Pick a photograph to settle Regularly, the photographs that we bring when we’re out with our companions to catch the enjoyment existing apart from everything else, except is not great. In this instructional exercise, we… More
Understanding An Essential Photo Editing Skill: Masking
Achieving perfect photography requires more than just in-camera skills in today’s environment. Yes, even the professionals now rely on post-production skills to PERFECT their images. One of the most important photos editing skills to learn is called “Masking” and a new in-depth guide was just released to help photographers master it.
How many times have you returned home to review your pictures only to spot something you missed when you took the shot? Something that totally ruins the photograph…
After you read this new masking guide you’ll realize that you are no longer tied to what you find. You can clean up the bugs in your shots. Fix those less than perfect rose petals. Take out that pesky truck that parked right in the middle of your landscape shot.
It includes 171 pages of training, illustrations, and self-check quizzes. Covering the masking techniques and secrets in ALL of the popular editing software packages. (Inc. Lightroom, Photoshop, Elements, Camera Raw & Mobile Photography editing apps. It covers it all!)
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How to Create a Bokeh Photoshop Action
Welcome to our Photoshop in 60 Seconds series, in which you can learn a Photoshop skill, feature, or technique in just a minute!
How to Create a Bokeh Photoshop Action
Start by creating a custom brush. Hit F5 to bring up the Brush panel. Using a Hard Round Brush, adjust the Scatter to 1000%, and then Save your custom brush so that we can use it later for the action.
Now go to Window > Actions and set up a new bokeh Action in the Actions panel. When you’re ready, click Record to begin recording the next steps.
Open your photo in Photoshop.
Woman Stock via Pixabay
Copy and Paste two backgrounds from this Noise Blurred Backgrounds set above your image. Select both layers and lower the Opacity to 20%, and then set the Blend Mode of the first one to Hard Light and the second one to Screen.
Create a New Layer and use the custom Bokeh Brush we created earlier to apply a few bokeh. Set the Layer Blend Mode to Overlay, and then Right-click and go to Blending Options, adding a quick Inner Glow with the following settings:
Duplicate (Control-J) the layer, bringing the copy down slightly, before going to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and blurring it with a Radius of 5 pixels.
Set a New Layer to Color Dodge. Paint soft brown colors (or use the Eyedropper Tool to select dark colors from the photo) for more intensity. Lower the Opacity to 22%. Follow up with a New Adjustment Layer for Exposure, setting the Exposure to 1 and the Opacity to 20%.
When you’re finished, remember to click the Stop button in the Actions panel to use this action for future photos.
Here is the final effect.
Experiment with this action on more images for awesome results!
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How To Use Photoshop Curves To Make Your Photos Pop
Photoshop Curves is one of the most powerful tools for tonal adjustments, whether you want to brighten, darken, add contrast, or shift colors. Yet it’s so complex, many users avoid it. In the tutorial below, photographer Joshua Cripps demonstrates a remarkably simple way to create great color effects using this most enigmatic of adjustment tools:
In this tutorial, Cripps uses just a couple of simple steps to isolate his colors and selectively bring out the hues he’d like to emphasize. Using just two curves adjustment layers, setting them with the targeted adjustment tool, and then masking off any unintended effects with Apply Image, Cripps was able to quickly add the color pop to what began as a somewhat ordinary photo.
Before Curves Adjustments
TARGETED ADJUSTMENT TOOL
And even if you’re somewhat familiar with the Curves tool, you may not have known about the shortcuts Cripps shows us with the Targeted Adjustment Tool (the one that looks like a hand). Simply click and then drag it up to increase an adjustment or down to decrease it.
APPLY IMAGE
Another little gem for folks newer to Photoshop was his usage of the Image > Apply Image command to create a mask that duplicated the light and dark areas of his image. One could go years of working with masks and not know this simple time-saving trick.
After Curves Adjustments
Many photographers would never think about creating more tonal separation between colors to heighten an image’s drama, but Cripps uses it to great effect here. His end result has a gentle “pop” to it that just wasn’t there at the beginning.
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Color adjustment with levels in Photoshop
Sometimes, the color balance of a picture is simply wrong. Working with ‘Levels’ in Photoshop is a quick way to adjust and correct the color balance of an image. ‘Levels’ can provide powerful color correction tools. In the following tutorial, we gladly explain how you can adjust the color of an image with ‘Levels’ in Photoshop.As you can see, the following example picture is very cold and blue.
You definitely want to adjust and improve the color. Start by opening Photoshop. Click ‘File’ and then ‘Open’ to browse your computer to get the picture into Photoshop (or browse your computer or external drive to find the image that you want to edit, right-click the image and select ‘Open With’ Photoshop).
To adjusts, color with ‘Levels’, open your ‘Layers’ panel and click the black and white circle.
Click ‘Levels’.
Bring up the ‘Adjustment’ window that opens up and gets started. You see three ‘Eyedropper Tools’. You’ve got a black picker (top eyedropper), a gray picker (the middle eyedropper) and a white picker (bottom eyedropper).
Click the white picker and then click a white area in your picture. You can see your picture already change. You can also click the black picker and click a black area in your picture. Play around to get the best result. In case you do not have black or white in your picture, there usually will be some gray area in the scene. Click the gray picker and click a gray area in your picture. Simply play around with all these three ‘Eyedroppers Tools’ to adjust the color of your picture. As you can see, when we play around with these pickers, the colors in the example picture become much better. Note that you can also play around with ‘Opacity’ in the ‘Layers’ panel to make some final color adjustments.
Your colors are now adjusted using ‘Levels’ and the ‘Eyedropper Tools’.The picture immediately looks much warmer and far more realistic.
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How To Crop An Image In A Circle With Photoshop
Step 1: Open Your Image
Start by opening your image in Photoshop. Here’s the photo I’m using (portrait photo from Adobe Stock):
The original image. Photo credit: Adobe Stock.
Step 2: Convert The Background Layer Into A Normal Layer
If we look in the Layers panel, we see our image sitting on the Background layer:
The Layers panel showing the image on the Background layer.
Before we can crop our image to a circle, we first need to convert the Background layer into a normal layer. The reason is that we’ll need to be able to surround our image with transparency, but Photoshop doesn’t allow transparency on the Background layer.
To convert the Background layer into a normal layer, all we need to do is rename it. In Photoshop CC, simply click on the lock icon on the right of the Background layer in the Layers panel. In Photoshop CS6 or earlier, press and hold the Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key on your keyboard and double-click on the Background layer.
Photoshop instantly renames the layer from “Background” to “Layer 0”. And just like that, we’ve converted it into a normal layer and we’re good to go:
The Background layer is now a normal layer named “Layer 0”.
Step 3: Select The Elliptical Marquee Tool
Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool from the Toolbar. By default, the Elliptical Marquee Tool is nested behind the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) on the Rectangular Marquee Tool, then choose the Elliptical Marquee Tool from the fly-out menu:
Selecting the Elliptical Marquee Tool.
Step 4: Draw A Circular Selection Outline
With the Elliptical Marquee Tool in hand, click on your image and drag out an elliptical selection outline. To force the selection outline into a perfect circle, press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard as you’re dragging. Don’t worry about getting the location of the circle exactly right because we’ll move it into position in the next step. For now, just make sure the circle is big enough to surround the area you want to keep.
When you’re done, release your mouse button, then release your Shift key. Make sure you release your mouse button first, then the Shift key or the selection outline will snap back into a freeform elliptical shape:
Press and hold Shift and drag out a circular selection outline.
Step 5: Reposition The Selection Outline If Needed
If you didn’t draw your selection outline in exactly the right spot, simply click inside the selection outline and drag it into position. Here, I’m moving it so that the young woman’s face is centered within the circle. This is the area I want to keep. The rest of the image will be cropped away:
Click and drag the circular selection outline into place.
Step 6: Invert The Selection
At the moment, we have the area inside the circle selected. What we actually need is for the area outside the circle to be selected.
To deselect the area inside the circle and select everything around it, go up to the Select menu in the Menu Bar along the top of the screen and choose Inverse:
Going to Select > Inverse.
Step 7: Delete The Area Around The Circle
With the selection inverted, press the Backspace (Win) / Delete (Mac) key on your keyboard to delete the area around the circle. Photoshop fills the area with a checkerboard pattern, which is how Photoshop represents transparency:
Press Backspace (Win) / Delete (Mac) to delete the unwanted area.
We don’t need our selection outline anymore, so to remove it, go up to the Select menu and choose Deselect:
Going to Select > Deselect.
Step 8: Trim Away The Transparent Areas
To crop the image around the circle and remove all of the transparent areas surrounding it, go up to the Image menu and choose Trim:
Going to Image > Trim.
In the Trim dialog box, choose Transparent Pixels at the top. Then make sure that Top, Bottom, Left, and Right are all selected at the bottom (they should be by default):
Selecting “Transparent Pixels” in the Trim dialog box.
Click OK to close the Trim dialog box. Photoshop instantly trims away the surrounding transparent areas, leaving us with our image cropped as a circle:
The image is now cropped to a circle.
Step 9: Save The Image As A PNG File
Normally, we’d save a photo as a JPEG file, but JPEG’s don’t support transparency. To keep the transparency in the corners and avoid filling them with white, save the cropped image as a PNG file which does support transparency.
To save it, go up to the File menu and choose Save As:
Going to File > Save As.
In the Save As dialog box set the Format option to PNG. Name your file and choose where you want to save it, then click Save:
Make sure you choose PNG for the file format to preserve the transparency.
When Photoshop asks you to set the PNG options, you can safely leave them at their defaults. Click OK to save the image:
The default PNG options work fine.
And there we have it! That’s how to easily crop an image to a circle using the Elliptical Marquee Tool in Photoshop!
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How to crop a picture with the Photos app for iPhone and iPad
How to crop a picture with the Photos app for iPhone and iPad
If you’ve ever taken a great photo only to realize an unsightly object in the background, you already understand the need to be able to crop photos down.
1. Launch the Photos app from your Home screen.
2. Find the photo you’d like to crop and tap on it to open it.
3. Tap the hamburger menu along the bottom of your screen.
4. Tap on the crop button in the bottom menu. Tap and drag the corners of the photo until you’re satisfied with the crop.
5. Tap Done in the bottom menu.
6. Tap crop, crop it to your liking, tap Done
How to change the aspect ratio in Photos for iPhone and iPad
1. Launch the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Find and tap on the photo you’d like to edit.
3. Tap the hamburger menu along the bottom of your screen.
4. Tap on the crop icon in the bottom menu.
5. Tap on the aspect ratio button on the lower right of the screen.
6. Tap on the ratio you’d like to use.
7. Drag your finger on the dial to center the photo how you’d like it.
8. Tap on Done in the bottom right-hand corner when you’re happy with the image.
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A Guide to Basic Photo Editing with Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is an incredibly complex photo-editing program that can create professional-grade graphics for large scale distribution. But, what if all you want to do is remove that scratch or add a fancy filter? Well, you’re in luck. Because Photoshop can work for you too. What you’ll find below is a handful of tools you can use to enhance and repair your digital photos. There is no silver bullet for improving a picture, but the more of these techniques you know, the more adept you’ll be at photo editing.
Brightness/Contrast
Often times you will have a photograph that you like, but it’s just a little too light or too dark. In this case, the Brightness/Contrast option is your best friend. Go up to the menu in the upper left corner, click on Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. This will launch a new window with two little bars and an adjustment arrow for each. There are also spaces to enter a numeric value, but for the purpose of this tutorial, we’re just going to play around with the arrows to see how we would like to enhance or tone down the photo.
The Brightness bar controls how light or dark the image is. Drag the arrow to the right and the image gets lighter, and drag it to the left to make it darker. When used alone, the brightness option doesn’t always produce the best results. Often times the image will appear washed out if it’s too bright, and too faded when it’s darkened. This is where the Contrast option comes into play.
The Contrast bar controls the difference ratio between colors. For example, if you make an image darker using the Brightness bar, it will darken everything, if you make an image darker using the Contrast bar, it will darken the existing dark areas and brighten the light areas. Also, the Contrast bar increases the boldness of the colors in the image. So, if you slide the arrow to the right, the image will become more colorful and defined. If you slide the arrow to the left, the image will become more gray and flat.
Using these two options in conjunction is the best way to get your desired results. The numeric value can be useful if you like the settings and wish to apply the same amount to a different photo. If you keep these written down you can be sure you are getting the same results each time they are entered.
Color Balance
Another very useful tool is Color Balance. Like with the Brightness/Contrast option, go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance. This will bring up a window similar to the Brightness/Contrast window, except now there are three bars to be adjusted instead of two. You’ll also notice that a color is listed on either side of the bars, such as Cyan to Red and Yellow to Blue. If for example, you wish to add more blue to your photo, you can drag the arrow towards the word blue, and Photoshop will automatically distribute a blue hue into your photo. All of the colors can be mixed and matched for better results. For example, if I wish to create brown, I will need to combine various amounts of green, red and yellow.
This tool also comes in handy if you have a black and white photograph that you wish to add color to. It is important to note, however, that if you have a black and white photo, you can’t give it back its original colors with photoshop (not easily anyway), but with the color balance tool, you can give it a sense of color that makes it look even better.
For my example, I will add a bronze/brown color to give the photograph a sepia tone.
Also to note: At the bottom of the Color Balance window, you will see three selection options (Shadows/Midtones/Highlights). This controls where the majority of the color goes. If you wish to add a darker red to the shadows in your image, you’ll want to use the shadows selection. And if you wish to add yellow to the brighter parts of the image, you’ll want to use the highlights selection. Each selection is the same in terms of the interface so feel free to play around with each one to get the best results.
Tools to know and love
Photoshop has a lot of tools to play with, but for the purposes of general photo editing, you will want to focus on a select few. All tools can be found on the left-hand side.
Magnifying Glass:
The magnifying glass is pretty self-explanatory. It allows you to zoom in on parts of your image so that you can work with the finer details. If you wish to go further with Photoshop, the magnifying glass is a good tool to become acquainted with.
Dodge/Burn/Sponge:
This tool is actually three in one. When you left click on the button and hold it down, you will be given a smaller menu that includes these three tools. These tools are like miniature versions of the brighten/contrast option I mentioned above. That option would change the brightness/contrast of the entire image, but the nice thing about these tools is that it allows you to brighten/darken select parts of the image. The Dodge Tool is used for lightening any area you draw over. The Burn Tool is used for darkening any area you draw over and the Sponge Tool is used to remove the color from any area you draw over. It operates in much the same way as a paint brush. Just pick the part you wish to darken and ‘paint’ over the area. Doing so repeatedly will increase the intensity of the effect.
Patch:
The Patch Tool can be one of the most useful tools in photo editing. Once you select the tool, your mouse cursor will turn into a tiny patch with the thread coming out of it. Let us say, for example, that there is a black mark on your photograph that you don’t like. Select a portion of the photo that matches the area with the mark. Your selection doesn’t need to be perfect. Drawing a small circle, larger than the black mark, will be sufficient. Once you have your selection, click in the center of it and drag it over until it is completely covering the black mark and release. The selection you used will now be covering the black mark as if it never existed.
It is important to reiterate that you must select a part of the image that looks similar to the area you are ‘filling in’. The patch tool essentially copies part of the image and then blends its edges with its surroundings when it’s put in place somewhere else.
Blur and Sharpen
The blur and sharpen options can be used at any point during your photo editing process since it does not affect the color of your photograph. For the sake of simplicity, we will focus on the most basic options for sharpening and blurring.
Go up to the menus at the top of the page and locate the menu called “Filter” click it and scroll down the list until you find “Blur”. When you move your cursor over this menu a new list will appear to the right giving you all the different blur options. For now, only worry about “Blur” and “Blur More”. The names say it all. “Blur” will give your image a slightly fuzzy quality and “Blur More” will do it to a greater degree.
If you wish to sharpen your image, open the Filter menu again and scroll down until you find “Sharpen” and wait for the secondary menu to appear on the right. This is the same layout as the blur menu with “Sharpen” and “Sharpen More” but it will give your image a slightly clearer quality. Both, however, should be used sparingly, as too much will muddle the picture.
Conclusion:
Each of these methods can be used alone or in conjunction with each other to enhance your photographs, but they hardly breech the surface of what Photoshop can do. Therefore, I encourage you to take this information and play around with the various options the program has.
Some Additional Tips:
Edit > Undo will undo the last thing you did, but if you wish to go even further back you can look for the “History” window on the right-hand side of the program. It keeps track of everything you did and will allow you to go back much further than the undo option.
If you wish to turn a color photo into a black and white photo, simply click on Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.
If you are unable to produce any visible results with the Dodge/Burn/Sponge tool, check to see what brush size you’re using and what the flow percentage is. If the brush is too small or weak, you may not see any difference in the image when it is applied.
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How To Change The Background Of a Photo Using Photoshop CS6?
One of the common questions in Photoshop for newbies is “how to change the background of a photo?” There are two variations in that; one is how to move the subject to different background and other one is how to change the background of the image but keeping the concept as same.
In this tutorial, I am going to teach you “how to move the subject from one background to another” using Photoshop CS6.
Change the Background of a Photo Using Photoshop CS6:
There are different ways to carry out this process. It entirely depends on the images which you have chosen. These are the sample images and am going to change the background of the first image. Let’s see how to do it.
Change The Background Of a Photo
Step 1: Open the image in Photoshop CS6 and select the “Magic Eraser tool” from the Left side toolbar or you can simply press “E” to select it.
Step 2: Start to remove the background by clicking background area. Keep the tolerance value 20 or below that while using “Magic eraser tool”.
Step 3: Select the “Eraser tool” from the Left side toolbar and remove the rest of the background area. Use “Ctrl” “+” for zooming image and remove all the background.
Step 4: Resize the image by using shortcut “Ctrl”+“Alt”+“I” and select the “Move Tool” in the sidebar.
Related Article: How To Remove Watermarks From Photoshop CS6
Step 5: Move the first image to the second image by using move tool. Adjust the image by dragging left-right and top to bottom.
You can use “Ctrl” + “Z” to undo and repeat the step. Here is the final image after changing the background of a photo. “Ctrl” + “S” to Save the image and change the format into jpeg while saving.
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Create a Trendy Retro Photo Effect in 3 Easy Steps
Retro photo effects are all the rage! There’s plenty of apps to give your photos the vintage look on your iPhone, but what about your desktop images? Follow this super quick Photoshop tutorial to easily add a retro effect to your images in 3 simple steps, or just skip to the end and download the Action.
We’re going to use Photoshop’s Curves adjusted to modify the image’s colors. You can either do this by going to Image > Adjustments > Curves or by adding an Adjustment Layer. An Adjustment Layer is the better choice seeing as it’s non-destructive, allowing you to remove the effect at any time.
Step one: Change the drop down menu in the Curves options to the Red option, then click and drag the line and create a positive bend. This will increase the reds in the overall color balance.
Step two: Switch the drop down menu to the Blue option. Drag this line to create a negative bend. This will decrease the amount of blue in the color balance, giving the image more of a yellow tone.
Step three: Change the drop down menu to the Green option and add two points in this line to create an S-shaped bend. This helps make the reds in the shadows more prominent while bringing out those yellows in the highlights.
Fine tune the amount of adjustment on those curves lines to create the perfect retro effect.
RETRO PHOTO EFFECT EXAMPLES
Apply this simple process to any image to instantly give it that retro look.
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Create explosive action photos at home
Use some flour power
Shooting a moving subject like a dancer throws up several challenges, not least of which is trying to convey that sense of graceful motion in a still image. But something as simple as a handful or flour can show off the action in a wonderfully atmospheric way.
The fine white powder hangs in the air, shifting with the action and creating dusty whorls that catch the light. It also makes an almighty mess, but that’s certainly a price worth paying for the extra flavor the flour gives the shoot.
In this tutorial, we’ll explain how to get set up and shoot your own evocative flour portraits. Lighting plays a big part, and a three Speedlight set-up here gives us beautiful backlighting that emphasizes the shape of the body and lifts the flour. What’s more, you don’t even need a studio. Any decent-sized space will do – you could even shoot it outdoors on a dry night.
Step-by-step: just add flour
1. Find a dark place
We need a dim environment and a dark backdrop, so we shot in a private underground car park. Arrange dust sheets to minimize the mess, but be aware their color might affect the light; here the reflected light from the blue material gave us an intentionally cool cast.
2. Light the subject
Our Speedlights are positioned on light stands, angled away from the backdrop to prevent the spill, and set to manual power with the settings shown. The front light is fitted with a white shoot-through umbrella, the back left has a silver umbrella and the back right a beauty dish.
3. Set the exposure
We fire the Speedlights using a wireless trigger fitted to the camera and a receiver on one of the flashguns; the others are set to optical Slave mode. The camera’s set to manual with a shutter speed of 1/200 sec, then we adjust aperture and ISO until the exposure looks right.
4. Sprinkle the flour
We asked our model P-J to hold flour in his hands then release it as he danced and moved. To show the movement in different parts of the body try sprinkling flour over the shoulders, arms, and feet. If your subject has long hair, you could try sprinkling it there too.
5. Work the poses
It really helps if you can work with a subject who knows how to move their body. If you can trust them to get into interesting positions, it frees you to concentrate on perfecting the technique, timing, and composition. Even so, it might take several attempts to nail the pose.
6. Direct your subject
Strong back- and side-lighting give us these bright highlights along both sides of the body. We need to pose the subject to make the most of this edge light, asking them to turn the head and body one way or the other as they move. A straight-on pose wouldn’t work here.
Freeze with flash
It’s not so much the shutter speed that freezes the motion here, it’s the flash duration. That’s because we’re in a dim room, so the only light that registers is the brief burst from the Speedlight, which is far quicker than the camera’s maximum flash sync speed (usually 1/200 or 1/250 sec). The lower the Speedlight power, the faster the flash duration.
When fired at full power the duration may even be close to 1/200 sec, but at 1/16 power the duration will shrink to around 1/8000 sec or faster (depending on your Speedlight).
So if you’re seeing motion blur in your flash-lit action shots lower the flash power and bump up the ISO.
Top tip
You don’t need expensive flashes for this, they only need to have manual power and an optical slave mode – features that budget models will usually have.
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