Professional Portrait Retouching - Removing Dark Circles

In our previous portrait retouching lesson, we looked at the simple task of brightening a subject’s eyes. This time, we’ll be working on removing the dark circles under your subject’s eyes. With the use of some of Photoshop’s healing and retouching tools, we can easily paint away wrinkles and blemishes and make your subjects look years younger.

If video is not available, click here to view it on YouTube.

1. When starting off, it’s a good idea to get the Healing Brush Tool and fix some of the small blemishes and wrinkles. Simply select the tool, Alt + click on an area to select a source point, and then click onto the areas you want to clone/heal.



2.Once all the little areas have been healed away, grab the Patch Tool and drag a selection around the area be replaced.



3. Once your selection has been made, click inside the selection and drag slightly downward to an unblemished section of skin



4. This procedure may leave behind a few artifacts and may discolor the skin. We’ll tackle the discoloration later; for now, use the Patch tool or Healing Brush tool to help smooth out any of the unsightly artifacts.



5. Another method you can use for removing the dark circles is switching back to the Healing Brush Tool and getting a bigger hard-edged brush. Alt + click on an area with good skin tone and, with one long stroke, slowly paint over the wrinkle



6. To get rid of the dark skin tone that can result, we’ll switch to the Clone Stamp Tool. In the toolbar, set the mode to Lighten and the opacity to around 40%.



7. Alt + click on the target area for your clone tool. With a large soft brush, paint over the darkened areas of the skin. If you need to either darken or lighten this stroke, before clicking again go to Edit > Fade Clone Stamp…; you’ll notice that this option will open at 40% opacity (copying the settings you had for the Clone Stamp Tool) allowing you to either raise or lower the opacity to better match your subject’s skin tone.



As always, you can go through your image with the Healing Brush Tool and touch up some of the areas that you might have missed with the larger brushes. Below is a before and after comparison of the technique.



This tutorial resource from: http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Professional-Portrait-Retouching-Removing-Dark-Circles/36807

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The Dark Art

At the last time, I showed you how to create the Dragan Style. So today, I will show you how to create the dark art style.

Here is the final

From the original photo:



Step 1
Open an original photo and duplicate it by press Ctrl + J (Layer > Duplicate layer).

Step 2
Choose the background copy layer. Then choose Image > Apply Image



So you will have



Step 3
Create a new layer by press Shift+Ctrl+N or choose Layer > New > Layer, and fill this layer with black color.
Note: You should change the opacity of this layer to 40%.

So you will have



Step 4
Choose the Elliptical Marquee Tool and create the ellipse like that



Then, create the feather for this selection by press Ctrl + Alt + D or choose Select > Feather, change Feather Radius to 30 pixel.



Delete the selection by press Delete key or choose Edit > Clear. The result after this step is:



Then last thing to do in this step is changing the blend mode for this layer to Soft Light and change the opacity back to 100%.



You will have



Step 5
Choose the "Back Ground Copy" layer and create a "Hue/Saturation" layer



Change its property



The result will be



Step 6
Choose Mask of Hue/Satuaration layer and delete the model's area.



Step 7
Create the level layer for this layer, change its property a little bit.



Then choose Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask



Finally, you got the best result



Add the text & some textures in case you want



Resource from: http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/The-Dark-Art/36882

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Burnt Paper Edges

The following tutorial will teach you how to create burnt edges on a picture — only you won't have to use matches this time!

This tutorial Resources from: http://www.absolutecross.com/tutorials/photoshop/effects/burnt-edges/





Step 1
Open the image you want to use, or create a new document. If you're starting a new image, let's give it some color by making a diagonal gradient with the Gradient Tool (see example). Using the Lasso Tool, create a semi-round selection with jagged edges: to make it more realistic, drag the lasso tool slowly while moving your hand up & down, left & right.



Step 2
Switch to Quick Mask Mode and use Filter » Pixelate » Crystalize with setting of 3.



Step 3
Switch back to Standard Mode and save the selection (Select » Save Selection). After pressing OK, fill the selection with white (Edit » Fill) or whatever other color your heart desires. Then choose Select » Modify » Expand. You can enter 4 or 5 (depending how big edge you want). Now, switch to Quick Mask Mode again and choose Filter » Blur » Gaussian Blur with setting of 3.



Step 4
Now, go back to Standard Mode and choose Select » Load Selection and make sure your saved selection (should be called Alpha 1 or #4) is selected in the Channel dropdown. Check Subtract from Selection and press OK.

Step 5
Time for some color! Choose, Image » Adjust » Hue/Saturation and click the Colorize check box. Set the Hue to 14, Saturation to 31 and Lightness to -61 (or adjust to your preference).
And there you have it.

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Creating 3D Textured Text with Photoshop

This Tutorial Resource from: http://www.grafx-design.com/02photo.html

This tutorial will show you how to render a 3D texture and apply it to some text. The end result will resemble hammered copper. I used Photoshop 3.04 for Windows. Some things may be done differently with other versions.

Start off by opening a marble texture (see figure 2.1). (You might want to try other textures later. I did this the first time with a wood texture :)) I used one I got with a 3D program I bought a while back, but you can find stuff like this almost anywhere on the 'net.

Apply Filter, Render, Lighting Effects with the following settings. Later you can experiment.

• Style: 2amspot
• Light type: spotlight
• Intensity: 17
• Focus: 34
• Gloss: 49
• Material: 34
• Exposure: 0
• Ambience: 4
• Texture channel: red
• White is high: checked
• Height: 100

You should have something that looks much more three-dimensional than you started with (see figure 2.2).



Assuming you started out with default foreground and background colors set (i.e. black and white, respectively) reverse them by clicking on the 90 degree two-headed arrow.

Use the text tool to enter your text. DON'T de-select it, though. Drag the opacity setting in the layers palette to zero. Choose Select, Inverse then press the delete key. Now de-select. (CTRL-D) or Select, None.

TIP: To center your text automatically while it's still selected, use CTRL-X then CTRL-V. This will cut and paste your text, or any other selection for that matter, and center it automatically.

For the final touch we'll color the text. Use Image, Adjust, Hue/Saturation. Put a check mark in the colorization box. I used the following settings, but feel free to play around and try to get, for example, a gold-look.

• H=16
• S=68
• L=-8
  

Your final graphic should resemble figure 2.3.

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Old Printouts

Written by Denny Tang
This Tutorial Resource from: http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-effects/old-printouts.html

Make your photos look like old printouts with washed out colors and stained paper. This photo effect is a great way to add a unique twist to your photos. Click to find out how to apply this photo effect with Photoshop.

Step 1
Begin by opening any photo into Photoshop.



Step 2
To create this photo effect, we'll be using two Photo Filter adjustment layers. One will alter the color in the shadows and the other in the highlights. First, we'll start off by creating a Photo Filter adjustment layer that will affect the highlights of the image. In the Layers palette, click on the New Adjustment Layer button then choose Photo Filter.



Step 3
In the Photo Filter settings, use the same settings as the image below.



Step 4
Make sure that you have the Photo Filter adjustment layer selected then choose Image > Apply Image. We will use the Apply Image tool to copy the image into the layer mask. This technique makes the layer only visible in the highlights and produces better results than altering the Blend If options in the layer style settings.



Step 5
We're done creating the first Photo Filter layer for the highlights. Now we'll create one for the shadows. To do this, select the Photo Filter adjustment layer and press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer. Then, select the new layer (should be the top layer), and choose Image > Adjustments > Invert to invert the layer mask. Inverting the layer mask will make this layer affect only the shadows.



Step 6
Double click on the top Photo Filter adjustment layer icon to edit the settings. Change the filter to Cooling Filter (80). This will give the shadows a blue tint.



This is what the image looks like so far. It looks like an old printout now, but the effect isn't very desirable. In the next step, we'll adjust the blending mode of the two adjustment layers to create an image that is more useable.



Step 7
Change the blending mode of the middle layer to Multiply and the top layer to Screen.



Final Results

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Manipulate an Image with Scripting

Written by Ross Aitken

Scripting in Photoshop is something rarely touched upon in regular Photoshop tutorials, but is something definitely worth learning. Scripts are a much more powerful way to automate tasks than actions and can be used to do things which normally aren't possible in Photoshop. Here we create a script which will edit any image, giving a stylish way to show your photographs.

Introduction:
In this tutorial I will aim to show how to create this effect using scripts but will also show the corresponding steps in Photoshop, making it easy for you to understand how to alter your script to achieve different results.
Photoshop allows scripts in three different programming languages; VBScript, AppleScript and JavaScript, however JavaScript is the only cross platform script available so we will use it, it is also more useful to learn JavaScript. If you haven't ever programmed in JavaScript, you should still be able to understand this tutorial as I have explained all of the concepts in enough detail. When writing JavaScript you are free to use whatever text editor which suits you, however newer versions of Photoshop come with a program called ExtendScript Toolkit (ESTK) which makes scripting a lot easier. This is usually found hidden away in the same folder that contains Photoshop. If you don’t already have this program then you can download it here although it may not work for older versions of Photoshop. There are a few advantages of using this program, mainly the debugger and the fact that you can run scripts straight from the program.
For most of the steps I will show what your image should look like after you have run the script. Throughout this tutorial I used this image from stock.xchng, optionally you can save a small size version of this image for the purpose of testing your scripts as the script will run faster this way. The script works for any image of any size.Continue more...

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*Bling Bling* Simple Gold Text Effect

Ok, ok, I know I’ve already written a tutorial or two on how to make a nice, golden text effect. But again, I’m going to write for you a tutorial on how to make a simple gold text effect by using some layer styles, namely the Gradient Overlay layer style!

I was inspired to do this tutorial after I saw an awesome bit of text on the David Letterman’s website, which you can view here. Props to the awesome David Letterman!

1. Setting the Stage
Ok, let’s start by making a new document in Photoshop. I created a new document sized 500 x 500 pixels with all the default settings, RGB, 72 DPI, etc.

After creating your document, fill the background with a color/gradient of your choice. In this case I used a radial gradient, colors were #393943 and #100e19.

I then added in a texture/pattern of some “Diamond Metal Plate,” I made this texture using the Free Filter Forge Metal Plugin, which you can download for free from their website.

If you don’t want to download their application and have to install it, you can simply download the pattern that I created from here: Diamond Plate Metal Texture/Pattern.



After adding your texture, mess with the layer mode and opacities settings to get an interesting look. I used the layer mode Overlay, with an opacity of 15%. Other good layer modes to use in this case are Soft Light, Vivid Light, and Color Dodge.



Looking alright so far? One or two more things to do for the background before we get onto the text though.

Create a new layer then get out the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Set the ’style’ for the selection tool to ‘Fixed Size, then put 50% into each of the boxes, width and height.

Drag your selection onto the canvas then into the bottom right corner of your canvas, do the same but in the top left corner. Next, fill your selections with one of the purple colors that you used for your background gradient.



Lower the opacity for this layer if you think it needs it, then, using a large, soft brush, erase away the inside (middle area) of your cubes, so you get something like this:



Repeat this part, but using the other corners and the other color that you used for the background. After a little bit of tweaking, this is what I ended up with for my background:



If you were unable to complete the background, then don’t worry about it, you’ll be able to download the PSD file at the end of this tutorial anyway, so you’ll be able to take a look at all of the layers later.

To finish off with the background I added in a bit of grunge at the bottom of the document, using the lighter purple as my brush color, I then changed the layer mode to Multiply and lowered the layer opacity to around 40%.



Alright, we’re finally done for the background! I hope you enjoyed this part

2. Setting Up your Text
This is the easy part, all you have to do is write out your desired text on the canvas. Get out your Horizontal Type Tool (just the usual one) and write out your text in whatever color you want.



In the above image I’ve used Impact as my font of choice, and it’s sized at a meager 60 pt.

Impact should come with your Windows installation (assuming you’re using Windows, anyway) but if you don’t have it, you can easily find a good alternative on a free font website such as Dafont or UrbanFonts. It’s preferred to use a fat font, with a large font size.

I find Impact does a great job in this case, but if you’re not pleased with it, I’ve listed a few good, free alternative below.

Bebas:



Accidental Presidency:


Boris Black Boxx:

3. Style Your Text
Pretty much the final thing we need to do is apply layer styles to our text to make it actually look good. Some of these layer style settings will depend on the size of your text, so be sure to mess with the settings a little bit if you’ve selected your own font size!

1. Drop Shadow
2. Inner Shadow
3. Inner Glow
4. Gradient Overlay

And now our text should look like this:



Looks pretty good to me!

4. Completion
Well, we’re pretty much finished for this tutorial, thanks for taking the time to read it! If you want, you can download the PSD file from this tutorial below, learning purposes only though!



As you can see in the above image, I’ve added some of those bling star things, I’ve included them in the PSD file.


Source: Photoshopstar,"*Bling Bling* Simple Gold Text Effect", http://www.photoshopstar.com/text/bling-bling-simple-gold-text-effect/, (july,31,08)

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