Sleepless Sg

Using Magic Extractor - Photoshop Elements

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:47:00 +0000

For many of us, extracting out an image from its background is very challenging. Not anymore, that is if you have Photoshop Elements, an in expensive photo retouching tool.

Let's use a typical group photo to illustrate the steps:

This photo is what u will normally have. Almost everyone wears the same color clothes and the background is not so uniform to be selected out.

We are going to extract the boy in from, with blue jeans.

Step 1
Select Image->Magic Extractor from the pull down menu. You will now be presented with a new pop up window, the Magic Extractor window.

Step 2
Using the foreground brush tool (the 1st button on the left), dash or dot on the inside edges of the person you are extracting. Use short dashes, or even dots, if you are at very hard to define edges. Zoom in closer will help. By the way, these will show up as red dots and strokes on the image. Don't worry about it, it is not affecting the original image.

Step 3
Continue using the same foreground brush, use long zig-zag strokes to draw within the image you are selecting.

Step 4
Using the background brush tool (the 2nd button on the left), dash or dot on the outside edges of the person. Same rules applies here, try to get very close to the edges. Zoom in and use short dashes or dots if you are at hard to reach places.

Step 5
Continue using the BACKGROUND brush tool, draw long zig-zag lines on all the rest of the image you do not want.

The picture should look like this now:

Step 6
Click on Preview button to see the possible result. You should see quite a nicely extracted image of the boy.

Step 7
Repeat any of the paint foreground or paint background steps above if you have to. However, if you have followed closely, you can safely click on Ok button now.

The image which I have at this stage:

Step 8
You should see some unwanted patches here and there, but quite far away from the image you want. They can be easily removed, or in my case, I just crop out the boy I want.

Finally use a small soft eraser tool to clean the edges of the image extracted.

The result:

Zoom In for Photoshop Liquify

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:32:00 +0000

A thing which I find hard to do with liquify is that there is not enough details while you are editing. The liquify edit window lowers the resolution of the image in order to speed things up.

A neat and common technique is to copy the region you intend to liquify, paste it into a new image, then apply liquify on that smaller image. Copy and paste it back to the original image when done. This approach has several advantages:

- the original image layer is not altered, the liquified image segment is pasted in as new layer

- while doing the liquify, you have a higher resolution image to work with. Preview is closer to the end result.

Here is the step-by-step guide:

1. This is the original image. I have decided to use a male model since female models will complain when I show their ugly pre-edited photos ; )

His eyes are a bit sleepy. We are going to use liquify to open them up a bit.

2. Select and copy the eye region. Make sure there is more than enough margin around the intended edit area. Paste this into a newly created file.

3. Now choose Filter -> Distort -> Liquify. Open up the eyes slightly by bringing the middle upper lids upwards. Pull up the neighboring area to ensure the eye shape is still intact. Lift the outer ends of the eyes slightly if the eyes look droopy.

4. Once done, copy the edited eyes, and paste it back to the original image. It will automatically be created as a new layer. You can activate and deactivate the layer to see the before and after effect.

Go for Gold

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:15:00 +0000

Photo shoot of Ellis.
Gold foundation.

Model Shoot - Geneve

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:23:00 +0000

Photo shoot for Geneve.

Model Shoot - Karen

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:21:00 +0000

Model shoot of Karen:

Beach Ball Babes

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:53:00 +0000

This was 1 of the rare instances when I lugged my huge 70-200mm Canon lens out for a shoot. Some hits and misses. A very tiring task to focus on the correct subject(s)... moving all the time.

This was a match between China and Brazil. If I am not wrong, it was part of the SWATCH FIVB World Tour. Here are the babes:

Bikini Shoot - Sweet Michelle

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:05:00 +0000

Model shoot of Michelle. Photos :

Auto Show Race Queens

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:45:00 +0000

These are the photos taken at Straits Times Car-nival Auto Show.

Hot Sizzling Model

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:08:00 +0000

I recall this model whom I shot during a car show sometime in Nov last year. Import Nights I think. Like her very much. Very spontaneous, not to mention that she is pretty and sizzling hot.

Share her photos here:

Sexy and Mysterious Steph

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 09:56:00 +0000

Steph and I met on the Internet. We chatted on MSN for quite a while before she is comfortable to do a shoot with me.

Steph has an aura around her. It makes people wants to discover more about her.
Photo 1:

Photo 2:

Photo 3:

Photo 4:

Photo 5:

Photo 6:

Perfect Skin Babe - Photoshop Elements

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:24:00 +0000

This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to give your babe a perfect skin, using Photoshop Elements. This will utilize the layer mask tool, which a previous blog entry showed how it was added to Photoshop Elements.

I am going to use a more believable source image:

Step 1 :
Use the healing brush tool, remove all obvious flaws.

The healed face looks like this:

Step 2 :
Duplicate the current layer. The new layer is automatically named as Background copy.

Step 3 :
With Background copy active, select [Filter->Other->High Pass Filter]. I choose radius 14 here but you should experiment with different values. Generally speaking, use a larger radius for a high rest closeup image.

Step 4 :
Change the blending mode of the Background copy layer to "Overlay".

Step5 :
With the Background copy still active, add a layer mask by dragging the layer mask effect onto the image. See this blog entry if you do not know how to add layer mask.

You should see a white layer mask added:

Step 6 :
With the white layer mask selected, press CONTROL-I to invert it. The layer mask should now be black. A black mask means no effect.

Step 7 :
We are now going to paint white onto the layer mask at areas where we want the skin to be perfect.

Click on the black layer mask to ensure it is the current active selection. Choose a suitable SOFT brush size. Ensure current color is white. Choose about 60% for brush opacity.

Alter the brush size to cover different areas of the face/skin. The final image looks like this.

Babes of Miss Singapore Sweetheart 2008

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 11:21:00 +0000

Come and drool over the babes of Miss Singapore Sweetheart 2008. Their photos here:

Layer Mask for Photoshop Elements

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:48:00 +0000

So you bought a near professional camera. It comes with Photoshop Elements or you purchased a copy. How then do you edit wonderful photos of those babes you have taken? You want Photoshop Elements to behave more like Photoshop CS.

One really important tool to have is layer mask. And you can add layer mask tool to Photoshop Elements! For the uninitiated, a layer mask allows you to

- add a mask to a layer
- paint on the mask itself. this allows different parts of the mask to have different degree of masking (effect).

You can download a FREE layer mask tool from here. And please do visit the site for the instructions on how to install the mask. The site contains the instructions for installing the layer mask tool on Photoshop Elements 6 and below.

Once installed, you get a layer mask tool that appears in the Effects window:

To use, simply drag this onto the image window. The current active layer will get a new layer mask.

I am going to show you how to use the layer mask to create wonderful portraits in a coming post. Stay tuned.

Babes in Salsa

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:39:00 +0000

Salsa scene in Singapore is really hot. This is 1 of the best place to spot babes. I do Salsa dance dance personally and enjoy it very much.

Enjoy these photos. Let me know if you don't know where to learn or dance Salsa.

Miss Singapore Sweetheart 2008

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:31:00 +0000

Supporting Vanessa for the Miss Singapore Sweetheart 2008. She is 1 of the semi finalist.

Putting up more photos of her in this blog. Please go down to Courts Megastore this Saturday 28 June 2008 to support alright.

Qian - Sweet Girl

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:20:00 +0000

I was a bit hesitant when Qian asked me if I would like to shoot her. She looks so young and ... green.

Now I am glad I did the shoot. I like the photos where she is in her hip-hop dance attire. They stand out quite well and her expressions were great.

Would really like to do another shoot with her.

Model Shoot - Vanessa

noreply@blogger.com (themanager) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:17:00 +0000

I started to do model shoots more often recently. Was lucky enough to come across Vanessa. She is a very nice model to work with.

Started the shoot early on a Sunday morning. I was not exactly at top form. Maybe it was the late Saturday night. Fumbled a little with the make-up and had to do some cleaning and corrections. That aside, the rest of the shoot was smooth.

Share some photos here ...

Latest: was told that she won the Miss Physique title last Sat in the Miss Singapore Sweetheart '08 preview. All the best for the semi-final!