The technique A.J. goes through in this tutorial makes use of the Background Eraser Tool to insert a new sky into another image, and what’s really cool about it is the speed in which it’s done. Now I have to admit despite being a daily user of Photoshop I’d actually completely forgotten about the Background Eraser tool but having seen this nifty tutorial I think I may have to take a closer look.

If like me you’re constantly looking to learn more and improve your Photoshop skills then I highly recommend you put A.J.’s blog on your ‘Reading List. Packed with tips & techniques it’s a great source of education and what’s more A.J. style of presenting is infectious.

Check out A.J.’s blog here and if you’re into the social media scene then be sure to connect with him on Facebook and Twitter for yet more tips & techniques.

Enjoy

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First of all this weeks #photoshopfriday is a Photoshop tutorial by my good friend A.J. Wood over at Media Cats. In this tutorial A.J. demonstrates how you can use the Content Aware function to realistically stretch or squash an image which is extremely useful for photographers and designers alike when it comes to making an image fit a certain dimension. I had been planning on recording a tutorial for this technique myself but when I saw that A.J. had done exactly that, I thought I’d leave you in his very capable hands:

Other Stuff

1. Carrying on with the tutorial theme, for all you Lightroom users out there Matt Kloskowski recently wrote a post about the difference between the Exposure and Brightness sliders on his Lightroom Killer Tips Blog. It makes for quite an interesting read and you can check it out by clicking here.

2. With the Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk kicking off next Saturday 24th July, Dave Cross of the N.A.P.P. wrote an excellent post on his blog giving some useful advice for those of us taking part covering all manner of hints and tips from how to keep safe, what kit to consider taking along and so on. You can check it out by clicking here.

3. For all you iPhone users out there Scott Kelby has just released his very own App which is basically a pocket sized, go anywhere version of one of his most recent books ‘Photo Recipes Live: Behind the Scenes‘.

The book/DVD combo (now also available as an App) is pretty much like a live seminar in a box. It brings you along with Scott as he takes you through a live photo shoot on location at a New York loft studio. Scott walks you through the necessary steps to pull off a successful model shoot without breaking the bank plus lots more. If you’re interested in seeing more ‘behind the scenes’ of photo shoots then I’d certainly recommend you give this a look by clicking here.

Ok so that’s all for now so have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week,
Enjoy

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This week I want to go through a technique that I was shown by Photographer Tim Wallace for adding contrast to your images. Now I’ll admit, this is a technique I was aware of but had never used but when Tim told me he used it, well…you’ve seen his work right? Need I say more

This technique makes use of the Luminosity of an image and it’s there that the contrast is added by creating a Luminosity Mask. The result of this is that contrast is added to the image but the colours remain intact and don’t become overly saturated as can normally happen.

Anyway I’ll leave you to click Play where all will be revealed,
Enjoy

Photoshop being Photoshop there are limitless ways to do the same thing and there’s really no ‘wrong’ way, it’s just what you prefer and what fits best into your workflow; if anything this is another tool to be put into your ‘Photoshop Tool Bag‘.

If you have any questions or comments then as always please feel free to make use of the comments section below, but in the mean time have a great weekend!

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It’s been a busy week with photoshoots and editing; so busy in fact I completely forgot it was Friday

So, carrying on with the #photoshopfriday theme here is Part 2 of ‘The Debonaires’ edit where in this video I cover:

• Adding Contrast
• Dodging & Burning
• Enhancing Details

For the original ‘Final edit’ I actually used a different technique to add contrast; in fact I used the very same technique as that in the recent Beauty Retouch when I added Tone & Contrast to the model’s skin. In this video I used a curves adjustment layer but making sure to change the blend mode of the Curve layer to ‘Luminosity’. Doing this stops the colours in the photograph becoming over saturated as happens when you add contrast. Anyway, you’ll see what I mean in the video so I’ll leave you to click ‘Play’…

Enjoy

Finally, it would be wrong of me not to mention & again thank Calvin Hollywood for the ‘Enhancing Detail’ technique that I use in this video; Calvin ‘You da man!’

Any questions or comments I’d love to hear them so as always please feel free to make use of the ‘Comments’ section below.

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Ok, this is a ‘hands up’… I have to admit to not having a Photoshop Tip / Tutorial for you this week. However, this isn’t because I flat out don’t have one, it’s because this past week has been really busy with shoots virtually every day and I simply haven’t had time to put one together. So rather than this being #photoshopfriday, I’m calling this #photoshopfriday…ish

However to make up for it, I thought I’d give you a sneak peak at what I’m going to be covering next week as we edit a shot from my recent Album/CD Shoot with ‘The Debonaires’ from start (straight out of camera) to finish.

Now, this is where I need your help…
Below, I’ve attached a couple of the photographs showing their ‘Before’ and ‘After’ stages but I’m undecided which one I should work on next week.

As you can see, the space we had to shoot in was quite restricted and as I mentioned in an earlier post, trying to find an area of clear sky in the location we had was near enough impossible. So, throughout the editing process I’m going to cover such things as:

• Cloning / Removing unwanted ‘bits n’ pieces’
• Adding contrast
• Dodging / Burning
• Enhancing detail

Plus a couple of other little techniques that I use too.

So, my question is…which of the two pictures should I work on next week…A or B?
Feel free to use the comments section below or message me through Twitter or Facebook and then next week, I’ll be going through the entire editing process.

Have a great weekend

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ps> If you haven’t already I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a couple of minutes and leave a message in the comments section for Derek & Dorothy in the post below titled ‘Photography’s hidden benefits!‘ … thanks

Regular readers will know that for the past few weeks, every Friday I’ve been posting a variety of recommendations under the heading of ‘Follow Friday’ or #FF for the Twitter users amongst you. The weekly posts have included such things as recommended people to follow on Twitter, Podcasts to follow on iTunes, YouTube Channels and so on…

Twitter generally uses the hashtag symbol (#) to ‘tag’ topics/subjects so I thought I’d start my own this week and I’m calling it ‘Photoshop Friday’ or rather #photoshopfriday.

The idea is that (time permitting) every Friday I will post a #photoshopfriday containing a quick and simple Photoshop tip or technique. So as it’s Friday let’s kick things off with a technique…

Teeth Whitening in 10 Seconds:
In all the time I’ve been using Photoshop I’ve seen and used more techniques for whitening teeth than I care to remember. Techniques using the Quick Mask to first select the teeth, feathering selections, using the pen tool and a number of different adjustment layers such a Curves, Levels, Hue & Saturation and so it goes on…

Now granted they all ‘did the job’ but to be honest, although a necessary part of the editing workflow, whitening teeth has never really excited me so I’ve always been looking for a ‘down and dirty’ way to do it and do it quickly; so, here’s a technique that I now use to do just that:

Step 1:
Using the ‘Lasso’ tool make a rough selection of the area containing the teeth. (Don’t concern yourself with being accurate or going over lips, gums etc…)

Step 2:
Using a Hue & Saturation Adjustment, select the ‘Yellows’ and then move the ‘Lightness’ slider to the right until you’re happy with how white and how bright the teeth become.

…and that’s all there is to it.

Of course for a little more control and flexibility, before you make any adjustments duplicate the layer you’re working on by going to the LAYER Menu at the top of the screen and then choosing NEW…LAYER VIA COPY or if you like keyboard shortcuts CMD or CTRL + J will do the same. Once you have done this you’ll be able to use the Opacity slider on the layer you’ve made the adjustements (teeth whitening) to fine tune how white and bright you want the teeth to be.

* Kudos again goes to Calvin Hollywood from whom I learned this gem of a technique saving me literally hours of editing time; Calvin you’re the man!

Have a great weekend whatever you’re up to and I’ll catch you next week.
Enjoy

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