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Basic retouch

Before we start softening the skin, you should perform a so-called basic retouch. This means that zits, moles and other blemishes are removed. How much you want to weaken things depends entirely on your personal taste, of course.

The Healing Brush tool gives you a way to remove any blemish without a trace. Hold the ALT key and click on a clean area right next to the spot in question. Now release the ALT key and click on the spot itself. As a general rule you should always choose the brush diameter slightly larger than the blemish.

Contrary to the Clone Stamp tool which transfers areas exactly as in the original, the Healing Brush tool works by cross-calculating brightness values and thus removing blemishes very cleanly, adapted to the surrounding area.

Skin powdering

Now we get around to doing the so-called skin “powdering”. Duplicate the layer with Layer > Duplicate Layers or Ctrl+J and give the new layer a Vivid Light blending mode.

Press Ctrl+I or use Image > Adjustments > Invert to invert the current layer. Whatever you may see on the screen now: Don’t get confused by that, we’re still on the right track even though it might look a bit funny.

Apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with a radius of about one pixel. Here you should choose a radius just small enough so you can barely see the pores anymore.

Next, use the High Pass filter which you can find under Filter > Other. With this one it’s a matter of taste how strongly you apply it. I usually keep the radius between 20 and 40 pixels.

This change should not be applied everywhere. Select Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All to create a black mask that hides all layer content for now.

Tip: You can also create a black mask by clicking on the Add Layer Mask button in the layer palette and holding the Alt key.

Now use a white foreground color to paint the changes back into the image, but only on the skin. Don’t start off with an opacity of 100%, but experiment a little with the strength instead. You’ll see how the skin becomes noticeably softer and the pores are kept intact.

Tip: If you select Filter > Convert for Smart Filters right after inverting the image, you can do all this retouching in a completely non-destructive way.

Oh, but yes. It is possible. And it’s actually very simple and editable at all times, which means it’s a non-destructive method. First of all, apply the first drop shadow as you’re used to. Then right-click on the layer and choose Convert to Smart Object from the menu.

This smart object can have another drop shadow applied to it. And a smart object can be converted to another smart object, too. In this way you could add a third and a fourth drop shadow. Or you could create multiple outlines. Or even several pattern overlays which interact through different blending modes.

By the way: In order to put one or more styles onto a layer of their own, right-click on the fx symbol and choose Create Layer from the list. Now these styles can have filters applied to them, for example, but they cannot be edited anymore.

Eye tutorials

I wasn’t aware that there are so many tutorials dealing with creative changes to the eyes, such as you can see in the collection It’s All in the Eyes: 100 Beautiful Photo Manipulations. Eyes are very important for human beings, after all.

3D sphere and cube

Initially, the Photoshop tutorial How To Design a 3D Glass Icon leads us to a 3D sphere including lighting effects. In addition to that, the sphere is then put inside a transparent cube. So basic geometric shapes are arranged in a beautiful composition.

Create your own shapes

Photoshop offers a number of default vector shapes, but of course you can create your own shapes, such as described in the workshop Creating Custom Photoshop Shapes. A very abstract form with holes in it is created there.

60+ creative Twitter backgrounds for inspiration

The Print24 weblog published another one of my articles: 60+ creative Twitter backgrounds for inspiration. The diversity in which designers adapt the background is really astonishing. And this is even though Twitter doesn’t offer many options in that area (in terms of profile personalization in general).

Adobe Photoshop CS5 – new painting functions

The following video shows you the new capabilities that the upcoming Photoshop CS5 will have for color choice and color application. The color picker, the eyedropper, the brush settings and the zoom function have been optimized and Photoshop is supplemented with a new brush tool.

Snow Cold Poster

The article Create an Abstract Piece Theme – Freezing Snow Cold shows you how an image is fragmented and pieced back together again. New landscapes are created and combined with a few graphical elements.

Light Streaks Effect

The article How to enhance your subjects with striking light effects shows you a way to put a light streak effect into a Photoshop image. First, a background is created, and then a separated person above the background is treated with an interesting light streak effect (it’s hard to describe, but you can see it below :) ).

Logo ideas

The logo ideas collected in the article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less have not been designed specifically for existing companies. It was more about choosing a word and then creating a fitting logo for it. Still a great source of inspiration.

Photoshop 1.0 to CS5

Two more additions at this point. Firstly another preview for CS5 (the impacts get closer, it probably won’t be long now), and secondly a birthday tribute with Photoshop 1.0, which has been created very lovingly.

The Egg

Hardly anyone would choose Photoshop to design an egg, of all things. But if you look at the result of the tutorial Egg Planet. Fantastic globe photo manipulation, you’ll have to agree: Looks great, that egg. A high class composition.

Beautiful photos at the push of a button

I’m a little apprehended that at some point in the future – maybe in 20 years – Photoshop will have a button that says: Optimize Photo. And BOOM, proportion rules are automatically considered, the crop is adjusted and image elements are repositioned. Don’t believe me? Well, then have a look at this:

Making of Grenat

Another Making of. A painting called Grenat has been created in Photoshop, and you can read about its development history at the cgarena.com website. A simple palette as a base is enough for the artist to achieve the result below.

80 Photoshop actions for your projects

I’ve collected a couple of good sources again for the Print24 blog, this time 80 Photoshop actions for your projects. The majority of these actions is for creative changes in photo material, such as black/white conversions, cross processing or Polaroid simulations.

Photoshop Timeline

Gizmodo has published the Photoshop history as a timeline. A good overview for any fan who’s interested in the software’s development.

Photoshop 1.0 on the iPhone

A nice video for iPhone owners and Photoshop junkies. Russel Brown presents the first Photoshop version, 1.07, on the iPhone. Sure, it’s just a simple simulation with a welcome screen and the option to adjust the levels of an image, but the hardcore Photoshop fan would love to have this as an app… but no…, sadly, this program is not available on the App Store.

The (funny) history of Photoshop

Another video that shows Russel Brown talking about the history of Photoshop, filled with a lot of gags and surprises:

The objective

We will choose a suitable motif (current fashion and cars are rather unsuitable), then age it for years, step by step. First open the document in Photoshop and trim it with the crop tool if needed. Hold the Shift key to get a perfectly square result. Keep some space around the desired motif because we will need room for a frame. The example shows our objective: Aged photos.

Blurriness

Old photographs have a certain fuzziness. First we change the background layer into a normal layer. To do that, hold the Alt key and double click on the layer. Duplicate it with Layer > New > Layer via Copy or by pressing Ctrl+J.

The Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur takes care of the blur. Only some details should become blurred. A radius of 0.5 to 2 should be enough. Give the layer a mask.

In order to do that, you could press the Add Layer Mask button in the layer palette or click the menu Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. Next to the layer thumbnail you will see a new thumbnail for the mask. Use the gradient tool to draw a radial gradient in it. You can select the form of the gradient in the options panel.

You should use a black-to-white gradient in a way that makes an important image element lie in focus and that lets the rest softly disappear in a blur. Hint: Sometimes the gradient is simply the wrong way around. So if the desired area suddenly appears blurred, try hitting Ctrl+I on the keyboard to invert the gradient’s direction.

Grain effect

Old films always used to show a little grain, too. Reduce all layers to a single layer with Layer > Merge Visible and copy it by dragging it onto the New Layer button or by using the shortcut Ctrl+J. Filter > Noise > Add Noise with the settings Amount: 11%, Uniform and Monochromatic will get you the desired grain effect.

You can further refine it by changing the layer’s blending mode from Normal to Soft Light. In our example the colors were also enhanced this way, which is desired this time. This version could be from the 1960s.

Sepia look

The sepia look takes us even farther back in time. We reduce the layer with the one below it and click on the menu Image > Adjustments > Black & White. The Auto button gives good results which can be optimized with the numerous sliders. The Tint function in the dialog window gives color to our image. Set the color and saturation according to taste.

Vignette

Even older pictures show a vignette, a shadowing towards the edges of the image. Create a new layer with Layer > New > Layer or with Shift+Ctrl+N. Do a Select > All or Ctrl+A and create a frame with Edit > Stroke and the settings Width: 20 to 40 pixels, Location: Inside and black color. The Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with a radius of about 30 pixels turns the frame into a vignette. After confirming with OK and removing the selection you can reduce the layers down to a single layer.

Textures

The result up to now still looks too much like Photoshop. In order to bring some reality into our composition we put a few textures on top of it. Surfaces like that can be found at www.sxc.hu, for example, if you search for Old Paper. In order to blend the structures with our image we will use several blending modes. In this case Multiply was used for light structures and Soft Light for darker areas.

Background

A scan of an old photo can serve as the base for our image. First we select the old content with the Polygon Lasso tool, then bring it onto its own layer with Layer > New > Layer via Copy or Ctrl+J. The composition we created is positioned on its own layer above that and adapted to the form with a clipping mask.

You can create such a clipping mask with Layer > Create Clipping Mask or by holding the Alt key and clicking on the line between two layers in the layer palette. If necessary, adust the colors according to the base image. The corrections Hue/Saturation and Color Balance might help.

01 Command Center

First off, create the first version of your composition. Go to Window > Layer Comps to call the layer comps palette, where you can store the different states of your work. Later on, a simple click will load up any variation. These are stored along with the Photoshop file (important: in .psd format), so they’re always available again.

02 Save a Composition

In the layer comps palette, click on the Create New Layer Comp button. When you store the current state, a dialog will automatically pop up. Enter a name and describe the composition – you should check all the items under Apply To Layers. Change your composition, then save the next variant.

03 Load a Composition

In order to display one of the stored versions, click on the symbol next to it that applies the layer comp. Using the navigation buttons (left and right arrow) at the bottom edge of the palette you can go through all the versions. To save changes to a composition you need to click on the Update Layer Comp button (circle arrows).

Not everything can be stored

Layer comps are mainly for the visibility of layer contents, the effectiveness of masks or the position of objects. But there are also changes that cannot be stored as a layer comp, such as transformations. If you have scaled a layer (Ctrl+T), then older layer comps will also display it enlarged or reduced.

Installation

First download all the data to your computer and unpack the files. Some panels offer icons to directly install them with a double click, others need to have their files moved to a certain directory.

When an icon with the ending .mxp is double clicked, the Adobe Extension Manager CS4 pops up. This should work on a Mac just as it does on a PC. You follow the instructions in the program and close it after the installation. Other sorts of files must be moved to the folder Adobe > Adobe Photoshop CS4 > Plug-ins > Panels. When you (re)start Photoshop, you can call the panels with Window > Extensions. The palettes can be free floating or docked with the other palettes.

Avoiding problems

It can happen that an older version of the Extension Manager (like CS3 for CS4) tries to install the panels. Naturally, this won’t work, so in order to avoid errors you should open the most recent version of the Extension Manager by hand. The installation is then called with a button of the same name.

Lorem Ipsum

The dummy text „Lorem ipsum“ has been used as a placeholder for centuries now. The words are similar to Latin, but are meant to be incomprehensible so the viewer can concentrate on the layout first. And even though this placeholder can sometimes cause funny customer reactions – like somebody asking if the foreign language will be translated later on – it is very frequently used, in web design as well.

The Lorem Ipsum panel creates a dummy text generator as a palette for Photoshop CS4. After the installation you can find it under Window > Extensions > LoremGen. Unfortunately, only the number of sentences can be entered for now. A click on Generate Text creates them and they can be copied and pasted into the layout. Another input field to arrange paragraphs would be desirable.

Gridmaker

Especially in web design layout patterns, also called grids, are frequently used. This helps in making the page appear clean and structured. They also assist the designer with his arrangements, because certain formats (in width) are simply pre-defined. The Gridmaker is a panel that can create such grids.

After clicking on Window > Extensions > GridMaker you can already create a new document. You enter values for the number and width of the single units, which also affects the overall width of the document. You then create it with a click on Create Document. By the way, the grid is made of guide lines.

The Emailer

The Emailer is also opened via Window > Extensions. This one lets you send emails directly out of Photoshop. The panel offers two options for this. The Email Account Preferences button leads to a second page where you can enter any outgoing server (port 587). Complete the form with values for the account name, password, and the sender address, and you’re ready to send documents including a message without ever leaving Photoshop.

The second method uses an external program like Microsoft Entourage, Mac Mail or Microsoft Outlook. You just tick a checkbox for Use email application and select the desired email software. Now you can decide whether only the current document or all open documents should be put into the email via Send all open images. The images can also be sharpened, converted to sRGB or resized beforehand.

Otherwise you simply enter the address, a subject, and optionally a short message, just like in any other email program. Click on the Send current image button and all of the concepts are sent to the customer. If you have selected an external application like Outlook or Mail, the respective program pops up and lets you do the necessary inputs there.

Sharpening

With Pro Capture Sharpening and Professional Sharpening Actions we have two professional palettes that take care of sharpening image material.

Capture offers some presets which are divided into five categories: Low Resolution Digitial Cameras (LRDC) for photographs below 3MP, Medium Resolution Digital Cameras (MRDC) for pictures between 3MP and 8MP, High Resolution Digital Cameras (HRDC) for images above 8MP, Small Film Scans (SFS) for films such as APC and 35mm, and Large Film Scans (LFS).

Depending on the preset and its subitems the sliders change, although you could adjust them manually as well. On the lower right side there’s a small button that executes the application. The sharpened result is now on a layer of its own. Sharpening’s clean and well-arranged interface offers numerous actions and action sets for sharpening.

The Watermark Creator

The panel called The Watermark Creator puts a watermark in one or more files. First you define a water mark source file. This could be a Photoshop or Illustrator file, a JPEG, a PNG or a TIFF file. In case of Photoshop files you can retain the layers, and blending modes and styles are kept as well.

You can choose to have all open documents fitted with a watermark, or those within a certain folder. Since you shouldn’t overwrite your original files of course, you should input a folder where the marked versions are stored after the treatment. A rough positioning of the watermark is possible through a selection menu that offers options like Top right or Centered left.

In order to avoid a watermark sticking right to the edge, you can define a horizontal and vertical margin. You could then scale the mark or change its opacity. The Watermark Preview button allows you to check the effect of your inputs at any time.

Finally, you can set some JPEG export options such as selecting Standard JPEG or JPEG for web. The quality, size, and resolution of the photo can be entered and a sharpening pass could be applied. A click on Execute sees to it that the watermarks are inserted and the images are saved in the selected folder.

Adobe Configurator

You can easily create your own panels. It’s easy when they have a very simple structure. For more advanced solutions you will need knowledge of Flash. The Adobe Configurator, which is an Adobe AIR application, can be downloaded from the Labs.

After starting the software and choosing Create New Panel you first select the size of the palette, then you can already insert the contents of the panel via Drag & Drop. You could easily insert your most frequently used tools as icons, or menu items that might usually be nested too far down in the depths of Photoshop – all for quicker access.

Using the mouse you can position these buttons and icons with millimeter precision. If you create your own actions you can use them in a panel as well. Even a Photoshop newbie can do this.

Javascripts or Flash files are a bit more tricky. By the way, videos and text can also be inserted. If you’re satisfied with your work, you click on File > Export Panel in the menu. The exported files belong in Photoshop CS4’s panels folder, and you’re ready to call your own palette with Window > Extensions.

P.S.: Some Photoshop gurus such as John Nack and Julieanne Kost or Scott Kelby offer panels that make their blog contents available directly in CS4.

01 Distorted structure

Create a new document with the same size of the image that should receive the frame later on. Press the letter D on your keyboard to select the standard colors black/white and apply the Filter > Render > Difference Clouds. After applying Filter > Artistic > Palette Knife with the default presets, select Poster Edges. Press Ctrl+J to copy the layer (alternative: Layer > New > Layer via Copy) and use the Filter > Distort > Glass.

02 Basis

Change the blending mode from Normal to Overlay and click Layer > Flatten Image in the menu. Save the image as grunge-frame.psd. Open another document with the same size, press Ctrl+A to select everything in the picture, then Shift+Ctrl+N for a new layer (alternative: Layer > New > Layer), and use Edit > Stroke with Location: Inside so that a frame is created. The width depends on the image size.

03 It’s all in the frame

The Filter > Distort > Displace with the standard presets and the grunge-frame.psd make a smudged, dirty frame that you can refine by hand with grunge brushes or with another color. Since the frame is on a layer of its own, you can position a suitable photo beneath it and adapt it to the grunge style.