Photoshop: Colour Balance

Adjusting White Balance 

I found this session’s tutorial difficult as I am not familiar with adjusting the colour settings of an image, however I was eager to learn. The appearance of the image seemed fine with no faults, however I was told that we couldn’t trust our eyes when it comes to digital editing, since our eyes naturally “White Balance“. However when I opened up the “Histogram“, it revealed that each individual layer of Red, Green and Blue were out of balance compared to a natural grey tone, this was because the Blue layer was high. To adjust this problem in a non-destructive way, I created another layer and used the “Curves Tool” to change the tone which resulted in the image turning slightly green.

Original Image.

Final Outcome.

Photoshop: Cut-Out + Blending

Advance Cut-Out

I was unable to make this tutorial session due to being ill, however I asked my peers for the images given by the tutor so I could work on editing the fish cut-outs at home. However, I had to look on several WordPress accounts to find what was expected, as a final outcome. In total I was given 4 images, the first step was to remove the two fishes from their background, using the “Pen Tool” to accurately extract a clean cut-out. I realised that I had to adjust the brightness and contrast to make the fish appear realistic in the setting, this task only took 5 minutes. The next step however, proved difficult trying to blend the two ocean backgrounds seamlessly together. I experimented with the “Opacity” and blending Modes which all failed. Eventually, I realised that I had to adjust the brightness and contrast just like the fishes to blend the two images together, now the blending modes have a greater impact. I chose “Hard Light” and lowered the “Opacity” down to 50%.

Original Images.

Final Outcome.

Photoshop: Airbrushing

Airbushing 

There is nothing else I love more than editing photographs, especially when it’s a portrait of someone. In Saying that, I was actually looking forward to this tutorial in “Airbrushing“. I had to erase the visible wrinkles and freckles on the models face, using the “Spot Healing Brush Tool” in a non destructive way by creating a new layer, this is so I don’t affect the actual image and would have to start over again If I made a mistake. Once her face was clear of blemishes, I created another layer and used the “Clone Stamp Tool” to erase the wrinkles on her forehead, by holding “Alt” and selecting an area of her skin which is clear and proceeded to paint over in a non destructive way. However this resulted in her face appearing artificial, with a solid blocked out colour from the selected area, to resolve this problem I simply blended the layer by lowering the “Opacity” down to 65%. To bring out the colour in her eyes whilst still retaining a realistic appearance, I created a solid coloured circle and changed the blending mode to “Colour Burn” and lowered the “Opacity” down to 30%, also I used a “Layer Mask” and painted it in black to get the perfect shape for her eyes.

Original Image

Final Outcome

I selected all my current layers and made copies which were then merged into one whole image. This whole image was then duplicated again but this time I turned it Black and White. Using the “Layer Mask” I proceeded to paint in Black to erase the colour out of my photograph leaving the eyes alone.

This is the outcome.

Photoshop: Cut-Out

Refining a cut-out

This weeks session is about extracting an image accurately without using the “Pen Tool“, as it is unreliable and difficult on certain images such as a portrait with strands of hair all over the place. However, I found that my memory stick corrupted and I am unable to find the original image which my tutor gave me for this session on week 4, to overcome this problem I decided to improvise by using my own photography. I didn’t understand Steve’s method of extracting the image, so I did it my way of using the “Refine Edge Tool“.

Original Image.

Refine Cut-Out

Final Outcome

Photoshop: Layers

Layers and Colouring Tutorial 

The tutorials are relatively easy yet fun as it gives me the chance to practise my skills further and maybe catch something important I might of missed out. I have researched the Internet and watched countless YouTube Tutorials, on how to paint over a hand-drawn image without having to carefully rub out the colour to show the outline of my drawing. However I found that each person on YouTube had adopted their own techniques making it seem easy, this became a nuisance so I decided to invest in a “Bamboo Wacom Tablet“. This tutorial was intended to teach us about the “Layer” structure in Photoshop.

This is the original drawing that I was given, before I attempted to colour in this image I had to set the blending mode to “Multiply“, this is so the layers beneath will be visible. I then used the “Polygonal Lasso Tool” to draw around the outline before applying a solid colour to the shape using the “Paint Bucket“. As a result of this tutorial, I will be using this method in the future to colour in my scanned in drawings, seeing as it saves time and improves the final outcome.

The final outcome.

(My Previous Method)
I would use the standard “Brush Tool” to paint on top of the actual image using another layer, then painstakingly rub out the colour which went over the outline.

Photoshop: Pen Tool

Pen Tool Tutorial 

The second week, our tutor gave us an introduction to the “Pen Tool” which is used to outline around an image, so that we are able to extract it as a cut-out. I have already experimented with this tool on Illustrator and Photoshop during my time at college, and found tracing over images to be  extremely useful when extracting an image from it’s original background.

Original Image.

Final Outcome.

Introduction Week

Lynda Database

For our first session, we were given an introduction to http://www.lynda.com. This website is used as an online tutorial database, containing videos that teaches various techniques in different software. The website has been structured to teach the basics to those who are complete novice to a new software and it also contains videos for the more advance groups.