Day Three

How to find good images to use:

The first way to find an image is through Google.

1. Go to www.google.com

2. Type Apple in the search engine.

3. Select “Images” at the top.

4. Under Search tools, change the size to large.

5. Choose a picture of an apple.

6. Save it in your file.

7. Open it in Photoshop.

8. Remember to unlock the background layer.

We will be working with this photo in just a minute.

Another way to find a royalty free image, or one that you are allowed to use to make money legally, is through this website: www.morguefile.com

Now, let’s talk about…

Color Adjustment:

Have you unlocked the background layer on your apple? If not, do that now. In Photoshop you can change just about anything, and one of the things that gets changed the most is color. You could make an apple appear more red, juicy and delicious. You could make someone’s brown eyes blue, or blue eyes red. You could change the color of someone’s hair, or even the color of the sky. The possibilities are limitless. So let’s look at the different color adjustment tools in Photoshop  and then we will practice by making your apple look red and delicious.

Please start by going to Image> Adjustments> Hue/Saturation.

Hue & Saturation:

Hue means shade of color. Drag this around and watch the hue of your apple change.

Saturation means how much color is in a photo. Drag this to the left to take color out of your image, and drag it to the right to put color into your image.

Lightness- Drag this to the left to add black to your image, and drag this to the right to add white.

Click out of this box by hitting cancel.

Now let’s move on to Image>Adjustments>Color Balance.

                Color Balance:

In this box your will see three different sliders. When you drag the arrow towards a color word, Photoshop will add more of that particular color into your image. Slide the first slider to the right to add more red to your photo. Now slide it to the left to add more blue. In the first box at the top please change that number to 0 to reset what you have just done. Now do the same thing with the bottom two sliders to see what they do.

Click out of the box by hitting cancel.

Now go to Image>Adjustments>Black&White

                Black&White

Black and white will allow you to take all of the color out of an image. The color above a slider will tell you which pixels are being affected. For example, the “Reds” slider will change all of the red pixels in your image. If you slide this to the right the reds will become more white. If you slide this to the left the reds will become more black. All of the other sliders work in the same way for each separate color. When you want to change an image to black and white, always go through this process and figure out what looks best. The results will be better if you go through this box than if you simply desaturate the image.

Close out by hitting cancel. Now go to Image>Adjustments>Vibrance and play with those sliders to understand their roles, and then close out by hitting cancel again.

Go to Image>Adjustments>Selective Color

                Selective color:

This works in almost the same way as the Color Balance Box. Slide the sliders to see what they do to your apple, and then close out by clicking cancel.

Lighting Adjustments:

This is one of the most important aspects of Photoshop  You can change everything about the lighting of a photo to make it appear more professional.

Please start by going to Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast

                Brightness/Contrast:

Brightness will affect how bright the image looks. Slide this to the right to increase the brightness and to the left to decrease the brightness. Try this with your apple. Now place the slider back in the middle.

Contrast will affect the way your colors interact with each other. Slide this to the right to make it more contrasting, and to the left to make it less contrasting. Please try this with your apple to see what it does.

Click out of the box by hitting cancel.

Now let’s go to Image>Adjustments>Levels

                Levels:

Levels is one of the first things you want to check into when picking up a new photograph to work with. The arrow to the very left when pushed to the right will fix an overexposed photograph. The very right slider when pushed to the left will fix an underexposed photograph. Let’s see what this means.

Before we go back to our apple we are going to play with levels for a minute.

Try this:

1. Search “overexposed photograph” in Google images.

2. Save the photo.

3. Open it in Photoshop.

4. Unlock the background layer.

5. Image>Adjustments>Levels.

6. Slide the left slider to the right to begin to see the photograph.

Now do the same thing, but instead search “underexposed photograph”, and slide the right slider to the left. Not all images will need this dramatic of a change. Most images only need slight level adjustments, and now that you understand what these sliders do, you can use them to better the lighting of even a good photograph. We call this process “running the image through levels”. You want to run every image you work with through levels.

Now close out of those images, and go back to your apple image.

Let’s go to Image>Adjustments>Exposure

                Exposure:

We just took a look at overexposed and underexposed photographs. This is another way in which you can fix those problems.

Slide the exposure setting to the right to increase the exposure, and to the left to decrease it.

You will rarely use offset or gamma correction, but experiment with moving those sliders so that you can see what they do.

Now cancel out of the Exposure box and go to Image>Adjustments>Curves.

                Curves:

Curves take a lot of practice to master. This isn't a skill that is easy to explain or always works in the same way. But you can add points to the line and slide them up or down to change the lighting. To get rid of a change you have made, drag the point all the way to the bottom of the graph and release. Take a few minutes to experiment with this on your apple, and then cancel out of the box.

Okay! You have learned the basics of Color and Lighting Adjustments! Congratulations! Now let’s apply what we learned by changing our apple to make it look even more delicious. If you would like to go back and find a picture of a not so good looking apple and then try to make it look better, you are allowed to do that at this point.

NOW, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT, SO PLEASE PAY ATTENTION!!! When you are working with any image to adjust the color or lighting, always duplicate the image first. This means you are saving the original image underneath in case you need to go back to it. You always need a copy of the original image.

How to Duplicate a Layer:

This is really simple.

1. Right click on layer.

2. Click “Duplicate Layer”

And that’s it! Now make sure to work on the copy layer.

Try this:

1. Adjust the lighting of the apple first. Try using the lighting tools in this order: Levels, Brightness/Contrast, Exposure, Curves.

2. Adjust the color of the apple. Try that in this order: Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, Vibrance.

3. Use some of the tools we talked about on the first day to fix blemishes in the apple. Use the Spot Healing brush tool.

And you’re done! Hopefully you have one really good looking apple now.

Filters:

First start out by finding a picture of something on Google that you want to work with. It could be scenery, a person, or an object. Open this in Photoshop. Remember to duplicate your layer!

At the top of your screen you will find a tab named Filter. Click on that.

Filter>Filter Gallery

Now go through the different options to see what each does. There are also smaller adjustments you can make to each separate filter to customize it.

Beauty Retouching:

This is a major field revolving around Photoshop  Every magazine photo is retouched. Models almost never look the way they do in magazines as they do in real life. Let me show you why.

·         Skin- The first tool to use would be the Spot Healing Brush tool. This can get rid of spots, freckles, acne, wrinkles, and much more. Find a photograph on Google of someone with freckles or acne, and use this tool to get rid of it. Remember to duplicate your layer. Some retouchers even give the skin an overall glow. This is a bit more complicated, but if you want to go back and try this, here is how to do it.

                How to Give Skin a Glow:

1. Duplicate layer.

2. Apply a guassian blur. Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur.Adjust the settings and radius of this to make it only slightly blurred.

3. Erase everything but the skin from the blurred layer.

4. Now if the blur looks to be too much, you can always reduce the opacity of your blurred layer.

Eyes: Photoshop users often adjust model’s eyes. You can brighten them, change the color and make them stand out. Duplicate the layer you got rid of the freckles or acne on. Now try using the color replacement tool to change the color of your subject’s eyes. Next use the sharpening tool to brighten their eyes.

Try this (Pick One):

1. Change the color of hair! http://www.fotografodigital.com/2011/05/tutorial-cambio-de-color-de-pelo/

2. Change the color of eyes! http://www.fotografodigital.com/2009/03/dos-sencillas-tecnicas-para-retoque-de-ojos/

Now this is where beauty retouching gets really scary. You can change the entire shape of someone’s body. You could make a short person tall, a fat person skinny, a skinny person fat, and even change the shape of someone’s facial features. Please find a photograph on google images of a celebrity you would like to work with.

     Liquify:

Now go to Filter>Liquify.

1. Forward Warp Tool-This is basically the general move tool. You can move pixels in certain directions.

2. Reconstruct Tool-This is your eraser. It will undo the mistakes you make when liquefying.

3. Pucker Tool-This will make things smaller.

4. Bloat Tool-This will make things larger.

5. Push Left Tool-This tool, like the name implies, will push things left.

Now use what we just covered, and change the face of your celebrity!