Sunday, November 29, 2009
Details
While shooting the City County Building in Salt Lake City, I noticed the intricate carvings and details on the building. They were rally quite fascinating. The free masons constructed the building between 1891 and 1894, and included many faces, gargoyles, sea monsters, and Masonic icons. It's amazing what you will see if you only take the time to look. As the old saying goes, 'Stop and smell the roses", I say 'Stop and look at the details'. The following are some of the carvings.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Photoshop Tutorial: Saturation, Hue, Combining Photos
As part of a Halloween tradition, I took some photos of my grandchildren in their Halloween costumes. After the photo shoot I went over the photos with their mother and she picked out the ones that she wanted to have printed. After they left I started to play around with one of the photos. This is what I ended up with.
Image 1. Final Product
This composite started last year when I was photographing a water fountain in downtown Salt Lake City.
Image 2. Original image of water in a fountain, with the lights shining underwater
Again, just playing around with the Hue and Saturation, I took them to the extremes, then cropped the adjusted image, and ended up with this image.
Image 3. Water in fountain with extreme hue and saturation.
Back to the Halloween photo.
Image 4. Original image of granddaughter as a witch.
When I was working with this image, the image of the water that I took last year popped into my mind so I opened both of them into Photoshop CS4. After making some adjustments, I ended up with the Final Product. After placing it on the internet, I was asked how I created this image. So, for those who are interested, here are the steps I took - in Photoshop CS4...
1. Reduced the size of the witch to fit the size of the water image. (Image / Image Size)
2. Used the Magic Wand tool to select the white background. (W)
3. Selected the inverse of the white background, which selected the witch. (Select / Inverse)
4. Copied the witch, (C) and pasted it on the water image. (P)
5. Selected the new copied layer.
6. Created a new layer mask. ( Add Layer Mask (from icon at bottom of pallet))
7. Opened the Brush Tool. (B)
8. Set foreground and background colors to default. (X)
9. I then took the Brush Tool and began to brush over the edges of the cut out witch layer.
Note: When the mask on a layer is selected, and the Brush Tool is used, and the foreground color is black, then the brush acts like an eraser and erases whatever your brush. If you erase too much, click X and the white background is selected, and the Brush Tool then will erase the changes you made (brings back the original).
10. After using the Brush Tool to remove all of the hard lines around the cutout, I began to erase some of the witch (using the Brush Tool, Black) in strategic parts, which allowed the background to show through and give the effect of being on top. While removing part of the witch layer, I wanted to be able to see the edges of the flames of water, which added some interest.
11. I then used the Lasso tool to select the witch's face. I didn't worry about getting close at all. (L)
12. I copied, then pasted, the selected face. (C, P)
13. I created a new layer mask on this layer.
14. I then adjusted the hue and saturation of the face layer to make the face green. (Image / Adjustments / Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U).
Note: In order to use any of the adjustment tools on just one layer, select the layer, click on Image in the menu bar. If you use the adjustment tools in the pallets, it will adjust all layers.)
15. Finished with Noise Reduction (Filter / Neat Image - a plug-in), and Sharpen (Filter / Sharpen / Smart Sharpen...)
As part of a Halloween tradition, I took some photos of my grandchildren in their Halloween costumes. After the photo shoot I went over the photos with their mother and she picked out the ones that she wanted to have printed. After they left I started to play around with one of the photos. This is what I ended up with.
Image 1. Final Product
This composite started last year when I was photographing a water fountain in downtown Salt Lake City.
Image 2. Original image of water in a fountain, with the lights shining underwater
Again, just playing around with the Hue and Saturation, I took them to the extremes, then cropped the adjusted image, and ended up with this image.
Image 3. Water in fountain with extreme hue and saturation.
Back to the Halloween photo.
Image 4. Original image of granddaughter as a witch.
When I was working with this image, the image of the water that I took last year popped into my mind so I opened both of them into Photoshop CS4. After making some adjustments, I ended up with the Final Product. After placing it on the internet, I was asked how I created this image. So, for those who are interested, here are the steps I took - in Photoshop CS4...
1. Reduced the size of the witch to fit the size of the water image. (Image / Image Size)
2. Used the Magic Wand tool to select the white background. (W)
3. Selected the inverse of the white background, which selected the witch. (Select / Inverse)
4. Copied the witch, (C) and pasted it on the water image. (P)
5. Selected the new copied layer.
6. Created a new layer mask. ( Add Layer Mask (from icon at bottom of pallet))
7. Opened the Brush Tool. (B)
8. Set foreground and background colors to default. (X)
9. I then took the Brush Tool and began to brush over the edges of the cut out witch layer.
Note: When the mask on a layer is selected, and the Brush Tool is used, and the foreground color is black, then the brush acts like an eraser and erases whatever your brush. If you erase too much, click X and the white background is selected, and the Brush Tool then will erase the changes you made (brings back the original).
10. After using the Brush Tool to remove all of the hard lines around the cutout, I began to erase some of the witch (using the Brush Tool, Black) in strategic parts, which allowed the background to show through and give the effect of being on top. While removing part of the witch layer, I wanted to be able to see the edges of the flames of water, which added some interest.
11. I then used the Lasso tool to select the witch's face. I didn't worry about getting close at all. (L)
12. I copied, then pasted, the selected face. (C, P)
13. I created a new layer mask on this layer.
14. I then adjusted the hue and saturation of the face layer to make the face green. (Image / Adjustments / Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U).
Note: In order to use any of the adjustment tools on just one layer, select the layer, click on Image in the menu bar. If you use the adjustment tools in the pallets, it will adjust all layers.)
15. Finished with Noise Reduction (Filter / Neat Image - a plug-in), and Sharpen (Filter / Sharpen / Smart Sharpen...)
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