The Wonderful World of Photoshop

This is the SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera) picture, which I think is a rather nice shot, but I wanted to see if I can get a little more *WOW* out of it in Photo-shop.

I thought a little soft focus (Gaussian Blur) would make a more dreamy setting, I also found the excessive reflections in the eyes to be a little distracting. If you look closely in the left eye (your left, not his) you will see my camera lens (the large circular blob), a sliver of my head sticking out above it, my elbows stuck out like I'm doing the chicken dance, Calvin's play gym (the long arcs around the pupil), the blue sky behind that, and oh look, I can even see some clouds. This is what I would call, too much detail. So, I took the paintbrush, set it to black, dissolve, and an opacity less than 50% and brushed over certain areas; eliminating the "excessive" detail, but still leaving enough to incite interest.

While I was at it, I also enhanced the colors by minor tweaks here and there.

Now, I truly love this rendering but I also wanted to see what else I could do with it. So, I tried Black & White (84%).

Now, what about a full Black & White make-over?

Breath-taking...but what about Sephia? (less than 50 %)

What about a little more? (84%)

Oooh...love that vintage look.

Now what if...instead of softening the eyes I sharpen them using a tip I learned off The Pioneer Woman?

Interesting...which one is your favorite?

Stepping Back in Time

I LOVE old photos.

Remember this photo from last week? I have already turned it black and white and have added a soft focus, now I'm going to add a more vintage feel to it.

Open the photo in photoshop and in the layers panel select "create new adjustment layer" this should open a drop-down window where you can select "hue/saturation". Now another window will pop up, in the bottom right panel there is a little check-box labeled "colorize", check the box then slide the "saturation" bar to the intensity of your choice. In the photo below I chose 35.

Now Compare:

It's like sepia, only you decide!

A Gentle Touch

These are the photos I started with:

Then I added a soft focus.

I have tried before to create this effect in photoshop but I could never get it quite right. After using several brushes, blurs, and combinations, it looked rather nice but it was not "the" soft focus I was looking for. Well, that has changed. After doing some basic research online I have at last discovered the technique, and it is surprisingly simple.


Follow these 5 easy steps and you can do it too!

1. Open your photo in Photoshop and duplicate the background. (You should now have 2 identical layers)

2. Select "Gaussian Blur" from the Effects panel and add to the top layer.

3. A window will pop us asking you to pick a radius. Select a radius of 4-10. (4.0 for low resolution photos and 10.0 for high resolution.)

4.Look like an out of focus picture? Good.

5. Make sure the top layer is selected and reduce the opacity to 50%
When I did this my jaw dropped open. This was exactly what I have been looking for! It was beautiful!!!!

Now, Experiment. Try different radius levels and different opacity levels to obtain precisely the look you desire.

On the Photo below I added one more finishing touch. I took the paintbrush, selected "dissolve", the color white, and a lower opacity. I then painted around the border of the image to lighten the shadows and bring the focus back to Calvin's face.

Now Compare:

Improvement?


I have used black and white photos for examples but of course, you can also do this on color photos, here are some more examples:











Soft Focus does not "fit" all photos but it is another tool in your toolbox for the ones that do.

Editing Your Photos-Part Two-Artistic Effects

Artistic Effects:

(click to enlarge photos)

Paint Daubs:

This is one way to turn your photograph into a "painting" by making little "Daubs" or "Blobs" of color rather than clear, sharp edges.

Before:

After:

Sponge:

Similar to watercolor in it's "watery" appearance but has a different texture. Sponge is more "grainy" than watercolor-like a sponge.

Before:

Rough Pastels:

Pastels are similar to crayons (only more professional :) and will create a more "gritty" and "streaky" look to your photograph as it has done here.

Palette Knife:

Notice the "blobs", much like in a painting.

Before:

After:

Dry Brush:

Notice the smoothed and more blended colors in this photograph.

Before:

After:

Charcoal:

Before:

After:

Colored Pencils:

Before:

After:

Watercolor:

Watercolor darkens the colors in your photos and make it look more "watery"
like a watercolor painting.

Before:

After:

Before:


After:

Before:

After:

Emboss:

Before:

After:

Soft Focus:
(I used Gaussian Blur & a little B&W to dim the overexposed areas)

Before:

After:

Have Fun!