Step 1: general adjustments

As with any photograph, before you get into detailed retouching you should fix the general flaws: in lighting. For more tips on how to adjust general digital photography problem, visit this tutorial.

In this case, our image has an obvious overexposure problem on the girl’s blouse, but this is beyond the scope of this tutorial, where we will focus only on the face

Let’s open the shadows a little: go to Image > Adjustments > Shadows/Highlights and fill in the settings from the image below.

We recovered more details from the shadows, but we lost the depth and the picture appears flat. Go to Image > Adjustments > Exposure and fill in the settings below.This way we get some depth in the shadows (but don’t overdo it, especially on low resolution images, because you will easily blocky areas of plain black).

Next, let’s adjust the Curves to obtain a better contrast and more volume (Ctrl + M and draw a curve like in the picture below).

The picture already looks much better than the original, so let’s take it further into the retouching.

Step 2: cleaning the skin

Cleaning the skin is usually done with a combination of the clone tool and the healing brush. The main difference between the two is that the healing brush preserves the texture of the skin better. The clone tool keeps the texture exactly only when used with a hard-edged brush, which is not something you want to do when retouching the skin. The healing brush doesn’t work all the time (especially in areas close to edges ), that’s why the best thing to do is to use the combination with the clone tool.

When retouching skin, you want to keep as much of the texture as possible. Some beginners love to use the blur tool (or even a filter like Surface Blur) to smooth the skin, but this will only give it a plastic, artificial look. Also, when retouching areas like the shadows under the eyes, or wrinkles – don’t overdo it! It’s best to keep your retouching into a separate layer so you can adjust the opacity and find the most natural look.

So, create a new layer (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + N) on top of your background and hit the J key for your healing brush tool (or S for the cloning tool). In the options bar at the top, make sure that the Sample option is set to Current & Below. Basically, use the healing brush to clear blemishes, freckles, imperfections on skin, and use the clone tool (at low opacity, I usually start around 25-30%) to lighten the areas under the eyes, to smooth wrinkles, to soften sharp shadow edges. In our case, the model’s skin is not too bad, so the retouching will be minimal.

Clean up the acne marks spot by spot, the freckles on her nose and the loose strands of hair with the healing brush. Then lighten up the shadows under the eyes with the clone tool, on a separate layer. I used a soft brush around 20 px large, at 20%. While at it, soften the line of the shadow under her chin. Then, on a separate layer, with the healing brush, try to bring back some of the texture of the skin. The advantage of having these retouchments on separate layers is that you can erase parts you don’t want and alter the opacity so you can get the most natural look. Here’s my result:

Step 3: brightening the eyes

Bringing out the eyes will make the difference between a dull portrait and a one that captivates the viewer. Professional photographers use careful lighting to catch the vibrancy of the eyes, but you can use your retouching skills to enhance the glance of your subject.

In our portrait here, the model’s eyes are pretty much shaded and in desperate need for some brightness. However, keep in mind that, again, moderation is key: do not whiten too much the white of the eyes because it will look unnatural!

Let’s start by selecting each eye from the original picture. You can use the polygonal lasso, although I recommend for most selections the pen tool. If you use the pen tool, outline the shape of the eye and then load the shape as a selection and, while on the background layer, hit CTRL + J to copy the selection in a new layer. If you use the lasso, hit CTRL + J when you’re done (same effect as above). Do the same for each eye.

(For the basic use of the pen tool for selections – without knowing Bezier curves – see a tutorial I wrote a while ago and posted on my fine art website: Cutting and blending techniques. Here it is.

We will use these layers to adjust the white of the eyes. But before that, let’s select the pupils and paste the on their own layers (on top of the eyes layers). You can select them from the original layer or from the new eyes layers. Don’t forget to label your layers accordingly and to organize them in groups!

Now, for each of the eyes layer, go Image > Adjustments > Brightness & Contrast and set the Brightness to +20. You may notice now some red specks on the whites, which you can clone out with the clone tool.

Now, select the pupils’ layers and repeat the Brightness & Contrast adjustment, but this time with much higher parameters (brightness 90/ contrast 60, or just experiment until you like the result).

The eyes have improved a lot, but we got some red artifacts is the pupils, which we can get rid of easily. Select the layer of the left pupil and hit Ctrl + U to bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog. From the Edit drop-down choose Reds and use the following settings: Hue: +15, Saturation: -32, Lightness: 0. This way, we shifted the reds towards a green hue. Hit Enter to apply the settings. Then, select the other pupil’s layer and hit Ctrl + Alt + U. This combination will bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog with the settings last used already filled in, so you can just hit Enter and you’re done!

(Tip: use the Alt key in combination with other shortcuts for Adjustments or even for Filters, to start with the settings last used instead of the default settings).

There are more enhancements that can be done to the eyes (like painting in catch lights and shadows), but for now we’ll stop here and move on to the next step.

Step 4: whitening the teeth

Unless you’ve just come from a whitening session at your dentist, anyone could use some post-processing teeth whitening. There is an easy way to give this girl a brighter smile: select the teeth and paste them into their own layer. I useed, as usual, the pen tool (but you can use the polygonal lasso if you wish).

Once you have the teeth in their own layer, hit Ctrl + U just like before and select to edit the Yellows this time. You don’t want to reduce the Saturation (it will only make them look grey), but to increase the Lightness (+45). Since they still look too dark, select the Reds in the Edit dropdown and increase the Lightness to +30. Be careful not to make them look grey! Hit Ok and then go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and up the Brightness to +12. Then hit S to grab your clone tool and clone out the too bright spots (zoom in closely).

Step 5: further improvements

There’s much more that you could do to improve this portrait, but it extends beyond the scope of this tutorial. For instance, her skin appears too dark on the lower half of the photo. Then, I would get rid of the shadow on the wall that you can see along her arms. In fact, a completely new background would be even better. The hot spot on her shirt could be fixed by cloning fabric from the other side. The scarf could use a more saturated red. And so on… We’re a long way from a magazine cover, but also a long way from the initial shot.

Thanks to Madalina Iordache-Levay for sharing this article with Dezinerfolio. Source: Ardis Creative

During this time we had to create a few helper classes to support the gallery’s requirement, and I just thought we could share the class out to the readers. The StageUtis class provides static methods to align objects similar to the Align panel in flash. Below is a simple code to align MC1 to the Left top corner of MC2

StageUtils.align(MC1, MC2, StageAlign.TOP_LEFT);

Please use the flash to view the different available options of aligning MC1 and MC2 using the StageUtils class.

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As a comfortable user of Photoshop you know about the advantage having your own set of backgrounds, patterns, brushes or you name it. Here is a little guide that shows you how to create your own “asphalt” ready for you to be used as background or pattern in your next illustration. Read more>> As a comfortable user of Photoshop, you know about the advantage of having your own set of backgrounds, patterns, brushes or you name it. Here is a little guide that shows you how to create your own “asphalt” ready for you to be used as background or pattern in your next illustration.

Step 1 - Create a new document

Create a new Photoshop document (1200 x 700, 72dpi). CTRL-J to duplicate the background layer.

Step 2 - Create clouds

Make sure your foreground and background colors are black and white (hit D to switch the current colors to black and white). Choose FILTER > Render > Clouds. Name the layer Clouds.

Then choose SELECT > Color Range with the FUZZINESS on 23 and click on a lighter area of the Clouds layer to create a selection (click OK). Then hit CTRL-J to move the selection on a new layer. You can name the new layer “White spots”.

Step 3 - Create some texture

Still on the White spots layer, choose FILTER >Texture > Craquelure (Spacing: 15, Depth: 4, Brightness: 1).

Step 4 - Create some more texture

Go to the Clouds layer to make it active. Choose on FILTER > Artistic > Rough Pastels (Stroke length: 1, Stroke Detail: 16, Texture Type: Canvas, Scaling: 75, Relief: 30, Light Direction: Bottom, leave Invert unchecked).

Step 5 - Duplicate the Clouds Layer

Press CTRL-J to double the Clouds layer and go to the filter menu again. FILTER > Texture> Craquelure (Spacing: 10, Depth: 5, Brightness: 2).

Change the Blending Mode of the “Clouds copy” layer to “Darker Color”.

Step 6 - Finalize

Go to the White spots layer and change its Blending Mode to Hard Light. Then create an adjustment layer SOLID COLOR (set it on black). Change the Blending Mode of the adjustment layer to Overlay.

This is it. You can play around with the Blending Mode of the White spots layer and with its Opacity to change your effect. The asphalt will appear very realistic when you “lay it on the ground” by placing it in perspective.

Thanks to Peter Einheuser  for sharing this article with Dezinerfolio. Source: Ardis Creative

Having a professional photographer take the photos for your new state-of-the-art website or brochure is highly recommended, because the quality of your photos will impact greatly the quality of the final product. A picture is the first element that draws the eye into a page (virtual or not), and the text message is usually secondary.But, if your budget hit bottom and you must take the photos yourself with the shiny point-and-shoot company camera, or if you must dig deep into the archives for past photos, there is still hope. Here is a list with the most common problems that you might run into, and their simple but very effective and easy to apply solutions.

The solutions described below are implemented in Photoshop CS3, but they work for previous versions of Photoshop, unless otherwise noted.

Problem: the photo appears overall dark, gloomy, dull.

Cause: entry-level digital cameras tend to underexpose. It usually happens when there is a large area of light (like the sky), which the camera uses as reference for the exposure, while the rest of the image remains much darker than it appeared in the original scene.

Solution: check the histogram of your image: Image > Adjustments > Levels (or hit Ctrl + L). If the right area shows a gap like in the image below, drag the white (right) slider until it meets the edge of the histogram (you will notice your image lighting as you do this). If the dark areas of the image are still too dark, you may want to drag the middle slider (the gray one) to the left as well, until you are happy with the results.

Caution: when you adjust the white slider, pay attention not to overexpose the bright areas of the image (they should not turn completely white).

Problem: photo appears flat, washed out

Causes: improper exposure, too much light, overcast sky, dust, mist, etc.

Solutions: First, check the histogram in the Levels dialog (Ctrl + L) - see the previous Problem. You might need to adjust both the white and the black slider, as shown in the image below. Then, choose Image > Adjustments > Brightness / Contrast and adjust the two parameters. To give the colors a little boost, choose Image > Adjustments > Hue / Saturation and increase the saturation by dragging the slider to the right. For even further adjustments, choose Image > Adjustments > Exposure. Drag the Exposure slider to the right (but be careful not to overexpose), the Offset slider to the left (to bring back some stronger shadows), and the Gamma slider to the left to make the image overall lighter.

Problem: The dark areas appear too dark, while the light areas are ok or too light.

Cause: underexposure, improper lighting, etc.

Solution: When the bright areas of your image are in danger of overexposure, you need to protect them while adjusting the darker ones to show more details. Choose Image > Adjustments > Shadows / Highlights. Make sure the Show more options checkbox is checked. By default, the settings for Amount and Tonal Width are set to 50/50, but this is usually too much, so you might want to slide those back some. Also, if the highlights of your photo are too bright, you can use the Highlights Amount and Tonal Width sliders to make them slightly darker.

Problem: color casts – the photo has an orange/red hue or a blue hue overall.

Cause: When shooting without the proper white balance selected, outdoor scenes may get a blue cast and indoor scenes under tungsten light may get an orange cast. Other types of lighting might generate color casts too. This is due to the color temperature of each type of light.

Solution: The simplest way to avoid this is to select the proper white balance before shooting. If the damage was done, it can be corrected in Photoshop by choosing Image > Adjustments > Photo Filter. Select a warm filter to correct a blue cast and a cold filter to correct an orange cast.

Problem: photo appears blurry, it doesn’t show enough detail

Cause: camera shake during the shooting, the subject moved, or the subject was not in focus.

Solution: Blurry images can be avoided by using a tripod during the shooting, by choosing faster exposures (or the proper program) when shooting moving subjects and by focusing correctly on the subject. If however your picture turned up slightly blurry, you can try to correct this in Photoshop by choosing Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask or Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. Keep the Radius slider low, around 1 or 2 points, otherwise the edges of your objects might get odd-looking artifacts. The settings will be, of course, different for every image.

Caution: not all blurry images can be fixed with sharpening. If the blurring is very strong or the objects appear doubled (“ghosts”), the only solution is to re-shoot the picture. Unless you’re going for an Impressionistic effect, of course.

Note: You should always sharpen (more or less) your images before printing them, even when they appear sharp, because the printing process usually takes away some details that can be seen only on screen.

Problem: Red eyes

Cause: Red eyes appear when the flash fires on the same line with the person’s eyes. Compact cameras do not allow changing of the angle of the flash.

Solution: some cameras have the option to correct the red eye problem as you shoot. Otherwise, there’s an easy fix in Photoshop. Open you picture, zoom in on the eyes, and then pick the Red Eye Tool, which you will find hidden under the Healing Brush tool in your Tools palette. (Note: if you have an older version of Photoshop, this tool may not be available). With the tool selected, click on each of the pupils and watch the red disappear!

Problem:horizon line is not straight.

Solution: open you photo in Photoshop. Double-click the Background layer in the Layers palette. Hit Enter to close the dialog. Hit Ctrl + R to bring the rulers visible. Click on the horizontal ruler and drag down on the image. You will place a guide this way, which you can position where to indicate the horizon. Drag other guides to indicate the vertical direction. The hit Ctrl + T to begin transforming your image. Angle your picture until the horizon appears parallel with the guide you set. Make sure the verticals remain or become parallel with the vertical guides. Then, select your Crop tool from the Tool palette and drag a square around your image, making sure to eliminate all the parts that are transparent, then hit Enter.

Conclusions
I hope these simple tips will help you improve your pictures. However, if your task is more complex and beyond your skills, you should ask a Photoshop professional to handle it. Ardis Creative offers retouching services to our clients, from simple adjustments to high-class compositions. You can see a gallery of before-and-after here.

Note: All the image used in this article are from sxc.hu and can be used without restrictions, as per their authors agreement. Some have been modified for the purpose of exemplification.

Thanks to Madalina Iordache-Levay for sharing this article with Dezinerfolio. Source: Ardis Creative

The three different orbs have different style of gloss (angle of light and the environment)…

And here is the PSD for download:

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1. Systems in place:

Systems define the plan and when you have a plan in place, everyone knows what to do and gives very little scope for error. The system should be framed as a series of task and functions. For each task, define the Input, the output expected, Owner, Dependent task, Start and End date. Institute system for Sales, Project Management, Packaging and Delivering.

2. Group Formation:

An organization should be viewed as a set of groups working with each other and for each other. Define Group’s roles & responsibility and its leader. The leader is responsible to the group’s growth and productivity. Define the relationship among Groups. Group leaders should be aware of their group’s responsibility and consequences if it fails. Most of the time “What to do” is defined but they forget “what not to do” and “What if not done”. It’s equally important to define the phase in project cycle when the group arrives and exits of the cycle.

3.Organize Yourself and Your Team:

As the company grows, it’s more than likely that the crew will grow twice the speed. It’s likely that you will have to reach for more than one member of your organization to get information on a topic. Take these signs as of growth and step ahead to organize your company. Implement roles and position, define what each member is responsible for, what he/she is authorized to do and what he/she is accountable for. That way it makes a lot easier to track a task and its progress.

4. Communication:

Bottle-neck to your company’s growth could be lack of communication and use of improper tools to communicate. Communicating to the right person at the right time could make all the difference. Let the team know the information they are supposed to and never to make any assumptions. Over communicate and communicate even the obvious of things. Manage all the documents/information in one central repository which is easy to access. Leave no signs of Ambiguity.

5. Celebrate the Rockstars:

Appreciate members of your organization who courage to run an extra mile, came forward to learn and who worked smart & hard to get the stuff out of the door and save the day for u. This will motivate others to replicate the star and perform better

6. Leader leading from the front:

You would have read these thousand and one times about the leader’s attitude & abilities to extract productivity from the group but I was lucky enough to have experienced it. I would explain leadership when it comes to extracting productivity as “An ability to understand what needs to be done, how it needs to be done and who is the right person to do considering TIME in hand” For me, if a leader answers these 3 questions, failure would be the least possible destination.

7. Watch Dog:

Make sure you have a Watch Dog with his thinking caps on in your organization. This team would account for the difference between a developing company and a Rapidly Developing company. Institute a team whose job is to dig what’s been happening, what has happened and what was actually suppose to have happen. Analyze each and every movement the company makes towards growth and graph the difference. This should be done for following team’s productivity and improvement - sales team, the project management team and the support team.

The team should carry out Lessons Learned Session on every project and pin point the reason for its success or failure. The analysis should co-relate the outcome of the project with attributes like - Team size, expertise with the team, the complexity of the project, company’s expertise with the domain, time frame provided and communication. The report should include the reasoning behind the outcome of the project like miscommunication, poor requirements gathering, and unsatisfactory choice of medium to complete the project and so on.

This could be done on Project basis or Monthly basis. The team should provide report to management team so that it aids them in making decisions, managing projects and acquiring business.

8. Visionary:

Last but not the least, u need a visionary for your company who is always thinking of the bigger picture and hurdles involved.Trying to figure out ways to overcome the issues. Motivating people and keeping the morale high in the organization.

This article is authored by Manish Kothari who is working as an Analyst and finds great interest in Organization Management.

Some of the best Photoshop Illustrator Effects and Tutorials you should never miss…