In this tutorial, we learn how to make a simple selection using the lasso and magic wand tools in Adobe Photoshop. After making the selection, Bob shows how to clean it up with masking, using the quick mask mode. Later, the actual color of the gumdrop candy is actually adjusted in the hue / saturation dialog box. Yes, this is just one of many ways to adjust color of an object in a photo, selectively. If you get adventurous, try also playing around with “select color range” as an added selection option. The “replace color” feature is also a pretty valuable resource, when used properly. Each of these techniques can be done very wrong, if the details are overlooked. Be careful to watch surrounding color casts. If a green object is casting red, it’s just not going to look all that real.

So, you have a photo of something that looks like it would make a great vector element for your design work.  What to do?  Watch this easy to follow tutorial I just whipped up on how you can use both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator in unison to convert any dark silhouette, shape, or outline into a vector .eps or .ai format image.  Be sure to watch it in 720p HD full screen!  Read the rest of this entry »

This is a really good Photoshop tutorial video on advanced dodge and burn techniques for portraiture.  These are the types of things that are good to know for that one special image you’re working on.  It’s not the quickest or easiest stuff in the world.  This stuff takes time, but the time is definitely well spent.  Most stock photographers like myself can’t afford to invest this much time into just one image or piece of stock art, for the sake of workflow and return on investment.  These dodging and burning methods are definitely something I might do for a client, or for a very special marketing or advertising campaign where one portrait is the main focus or feature image.  Editorial or fashion photographers and retouchers might employ this much retouching in their workflow, especially for headshots, magazine covers or article spreads.  Here the artist/author, Sean Armenta, also shares how to work with curves, curve adjustment layers, and layer masking.

Tutorial shared from the Red Dot Blog.

Here Bob takes a simple landscape image and shows how to turns it from dull to interesting in photoshop in just around 4 minutes.  By adding highlights to some of the tree limbs and tweaking the levels, as well as adjusting the way the sky looks, the image really comes to life (as compared to the original). The techniques covered in this tutorial video include layer masking, saturation, curves adjustment layers, and sky replacement.

This is a short video tutorial by The Miz on how you can very easily set up a rule of thirds grid for your designs and images in Photoshop.  Composition is important in effective imagery, and this grid will definitely help you in both your design work layouts, as well as in your photo cropping in post-production.  The newer versions of Photoshop also have a “rule of thirds” grid automatically when you select the entire canvas using the crop tool.