Ok, so I just talked about how awesome my camera is in the previous shot, now onto praising Photoshop. Actually, I wanted to add that I was really far away from Crystal when I took this shot too, that zoom really comes in handy! Anyways here are my favorite tools in Photoshop and one I just discovered in the last few days!
I. Under "Image" - "Adjustments"
a. Curves *drool*
b. Color Balance (up those cyans and blues and drop those dang yellows and reds)
c. Hue/Saturation (I think everyone on Flickr has found this one already)
d. Replace Color (I use it, but sparingly. It often leaves grain. But it sure can make a sky blue and yellow flowers whiter!)
e. Shadow/Highlight - this one I just discovered and it is awesome! Look! You can see Crystal's eyes! And upping the Midtone Contrast works wonders to certain photos!
II. Under "Filter"
a. "Sharpen" - "Unsharp Mask" 100%; 1.0; 0 - It works so well!
b. "Blur" - "Gaussian Blur" - Both used for my doll trick and soft focus (neither used here) The soft focus trick is fun: Copy the original image to a new layer. Gaussian Blur the new layer. Then lower the opacity to like 50% or less and viola!
Those are all the tricks I use to improve photos. Enjoy. If you use any tools not listed here regularly, or if you know any other useful tips, or if you know any faster ways to do this stuff, PLEASE SHARE! I love learning new stuff! Yay, learning!
Note: I never took a class and I'm no professional so please don't think I'm like a master at this stuff. This may not be the right way or the best way to do anything, I just love to play around and I thought at least of few of my friends would like to know my tricks. Yay Photoshop!
Tags: Crystal Jeffers Wedding Photoshop Correction Tutorial Lesson Ewa Pruska Ewa Pruska evaxebra Eva Xebra
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I really needed a diptych (my “tower of onion rings” and then “empty tower of onion rings” photos were not as interesting as I had hoped) and since many people have requested that I divulge my “Doll” photo secret I had this idea. Although I have learned over the years that divulging secrets always ends up hurting me (the people I teach always end up being much better, they get way ahead of me and leave me in the dust, and then forget about me) I’ll tell you anyway because I LOVE to teach. At least I’ll always be remembered wherever zebras are found, right? Anyway, I got this method from a book and then I thoroughly over-did it. :-D
Book: “The Photoshop CS2 Book for digital photographers” by Scott Kelby. I love it.
Ewa’s Secret Method on how to convert Photo 1 into Photo 2 all in Photoshop:
Step 1: Lots of makeup, fake eyelashes, a wig, and a cute model.
2: Crop and rotate until satisfied.
3: Filter; Sharpen; Unsharp Mask: Amount: 100%, Radius: 1 pixel, Threshold: 0.
4. Use the magic wand tool to roughly select out all the skin. Doesn’t have to be perfect.
5. Ctrl-J to put it in a new layer.
6. In the new layer: Filter; Blur; Gaussian Blur: Radius: umm, about 15 pixels I guess.
7. In the “history palette” that’s always in the way, hit the little box to the left of where it says “Gaussian blur.” This activates the “History Brush.”
8. Then click the action above it (should be “Layer Via Copy”) to get rid of the blurry face.
9. Now you’re ready to doll it up! Pick the History Brush out of your tool, pick a good size you like (I pick one that’s as big as my eye). Make sure the setting is “normal” and the opacity is like “60%” or less if you want less doll-iness (I don’t know why you would!)
10. Now paint over the skin (in layer 1, not your original layer) carefully not smudging the lips and hair – which shouldn’t happen too much since you selected out the skin. Another reason I had you select out the skin is that the Gaussian blur makes the lips and eyelashes bleed color everywhere and that never looks right.
11. Anyways… I like to lower the opacity when going over the nostrils and the eyebrows to keep the details.
12. Now most of you will run off and have fun with this new tool, but there’s still a lot more work to be done!!
13. Flatten Image, do the Gaussian blur trick again on the original image, but this time use a very very small History Brush and correct all the little pieces you missed last time, especially around the eye and nose.
14. Now around the lips and eyes I like to pick the “Blur” tool (under the “Smudge” tool – 60% opacity) and blur out any last remaining wrinkles, shiny spots, and whatnot. Dolls ain’t got that!
15. Now I use the “Magnetic Lasso Tool” to select out my eyes (only the iris and pupil) – Hit shift while you do it to select both.
16. Select; Feather; 5 Pixels
17. Ctrl-J to put in a new layer. Leave this layer alone until later. I always like to work on the eyes separately.
18. Ctrl-M to open up the Curves menu. Have fun. I always pull bottom further down and the top further up to increase the contrast.
19. Now I always have a gross yellow cast on my photos (fake lighting) so messing with colors is crucial. And fun. Ctrl-B to open up the Color Balance menu.
20. Mess with the colors. For this shot:
Shadows: -18, +5, +27 (blue shadow is by far my favorite thing to do – Gothify!! Weeee!!)
Midtones: -20, +8, +32
Highlights: -14, -4, +16
21. Make the cheeks pink by picking out a red color with the eyedropper then choosing the Paintbrush tool. Under brush, pick hardness 0%, then under Mode, pick “Color,” Opacity 10%, and hit the Airbrush icon. Add some rosy cheeks!
22. Now for the eyelashes, note that one of them is sort of crooked so I like to color in the area around the eye more black with a small, black paintbrush to hide that flaw in my eyelash-putting-on-skills.
23. Notice that my eyes are all red and bloodshot from studying. You gotta clean that up! Select out the sclera (the white part) of the eye. Ctrl-J to make new layer.
24. Ctrl-U to hit up the Saturation Menu (one of my faves) and desaturate the eye and then brighten it until it looks perfect. You can smudge it a little too for those pesky thick capillaries. Visine works too.
25. Now my favorite, favorite step. Click on that layer with the eyes from before and hit Ctrl-M.
26. Image; Adjustments; Brightness/Contrast: Brightness -15, Contrast +30.
27. Hit Ctrl-B again for the colors. Ramp up that Green!
Shadows: 0, +16, +23
Midtones: 0, +12, +14
Highlights: 0, +18, +10
28. I also got rid of the glare from the window by copying a part of the left side of the eye, then pasting it on the right and rotating it until it fits. I love the new photoshop! Then FLATTEN!
29. Ok, second to last step: Ctrl-U again to ramp up the Saturation. I like to increase all the colors except red to like 20. Increased red saturation always makes the skin look bad.
30. Last step: realize this photo sucks: select a much better photo and start over.
3. Diptych. Take two related photos and present them side-by-side as a single entity. How the two photos relate is up to you...this one should really test your creativity. If you're not familiar with diptychs, just search Flickr.
Take a Class With Dave and Dave
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I made this delicious meal today. I recorded myself doing it.
See me being me HERE!!!
(I look really dorky and I'm kind of embarrassed about posting a video - but I have to get with the times, right? If you think it's too stupid, be a friend and let me know so I can take it down.)
*what was I thinking!?!?!*
Tags: Chicken Caesar Salad Video Dinner Cook Chicken Caesar Salad Ewa evaxebra Yummy Pruska Ewa Pruska Eva Xebra
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1. Before. Took a while to get the makeup right. Then, of course, the white makeup was all gross and cracky!
2. My set-up - check the awesome tripod-pencil-duct-tape-pencil-pez-dispenser-lamp contraption! And my bed/studio with my living room lamp/photo lighting device. Yeah, I make do with what I've got.
3. After. The white makeup would NOT come off! I had to immerse my head in water to get it off!
SEE the result!
Tags: 365 Days Ewa Self Portrait evaxebra Day 54 Harley Quinn Harlequin Joker Harleen Quinzel Harley Quinn Harleen Quinzel Dr. Harleen Quinzel Doctor Jester Makeup Costume Cosplay Batman Red Black Diamond Comic Pruska Ewa Pruska Eva Xebra
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