread! Please keep them coming!

 

[SrBiscuit]

this was 2 different exposures. (obviously lol)
clone stamp was used to remove blemishes on skin, flyaways, and some unfortunate shadowing on the walls. some burning shadows around the eyes to darken them. then some laborious masking and cloning to give the 4 arm effect. added internal stroke in layer properties to the flattened version for the frame.
finally, decided to use a film filter in pshop to give it that greenish sinister tone.
it was a fun one to make, for sure.

*edit* forgot to add the lighting...1 sb600 shot thru umbrella cam left, one hot light on the floor angled up.

 

[crimbfighter]

I think this is an awesome idea! Kudos VI! Is there any way this could be made into it's own forum, like photo of the month, ect? That might really help keep it going.

These kinds of posts are probably the most valuable, to me anyway, to help figure out how you guys are making some of these amazing edits in PP.

 

[myfotoguy]

The actual steps for this were pretty simple and very quick, but I like the results. I love when a few tweaks can take a blah image and make it enjoyable.

This branch is part of my set from the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

For the after I used ACDSee Pro3

• Used Advanced Lighting to decrease brightness in the scene, I think this tool also does some local contrast adjustments
• Increased Contrast to "19" (-100 to 100 setting in this software)
• Used Advanced Color to increase blue band saturation to 33 (same scale as above).
• Used Advanced Color to descrease brightness of green channel to -50 to darken the foliage on the branch. (same scale as above).
• Set Luminance NR to 39 (0 - 100 scale)
• Vignette at corners to bring it all together.

A framed version:

 

[Village Idiot]

My first real attempt at major cloning. If you don't know how to use the pen tool, you need to. The original image has a little bit of work done already, but it's miniscule. It was actually just using the content-aware fill to remove the top of the pole, which doesn't matter at all for the rest of this. This is with PS CS5.

1. I used the pen tool to outline the top right portion of the photo, including the moon, building, and trees above the sidewalk on the right, before turning the outline into a selection with a 2px feathered edge. Then I made the selection a new layer via copy.

2. From there I selected the gradient tool and selected my two colors at the left and right of the layer where the blending needed to start and stop. I created the gradient running from the left side of the layer to the right. This gives you a really unnatural look with a very sharp transition from the selection to the surrounding area.

3. After that, I created a layer mask on the selection and used a big soft brush (low opactiy & low flow. Less than 25% each.) on the edges of the layer to blend it in. I also brough the trees back in with the mask tool and used the softness of the brush to create an unnoticeable transition from the sky above the trees to the gradient. This gives you colors that create a believeable blend, but leave you with an obvious layer with the gradient. Use the add noise tool to add enough noise to make the gradient layer match the original layer.

4. With the sky finished, I moved onto the car. This is a bit more touch and go here. I started with the clone tool and cloned out the rig, leaving an obvious space with the clone job. This is the After 1 shot.

5. After the horrible looking clone job I did another gradient layer, like what was used on the sky, but for the portion of the hood slightly above and to the left of the headlight where it slopes down, using a layer mask to blend it in with the rest of the photo.

6. The last section I fixed was on the top of the hood with the paint between the two black lines where the rig was originally positioned. For this, I used the pen tool and made an outline on the unmarred surface to the left. Creat selection from outline, new layer via copy. That layer was moved and positioned to cover the obviously cloned area.

7. Great, I have a piece of hood chopped and moved that now looks like a piece of hood that was chopped and moved. :mrgreen: This is where I used the warp tool (not puppet warp, you really don't need that much control for this small piece.) and played with the layer, bending it and shaping it to match the lines of the hood underneath. This leaves you with an obviously chopped section of the hood that's lines comform to the layer below.

8. Use a layer mask on the Obviously Chopped Piece of Hood™ to blend the edges a bit. I also use the dodge and burn tools to adjust the exposure to match the rest of the hood.

9. Sharpening + curves adjustment = done.

Before:


After 1:


After 1:

 

[DanFinePhotography]

My first real attempt at major cloning. If you don't know how to use the pen tool, you need to. The original image has a little bit of work done already, but it's miniscule. It was actually just using the content-aware fill to remove the top of the pole, which doesn't matter at all for the rest of this. This is with PS CS5.

1. I used the pen tool to outline the top right portion of the photo, including the moon, building, and trees above the sidewalk on the right, before turning the outline into a selection with a 2px feathered edge. Then I made the selection a new layer via copy.

2. From there I selected the gradient tool and selected my two colors at the left and right of the layer where the blending needed to start and stop. I created the gradient running from the left side of the layer to the right. This gives you a really unnatural look with a very sharp transition from the selection to the surrounding area.

3. After that, I created a layer mask on the selection and used a big soft brush (low opactiy & low flow. Less than 25% each.) on the edges of the layer to blend it in. I also brough the trees back in with the mask tool and used the softness of the brush to create an unnoticeable transition from the sky above the trees to the gradient. This gives you colors that create a believeable blend, but leave you with an obvious layer with the gradient. Use the add noise tool to add enough noise to make the gradient layer match the original layer.

4. With the sky finished, I moved onto the car. This is a bit more touch and go here. I started with the clone tool and cloned out the rig, leaving an obvious space with the clone job. This is the After 1 shot.

5. After the horrible looking clone job I did another gradient layer, like what was used on the sky, but for the portion of the hood slightly above and to the left of the headlight where it slopes down, using a layer mask to blend it in with the rest of the photo.

6. The last section I fixed was on the top of the hood with the paint between the two black lines where the rig was originally positioned. For this, I used the pen tool and made an outline on the unmarred surface to the left. Creat selection from outline, new layer via copy. That layer was moved and positioned to cover the obviously cloned area.

7. Great, I have a piece of hood chopped and moved that now looks like a piece of hood that was chopped and moved. :mrgreen: This is where I used the warp tool (not puppet warp, you really don't need that much control for this small piece.) and played with the layer, bending it and shaping it to match the lines of the hood underneath. This leaves you with an obviously chopped section of the hood that's lines comform to the layer below.

8. Use a layer mask on the Obviously Chopped Piece of Hood™ to blend the edges a bit. I also use the dodge and burn tools to adjust the exposure to match the rest of the hood.

9. Sharpening + curves adjustment = done.

Before:


After 1:


After 1:

These are cool. Sounds like you did alot of work, but it turned out nicely

 

[Scatterbrained]

Really simple skin smoothing (because that's about where my skill level is right now)
First I did the basic Raw processing as well as some spot blemish removal. Then I imported to PS for the rest.
Started by applying a sharpening layer. Then used the healing brush to smooth out the dark areas under the eyes and remove some of crows feet. Used the clone stamp to "pluck" the eyebrows as well as fix an errant hair that was running down the middle of the face. Flattened image. Created a Gaussian Blur layer and a layer mask. Used a dissolve brush to trace around all of the areas that I wanted to be sharp then changed to mask view to fill in the rest with a larger brush. Set opacity to taste. Done. Probably went a little overboard with the wrinkles around the eyes and smoothing out under the eyes but what are you gonna do when the wife is standing over your shoulder?:mrgreen:

 

[ghache]

^+1 I can see what you did in #1, but with #2 you lost me...

Simple skin smoothing by selecting the body part you want to add smoothing to, creating a new layer off of it, and using a noise reduction pluging and adjusting the opacity to create a skin smoothing effect.

Interesting technique....I never though of that.....i guess it can be done with cs5 with a image stamps and one inverted layer mask + a couple pass of noise ninja I will have to try this.

 

[ghache]

What was done to this image?:
Basic raw editing,
exposure, fill light, blacks, contrast and clarity
1. The usual Clean up using a layer
2. I removed some of the shadows using a Softlight layer then painted in white with a 15 % brush opcacity then applyed a gaussian blur on the layer.
3. Added an Overlay layer with a gaussian blur with a low opacity to warm the skin tones a little bit. Then used an inverted mask to apply the layer on skin only.
4. Added a layer of surface blur with a really low opacity and one inverted mask to apply the layer on skin only.
5. Added a layer with some sharpening to the eyes, lips and some of the hair only using an inverted mask.
6. Added a Curve adjustment Layer to brighten the eyes a little bit with an inverted mask
7. added a layer to saturate the air color using an inverted mask

 

[Village Idiot]

I'm working on putting together a kit to do car photography and I've been working on black cars. Here's some testing I've done tonight.

Image 1


Image 2


Final


I started with one speedlight set at it's max zoom to focus it. It was sitting below the tripod on the right side, firing across at a reflector a friend was holding. It was angled just to light the lines on the side.

I moved the flash to the other side and the friend with the reflector and shot the photo.

Then in post I used image 2 as a a base. I used the lasso tool and did a quick freehand selection to take the light and left hand side with the highlight. I hade that a layer and transfered it to image 2. From there I used the pen tool and made a selection to the right side of the hood, turned it into a selection and a new layer. Flipped it horizontally and moved it to make the hood even. From there I used the warp tool to make the lines fit.

Heal brush for small spots, USM, and curves..