Adobe Photoshop Guidebook - 2017 PDF

Essential photo editing tutorials
P otoshop
BDM s
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Adobe
Guidebook
How to use
Photoshop to ﬁll
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extraordinary
images
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BDM’s
P h otoshop
Adobe
Guidebook
Create, adjust, blend

and manipulate with the
power of Photoshop.
If you use Photoshop on a
regular basis, whether for fun or
professionally, it’s likely you only use
a small portion of its capabilities.
Are you ready to get involved
with some of the more in-depth
processes and see results you never
thought possible? We have gathered
together a series of Photoshop
tutorials that cover many aspects
of photo editing to inspire you to
try out new things. Whether you
are a photographer or digital artist,
Photoshop’s powerful layer-based
editing has something for everyone.
BDM’s: Adobe Photoshop Guidebook 3
Contents
Adobe Photoshop Guidebook
Get Inspired
Everything you see here was produced
using the tutorials in the following pages of 38 120
this guidebook. Our tutorials use multiple
techniques to create and modify new
images, sometimes combining elements
from two or more pictures, using several
layers and a wide range of tools. By breaking
the projects down into easy-to-follow steps,
we’ll take you through the processes that
professional image editors and creative
Sky Swapping Technique Enhancing Landscapes
photographers use every day.
Look out for this symbol

throughout our guides.
130 48
Any tutorial displaying
it indicates that it This tuto
ria
will be available to content is l
available
fo
download. See page downloa r
144 for more details. d
92 Lego Portraits The Dragan Effect
78 112
How to Make It Rain Selective Colour HDR Processing
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4 BDM’s: Adobe Photoshop Guidebook

Recreate
o
cover im ur
age
Photo Editing Projects this in-de in
pth
tutorial s
tartin
on page g
6 - 17 Multiple Image Blending - Part 1 6
Combine various images with layers and masks
18 - 23 Multiple Image Blending - Part 2

Time to add some lighting and colour effects
24 - 29 Pencil Sketch Effect 82 - 91 Stylised Portraits

Start scribbling and unleash your inner artist This is how you take a portrait to a whole new level
30 - 37 Fire Effects 92 - 101 How to Make it Rain
Flame effects to add a spark to your digital skills Add mood and drama to your images
38 - 47 Sky Swapping Technique 102 - 111 Digital Makeup Effects
Another cool way to replace dull skies on a photo Photoshop takes you from digital artist to makeup artist
48 - 53 The Dragan Effect 112 - 119 High Dynamic Range Images
Add a little drama to your most cherished photos The latest versions of Photoshop make HDR easy
54 - 61 Long Exposure Effect 120 - 129 Enhancing Landscapes
We introduce you to Smart Objects and Stack Modes Bring out the full potential of the most ordinary looking shots
62 - 67 Decorative Borders 130 - 137 Lego Portraits
Add a little sparkle to your favourite photos An unusual and fun way to enhance a portrait
68 - 77 Photos and 3D Objects 138 - 143 Multi Exposure Lighting
How to add 3D objects to your 2D photos Mimic a professional multi light photoshoot
78 - 81 Selective Colour 144 - 145 Download Your Free Media Resources
Converting to black and white but keeping a little splash of colour Over 50 professional images exclusively for you!
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PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS MULTIPLE IMAGE BLENDING - PART 1
Multiple
AFTER
Image BEFORE
Blending
Part 1 - Combine various This tutorial
content is
images with layers and masks available for
download
I t is often the case that as a digital graphic

artist, you sometimes have to work with a
number of image components and bring them
larger than usual document. Our example uses
a collection of foreground and background
images, as well as some assets to be used to
together to make one final image. This means create certain effects. This tutorial will help you adjusting colour, exposure, saturation and
working with your multiple images over many understand a little more about working with layer styles. At the end, you will have created a
layers with adjustments and masks, and it is many layers and how the order of the various neat little sci-fi image and hopefully learned a
a good exercise in being able to manage a components work as well as masking and few interesting tricks along the way.

MULTIPLE IMAGE BLENDING - PART 1 PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
You need to start off by loading up all the base components we’ve The Load Layers screen will appear. In this case, you will need to click
01 02
created for the tutorial. Rather than opening each individual image and the Browse button and navigate to where the assets for the image are
copying and pasting into the document, you can open Photoshop and go to stored. There are a number of elements that need to be selected.
File > Scripts > Load Files Into Stack.
Select ‘alien.png’, ‘corridor.png’, ‘girl.png’, ‘hand.png’, ‘metal girl. Now, the Load Layers panel will show the seven image elements
03 04
png’, ‘metal hand.png’ and one of the ‘spark’ jpegs. We’ve provided a you selected. They are listed in alphabetical order and not the order
choice of three. Click Open to proceed to the next stage. they need to appear in, but we can sort that out later. For now, just click
OK to proceed to the next part.
The document that is created will be based on the largest image you When Photoshop has finished importing and stacking the images on
05 06
chose. In this case the background element called ‘corridor’ is 3333 a layer for each image, you’ll see that the layers are in the same order
pixels wide by 4000 pixels high. as listed on the Load Layers panel. ‘alien’ is at the top of the stack and the
image ‘spark 1’ is at the bottom.

The next task is to click and drag layers and change the order so Of course, it all looks like a jumble at the moment but now the images
07 08
they make more sense and are ready to be worked on. From top to can be moved into position. Click on the small eye icons on all the
bottom, the order should be: ‘metal hand’, ‘metal girl’, ‘hand’, ‘girl’, ‘alien’, layers except ‘corridor’ and ‘spark 1’ to make them invisible for the moment.
‘spark 1’ and finally ‘corridor’ at the bottom.
Click on the visible ‘spark 1’ layer to make it active and then choose Use the Move Tool (V) and position the sparks by the left corridor wall
09 10
Screen as its Blend Mode. Now, only the brightest parts of the sparks to look as if it is exploding. If you press Cmd + T and activate the Free
will remain visible in the image. Transform Tool, you can move, rotate and scale the sparks until you have
them how you want them.
Press E to activate the Eraser tool and use a large soft brush to erase Next make the ‘alien’ and the ‘girl’ layers visible. Click the ‘alien’ layer
11 12
any of the larger sparks that are extending too far out into the image. to make it active and use the Move Tool (V) to drag him down to the
The main area of sparks can be left untouched. right side of the girl, so he’s peeking over her shoulder. You can use the Free
Transform Tool (Cmd + T) to scale him if needs be.

The next layer to make visible is ‘hand’. Why this was created as a Double-click the ‘hand’ layer and you will call up the Layer Style
13 14
separate image will become clear shortly. At the moment, it looks a bit panel. Click on the Drop Shadow button to check it and then use the
disconnected from the girl but a shadow will help. settings as shown to add a shadow that falls from the hand and onto the
girl’s face and spacesuit. Click OK to proceed.
Next, make the ‘metal girl’ layer visible and click it to make it active. Go to the bottom of the layers palette and click on the Add Layer
15 16
We are going to combine this layer and the ‘girl’ layer to give her a Mask button. A layer mask will be added to the ‘metal girl’ layer. Click
cybernetic makeover with the aid of masks and Layer Style adjustments. the mask’s thumbnail to make it active.
Press Cmd + I to invert the mask colour from white to black. The blue You’ll want to create a mask that reveals the blue metal on one side of
17 18
metal face will disappear now that the mask is black. Only white areas her face. To do that you need to be able to see both the metal and her
of the mask will allow the blue metal face to appear. face as a guide to show where to apply the mask. The best way to do that is
to alter the Properties in order to aid you.

You need to make sure the ‘metal girl’ mask thumbnail is still active, If you alter the Density value of the mask to about 50 per cent for the
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then go to its Properties panel. If it isn’t visible, you can go to Window moment. It will become semi-transparent and allow the blue metal
> Properties to activate it. Here you can alter a number of aspects of the face to be seen just enough to give you an idea of where to apply your mask.
mask that you have currently selected. You might want to zoom into the face for a better view.
Keep the mask thumbnail active and go to the Toolbar and choose Begin to click and drag either the Lasso Tool or click the Polygonal
21 22
the Lasso Tool (L) if you are comfortable drawing freehand. If not, Lasso Tool to begin to create a selection that follows the metal
you have the option to choose the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) to draw in a shapes. You can be fairly random with your selection. Just create a selection
series of connected straight lines. that covers the right side of her face up to the hairline.
When you join back up to here you started, a selection denoted by the With both your ‘metal girl’ layer and your newly drawn selection still
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‘marching ants’ will appear, showing you the area you drew with your active, go to the Properties panel and make the mask Density 100 per
lasso. Don’t worry too much if you feel it needs altering, the next steps will cent again. The metal will disappear again for the moment but you will still
allow you to do that if you wish. see the selection you created.

Set the background colour to white. Then hit the Delete key on your The top left part of the metal face needed removing. We used the
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keyboard and the area of the selection you drew will be filled in white Polygonal Lasso Tool and drew a selection around the area. This time,
background colour and the metal face will appear in full strength. Cmd + D with the background colour set to black, and pressing Delete, the selection
will clear any selections when not needed any more. filled that area of the mask black, making it invisible again.
If you Alt + click on the mask thumbnail, you will be able to see the Now you can add some detail to the mask. Go to the Toolbar and
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mask on its own. Black areas keep the blue metal face hidden but choose the Brush Tool (B). Make the brush Size about 30 pixels and
white areas let it be visible. Press Alt + click again to return to the standard make its Hardness 100 per cent. You’re going to remove some blue metal
document view and proceed to the next step. and make her real eye visible through the ‘metal girl’ mask.
Make sure your brush’s foreground colour is now black and make Carefully paint away the blue metal. If you need to alter the size of the
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sure the ‘metal girl’ mask thumbnail is still active. Start to paint with brush for finer detail, you can press the [ and ] bracket keys to reduce
the black brush inside her right eye. As you apply black to the mask, the blue or enlarge the size of the brush to suit your needs. Once her eye is fully
metal will be hidden and her eye will appear. revealed, you can move to the next part.

Whilst you have the brush, you can use it to add little extra details to Conversely, if you want to add circular areas of blue metal, make the
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the mask shape. Make the brush about 80 pixels and simply dab on brush’s foreground colour white and start dabbing on the mask to
the mask where you want to remove circular areas of blue metal. reveal circles of blue metal. This way you can build up an nice pattern of blue
metal. Now we can blend the metal into her skin.
Double-click the ‘metal girl’ thumbnail (not the mask) and the Layer Do the same with the left slider, split it and drag towards the centre.
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Style panel will open. Under the Blend It section, Alt + left-click the These two adjustments control how the light and dark areas of the
Underlying Layer slider on the left. It will split in half and you can drag that half layers interact and merge together. Now the metal should blend in a much
of the slider to the right as shown. better way with the skin on the layer below.
Now click on the Inner Shadow button in the Styles listing. If you use Now we can make the ‘metal hand’ layer visible and active. As you
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the settings shown, it makes the metal skin look recessed as if her did with the blue metal face, click on the Add Layer Mask. Make sure
real skin is a thin veneer over a metal skeleton. Click OK to proceed. the layer mask thumbnail is active and press Cmd + I to invert the white mask
to black, hiding the blue metal hand for the moment.

Using the same method as the metal face, go to the ‘metal hand’ Choose your Lasso Tool or Polygonal Lasso Tool again and draw a
37 38
mask’s Properties and make the Density 50 per cent so you can view selection over the metal hand where you want it to appear above her
the metal hand and the real hand together. real hand. To create new areas, hold Shift and a small + symbol will appear
and you can draw new selections or add to existing ones.
When you have the areas that you want selected, return the Density You can quickly match the Layer Style of the metal face by right-
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of the mask to 100 per cent and make sure the background colour is clicking on the ‘metal girl’ layer and choosing Copy Layer Style from
white. Press Delete and the area you’ve selected will be deleted and replaced the dropdown menu that appears. This copies any style attributes that are
with background white, revealing the blue metal hand. currently attached to that layer.
Next you need to right-click on the ‘metal hand’ layer and choose These images are cutouts so there is a quick way to make a mask
41 42
Paste Layer Style from the dropdown menu. This will apply all the that will sort out the issue of the fingers. Right-click on the ‘hand’ layer
same layer values that you used on the blue metal face. Now we need to sort thumbnail and choose Select Pixels from the context menu that appears. It
out where her fingers touch her chin. will automatically make a selection of the hand.

The current selection will stay active. Next, click on the ‘metal girl’ The hand-shaped area was able to remove a part of the ‘metal girl’
43 44
layer mask to activate it and make sure you have your background layer mask that overlaid her real fingers. Now, you might wonder
colour set to black. Press Delete and the hand-shaped selection will be filled why not place the flesh hand above the metal face. You could but if we’re
with black background colour. honest, this gives us a chance to show you how to use Select Pixels.
Now you can select the ‘metal hand’ layer mask to activate it and add One small matter of housekeeping and it’s optional: click on the
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a few brushed-on embellishments just as we did with the face. After ‘alien’ layer and use the Lasso Tool to draw around the alien’s
the application of a few brush dabs in white or black on the layer mask, her armour on the far left by the girl’s neck and either mask it out or just delete
hand is now a flesh and metal fusion. it so it doesn’t obscure the sparks behind it.
Keep the ‘alien’ layer active and choose Create A New Layer from Go to the Toolbar and choose the Brush Tool (B). From the Tool
47 48
the bottom of the layer palette. A new layer will be added above the Option bar at the top left of the screen, choose a soft round brush
‘alien’ layer. Name it ‘mist 1’. We can use a little trick to create some depth of about 1200 pixels and Hardness 0 per cent.
between the characters in our scene.

Make sure your foreground colour is set to white and begin to brush Click the Create A New Layer button on the player palette and place
49 50
on the ‘mist 1’ layer between the girl and the alien. Brush around the the new layer between the ‘spark 1’ and ‘alien’ layers. Call this layer
girl’s head and shoulders but make sure you don’t cover too much of the ‘mist 2’. Now you can brush more white that appears between the alien
alien and obscure him from the image. and the background corridor.
You can add as much or as little white between your characters as Now we can add a little more depth to the scene. Click on the
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you wish. You can always use the Eraser Tool (E) to remove any areas; ‘corridor’ layer to make it active and go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur to
or adjust the layer Opacity to reduce the amount visible. call up the Lens Blur dialog panel. We can use it to apply a small amount of
blur like a camera’s shallow depth of field.
Under the Iris options, make the Radius value about 25. Increase this If you want, you can add the same amount of blur to the ‘spark 1’
53 54
if you want more blur added to your background image. When you layer image so it looks like it is part of the corridor scene and not
have it how you want it, click OK to apply the blur. unnaturally sharp when the corridor is blurred.

Next, let’s add an adjustment layer to the top of the layer stack and A ‘Levels 1’ adjustment layer will be added at the top of the layer
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make things a little darker and moodier. Click on the Create New Fill stack. Drag it to the top of the layer stack, since we want this
Or Adjustment Layer and choose Levels. adjustment to affect all the layers below it.
Under the Levels Properties, drag the mid-tone slider to the right to Click the ‘Levels 1’ thumbnail to make sure it is active and pick a large
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darken the image. You can also adjust the Highlight and Shadow soft black brush and begin to paint on the mask where you don’t
Output Levels to reduce contrast. Obviously this affects the entire image, but want the darkening effect of the levels adjustment to be seen.
we can be a bit more selective.
We masked areas around the girl, the alien and the bright area of the Now we have assembled our main components and masked them
59 60
sparks and the lights in the ceiling above her head. You can adjust the accordingly as well as adding separation to the characters and some
Levels further if you wish until you have it how you like it. basic adjustments to get the tone of the scene looking right. Now it’s time to
give it a more cinematic look.

At this point, it is a good idea to group all the current layers. If you Click on the Create A New Group button at the bottom of the layers
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hold Shift + left-click the top layer and hold Shift + left-click the palette and all the layers will be placed in a folder. You can name this
bottom layer, you can select all the layers. group ‘base image’. You can keep this as a reference folder for all elements
worked on so far. You’re now ready for the second part of this tutorial.
Your images
are assembled
This multi-image creation is ready for part 2.

Multiple AFTER
Image
Blending BEFORE
Part 2 - Time to add some

lighting and colour effects
Y ou’ve completed part one of this
multiple image blending tutorial. It’s
all looking good but now it’s time to take
and help our subject achieve a more
surreal and robotic appearance. You can
also add some lighting effects to really
all those carefully assembled, masked and make the image stand out along with This tutorial
layered images and add a little extra drama a couple of Photoshop brushes to add content is
in the form of some colour adjustments. the finishing touches to the scene. Let’s available for
The will give it a more cinematic quality continue with the tutorial. download

With the ‘base image’ group active, press Shift + Alt + Cmd + E to One thing we’d like to do is change the colour of the girl’s right eye.
01 02
make a new layer that is a merged version of everything in the ‘base Select the Lasso Tool from the Toolbar and draw a selection around
image’ group. Name this layer ‘base’. You can use this new layer to build the the iris of the right eye. Join back up with your lasso’s start point to create the
rest of the adjustments upon. active selection shown by ‘marching ants’.
Keep the selection active and click the Create New Fill Or Adjustment With the Hue/Saturation layer active, you can adjust its properties.
03 04
Layer and choose Hue/Saturation. A Hue/Saturation adjustment Click Colourise and make Hue 185, Saturation 40 and Lightness +15.
layer will be added above the ‘base’ layer with the selected area of the eye This should make the iris a bright blue colour.
remaining white against a black mask by default.

Click the Hue/Saturation thumbnail itself to activate it and alter the If you want, take a soft, 60 pixel black brush and paint over the area
05 06
mask Properties by making the Feather value about 2 pixels. This of the mask the covers her pupil. This will mask the colour effect and
is just enough to soften the hard edge of the mask and blend out the blue return the pupil to a normal black colour.
of the iris into the rest of the eye.
Let’s boost the lighting a little. Click on the Create A New Layer Take a soft white brush of about 300 pixels and paint white over the
07 08
button and name it ‘lights’. Make sure it is at the top of the stack sparks, the strip lights above the girl’s head and any areas that look
and set its Blend Mode to Linear Light. like light fixtures you want to boost.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and choose a Radius of about 40 Keep the ‘lights’ layer active and go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/
09 10
pixels from the dialog panel and press OK. This softens the brush Saturation (Cmd + U). From the dialog panel that appears, click on
strokes a little. Now you need to alter the colour. Colourise and make Hue 210, Saturation 45 and Lightness -30. This will give
a blue neon-like glow to the image. Click OK to proceed.
The next part can be optional but we wanted to add some particles In the meantime, in order to help you, we’ve prepared an image that
11 12
to give the scene a bit of drama. If you have a limited selection of uses some particle brushes that you can just drop right into your
brushes, you can always download free brushes from Deviantart.com. Just scene. Go to File > Open and then browse to the folder where the ‘debris.
do a search for ‘Photoshop brushes’. png’ file is kept and press Open.
With the ‘debris.png’ document open, you can press Cmd + A to Change the ‘debris’ layer Blend Mode to Overlay so it blends
13 14
select all of the image then press Cmd + C to copy it. Go back to your without being too intrusive, if you do want it stronger, duplicate the
man document and press Cmd + V to paste it into the document. Name the layer and adjust its opacity until it looks how you want it.
layer ‘debris’ and position it at the bottom of the scene.

If you press Shift + Alt + Cmd + E, you can make a new layer that is Go to Image > Adjustments > Shadows/Highlights. In the dialog
15 16
a merged version of everything done so far. You’re going to use that panel under Shadows make Amount 15%, Tone 20% and Radius
layer to bump up the detail a little. Name this new layer ‘base 2’. 72 pixels. Under Highlights make Amount 20%, Tone 50% and Radius 60
pixels. Under Adjustments make Midtone +10.
This adds contrast overall but recovers detail in the shadow areas Now it is time to add some tweaks to alter the colour palette to suit
17 18
and the brightest highlights as well. You can adjust the sliders to the scene a little more. Click on the Create New Fill Or Adjustment
see how they affect the image, but if you’re happy, you can click OK to Layer button and choose Levels from the dropdown list. ‘Levels 2’ will be
commit the changes. added to the top of the layer stack.
In the Levels 2 Properties under RGB, choose Red as the first colour Next choose Blue as the colour channel you want to adjust and
19 20
to adjust. If you match your values to the ones we’ve used here, the again match the values we’ve used. It may look like subtle change
image will take on a pronounced blue-green colour cast. but it just boosts the blue a little.

Now add a third Levels Adjustment and use this to brighten the You have finished! Multiple elements have been combined and
21 22
Highlights and Midtone areas of the image using the values we’ve you’ve used a number of adjustments and masking techniques to
shown in the screen shot above. create your final image. All that remains is to go to File > Save As (Shift +
Cmd + S) and save your document as a PSD file.
Combine, adjust and

create great art
Images, layers, masks and adjustments – the key to Photoshop.

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS PENCIL SKETCH EFFECT
Pencil
Sketch
Effect
AFTER
BEFORE
Start scribbling and unleash

your inner artist This tutorial
content is
available for
T here may have been occasions when you have

looked at one of your favourite photographs and
wondered, ‘what would it look like if it were drawn in
the pencil sketch filter offered by Photoshop does not really
capture the essence of a hand-drawn image. However, there
is an approach in Photoshop that may take you a step closer
download
pencil instead of being a photo?’ Photoshop and all its to being able to create a more realistic pencil sketch effect.
photo editing counterparts offer various artistic filters It requires your favourite image, a few Photoshop layers and
that can turn your image into a watercolour or an oil a little patience. You don’t need to be Leonardo Da Vinci to
painting. Some of them can be quite effective. However, create a masterpiece - just the ability to scribble!

PENCIL SKETCH EFFECT PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
First things first. Open your image in We need to create all the materials that Name this layer ‘paper colour’ and click
01 02 03
Photoshop and label that layer ‘base’. This will give us our pencil sketch look. First is OK. Use the colour picker to choose a
is just a bit of housekeeping as we will be creating a grey layer that will be our paper colour. Click on colour for your paper. Choose a light grey and click
multiple copies of the base image as we progress. Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. OK. A new layer will appear named ‘paper colour’.
Texture will add to our sketch. Click on Pick something fairly subtle in black and Set its opacity to 50% and click on the
04 05 06
Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern. A new white. Select your preferred texture and Blend Modes button and set the blend
dialog box will appear to let you name this new click OK. The new ‘paper texture’ layer will appear mode to Multiply. The texture will now blend into
layer. Call it ‘paper texture’ and click OK. above the ‘paper colour’ layer. the grey paper layer beneath.
Both texture and colour layers are kept Click on your base layer it to make it active To make an outline reference, go to Layer
07 08 09
separate so you can go back to each at and go to the top menu and select Layer > Filter Gallery and select Glowing Edges
any time and modify their values if you want to. > New Layer. Name this layer ‘outline’. Make sure from the Stylize option panel. The settings you use
that this new layer is at the top of your layer stack. will be dependent on the resolution of your image.

What you are looking for is a mostly black image with just the basic At the moment, this outline image is no good to us in its current
10 11
features of the face showing. When you are happy with the result, state of white detail on black. Make sure your ‘outline’ layer is active
click OK to proceed to the next step. and select Image > Adjustments > Invert (Cmd + I).
Now your image will have dark outline details on a white background. From the Layers menu, make the opacity 50% and set the Blend
12 13
Next, go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (Shift+Cmd+U) to Mode to Multiply. The outline will now be blended into the grey
remove any colour from the image. textured paper layer below it in the stack.
As you did in step 8, click your ‘base’ layer to make it active, Go to Image > Adjustments > Black & White (Alt + Shift + Cmd +
14 15
duplicate it, name it ‘sketch’ and drag this new layer to the very top B). How you convert to black and white is down to personal taste,
of the stack. We now need to convert this image to black and white. but it is a good idea to make the image quite contrasty in order to help with
the sketch effect later on.

Now make sure your black and white ‘sketch’ layer is active and When you do this, it will be hidden from view because the mask is
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select Add Layer Mask from the bottom of your layers panel. If your now black and preventing the image from showing through, and all
layer mask is white, just hit Cmd + I to invert it so it is black. you will see is the outline and paper layers below. Now we need something
to create our sketch with.
Make sure you have the brush tool selected from your toolbox on Rather than a pencil, it is actually better to choose a bristle-type
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the left side or just press B. You can either select a brush from brush. The bristles act like multiple pencils and will save you time. The
the top left options menu or click on the Brush Presets tab pinned to Flat Curve Thin Stiff Bristles brush with its default settings is a good option.
your layer panel on the right.
The brush size is 300 pixels. Make sure your Foreground Color is With your ‘sketch’ layer active, click on your layer mask thumbnail
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white. Pressing D will make sure foreground and background default to select it. You are going to use your brush on this layer mask, not
to black and white. Now you can start your sketch. the image. You have the outline on the layer below as a reference.

Click and hold the left mouse button and drag your brush across the Because the image is being revealed through the strokes of the brush,
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layer mask with broad strokes as if you are brushing paint with a real the image will begin to appear as if it has been sketched by a series of
brush. As you are painting white onto the mask, each stroke gradually starts cross-hatched pencil strokes.
to reveal more of the black and white image.
Using a mouse to draw in this fashion can be a bit odd, but as you It is down to your artistic vision to sketch in a way that pleases you. If
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progress you’ll find it becomes quite easy. Draw the mouse across the at any time you make a mistake, simply press X to toggle your brush
image at opposing angles, building the density of the strokes as you do so. to black and paint any brush strokes out. Then press X again and resume
drawing with your white brush.
If you were to Alt + left click on the layer mask thumbnail you’ve been The idea now is to reveal as little or as much of the black and white
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working on, you can view the mask on its own. This shows you how image as you prefer. Bear in mind that as you build the number of
all the brush strokes have built up to create the pencil sketch effect. white brush strokes on the mask, they will eventually merge and disappear.

The texture of those brush strokes will gradually disappear and At this point you can change the opacity of the ‘outline’ layer to
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you could be left with your original black and white image looking about 20%. This reduces the impact of the hard outlines, enhances
like nothing has been done to it. Just paint away until you finally have the artistic effect and sells the sketched feel. Your sketch is completed.
something pleasing to your eye.
Make your own

artistic sketches
Who thought scribbling could be so creative?

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS FIRE EFFECTS
AFTER
Fire
BEFORE
Effects
This tutorial
Flame effects to add a spark to content is
available for
your digital skills download
T here are a few ways that you can add or create

fire to enhance your images. If you have an
image or perhaps a photograph that couldn’t
augmenting a real life photo or a CG image, here
is a safe, realistic way to do it. You can create
flames in Photoshop by using more traditional
This tutorial
content is
available for
deliver convincing flame at the time of shooting, painting skills or using Photoshop CC, which has
download
be it because of safety reasons or the effect was a flame generator. One approach is to use actual
impossible to apply at the time, then adding fire post references to real flames. You won’t get more
process is the logical way forward. Whether you are realistic than that.

FIRE EFFECTS PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
Start off with a suitable image. This is a fantasy style image of a girl The tutorial image is 3000 pixels square. Certain effects and brush
01 02
holding a torch. The torch is in need of a little Photoshop magic to sizes are based on an image of these dimensions. For images
help our heroine light the way. larger or smaller, you’ll need to alter your settings accordingly.
First, click on the Create New Layer button at the bottom of the layers Click on Foreground Colour in the toolbar to open the colour picker
03 04
palette. A new layer will be added. Name it ‘glow 1’. You will add a and choose a warm, yellow/orange colour that will be the basis of the
basic glow around the main area of the torch that will be lit. torch’s glow. Click OK when you have the colour you like. You will be able to
alter it later if needs be.

Click on the Brush Tool (B) in the toolbar and choose a large soft The brush strokes can be softened by going to Filter > Blur >
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brush of about 400 pixels. Dab your orange brush around the area Gaussian Blur and choosing a Radius of about 50 pixels. Click OK to
at the top of the torch on the ‘glow 1’ layer. apply the blur to the orange brush strokes.
With the ‘glow 1’ layer still active, set its Blend Mode to Linear Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Cmd + U). Here you
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Light. It may be that the glow colour is a little off but you can alter it can alter the Hue to a more suitable colour. We’ve made it a little
quite easily if you wish. more red/orange but you can also change the Saturation and Lightness to
suit your taste. Click OK to apply the changes.

Time for some flames. Go to File > Open and navigate to the folder Go to the toolbar and select the Lasso Tool (L). Draw around a flame
09 10
containing ’flames.jpg’ file. Double-click it to open the flame images shape of your choice. Once you have a selection, press Cmd + C to
as a new document in Photoshop. copy the selection. Note how these flames are on a black background. That
will be important in the coming steps.
Go back to your main document and press Cmd + V to paste the Keep the ‘flame’ layer active and set its Blend Mode to Screen.
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copied selection onto its own layer. Call the new layer ‘flame’. You can Any part of the image that was black will disappear, leaving just the
use the Move Tool to place it where it needs to go over the tip of the torch. oranges and yellows of the flame itself.

You can alter the size and position of the flame relative to the tip of the If parts of the flame are unwanted, you can click on the Add Layer
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torch, if you wish, until you get a good fit. Press Cmd + T to use the Mask button and add a mask to the ‘flame’ layer. Click the layer
Free Transform Tool and drag the image control points around to scale and mask thumbnail to make it active and use a small black brush to paint over
rotate the flame so it fits as you need it to. areas of flame you do not wish to be seen.
Any black area of the mask will prevent the flame image from being Now to add some ambient glow to the girl. Click on the Create New
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seen. Here, we’ve just tidied up the bottom of the flames to match the Layer button and call the new layer ‘glow 2’. Using the same orange
bottom area of the torch’s burning material. that you chose in step 4, select the Brush Tool and pick a medium soft
brush of about 175 pixels.
Use this orange brush to paint areas of colour on to the ‘glow 2’ layer. With the ’glow 2’ layer still active, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur
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These might correspond to areas of the girl and background and pick and use a Radius of about 70 pixels to soften the brush strokes. Then
up the glow of the torchlight. set this layer’s Blend Mode to Linear Light.

It is possible to refine the blend of the colour into the image below. At the bottom of the Blending Options panel is the Blend If function.
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If you double-click the ‘glow 2’ layer, you can alter the Layer Style You have two sliders, one for This Layer and one for the Underlying
properties and Blending Options to a greater degree. Layer, that control how much of the light and dark areas of both layers are
able to interact with each other.
Moving the sliders will result in quite extreme blends. You can press After a little tweaking of the Blend If options and changing the Blend
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Alt and click on the sliders to split each of them in half. Moving just Mode to Vivid Light, you will arrive at a nice soft glow that helps the
one half of the sliders left and right will give more subtle and refined blends. illusion of light coming off the torch and illuminating areas close by.
Now you can add some embers to give the flame some life. Add Select the Brush Tool (B) again. Choose a standard, soft circular
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a new layer and call it ‘embers’. Click your Foreground Colour and brush of about 20 pixels. You need to alter its properties so it
choose a slightly darker, stronger orange than previously used. scatters the brush as you paint to create an illusion of random particles.

Click on the Brush fly out panel and check the Shape Dynamics Check the Transfer button and make Opacity Jitter about 70 per cent.
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button, make Size Jitter about 75 per cent. Then check the Scattering Click on Brush Tip Shape and check the Spacing button and make
button and make the Scatter value 1000 per cent and make sure the Both that value about 300 per cent. The preview panel should show how widely
Axes button is also checked. spaced the brush will be as you paint.
Keep the ‘embers’ layer active and paint your scattering of red Select the Lasso Tool (L) from the toolbar and draw a selection that
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embers over and around the flame of the torch. Add as little or as encloses the embers you’ve just created. Go to Filter > Liquify (Shift
much as you wish. When ready, set this layer’s Blend Mode to Linear Light. + Cmd + X) and use the Forward Warp Tool (W) to gently push the embers
Next we can add a little movement. around and smear them slightly.

When you click OK, the embers will have more random shapes and Click on the Add Adjustment Layer button and select the default
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look slightly blurred as if they are moving. Photo Filter from the menu. Set its Blend Mode to Overlay, make the
layer opacity about 20 per cent for a warm cast and contrast boost to the
overall image and it is complete.
How to light up
your art
Now you can play with fire and not get burned.

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS SKY SWAPPING TECHNIQUE
Sky Swapping
Technique
AFTER
BEFORE
This tutorial
content is
available for
download
This tutorial
Another cool way to replace dull content is
available for
skies on a photo download
B lue skies are wonderful. They mean we are having

a lovely sunny day. This is particularly meaningful if
you live in the UK, which is often the butt of jokes about
but the sky is lacking in any drama. It’s just a big, blue,
empty canvas. More damningly, sometimes the sky is
lovely but it’s in the wrong part of the sky in relation
it’s horrible weather. No better time then to get out and to the landscape you were trying to shoot. Well, once
take some photographs. The only problem you may again, Photoshop has the answer to your woes with
find if you’re anything like us, is that landscapes shot sky swapping. This is a great little trick that can virtually
on days like this can look a little dull. The light is great, eliminate the need for tricky masking.

SKY SWAPPING TECHNIQUE PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
This shot, called ‘portland ground.jpg’, was taken at a place called Luckily, just about 45° to the right of this composition, the sun
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Pulpit Rock near Weymouth. It’s a great spot to take some lovely was creating some nice lighting on a bank of clouds that were just
landscape images. The day these were taken the sky was a soft pale blue out of the shot we wanted. The image ‘portland sky.jpg’ was taken to be
but lacking in any drama. used as a sky swap.
What you’ll need to do is take the sky image and simply press Now double-click on the ‘sky’ layer and you will call up the Layer
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Cmd + A to select the entire image, then Cmd + C to copy it. Go Style panel. We are going to use the Blend If function to blend the
back to your main shot and press Cmd + V to paste it onto the document. top ‘sky’ layer into the main background image.
Name this new layer ‘sky’.

Because the original sky is mainly blue and the rocks are not, we You have two sets of sliders. One is for This Layer (our ’sky’ layer)
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can use a specific Blend If colour to help the blend work. Click on and the other for the Underlying Layer (the ‘Background’ layer).
the Blend If tab and you will have the choice of Grey, Red, Green or Blue. Simply put, the two sets of sliders control how light and dark tones can
In this case, choose Blue. interact between the two layers.
With the ‘sky’ layer active, begin to slide the leftmost Underlying If you Alt + left-click on the slider, you can actually split it in half and
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Layer slider to the right. You will see the ‘Background’ layer’s rocks move each half independently for much finer control of the blend.
start to appear. Keep sliding it right, then stop when the top part of the The slider values of 125/145 255 should be just about spot on.
‘sky’ layer starts to fade.

You can do the same with the This Layer sliders. Values of 0 You will see that various parts of the ‘Background’ layer below the
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250/255 will have the blend of the two images as good as they horizon are contaminated with blended areas from the ‘sky’ layer
can be. The ‘sky’ layer is fully visible, and most of the rocks and sea of the above. Some simple masking will remedy that next.
‘Background’ layer are visible.
For the moment, click on the visibility icon of the ‘sky’ layer to make Make your ‘sky’ layer visible again and keep it active. Go to the
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it invisible. Then click the top ruler and drag a horizontal ruler down toolbar and choose the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M).
so it sits directly over the horizon of your image.

Starting in the top left of your image, left-click and drag a marquee With this selection still active. Go to the Layer Option panel at the
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down to the right side of the image where the horizon line is. bottom of your Layers Palette and choose Add Layer Mask. A mask in
When you let go of the mouse, you will see that you have a selection that the shape of the current selection will be created on your ‘sky’ layer.
is denoted by the ‘marching ants’.
This has removed most of the Blend If artefacts but there is still a Keep the ‘sky’ layer active, then go to the Layer Option panel again
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small amount remaining on the rocks above the horizon line. There and click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button. Select Solid
is a handy tip for spotting these blend issues. Colour from the menu and the Colour Picker panel will appear. Choose a very
lurid colour such as pink.

A new layer called ‘Colour Fill 1’ will be added to the top of your With the ‘Colour Fill 1’ layer active, go to the Blend Mode button
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layer stack. Right-click this layer and choose Create Clipping Mask and choose Darken from the blend mode menu. The vivid pink
from the menu. This means the pink colour will only affect the ‘sky’ layer. colour will be blended into the ‘sky’ layer and reveal pink areas covering
the rocks on the ‘Background’ layer.
Click on the ‘sky’ layer mask’s thumbnail to make sure it is the Choose a brush size of about 40 pixels and make sure Hardness is
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mask that is active (not the image itself) and go to your toolbar and set to 0 per cent. Press D to default your colours to black as your
then select the Brush Tool (B). Foreground Colour and white as your Background Colour. Your brush will
now be ready to paint in black.
You can now start painting black with your small, soft black brush If you Alt + left-click the ‘sky’ layer mask thumbnail, you will be
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on the layer mask of your ‘sky’ layer. Paint over any areas of the able to see the painted areas on the mask that have eliminated any
rocks above the horizon line where you can see any of the vivid pink colour remaining Blend If artefacts. Press Alt + left-click on the thumbnail again to
that shouldn’t be there. return to normal view.

You now have a nice crisp blend of your new sky on top of the Now you can concentrate on optional adjustments to the image. Click
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original scene with the dull sky and you’ve only had to do some on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button and select Levels
simple clean up masking. At this point you can delete the ‘Colour Fill 1’ from the menu. A ‘Levels 1’ layer will appear at the top of the layer stack.
layer as it has served its purpose.
You want this particular adjustment to only affect the ‘sky’ layer A simple mid-tone adjustment is made to make the ‘sky’ layer darker
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below. So as you’ve done before, right-click the ‘Levels 1’ layer and but it has made the horizon too dark and looks a little out of place.
choose Create Clipping Mask from the menu. What you need is to only adjust the levels of the topmost part of the sky.
Make sure your ‘Levels 1’ adjustment layer is active, then go to your Select the preset Foreground to Transparent. Since you have the
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toolbar and select the Gradient Tool (G). Now click on the Gradient default colour set from step 20, the gradient should run from black
Editor in the top right of the Tool Option bar to open it. to transparent. Click OK to continue. Then make sure you have Linear
Gradient set as your gradient type.

With the ‘Levels 1’ layer still active, click and drag your Gradient When you let go, a gradient will be added to the ‘Levels 1’ adjustment
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Tool from just above the horizon to just below the top of the image. layer mask that starts black and then fades near the top, leaving it
white. Your ‘sky’ layer’s horizon will look correct again and the sky darker.
The black areas of the mask block any of the adjustments near the The sky swap is complete. You have combined two images using
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horizon but gradually allow them to show up as the mask gradient some clever, advanced blending techniques and some minimal
fades to white, where the adjustment is able to show through. masking. Now that you are familiar with this technique, we have something
else to show you next that goes a step further.
As an interesting addition to this tutorial, we have an image called Add your sky layer on top of your original as you did in the first part
33 34
‘ccc ground.jpg’ and ‘ccc sky.jpg’. This presents us with the often of this tutorial. You can then double-click your ’sky’ layer and call up
encountered issue of how you swap skies when the complex shapes of the Layer Style panel once again.
trees and leaves are involved.

As before, set your Blend If colour to Blue and begin to drag the You will see the green of the trees start to appear ad grow stronger
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Underlying Layer’s leftmost slider to the right. as you move the slider to the right. Stop at the point the original sky
starts to erode your new ‘sky’ layer away.
Then Alt + left-click the slider to split it in two and fine tune the Keep the ‘sky’ layer active and go to the toolbar and select the
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blend as you did in the first part of the tutorial. Underlying Layer Polygonal Lasso Tool (G). We need to mask the cricket pavilion so it
values of about 175/220 255 seem to work well. is unaffected by the Blend If artefacts.
Make a selection that runs around the roof of the pavilion and up A layer mask will be added to the ‘sky’ layer in the shape of the
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and around the top of the image. With the selection active, go to selection. The pavilion and the foreground will now be masked and
the Layer Options panel and choose Add Layer Mask. unaffected by the Blend If artefacts.

All that remains is to add any preferred Levels adjustments to the The blend works well. All the tiny gaps in the trees show the new
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’sky’ layer on its own, as shown previously, and you have swapped sky and you haven’t had to do any complex masking. When
another sky without too much complex masking. replacing skies, the Blend If tool is invaluable.
The sky is literally

the limit
Blend modes make sky swapping so easy.

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS THE DRAGAN EFFECT
AFTER
The
Dragan
Effect BEFORE
Add a little drama to your most

cherished photos
T he Dragan effect is named after Andrzej Dragan. He is actually a Polish physics teacher
in Warsaw, but he does also have a widely praised reputation for producing surreal and
compelling portraits. He employs high contrast and saturation in his images, along with
rich detail that gives his subjects a highly emphasised look; some would say, an almost This tutorial
pseudo HDR appearance. It is a technique that is used to great effect on male portraits in content is
particular, where the extra detail is not considered detrimental to the subject. Our tutorial available for
will take you through some easy steps that can give your images a dramatic twist. download

THE DRAGAN EFFECT PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
We have an image of a model called Any effects we add are based on this size. To start, we need to create a duplicate
01 02 03
Jamie. For your reference, the image size If you have a different size image, just be of our original image, just so we have an
we are working at is 2700px wide x 3700px high. aware that your values may need to change to suit original to go back to if needed. Press Cmd + J
the dimensions you are working with. and rename this layer ‘jamie’.
Press Cmd + L to bring up the Levels Additional adjustments will be made With your ‘jamie’ layer still active, go to the
04 05 06
dialog box. Move the left-most slider to the afterwards, so try not to be too heavy- top menu and select Image > Adjustments
right to deepen the shadows and the right-most handed. Click OK to apply the Levels adjustment. > Hue/Saturation (Cmd + U). This will bring up the
slider to the left to brighten the highlight areas. Hue/Saturation panel.
Move the Saturation slider to the left to Now move the Hue slider a small amount We can add contrast by using a basic ’S’
07 08 09
desaturate the image slightly. A value in to the right (+10 in or example). This will curve. With the ‘jamie’ layer still active, go
our example of -45 is enough to take the edge off shift the image colours to make it slightly more to the top menu and select Image > Adjustments
the vibrance of the original. yellow. Click OK to proceed. > Curves (Cmd + M) to bring up the Curves panel.

Click the line 3 times to add anchor points, You’re after a flattened ’S’ shape. This Next, press Cmd + J to create a duplicate
10 11 12
one in the middle and each side in the classic curve boosts overall contrast. Don’t of the newly adjusted ‘jamie’ layer. Name
shadow and highlight areas. Drag the anchor make the shadow areas too black. Click OK when this copy ‘high pass’. Make it the topmost active
points and adjust the contrast and brightness. you are happy with the result. layer. Time to extract more detail.
From the top menu, select Filter > Other Smaller values produce less sharpness, In this example, a value of about 4 pixels
13 14 15
> High Pass. The High Pass panel will but keep the image clean, whereas higher produces a clean, sharp image. When
appear and you can set the amount of filtering values create sharper images but at the expense you hit OK, the ‘high pass’ layer will now look
applied to that layer by changing the Radius value. of halo artefacts. somewhat like a greyscale image.
With the ‘high pass’ layer active, go to Press Shift + left-click on both the ‘high Now to add drama to this portrait by using
16 17 18
the Blend Mode button at the top of your pass’ and ‘jamie’ layers. Select them both the Dodge and Burn Tool to enhance
Layers Palette and select Overlay. The layer is and then right-click on them to call up the context detail. This means selectively altering certain areas
blended into the ‘jamie’ layer below. menu and select Merge Layers. of light and shadow.

Click and hold on the Dodge and Burn icon where you can choose We are going to lighten just the Highlights. Set the exposure to about
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either Dodge or Burn. Click on the Dodge Tool icon. In the top menu 10% and make sure Protect Tones is checked. Choose a medium
area, a context menu lets you choose the Range you will affect when using sized, soft-edged brush and begin ‘painting’ where you want to amplify areas
the Dodge Tool. of white (or near-white) tones. Brush Tool (B).
Because we’ve selected the affected range as Highlights, none of the Brushing over the hands, eyes, hair and facial features will bring up
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other darker tones will be modified by this action. the brightness of just the areas closest to white. Take your time and
try not to be too heavy-handed and destroy any detail.
If you overdo it, you can always press Alt + Cmd + Z to step back We will now affect the Midtones and gradually begin working on the
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through your actions. When you are happy with the Highlight facial areas and hands once more as we emphasise the tone and
areas, go back and click on the Range button in the top context menu detail of our subject’s face and body.
and select Midtones.

The next step is to select the Burn Tool, set the range to Midtones The areas around the eyes, facial stubble and the pores of the skin
25 26
and, using the same soft medium-sized brush, paint over mid-tone become quite strongly defined. When you are happy with the work
and darker areas of the face and hands to emphasise those areas. you’ve done, we can move on to the final stages.
There is an additional step we’ve added that is not necessarily With your ‘high pass’ layer active, go to Image > Adjustments >
27 28
part of the standard Dragan Effect procedure, but we feel it is Shadows/Highlights. Here you can fine-tune the effect of shadow and
useful for further enhancement of the look we’ve established. highlight areas on your image.
In the Shadows panel, a small 15% Amount value will lift shadows, An Amount of 15% in the Highlights panel will try to pull any highlights
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making sure they are not solid black and lacking in detail. Tonal down from bright white, bringing detail back into the brightest areas,
Width is 20% and Radius is 25 px. providing the highlights aren’t completely blown out. Tonal Width is 40% and
the Radius is set to 20 px.

There is always room for a few more tweaks. Go to Filter > Sharpen An Amount of 25% and Radius of 25 pixels and Threshold of 0%
31 32
> Unsharp Mask, where you can add extra sharpness to the image will suffice. Go to Image > Adjustments > Vibrance and set the
and also boost the Dodge and Burn effect you started in step 18. Vibrance to -55 and Saturation at 0% to bring the overall vibrancy down still
further. Your Dragan effect is complete.
Create portraits
with drama
A creative effect for eye-catching photos.

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS LONG EXPOSURE EFFECT
AFTER
Long
Exposure
BEFORE
Effect
We introduce you to Smart This tutorial
content is
Objects and Stack Modes

available for
download
I n the world of photography, the long exposure

shot is a much prized and popular image type.
You cannot go long without seeing a cool shot
softened to a huge degree or tumbling
waterfalls where the splashing motion of the
turbulent water has been captured over a
time. Not everyone has these filters and in
many cases, not all camera types have the
facility to screw lenses or filter holders to
of flowing water, that has been shot over many long period of time to create the familiar misty their lenses. Well, with a little forethought,
seconds to reduce it to a soft and amorphous fog. water effect. To do this ‘in camera’ requires you can achieve a similar look by shooting
Typical amongst these kinds of images are coastal very dark filters to reduce the amount of light a sequence of images and blending them in
photographs where the wave motion has been entering the lens and driving up the exposure Photoshop. We’ll show you how.

LONG EXPOSURE EFFECT PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
We begin with a set of Raw files shot on a Canon 5DMK3. Note: The shots were taken at an aperture of f/22 and ISO 50. This gave
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these are sRaw files, that are a reduced resolution version of a us a shutter speed of 0.5 secs which is only enough to blur the water
standard full resolution Raw file. This is just to keep file sizes down for the slightly. What we need is to simulate an exposure of 5-6 seconds at least.
purpose of these tutorials.
Twelve images of the small waterfall were shot on a tripod to Select all of the images, then right-click on them and select Open in
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avoid camera movement between each image. We will begin by Camera Raw from the menu that appears. This will open ACR and
processing the images in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) first. We have them load all of the images together for processing.
displayed here in Adobe Bridge.

You want all the images to be processed in the same manner. To First, go to the control tabs on the far right of the screen and click
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do this, click on the first image ‘long_exposure_01.CR2’ then press the Lens Corrections tab to display the Lens Corrections tools.
Cmd + A to select all the images.
Click on the Profile tab and make sure the Enable Profile Next, click on the Remove Chromatic Aberration button so it too is
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Corrections button is checked. This will automatically try to assess ticked. This helps remove any colour aberrations caused by the lens
the make and model of the camera and lens that the shots were taken with at the time of shooting. Because all the files are selected, it is applied to
and correct any apparent distortions. them all at once and makes them consistent.

Click on the Basic control tab to display the main controls for We made some fairly simple amendments to the sequence of images
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improving the overall look of your images. You can click on each slider by increasing the Exposure slightly, reducing Whites and Highlights to
and move it back and forth to alter any of the main image editing parameters. recover the brightest image detail as well as increasing Clarity and Vibrance.
One optional image tweak is to go to Lens Corrections > Manual > When you are happy with all the amends and processing you’ve
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Vignetting and altering the Amount and Midpoint sliders to add a soft done to your set of photos, click on the Done button to apply the
vignette to the outer edge of the shots just to draw the eye to the water. changes to your Raw files and exit ACR.

Now you need to get these processed Raw images into Photoshop. Those selected files will now be opened in Photoshop and all twelve
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Back in Adobe Bridge, make sure all the twelve shots are highlighted images will be placed in a new document as a series of layers.
and go to Tools > Photoshop > Load Files Into Photoshop Layers. The topmost layer in the stack is the first image of the sequence and the
bottom layer is the last.
Bear in mind that if this were a series of full sized photos, the file Now you need to select all the images by left-clicking on the top layer
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size of the document would be very large. As it is, the document of to activate it, then scroll down to the bottom image in the stack, hold
twelve stacked 1920 pixel x 2880 pixel images comes to almost 190mb. the Shift key and left-click on it. This will select all twelve images in the stack.

Next, right-click on one of the layer thumbnails in your image At this point you are free to make any adjustments to the smart object
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sequence and choose Convert To Smart Object from the menu that to alter exposure, contrast or saturation by clicking on the Create New
appears. This will combine all the images into one object that you can now Fill Or Adjustment Layer button.
start to edit non-destructively.
You can, for instance, add a Levels adjustment above your Smart Click on the ‘long_exposure_01’ layer to make sure it is active, then
19 20
Object layer and alter the levels of the image sequence. When you go to Layer > Smart Objects > Stack Mode > Mean.
have the result how you like it, you can proceed to the blending of the images.
Depending on how many images are present within your particular The image will now display the averaged blend of pixels in the twelve
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Smart Object, Photoshop will begin to blend all the shots together. images. In this case, the white foam of the water has been merged
The Mean mode will average all the pixels present in the images and merge using all twelve sets of data, to create an image with the illusion of a long
the result into a single image. exposure effect of 6 seconds.

If you look closely, you will see the effect is very convincing. The If you want, you can edit your Smart Object. Double-click on the
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casual observer, not knowing the process used, would happily Smart Object thumbnail and a new temporary document will open.
accept this as a long exposure photograph. Note that it has a PSB file extension. This is a large document version of
the standard PSD file.
In this document you will see all your original twelve images stacked You can close the PSB document and when it asks you, hit the Save
25 26
as they were prior to being converted to a Smart Object. You button to commit the changes. The PSB will close and your current
could, for instance, make half of the images invisible to alter the look of the Smart Object will recompute the Stack Mode and update the resulting image.
finished merged result.

With half of the images turned off, the image is now a pseudo 3 You have made your first long exposure effect image, using a stacked
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second long exposure. Bear in mind that all the images in the stack set of shorter exposure duration originals. Now it’s up to your creativity
will need to be different. If you have one shot and duplicate it, it won’t work. to shoot more image sequences and see the magical results in Stack Mode.
Work smart
with blending
A stack of potential for new image effects.

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS DECORATIVE BORDERS
Decorative
Borders
AFTER
BEFORE
Add a little sparkle to your

favourite photos
W hether you’re making your own Christmas cards using family
photos, or you just want to immortalise a beloved pet, adding
a fun decorative border to an image lets it stand out from the crowd.
This simple tutorial shows you how to create a custom brush that you This tutorial
can use to adorn your favourite photos and create an arty border that content is
sets off your photo beautifully. We will use this image of a young Sheltie available for
called Willow, and take that idea and add a border that suits the shot. download

DECORATIVE BORDERS PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
We need to start by defining a custom Make the new document 150 pixels wide Press Cmd + 0 to fill the screen. Press B
01 02 03
brush rest that we can use on the by 150 pixels high. Click OK when you are to activate your Brush Tool and choose
photograph. Go to File > New (Cmd + N) to create ready to proceed. a small 10 pixel brush and make sure the
a new document. Foreground Colour is black.
For a classic dog bone shape, start with Use the [ key to decrease the size of your Now go to Edit > Define Brush Preset. In
04 05 06
the middle section and add the joint brush if you need to, so you can paint the the dialog box that appears, name your
shapes like you see here. It doesn’t have to be shapes of the joints that stick out from each end preset ‘bone’. Click OK. You can exit this file
super-accurate, just a stylistic representation. of the bone image. without saving if you wish.
Open up your photo. This example is 2000 Click on the Create a new layer button at Go to your toolbar and select the
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pixels wide by 3000 pixels high. Now we the bottom of your layers palette. Name Rectangular Marquee Tool (M). Click and
need to select an area that will eventually become this new layer ‘border’. drag a marquee within the image that describes
the border of the image. the inner edge of the border.

Press Cmd + Shift + I to invert the selection. Your selection should now Go to Edit > Fill (Shift + F5) and make the Contents colour white.
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appear to mark out a border that runs around the outside of the image. Click OK when you are ready to fill the marquee selection with white.
The ‘border’ layer is now filled with white and you have the basic Next, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and choose a Radius of
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shape of the border. Press Cmd + D to clear the selection. about 25 pixels in the dialog box that appears. Click OK when you are
ready to blur the border.
Select your Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) again and click and drag With the selection still active, click the Path tab on your Layers Palette
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a marquee that sits halfway between the inner and outer edge of and then click on the Make work path from selection button.
the white border you’ve created.

A Work Path layer will appear in the Path palette. This is a Make sure that the Work Path is still active and then go to your toolbar
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temporary layer that defines a shape. In this case, a rectangle. and select your Brush Tool (B).
In the brush menu at the top of the screen, select your brush We need to add a randomness to the application of the bone shape.
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preset ‘bone’, that you defined earlier, from the drop down list. Click on the Brush panel button to open the properties dialog box.
Check the Shape Dynamics button and make Size Jitter and Next check the Scattering button. Make Scatter about 330% (Both
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Angle Jitter both 25%. Make the Roundness Jitter and Minimum Axes button checked). Count stays at 1 and Count Jitter at 0%.
Roundness both also about 25%.

Click on the Brush Tip Shape button and adjust the spacing. The Make sure that your Foreground colour is set to white. We want
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preview panel will show you how your bone pattern is looking. our bones to be white in this case. Make sure your Work Path is
Adjust the settings to suit. We’ve made Spacing about 25%. still active.
At the bottom of the Paths palette, click on the Stroke path with brush If you want, you can click the button again and another set of bones
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button. Your bone brush will be painted along the Work Path outline. will be painted along that outline. Press Alt + Cmd + Z to back up and
try again with a new random pattern.
Back in your Layers Palette, click on the Layers tab. Double-click Click Bevel and Emboss. Choose Inner Bevel and make the Depth
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the ‘border’ layer to activate the Layer Style panel. 150% and the Size value about 15 px. Make the Shadow Mode
colour a nice complimentary dark orange/brown.

Also click on the Drop Shadow button and make the Distance So, this pet portrait with a scattering of yummy bones means our
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about 15 px and the Size can be 15 px. Set the the Blend Mode to decorative border is complete.
Multiply and choose another brown shade as its colour.
Get creative
with your photos
Add some fun borders to your favourite photos.

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS PHOTOS AND 3D OBJECTS
AFTER
Photos and
3D Objects
BEFORE
How to add 3D objects to This tutorial

content is
your 2D photos
available for
download
T here may be times when you have a photo

that you may think is incomplete somehow.
There are techniques that allow you to cut out
and perspective, otherwise it will stick out like
a sore thumb. There is an alternative to the
cut out option. Depending on the object, you
objects from other photos and paste them could use a 3D model instead. Photoshop has 3D formats we can use but we’ll stick with a
into your photo. That’s all well and good but the ability to import 3D geometry and let you basic set of shapes in the widely supported
you have to hope that the object you paste in manipulate it in order to make it look like it is Wavefront OBJ format. So let’s see how we can
matches your actual photo in terms of lighting part of your original photo. There are various merge 2D and 3D to give us a finished result.

PHOTOS AND 3D OBJECTS PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
We have created the necessary assets to get you started. Firstly, The image will open in Photoshop. It is a simple image 2400 pixels
01 02
you will need to open Photoshop and then go to File > Open and wide x 3600 pixels high. We will show you how to place a 3D object in
browse to where the assets are. Click on the file called ‘table.jpg’ and then the scene and make it look like it is sitting on the table next to the candles.
click Open to proceed.
The next step is to import the 3D shapes into the document. Go You will be notified that you are about to start working with a 3D
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to File > Place Linked and browse to the file named ‘objects. object and asked you if you want to switch to the 3D workspace.
obj’. Click on the file and then click on the Place button. A dialog box will Click Yes to proceed. This just adds a 3D palette next to your Layers palette.
open. You can just click OK to proceed.

The 3D objects will appear on a layer above your original photo as Don’t worry that the objects have no colour or textures. You can
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grey objects. They are placed on what is called a ground plane use Photoshop to edit their properties a little later in the process.
which is essentially a virtual horizon that can be used to help you match the
perspective of your photo and the objects.
If you click on the 3D tab in the palettes on the top right of the screen, At this point, it is optional, but it might be helpful if you go to View
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you can access the main properties of the 3D layer you have just > Show and turn on the visual aids such as 3D Mesh Bounding
created. It lists the objects and lighting properties currently in the scene. Box and the others in that 3D section. They just help you visualise the 3D
objects better while you work.
ORBIT ROLL PAN SLIDE ZOOM
You also have a secondary view which you can click on and choose While you are in 3D Mode, you will see a number of icons in the
09 10
from a number of additional camera and world views to help you tool option bar. Orbit the 3D Camera allows you to rotate around
when moving the objects around. Now you have to think about how you the object; you can also choose Roll the 3D Camera, Pan the 3D Camera,
actually interact with these objects. Slide the 3D Camera and Zoom the 3D Camera.

The first thing you will do is to choose the Orbit option. Click You can use the Orbit tool to get the basic angle of the objects
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on the Orbit button and then click on the ground plane (not the right compared to the photo beneath them in order to match its
objects). You will see that your cursor has changed to the Orbit icon, you perspective. Moving the horizon line of the ground plane around to match
can now drag the cursor around and the view will move. the horizon of the photo is a good place to start.
Then you can use the Zoom tool to scale your objects to the size You can use the various 3D Mode cameras to get your size and
13 14
you want them to be in the final image. Click on the Zoom tool position just how you want it so the objects now appear to be
then click and drag on the ground plane and the objects will scale larger placed on the table next to the candles. You can go back at any time and
or smaller as you drag. alter this if you need to.
Now you need to think about the light in your scene and how the If you click on the Infinite Light 1 icon, the light widget will appear.
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objects need to be lit as well. By default a single Infinite Light is added You can click and drag on the widget and rotate the angle the light
to the scene. You will see its icon at the top of the screen above your image. is coming from. As you do you will see the shadows move.

SCALE ROTATE MOVE
You need to place the Infinite Light 1 to match the light coming Now that the objects are placed and lit, you might want to interact
17 18
from the window in the photo. Rotate the widget until you see with each one individually. If you click on one object, you can call up
shadows falling away from the window. Don’t worry if the shadows seem the Move, Rotate and Scale widget for the object.
to fall beyond the table. You can fix that later.
You can move, rotate and scale each object along each of the three For our purposes, the objects are fine as they are. Now you can add
19 20
axes X, Y and Z by clicking on the appropriate control in the widget extra finesse to the scene’s lighting. If you right-click on the ground
and dragging the mouse. You can also scale the object in proportion by plane, you can call up a properties dialog box. Click on the Environment tab
clicking and dragging on the white square at the centre of the widget. to view its properties.
Under the section marked IBL (Image Based Lighting), make sure its Browse to the ‘tabletop.jpg’ image we have prepared. It is a 360°
21 22
button is checked then click on the IBL Map chooser icon. A menu view of the room in which our original image was created. Click on it
will appear. Click on the Replace Texture option. This will let you replace the and then click Open to proceed.
default image that is used to help light the scene.

The default IBL will be replaced with the ‘tabletop.jpg’. Set its intensity The ‘tabletop.jpg’ IBL now adds some additional light to the scene
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to 55% and make shadow softness about 10%. Then set Ground but its real party trick won’t be apparent just yet. We’ve also added
Plane Opacity to about 85% and Reflections Opacity to about 65%. a reflection. Again, don’t worry if the reflections run off the table surface.
You can sort those things out later.
Under your 3D palette, if you click on the Environment tab, We’ve rotated the ‘tabletop.jpg’ image to roughly have the windows
25 26
a small widget will appear that lets you view a spherical match the same position as the 2D original. We also clicked on the
representation of the ‘tabletop.jpg’. Like the Infinite Light 1 widget, you Infinite Light 1 icon again, and under its Properties, set the Shadow Softness
can click and drag the widget to rotate the view. to about 10%.
Now you can start to think about textures for your objects. Under In its Properties panel, you will see a number of Materials options.
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the 3D palette you’ll see the reference to white_wine_glass. Under These all affect how the object will react to light, how shiny or rough
that will be the a material reference called ‘Glass’. Click on this and you will its surface is, and if it is opaque or not. You can also add new textures to the
highlight the wine glass shaped object. object from the Materials chooser.

If you click on the Materials chooser, a menu will appear listing various If you start adjusting parameters such as Shine and Reflection, you will
29 30
ready made textures you can apply. We selected the Metal Brass see the ‘tabletop.jpg’ image reflected in its surface. This gives some
(Solid) option. These materials will be applied to the wine glass shape. added realism to objects as they appear to be set within this environment.
If you click on either the sphere or the cube next in the 3D palette, From the Materials chooser, we have selected Wood Cork as our
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you will see their default materials reference. Click on it and you can material. We set the Shine to 77% and the Reflection to 55%. It
alter their materials just as you did with the wine glass shape. looked a little to bumpy, so we altered the Bump value from 40% down to
5%. This made it look more like mottled metal.

At this point, if you want, you can do a quick render of the image to It renders the scene in a number of passes but you only need to see a
33 34
see how it’s looking. At the bottom of the 3D layer palette, you will see couple to get an idea of how it is looking. You can hit ESC to stop the
some layer options. Click on the Render button and Photoshop will start a render at any time if you wish.
full render of the objects.
The ‘tabletop.jpg’ IBL image is a bit too intense, so right-click on In the same way you altered the materials of the objects, you can
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the ground plane (not the objects) and set the IBL intensity to 20%. also edit their colours. With an object selected, you can change
At the bottom of the dialog box, you’ll see a Resume Render button. If you the Diffuse (base colour) and Specular (highlight colours) by choosing new
click it, you can see the changes you just made. colours from the Colour Picker.

So, you should have things just about how you want them. The When the render is complete, click on your Layers palette tab and then
37 38
objects positioned correctly, the lighting and reflections working, right-click the ‘objects’ 3D layer and choose Rasterize 3D from the
so it’s time to let it render out. Click on the Render button again and let menu. This will convert the 3D objects into a 2D image like the photo below it.
Photoshop do the rest.
The top ‘objects’ layer needs some masking. With this layer active, Make sure the ‘objects’ layer mask thumbnail is active, then go to your
39 40
go to the layer options panel and choose Add Layer Mask. This will Toolbar and choose the Brush Tool (B). Make sure your Foreground
add a mask to the ‘objects’ layer. Colour is black and choose a soft round brush of about 185 pixels.

Now it’s a case of brushing black on the layer mask in the areas With that, you have a completed image. An original 2D photo and
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you don’t want parts of the reflections to be seen. All the unwanted some 3D objects have been merged together to create a final image.
reflections below the table’s surface can be masked out.
Working with
3D objects
Add an extra dimension to your images.

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS SELECTIVE COLOUR
Selective
Colour
AFTER
BEFORE
Converting to black and white but

keeping a little splash of colour
I t is quite popular to convert your images to black and
white, but then to return part of the image to its original
colour. This is done to create a small splash of colour that
is instantly picked out of its surroundings to draw the eye This tutorial
to that point. It is a simple and fun way to enhance your content is
black and white images. We show you how it’s done in this available for
simple tutorial. download

SELECTIVE COLOUR PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
First of all, you will need a colour original. We have used a shot of Create a duplicate image by pressing Cmd + J and name it ‘mono’.
01 02
some coloured pencils on a neutral background. We have a great Select that duplicate and go to Image > Adjustments > Black & White.
range of colours that should convert to black and white with no issue.
We have now completed our conversion to mono. We’ve brought You now have the newly created black and white copy ‘mono’ as your
03 04
out a lot of mid-tone detail and added some contrast to make the top layer, and your colour original on the layer below.
image quite punchy, but keeping a good range of tones.
Make sure the ‘mono’ layer is active and go to the toolbar and You can draw in a free form fashion using the Lasso Tool as if you
05 06
choose the Lasso Tool (L). We will be using this tool to define an were drawing with a pencil. If you prefer, you can use the Polygonal
area of the image that will reappear in colour. Lasso Tool which draws in a series of connected straight lines by clicking on
the image on a point-to-point basis.

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS SELECTIVE COLOUR
Whatever your preferred selection method, select the main body of Now, Go to the content menu at the top left of the screen and choose
07 08
one pencil. When you have drawn around an area and join up the Add to selection. Your cursor will now have a small + symbol, indicating
selection, you will see the marching ants appear. it will now be able to add another selection to the one you have already.
Using the method from step 6, add the pencil tip to the selection. Now we can create a mask. With the ‘mono’ layer active, go to the
09 10
Again, when you join up the tip selection, marching ants will show bottom of your layers palette and click on the Add layer mask button.
you now have the pencil body and tip selected. A layer mask will be added to the ‘mono’ layer in the shape of your selection.
The mask needs to be white, with the actual selection filled in If you Alt + left-click on the layer mask, you can view the mask in
11 12
black. If it is the other way around, just press Cmd + I to invert the isolation. Press Alt + left-click on the mask thumbnail again to go
colours of the mask. The mask on the ‘mono’ layer is allowing part of the back to your main view.
coloured original to show through.

SELECTIVE COLOUR PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
Click on the layer mask thumbnail to make sure it is active and There is your black and white image with a splash of colour. Now you
13 14
then click on the properties panel and add a small amount of know how to do it. How about converting more favourite images to
feather to the mask. About 2-3 pixels is enough to soften the hard edges mono and finding a colourful point of interest to ‘pop’ out of your shot.
of the mask.
A great way to
make colour ‘pop’
Black and white with a cool splash of colour.

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS STYLISED PORTRAITS
AFTER
Stylised BEFORE
Portraits
This is how you take a portrait to a
whole new level
This tutorial
content is
T ransforming a portrait into an abstract
image is a fairly easy task but it gives
fantastic results that can elevate a simple
brushes to use but if you wish, you can download
great examples from places like www.deviantart.
com and www.brushlovers.com. Just one word of
available for
download
headshot into a piece of surreal art. The caution: you will be producing a document with
process requires the use of multiple images many layers, which means large file sizes. If needs
and layers of Photoshop brush effects. We be, you can always reduce the size of your initial
will show you how to create your own simple image to try and keep the file size down a bit.

STYLISED PORTRAITS PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
You need to get your base images prepared first. Open the file Go to the toolbar and select the Brush Tool (B). You need to make
01 02
‘portrait.jpg’. It’s a simple portrait of model Courtney with dramatic sure you have your foreground colour set to black and use a large,
lighting and strong, saturated colours. This is an ideal kind of image to turn soft brush of about 700 pixels to brush around Courtney’s head and paint out
into a more surreal image. all of the background detail behind her.
When you have done this, go to File > Save As (Shift + Cmd + S) and Keep ‘portrait vignette.jpg’ open. Go to Image > Adjustments > Black
03 04
save this version as ‘portrait vignette.jpg’. This new image can also be & White (Shift + Alt + Cmd + B) to convert it to black and white.
used to create an additional image next.

Next, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to about Go to File > Save As and make sure you save this image as a PSD
05 06
15 pixels. This monotone image will be used later in the process. file named ‘displacement.psd’. This is important as it needs to be a
PSD document when used later in the process.
So, as well as our original image, you currently have a base image Go to File > New (Cmd + N) and create a new document 1000
07 08
called ‘portrait vignette.jpg’ and a Photoshop document named pixels square. Make sure the Background Contents option is set to
‘displacement.psd’. Next you need to create some brushes. Transparent. Press Create when you are ready to proceed.
This blank document will be used to make a bespoke brush. Go to Choose a brush size of about 50 pixels and set the Hardness to
09 10
the toolbar and select the Brush Tool (B). Make sure your Foreground 100%. You’ll need a brush with a well defined, sharp-edged pattern
colour for the brush is set as black. for the portrait to work well.

Now you can create a pattern by using your brush and painting a When you have a pattern that you like, go to Edit > Define Brush
11 12
random series of strokes. The pattern is entirely up to you. Just make Preset. Here, you can name your brush. In our case, we’ve called it
sure the pattern has plenty of blank areas. Don’t make the strokes too dense. ‘squiggle 1’. Hit OK to continue.
We also created a second brush preset that uses thinner lines and Got to File > Open and browse to where you saved the jpeg file
13 14
we saved this preset with the name ‘squiggle 2’. Once the preset is named ‘portrait vignette.jpg’ just now and open it.
saved, that document can be closed and it doesn’t have to be saved.
Click on the Create A New Layer button at the bottom of the layers Make sure the Foreground colour is still black. Go to the Toolbar
15 16
palette. This will place a new layer called ‘Layer 1’ above the base and choose the Brush Tool (B). From the Tool Option bar at the top
image. Make sure ‘Layer 1’ is active. of the screen, click on the Brush Preset picker where you can view all the
brushes you have available.

At the bottom of this list, should be the brushes you created Now the process starts. Choose a brush size of about 400 pixels
17 18
previously. Click on one of these brushes to make it active. and click once on ‘Layer 1’ to place a single black brush mark that
covers a portion of the portrait.
Create a new layer (it will automatically be called ‘Layer 2’) and Create yet another layer and place another single brush mark on
19 20
place another single brush mark on the image, covering another that layer. At any time, you can click on the Brush Palette button
portion of the model’s face. It is fine to let the brush marks overlap. and alter the angle of the brush for a little variety.

Keep adding layer after layer, each with a single brush mark, until you Next, click on the original background layer of Courtney’s portrait and
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have covered the entire face of the subject. In our case, we created press Cmd + J to create a duplicate layer. Name this layer ‘face’.
30 layers to give us the coverage we needed, but left plenty of gaps too.
Left-click, hold the mouse button down and drag the ‘face’ layer so Once in its new position, duplicate the ‘face’ layer and drag this
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it sits between ‘layer 1’ and ‘layer 2’. Let the mouse button go and copy (which will be automatically named ‘face copy’) so it sits
it will be placed between those two layers. between ‘layer 2’ and ‘layer 3’.
Keep duplicating the image of Courtney’s face and placing it Starting at the top of the layer stack. Right-click on the uppermost
25 26
between each brush layer you’ve created, until the last copy of her image of our subject (‘face copy 29’ in our case) and choose
face is placed above ‘layer 30’ as seen in our example. Essentially, each Create Clipping Mask from the dropdown menu. A small arrow on the
brush layer has one copy of the ‘face’ layer above it. thumbnail indicates it is clipped to the brush layer below it.

Work your way down the layer stack and clip each portrait image to When you get back down to the ‘face’ layer, which is clipped to
27 28
the brush layer that is directly beneath it in the stack. ‘Layer 1’ in our example, if you turn the Background layer off for
the time being, you will see that Courtney’s face only appears wherever a
brush mark appears.
The next part of the process is optional and down to personal We spent ten minutes adjusting each brush layer until we had more
29 30
preference but now that you can see the effect of brushes on the even coverage and a few more open gaps in the image as well.
portrait, you can click on each brush layer and move, scale and rotate each
one until you have it how you like it.
Now you can add some drop shadows to the brush-marks to help In the Styles list, select Drop Shadow and enter values for Blend
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them stand out. Double-click on the topmost brush layer (‘Layer 30’ Mode, Opacity, Angle, Distance and Spread as shown here.
in our case) to call up the Layer Style menu.

The brush layer will now have a small drop shadow and the layer There is a quick way of doing this. Hold down the Alt key on the
33 34
thumbnail will have a small ‘fx’ symbol to show that a style has been keyboard and click and drag the ‘fx’ symbol to the next brush
applied to it. We now need to add the same style to all the brush layers. layer in the stack beneath it. Make sure you are just dragging the ‘fx’
symbol and not the entire layer.
When you release the symbol over the next brush layer, the drop Repeat the click and drag procedure of the ‘fx’ symbol for each brush
35 36
shadow settings you created will be automatically applied to the layer until they all have a drop shadow layer style added to them.
next layer. A new ‘fx’ symbol will appear on that layer.
Now you can return to the Background image and make it visible With black as the base to all the brush layers, Courtney’s face now
37 38
again. Whilst this layer is active, go to Edit > Fill (Shift + F5) and fill appears like a pattern of strands all interlinked.
either the background image, or if you prefer, a new layer with 100% black.

Scroll up the layer stack to the very top layer and press Shift + Alt The next part of the process uses the ‘displacement.psd’ file you
39 40
+ Cmd + E to create a new layer that is a merged version of all created at the start of this tutorial.
currently visible layers. Call this new layer ‘merged’.
With the ‘merged’ layer active, go to Filter > Distort > Displace and The blurred black and white Photoshop document you created will
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click OK for the default settings for displacement. Now browse to the be used to subtly warp the image to make it look a little more like
location where you saved the ‘displacement.psd’ file and click open. the strand patterns are wrapping around the colours of her face.

That is the portrait finished but now that you’ve got the main idea of As we had created a second squiggle pattern, we also had a go
43 44
how it works, why not try different brush patterns? We did another with that one, using a much smaller, denser pattern for this attempt.
version using floral scroll patterns for another surreal look. If you have some brush patterns in your Photoshop presets library, now
would be a good time to dust them off and see what you can achieve.
The new face

of portraiture
Next level portraits with this surreal technique.

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS HOW TO MAKE IT RAIN
How to
AFTER
Make
it Rain BEFORE
Add mood and drama to This tutorial

content is
your images
available for
download
R ain is great, as long as you’re not caught

out in it without your umbrella. It is
certainly a staple of cinema to add a more
In this tutorial we are going to show you how
you can make your own rain and take your
images to a different level. As an homage to
brooding feel to a shot. If you’ve ever seen the graphic style of Bladerunner, we have an
films like Seven and the Ridley Scott sci-fi image in a similar vein. All we need to do is
classic Bladerunner, you can see that rain is add some weather to really give it a brooding creature depicted in the image, who is just
treated almost like a character in its own right. and dramatic feel that adds to the plight of the trying to get home.

HOW TO MAKE IT RAIN PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
Open Photoshop and go to File > Open (Cmd + O). Navigate to Our example image is 2560 pixels wide x 3840 pixels high. Things
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where the ‘rain.jpg’ image is and double-click it to open it. A new such as our brush sizes are based on an image this size. If you’re
document will open with the base image as the background. using a different sized image, you can adjust your values accordingly.
From the layer options bar, choose Create A New Layer. A new layer With the ‘rain sharp’ layer active, go to Edit > Fill (Shift + F5) and
03 04
will appear above the background. Name this layer ‘rain sharp’. This fill the layer with solid black. Click OK and the ‘rain sharp’ layer will
will be one of two layers that is the basis for our rain effect. turn black, obscuring your base image for the moment.

Next, go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. The Add Noise dialog panel This noise is the raw material for our rain. Next, go to Filter > Blur >
05 06
will appear. Set the Amount value to 400 per cent. Make sure Gaussian Blur. Make the Radius value about 2 pixels, just enough to
Distribution is set to Gaussian and the Monochromatic button is checked. take the sharpness of the noise out of the image. Click OK to proceed.
Click OK and the noise will be added.
Obviously, what we have at the moment doesn’t look very much like To create rain particles, we need to dramatically alter the contrast
07 08
rain. The next few steps will remedy that. Go to Image > Adjustments of the noise layer. Click on the Shadows slider on the left and drag
> Levels (Cmd + L) to call up the Levels Adjustment dialog panel. it towards the middle. Then drag the Highlights slider on the right and drag
that one towards the middle.

The amount of white areas on the ‘rain sharp’ layer will diminish, Now we need to simulate movement. Go to Filter > Blur > Motion
09 10
leaving a random scattering of white spots. The position of the Blur. In the Motion Blur dialog panel, make the Angle -90° and
levels sliders will dictate how much, or how little, is visible. Click OK the Distance about 65 pixels. This will blur the white particles vertically to
when you are happy with the pattern of spots. depict pouring rain and imparting a sense of motion.
Next, set the ‘rain sharp’ layer Blend Mode to Screen. Any black Keep the ‘rain sharp’ layer active and press Cmd + T to activate the
11 12
areas will disappear, leaving just the white rain drops. You may notice Free Transform Tool. In the tool options panel, set the horizontal and
brighter pixels at the top and bottom of the screen. We can eliminate those in vertical scale to 105 per cent. Click on the Commit Transform button or hit
the next part of the process. Enter and the layer will scale up slightly.
If you want the rain on the ‘rain sharp’ layer to be a bit brighter, As you do so, the highlights will get brighter. Adjust until you have
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go to Image > Adjustments > Levels (Cmd + L) and bring the the rain brightness as you like it. Click OK to proceed.
Highlights slider across from the right towards the left.

At the moment, the rain is a little too white and doesn’t match the Click the Colourise button first, then make Hue 35 and Saturation
15 16
scene. If you go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Cmd + 25, but keep Lightness at 0. This will colour the rain, adding a
U), you can open the Hue/Saturation dialog panel and add a colour cast more yellow tinge so it blends better with the colours already present in
to the rain so it matches the scene. the image. Click OK to proceed.
Press Cmd + J to create a duplicate of the ‘rain sharp’ layer and name This time, set the horizontal and vertical scale to 200 per cent and
17 18
this ‘rain blur’. Click on this new layer to make it active and press Cmd click on the Commit Transform button. To give a little sense of
+ T to activate the Free Transform Tool again. depth, this new layer can be blurred a little.
Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to about 10 Click back on the ‘rain sharp’ layer to make it active, then click on
19 20
pixels to blur the rain on this layer. Now that we have our two layers the Add New Layer button. A mask will be added to the layer.
how we want them, we can add some masking to make the downpour
look a little less regimented.

Go to the Toolbar and select the Brush Tool (B), make sure the Click on the ‘rain sharp’ layer mask thumbnail to make sure it is
21 22
foreground colour is set to black, then make your brush size about the mask that is active, then begin to paint with your black brush in
800 pixels. Then set the Opacity to about 50 per cent. random areas on the mask. As you do so, those areas will reduce in opacity.
If you Alt + left-click the layer mask thumbnail, you can see the actual You can repeat the same procedure on the ‘rain blur’ layer as well, to
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brush strokes you’ve applied. We’ve done certain areas that keep the break up the pattern of rain. We’ve made sure the road at the bottom
alien’s face clear of rain and a few other random spots. Alt + left-click again of the image is relatively clear for a little trick we can show you next.
to resume normal viewing.
To make it even more visually pleasing, it would be nice to indicate Go to the toolbar and use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select an
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that the road surface at the bottom of the shot is wet with rain. To do area that starts on the leftmost side of the image at the point where
this, click back on the ‘Background’ layer to make it active. Then go to the the pavement meets the road, then drag the marquee up to the rightmost
Toolbar and select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M). side of the image, level with the alien’s head.

With this selection active, press Cmd + C to copy the selected area, To make the reflection work, we need to go to Edit > Transform > Flip
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then press Cmd + V to paste it. It will appear on a new layer of its own Vertical which will turn the selected area into a vertical mirror image.
above the ‘Background’ layer. Name this new layer ‘reflection’. Use the Move Tool (V) and drag down until it aligns with the ‘Background’
image to create the reflection.
At the moment the reflection is too mirror perfect. Keep the Now the reflection has a more rain-splashed look to it. Set the
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‘reflection’ layer active and go to Filter > Distort > Ocean Ripple. ‘reflection’ layer blend Mode to Lighten to allow parts of the road
Make the Ripple Size about 15 and the Ripple Magnitude about 8. Click image beneath to show through.
OK to apply the ripples.

Go to the Toolbar and choose the Eraser Tool (E) and use a 500-700 Click on the Create A New Layer button once more. Make sure it is at
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pixel brush to erase the top edge of the reflection and the bottom the top of the layer stack and name this layer ‘blue glow’. Select a 300
so it doesn’t dominate the scene too much. Now you have just a subtle pixel soft white brush and make sure the brush’s Opacity is 100%.
indication of a wet road.
Begin to dab white on the blue lights of the hovering drone and the Next, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Cmd + U)
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blue monitor screen above the alien’s head. When done, set the to call up the Hue/Saturation dialog panel. Check the Colourise
‘blue glow’ layer Blend Mode to Linear Light. button, then make Hue 190, Saturation 30 and Lightness -40. This will give
you a blue glow. Click OK to proceed.

Now we need to create another new layer called ‘yellow glow’ and Set the ‘yellow glow’ Blend Mode to Linear Light as well and the go to
35 36
use your white soft brush again to dab points of light over any of the Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Cmd + U). Click the Colourise
lit objects such as the car’s headlight and the neon signage and windows button and make Hue 30, Saturation 30 and Lightness -35.
dotted around the image.
This gives the remaining lit areas a yellow/orange glow. If you think Now we can add a little more punch to the image. Click on the
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the glow is a bit too well defined, you can always use Gaussian Blur Create New Adjustment Layer button and choose Photo Filter
to soften the light if you need to. from the menu. Make sure Photo Filter 1 is at the top of the layer stack.

Make the Filter type Warming Filter (85). Set Density to 100 per cent Set the Photo Filter 1 layer’s Blend Mode to Overlay and then make
39 40
and check the Preserve Luminosity button. The entire image will go an its Opacity about 30 per cent. This adds a general colour cast to the
orange colour but we can take care of that. image to tie it all together and adds a little contrast too. With that, your rain
making skills are complete.
Bring on
the rain
A great method to douse your image with drama.

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS DIGITAL MAKEUP EFFECTS
AFTER
Digital
Makeup BEFORE
Effects This tutorial

content is
available for
Photoshop takes you from digital download
artist to makeup artist

I f you are new to photography or just working on a
budget and you want to do a portrait session, one
consideration apart from which model you use and what
cheap. Well, if you should ever need it, there is an option
provided by Photoshop that can allow you, in a more
modest way admittedly, to apply makeup of your own
clothing will be needed is that of makeup. Makeup is a choosing after the fact. Your shots will be better served
fine skill and if you want a full-on high fashion look for if your model has no makeup applied save the usual
your models, then a hair and makeup artist is essential. foundation and eyeliner perhaps. Other than that, you will
The downside is that a good makeup artist won’t be have a blank canvas to work on.

DIGITAL MAKEUP EFFECTS PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
We have a photo of Sarah-Jane, who was involved in a portrait shoot The process begins with a basic clean up of any minor blemishes on
01 02
for us a little while ago. We took some reference shots before the the skin. Go to your toolbar and select the Spot Healing Brush Tool (J)
makeup was applied. It is this shot we can enhance with virtual makeup. and make sure the Type is set as Content-Aware in the Tool Options panel.
A small round, medium hard brush of about 30 pixels is all you The process we will use here is called frequency separation and is
03 04
need. Just click your brush on any blemishes and the area will be a great way to retouch skin. It separates the original photo into two
healed with pixels of similar colour and content. It need not be perfect as images: a ’blur’ layer which contains just basic colour and a ‘high pass’
you will be doing more to it later. layer which is just detail and no colour.

Press Cmd + J twice to create two additional copies of the original Click the ‘blur’ layer to make it active, then go to Filter > Blur >
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image. Name the topmost layer ‘high pass’ and the layer below that Gaussian Blur. Depending on the size of your image, you will need
‘blur’. For the moment, make the ‘high pass’ layer invisible. to set the Radius to a value that removes any sharp detail but keeps all of
the image’s main colours intact.
Next, make the ‘high pass’ layer visible and active. Go to Image > Make sure that Layer is set as ‘blur’ and Channel stays as RGB.
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Apply Image and the Apply Image panel will open. Check the Invert box and set the Blending mode to Add. Scale
needs to be 2. You will see that the ‘high pass’ layer now looks a bit like a
flat grey image. Click OK.

With the ‘high pass’ layer still active, go to Image > Adjustments > Next, you will need to set the Blend Mode of the ‘high pass’
09 10
Desaturate (Shift + Cmd + U) to remove any colour from the image. layer to Linear Light. When you do, the document should appear
completely normal once again.
The detail contained in the grey ’high pass’ layer is being blended Keep ‘high pass’ as your active layer and go to the toolbar and select
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into the colours of the ‘blur’ image below. In combination, this now the Clone Stamp Tool (S). Choose a soft brush of about 80 pixels and
appears as a normal image but you have separated the colour from the detail. make sure that Sample is set to Current Layer.

What you can do now is Alt + left-click on an area of clean skin to The next part of the technique is down to personal preference. Go
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sample that area and use it to clone over any nearby areas that need to the Toolbar and select the Lasso Tool (L). Keep the ‘high pass’
a little bit of a clean up. Watch out for repeating patterns. The trick here is to layer active and draw a complete selection that outlines her entire face.
keep it nice and random.
Hold the Alt key down and a small minus symbol will appear next Go to Select > Modify > Feather (Shift + F6) and choose a Feather
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to the Lasso Tool cursor. Now you can subtract areas from the Radius of 20-30 pixels. This will soften the hard edge of the selection
selection. Draw around the eyes, nostrils, eyebrows and lips to remove you’ve made and help blend the effect into the ‘high pass’ layer.
them from the selection of her face.

With the selection on the ‘high pass’ layer active, go to Filter > Filter Set the Texture type to Sandstone, Scaling can be 100 per cent
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Gallery. Choose Texturiser from the Texture list of available filters. and Relief 2. To match the lighting in the image, set the Light to Top
Right. This adds a subtle pore-like texture to your ‘high pass’ layer. Click
OK when you’re ready to move on.
We have our clean base image. If you press Shift + Alt + Cmd + E, Create a new layer and make sure it is at the top of the layer stack.
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you will create a new layer that contains a merged version of all the Name this layer ‘eyes’. Go to the toolbar and select the Brush Tool
layers below it in the layer stack. Name this layer ‘base’. Now it is time for the (B) and make it about 70 pixels. Set the Foreground Colour to black (D).
application of our digital makeup.
Begin to paint around the area of the eyes where you want your If you go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and make the Amount about
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eyeshadow to appear. Don’t worry about being accurate at this 40 per cent, it will add a simple glitter effect to the eyeshadow. Click
point. Just make sure you have painted black wherever you need it. OK when you are ready to proceed.

Set the ‘eyes’ layer Blend Mode to Overlay and the black areas you Click on the Layer Mask thumbnail to make the mask active and take
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have just painted will be blended into the facial features. Next, add a an 80 pixel soft black brush and paint areas of black on the mask
layer mask to the ‘eyes’ layer. This will let us clean up the eyeshadow areas. where you want the eyeshadow removed.
From the Layer Mask Properties panel set the Feather value to Now create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Right-click this
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about 40-50 pixels. This will soften the mask and help to blend the new layer and select Create clipping Mask from the menu. This will
eyeshadow into the photo a little better. mean the ‘Hue/Saturation 1’ layer only affects the ‘eyes’ layer below.
Adjust the Hue/Saturation properties by checking the Colourise Now create a new layer called ‘lips’ and as you did with the eyes,
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button and then make the Hue value 250 and Saturation 40. This paint black around her lips. Again, it doesn’t have to be super
will colour the eyeshadow and make it red/purple. accurate as you will be adding a mask in a moment.

As you did for the eyes, apply the Add Noise filter but make the value Add a mask to the ‘lips’ layer and use a soft black brush of about
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about 20 per cent. Then set the ‘lips’ layer Blend Mode to Overlay. 60 pixels on the mask to remove any unwanted areas that appear
Don’t worry if the lips look a little dark. We can sort that out shortly. outside the edge of the lips.
Under the Masks Properties, you can set about 40 pixels to the Click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button and add a new
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Feather value of the mask to soften it a little. Hue/Saturation layer above the ‘lips’ layer. You can clip the Hue/
Saturation 2 layer to the ‘lips’ layer just like you did with her eyes.
Set the Hue and Saturation to similar values that you used on her Create another new layer at the top of the stack. Name this layer
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eyes to match the colour. If the lips look a little dark, boost the ‘cheeks’. We can add a little blusher effect by painting two large
Lightness value by about +15. daubs on each cheek with a large soft 500 pixel brush set at about 40 per
cent opacity and building up the density with each daub.

In the case of the ‘cheeks’ layer, set the layer’s Blend Mode to Soft If you want the blusher to look even more subtle, just change the
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Light. This is a bit more subtle. Then you can add another Hue/ Opacity of the ‘cheeks’ layer to about 75 per cent.
Saturation layer that is clipped to the ‘cheeks’ layer and repeat the values that
you’ve already used before.
One final interesting tweak you can make is to add a slight tint to Once again, click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button
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her hair. Go to your toolbar and select the Lasso Tool (L) and draw a and choose Hue/Saturation. This time, a new Hue/Saturation 4
selection that encompasses all of her hair. layer will be created but it will also have a mask in the shape of your hair
selection. To help the colour blend in, set the Blend Mode to Soft Light.

In the Hue/Saturation Properties panel, click the Colourise button; Next, click the ‘Hue/Saturation 4’ layer mask thumbnail to activate
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then make the Hue value 290, Saturation 20 and Lightness +15. the mask and then make the Feather value about 45 pixels in the
Masks Properties panel. This softens the mask, removing the hard edge.
With the final addition of a Warming Photo Filter, the digital makeover
41
is complete. Because this is all non-destructive, you can go back and
tweak the colours of the hair and makeup to your heart’s content.
A great
digital makeover
Swapping the makeup brush for a Photoshop brush.

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGES
High Dynamic
Range Images
AFTER
BEFORE
This tutorial
content is
available for
download
This tutorial
content is
available for
download
Capture more of the world

as you see it
H DR or High Dynamic Range, is a photographic process that allows
you to combine multiple images of varying exposure to create a final
photo with a much greater tonal range than could be captured in a single
detail in the darker areas of the shot. HDR does have a bit of a
bad reputation as some tend to wildly over process their shots and the
results can be awful. We want to redress the balance and show you a
shot. It requires a series of bracketed shots that vary in brightness. method that can yield great natural looking results. The latest version
Typically, the series runs from one image that is underexposed to of Photoshop can let you easily process your shots in Adobe Camera
reveal detail in the brightest areas of the shot. Then there is one that Raw (ACR) with the additional benefit of being able process multiple
is an average of the scene, then another that is overexposed to reveal exposure sequences at the same time if you wish.

HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGES PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
We have an example set of images that we are going to convert to The images are Raw files. Raw files are essentially unprocessed
01 02
HDR in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). They were taken at Brentor near readouts of the data straight from the camera sensor. Although they
Dartmoor just a few minutes after sunrise. tend to look flat, they contain much more information than you might imagine.
We have our images in Adobe Bridge. The first thing to do is to The images will open in ACR. You will see that they are arranged in
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select the images and then right-click on them and choose Open In a Filmstrip down the left side of your screen.
Camera Raw. This will automatically open all the images in ACR.
If you click on one of your Raw files and then press Cmd + A, you It is important that any amends you make at this stage are all done at
05 06
can select all your images. We are going to make some basic edits the same time and to all the images simultaneously. Otherwise they
before converting them into HDR images. may not match up when combined in an HDR image.

Click on the Lens Corrections tab on the right of the screen. Under Enable Profile Corrections will scan your image data and detect what
07 08
its Profile tab, you have the option to remove any unwanted optical lens was used to take the shots. In our case, a Canon 16-35mm wide
aberrations and distortions caused by the lens by checking Remove angle lens is detected and ACR applies the appropriate corrections.
Chromatic Aberration and Enable Profile Corrections.
Let’s go ahead and convert the photos of the church into an With the three church images highlighted, right-click on them and
09 10
HDR image. Click on hdr 1.CR2 first, then press the Shift key choose Merge To HDR (Alt + M) from the menu that appears.
and click on hdr 3.CR2. You can select multiple images this way.
Adobe Camera Raw will then start the process of merging the When it is done, ACR will present you with an HDR Merge Preview
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three sets of image data into an additional new file that contains a of the photo. There are a couple of options to consider before you
wider range of tonal information than is present in each individual photo. go ahead and press the Merge button.

In the Options section, make sure that Align Images is selected. This There’s also the Auto Tone feature. This will attempt to apply some
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will ensure that the images are matched as precisely as possible to basic adjustments to the HDR image before you start. We are going to
reduce the chances of the HDR failing because of poorly aligned originals. keep this option turned off for this example so we can avoid automation and
get a little more ‘hands on’ with the processing.
Deghost is useful if you have any elements in your images that have You can choose between four options. You can have it turned off if
15 16
moved between shots such as clouds or tree branches waving in nothing in your shot is moving enough to be a concern or you can
the wind. Deghost will attempt to use one reference image to minimise any choose Low, Medium or High Deghosting strengths. We’re leaving it turned
ghosting caused by moving objects. off for the church shots.
When you are ready, you can press the Merge button. You will be The three files will be merged and converted into a new dng file which
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asked to save the Merge Result as a dng file. A dng is Adobe’s own will also be displayed in the filmstrip along with your originals. This file
Raw standard. Type a name for your result and then press Save to continue. is now ready for processing.

Make sure that the merged file is highlighted. In our example it is Under the Basic tab you have all the main adjustment sliders to
19 20
called ‘hdr 1-2-3.dng’. bring out the best in your image. How you process the images
will be down to personal preference but we’ll show you what we did.
We reduced the Highlights value to -75 to bring back detail into the Blacks were also lightened by +15 to help ensure there were as
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sky. The Shadows value was increased to +70 to bring detail back little solid blacks in the image at this point. We also boosted Clarity
into the dark shadow areas by lightening the darkest tones. (Midtone contrast) to +60. Vibrance is +15 and Saturation is +35.
These particular settings we felt brought more detail back into the We wanted to make the sky a little more punchy so we used a
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sky area and revealed more detail in the foreground grass and rocks Graduated Filter (G) from the top menu bar and drew a grad from the
to create a fairly well balanced exposure with nothing lost to bright areas of top left of the image down to the horizon at a slight angle.
overexposure or underexposure.

The starting point of the grad, in green, is where the effect is at its The Graduated Filter settings were as follows: Temperature and Tint
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strongest and the end point in red, is where the effect reduces to zero. were reduced very slightly to add a little more blue to the sky. The
This behaves like a digital version of a tradition filter used on your camera. Exposure was reduced by -2.10 but Highlights were boosted to +23 and
Blacks darkened -19 for a little more contrast.
Clarity was also boosted by +45 and Dehaze +10. The sky is Next we wanted to boost the sunlight glow along the horizon. To do
27 28
now much more punchy at the top of the photo and fades nicely this, we selected the Radial Filter (J) from the top menu bar.
down at the horizon so as not to make the sunrise too dark.
Click on your image where the sun is and draw out an ellipse that Temperature was set at +50 for a warm yellow glow. Tint was
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extends along the horizon. You don’t want this effect to be too +10 to add little more red. Exposure was just +15 as was
extreme so the settings were dialled in appropriately. Highlights. Everything else could be kept at zero.

The next part is a little technique used by a lot of landscape This creates a darkening of the edge of the photo and helps to draw
31 32
photographers to enhance their photos still further. Go to the Lens your eye into the centre of the photo towards the church and the
Corrections tab and under the Manual panel, set the Vignetting Amount to sunrise. It is optional but we’ve always liked this effect.
-25 and the Midpoint value to about 20.
One more adjustment that again is optional and down to personal Under Highlights, we set the Hue to 50 and Saturation to 20.
33 34
taste, is the Split Toning effect. Click on the Split Toning tab to control Shadows Hue was 225 and Saturation 20. Balance was +20 in favour
what colour cast is present in the highlights and shadows of your image. of the Highlights. This makes shadows cooler and highlights warmer.

Back in the Basics tab you can make any final tweaks to your HDR With the HDR image file complete, you can click Done in the bottom
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image. You can then save it out in your preferred format such as Jpeg right of the screen to apply all the adjustments non-destructively to it.
of Tiff. Happily, you’ll always have the dng file to go back to if you want to
make more non-destructive changes.
In Adobe Bridge, you will see the finished new dng file. The image
37
will have a small icon in the top-right of its thumbnail to indicate that
adjustments are present. With that, your HDR image is done.
Pro quality
HDR images
Processing tips for the best tonal range in your images.

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS ENHANCING LANDSCAPES
Enhancing
Landscapes
This tutorial
BEFORE AFTER
content is
available for
download
Bring out the full potential of the

most ordinary looking shots
T here are probably many times when you
have been out and about, looking for
a great landscape to photograph, and you
mode and snap away. Have there been
times that the shots, when reviewed on
your camera’s LCD, don’t quite seem to
comes to landscapes, there is no other
way of saying it: shoot in Raw mode! Raw
files have much greater tolerance to being
have happened upon a scene begging to match up to expectations? Maybe you just heavily processed before the image starts
be immortalised by you and your camera. hit the “Delete All” option on your camera. to break down. This is a feature we can
You set yourself up, put the camera on a With a bit of know-how even some of the use to our advantage in this next tutorial to
tripod, make sure you are shooting in Raw most lacklustre images can shine. When it bring out the best in your photos.

ENHANCING LANDSCAPES PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
We start with an appropriate image that is in need of some work. It From Adobe Bridge, you can right-click on the Raw file and select
01 02
was originally shot as part of an HDR sequence but this is a good Open in Camera Raw from the context menu that appears. The file
example to show how much you can recover from a single Raw file. will open in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) ready for editing.
The image has a dark, underexposed foreground and a fairly well Begin the editing process by correcting any lens distortion that is
03 04
exposed sky. You are going to work on the sky first and get it present in the image. This shot was taken with a 16-35mm wide-
looking as good as it can be. angle lens and some barrel distortion is present.
Go to the Control Tabs on the right, click on Lens Corrections and Under the Basic tab you can use the control sliders to alter the
05 06
turn on Enable Lens Profile Corrections. It can automatically choose exposure, highlights and shadows as well as the colour temperature
the right lens profile and adjust the image accordingly. and saturation. We have made some basic adjustments in order to get a
good exposure in the sky.

Now to add some targeted adjustments with an Adjustment Brush In the Adjustment Brush options panel you can set the colour,
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(K) that you can access from the toolbar in the top left of the screen. exposure and highlights and shadow adjustments that will be
When you click on the Adjustment Brush Tab, a new set of Adjustment Brush applied to the image as you literally paint the adjustment onto your photo.
properties becomes available on the right.
We have set the Temperature to make the sky more yellowy orange You can change the Size, Feather, Flow and Density of the brush by
09 10
to enhance the sunrise. The Exposure has been reduced slightly; altering the sliders. Here you are going to use a soft, medium size
Saturation and clarity have been increased to add punch. brush to make the orange sky stronger near the horizon line.
Start to paint the adjustment over the areas of orange sky and clouds. If you click on the New button, you can add a completely new
11 12
Based on the adjustments that have been set, the sky becomes more Adjustment Brush that is independent of the one just applied.
saturated and the colour temperature makes the sky even more orange. This one can be set to make the sky on the right more blue and punchy.

The Temperature is made much more blue and Exposure is Now you can start to paint with this new Adjustment Brush onto the
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decreased. Clarity and Saturation is also increased to add more depth blue area of clouds and sky.
and contrast to the blue sky area.
One final addition for now will be a Graduated Filter (G) which is All the Graduated Filter properties have been set to neutral to avoid
15 16
accessed from the Toolbar at the top left of the screen. You can use adding any colour shift to the sky. Only the Exposure has been
this to simulate the addition of a graduated filter to darken the top portion of decreased to -0.70 for this part.
the sky like a real life filter would do.
Now you can left-click a point at the top of the photo where you This part is ready to be opened in Photoshop. Rather than just clicking
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want the strongest part of grad to begin and drag down towards on Open Image, press Shift and you have the option to Open Object.
the horizon to define where the grad will fade to nothing. This will open the photo in Photoshop as an editable Smart Object.

The image will be processed according to the adjustments added The Smart Object opens in Photoshop with the adjustments made
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but you will be able to return to ACR at any time to make further to the sky in place. Note the small Smart Object icon in the bottom
edits to the image and return to Photoshop with those new edits in place. right corner of the layer thumbnail. Name this layer ‘sky’.
Now you will need to work on the foreground. You can create another Name this new layer ‘ground’. This object can be edited separately to
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Smart Object and work on that separately to the first one. Right-click the ‘sky’ layer. If you had simply duplicated the layer, any further edits
on the ‘sky’ layer and choose New Smart Object via Copy from the menu. in ACR would be applied to both because it is the same object.
If you double-click the ‘ground’ layer, it will open in ACR and you Click on the Basic menu button and choose Camera Raw Defaults
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can begin to work on the dark foreground. At the moment, all the from the dropdown menu. This removes all adjustments to allow you
edits for the sky are present but they can be removed. to start editing afresh, just for the foreground.

As with the previous sets of adjustments, make sure you apply Now you can start adjusting the basic parameters to get a good
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Lens Correction first. This means both images will line up correctly exposure with the darker foreground. Don’t worry if the sky begins
in Photoshop when you are done editing in ACR. to blow out to overexposure, as our previous Smart Object will take care of
the sky. Just get the ground looking its best.
After tweaking Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, etc. you The ‘ground’ layer will have its Smart Object updated, with the
27 28
can return to Photoshop. This is already a Smart Object and so foreground now correctly exposed based on the edit you just made in
you can just click OK when it is looking the way you want it to. ACR. You now have a ‘sky’ layer and a ‘ground’ layer ready to be combined.
Make sure the ‘ground’ layer is active and go to the toolbar and Choose a hard brush of about 45 pixels and click on the Add to
29 30
click on the Quick Selection Tool (W). You need to make a mask selection option. Start dragging the brush across the dark foreground
that lets the ‘sky’ layer show through. trees and down to the horizon and across the image, including the sea in the
foreground of the photograph.

Make sure you have all the foreground, trees and sea as part of the With the selection active, click the Add Layer Mask button at the
31 32
selection. The ‘marching ants’ will show you the area selected. This bottom of the layers Palette. A mask will be added to the ‘ground’
area will form the basis of your mask. layer in the shape of the Quick Selection you just made.
You should see that the ‘sky’ layer is now showing through the area of If you Alt + left-click on the layer mask, you can view the mask on its
33 34
the mask that is white. The blend of the two layers is a little abrupt, so own. You will see that the tree line is a little ragged and needs a little
we need to address that next. blending work. Alt + left-click again to go back to normal view.
Next, click the ‘ground’ layer mask thumbnail to activate it and set Make the brush Size 800 pixels and Hardness zero per cent; set
35 36
your foreground colour to black. Then go to the Toolbar above and Opacity and Flow to 50 per cent. This allows you to build up black
select your Brush Tool (B). brush strokes, rather than applying all at 100 per cent black in one go.

With the ‘ground’ layer mask active, gently start applying black Viewing the mask on its own: what we are after is a gentle blending
37 38
to the trees and horizon where the mask is a bit ragged. The of the mask from black to white along any rough edges of it. There
application of black will let more of the ‘sky’ layer below show through with is also no reason why the darker areas of the ground should not show
each brush stroke you make. through as well if you wish.
Think the ‘sky’ layer may require a little more tweaking? Well, if you If you click on the Graduated Filter button again, then click on the grad
39 40
double-click the ’sky’ layer thumbnail, it will open the Smart Object up you first added, you can amend its properties. The coolness of the
in ACR again. You can make additional amendments to the image. Temperature has been increased and the Exposure decreased still further to
darken that brooding sky.
Click OK and you will return to Photoshop with those latest amends Of course Photoshop will allow you to add more adjustments if you
41 42
added to the ’sky’ layer. so wish. Just click on the Create New Adjustment Layer button and
select Levels from the menu; a new Levels adjustment will be added to the
layer stack for more non-destructive editing.

You can make a Levels adjustment that brightens the entire image Another Adjustment Layer was added by clicking on the Create New
43 44
slightly, by moving the Highlights slider to the left a little. Adjustment Layer button once more. This was a Hue/Saturation
adjustment and the image’s Saturation value was boosted to about +10.
Next you can address sharpness. With the topmost layer active With this new layer active go to the top menu and select Filter > Other
45 46
press Shift + Alt + Cmd + E to create a new layer that is a merged > High Pass. This will open the High Pass Filter dialog panel. The
version of all the layers below. Name it ‘high pass’. image will turn to grey showing only edge details.
For the image size being used, a pixel value of about 2.0 is plenty. You now need to apply this ‘high pass’ sharpened layer to the layer
47 48
This brings out enough edge detail and can be used to sharpen your below. Keep the ‘high pass’ layer active and choose Overlay from the
image non-destructively. Click OK and the filter is applied. Blend Mode options drop down list.

The ‘high pass’ layer is blended into the layers below and adds its You can save the document as a PSD and return to it any time to
49 50
edge sharpness to the overall effect. If the sharpness is too much, make further edits if you wish. Your enhanced photo is complete.
you can simply reduce the ‘high pass’ layer’s opacity to suit. From a fairly ordinary original Raw file, you have created a great landscape.
How to improve
your landscapes
Breathe new life into all your landscape photos.

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS LEGO PORTRAITS
AFTER
Lego
Portraits BEFORE
An unusual and fun way to

enhance a portrait
I t’s a safe bet that most people have had an encounter with
Lego or by a few degrees of separation, knows someone
who has. Lego is the popular construction toy, consisting of
coloured interlocking plastic bricks for building just about This tutorial
anything you care to mention. With that as our inspiration, we content is
are going to create a portrait that looks like it was made out of available for
Lego bricks. download

LEGO PORTRAITS PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
First, we are going to make a basic Lego-shaped pattern. Go to your The document is very small but if you press Cmd + 0, it will fill the
01 02
File menu and select New (Cmd + N) and make a new document screen with the document so you can view it with greater ease. If
that is 50 pixels wide x 50 pixels high. Click OK when you are ready and the you also click the lock icon on the Background layer, you can release it and
document will be created. use it as Layer 0.
To help you work accurately, especially at large magnifications like The first step is to go to Edit > Fill (Shift + F5) and choose 50 per cent
03 04
this, make sure you go to View > Show > Smart Guides and also Pixel Grey as your fill colour. This will be the base of our Lego brick. The
Grid in the same menu. You can even drag in two guidelines from the rulers other Fill default settings can be left as they are. Click OK when you’re ready
to show you where dead centre is. to continue to the next step.

If you double-click the Layer 0 thumbnail, you will activate the Layer Next, create a new Layer (Shift + Cmd + N) and call it Layer 1. We
05 06
Style menu. Under Blending Options, click on the Bevel & Emboss need to add the stud above the base of the brick. To do this, we need
button and replicate the settings we have used here. This gives us a bevelled to select the Elliptical Marquee Tool from the Toolbar (M).
edge effect to our block base.
If you hold Shift + Alt and drag your cursor from the centre of the When you let go of the left mouse button the circle will become a
07 08
document, you can constrain the ellipse and maintain a perfect selection. Go to Edit > Fill and choose 50 per cent Grey again as your
circle. Draw a circle that is 3 pixels from the edge of the square on each fill. You will have a grey circle above a grey square base but not to worry.
side (making the ellipse 44 pixels).

Double-click on the Layer 1 thumbnail and you will call up the Layer Then click on the Drop Shadow button and add the values we
09 10
Style menu once more. Click on the Bevel & Emboss button again have shown here. A small shadow is added to the stud, helping the
and use the same settings as you did for the base. The Lego block stud now illusion that it is a three dimensional shape on top of the base. Press Cmd
has some depth added to it. + D to clear the selection.
We have also gone to the Horizontal Type Tool and added a little If you go to Edit > Define Pattern, you can name your pattern ‘lego’
11 12
optional Photoshop logotype ‘Ps’. The text is also 50 per cent and it will be saved, ready to use as a repeating pattern when you
grey and we have added the same Bevel & Emboss and Drop Shadow need it. Click OK to save the pattern. You don’t have to save the document if
settings as the Lego brick. you don’t want to. It has served its purpose.
With our Lego pattern saved, we need to open an image that we The image we are using is 2100 pixels wide x 3300 pixels high.
13 14
can turn into our Lego portrait. We have a colourful, full face portrait Be aware that the size of your image needs to be divisible by
that has nice, clearly defined features and interesting shapes and texture. 50 to match the Lego brick size. That may sound a bit odd but all will
Name this layer ‘base’. become clear in the next steps.

It’s not essential but is useful to get in the habit of setting up guides. Now we can turn on the grid. Go to View > Show > Grid (Cmd + ‘).
15 16
If you go to your main Photoshop menu and choose Preferences Horizontal and vertical gridlines, 50 pixels apart, will be overlaid on to
> Guides, Grids & Slices and make Gridline Every 50 Pixels and make your image. Make sure that the base layer is active, then press Cmd + J to
Subdivisions 1. Click OK when ready. make a duplicate. Call this new layer ‘mosaic’.
With the ‘mosaic’ layer active, go to Filter > Pixelate > Mosaic to Click on the Create a new layer button to add another layer. A new
17 18
bring up the Mosaic dialog box. Set your Cell size to 50 and click layer will appear above the ‘mosaic’ layer. Call this one ‘lego’. This is
OK. We are simplifying the image so one block of colour in the portrait where we’ll apply our block pattern. Make sure the ‘lego’ layer is active.
will match one Lego block, when it’s applied.
Next, you need to go to Edit > Fill (Shift + F5) to call up the Fill dialog The ‘lego’ layer is now filled with the brick pattern. Go to the Blend
19 20
box. Choose Pattern from the Contents list and under Custom Mode menu and select Linear Light. When you do, the bricks will be
Pattern, you can choose your Lego pattern created earlier. Click on your blended into the mosaic pattern on the layer below. You see how the bricks
pattern and then click OK to proceed. match the mosaic blocks exactly.

At this point, if you press Cmd + ‘ to turn off your grid, you will see Click on the ‘base’ layer to activate it and press Cmd + J to duplicate
21 22
the image more clearly. We could happily call this done but there is it. With ‘base copy’ active, press G to choose your Gradient Tool and
a little more we can do to enhance it further. For the moment, temporarily make sure your foreground colour is set to white.
hide the ‘lego’ and ‘mosaic’ layers.
Click the Gradient context menu at the top to open the Gradient Editor Click and hold the left mouse button outside the document in the top
23 24
and choose the Foreground to Transparent preset. Click OK then set left corner and drag the cursor towards the bottom right corner, just
the Gradient Fill Opacity to 50 per cent. Make sure the ‘base copy’ layer is over half way. When you let go, a white gradient will be applied. Repeat this
active so we can apply our gradient. process from the bottom right corner.
Now we have a nice sheen on our ‘base copy’ layer that will help Make the ‘lego’ and ‘mosaic’ layers visible again and then make
25 26
differentiate it from the ‘mosaic’ layer above; its use will become sure the ‘mosaic’ layer is active. Click on the Add layer mask
clearer in the following stages. button and that will be added to the ‘mosaic’ layer.

It is important that the ‘lego’ layer only interacts with the ‘mosaic’ Click on the ‘mosaic’ layer mask thumbnail so you can edit the
27 28
layer below. To ensure this, click on the ‘lego’ layer to activate it, mask. We want to remove random blocks to make it look like the
then right-click on it and choose Create Clipping Mask from the context portrait is not finished yet. You could do it brick by brick but this would take
menu. A small white arrow indicates it is done. an age. Here is a little trick to speed things up.
With the ‘mosaic’ layer mask active, press B to activate the Brush Tool Start to paint random blobs of black around the perimeter of the layer
29 30
and select a large medium soft brush of about 200 pixels from the top mask; as you do, you will see it reveal the ‘base copy’ layer below.
context menu. Make sure the foreground colour is set to black. Pressing Alt + left-click on the mask thumbnail will show it in isolation. Repeat
to go back to the normal view.
We have also changed the brush to a much smaller white one and With the ‘mosaic’ layer mask still active, go to Filter > Pixelate
31 32
painted white blobs in amongst the larger black ones. This will help > Mosaic and add the same mosaic Cell Size settings of 50
add to the randomness we are after. as before. The blobs of black now conform to the grid and blocks we
already have, but the image fades in and out in places.

The ‘mosaic’ layer mask needs one more tweak. Go to Image > We have our random pattern of solid blocks, with some missing to
33 34
Adjustments > Threshold. You will see the mask change to solid show the image below. If you double-click on the ‘mosaic’ layer,
black or white blocks, which vary in number as you move the slider back you can call up the Layer Style menu again and add a small drop shadow
and forth. Click OK when ready. to give some depth to the blocks.
Reducing the Saturation of the ‘base copy’ layer is the final tweak,
35
which means our Lego portrait is done.
Immortalise
someone in Lego
Who thought plastic bricks could be so artistic?

PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS MULTI EXPOSURE LIGHTING
Multi Exposure
Lighting
AFTER
BEFORE
You don’t need expensive lighting

equipment when you have Photoshop This tutorial
content is
L ight painting is a photographic technique in

which a camera captures a scene lit by light
sources such as a torch. We are going to be
matter is an old Bentley, which was shot over
a number of different exposures, lit only by a
torch and a couple of coloured gels from various
available for
download
looking at a particular aspect called off camera angles. We have chosen six favourite captures
light painting in this project. It is not necessary and now we can use Photoshop to combine
to have huge, complicated, flash setups to them and create an image that looks as if it was
produce some amazingly lit images. Our subject taken with numerous lights in a single shot.

MULTI EXPOSURE LIGHTING PHOTO EDITING PROJECTS
Using Adobe Bridge, we can select the six images that will be Rather than loading up the images separately, you can go to Tools
01 02
combined in Photoshop and turned into one final image. You can > Photoshop > Load Files into Photoshop Layers. This will open a
press Shift and multi select the images or just hit Cmd + A to select all. Photoshop document and add all six images together in separate layers.
Once loaded, you will see the images in the layer palette with the first For the moment, turn off the visibility of all layers except ‘light 1’. The
03 04
image ‘light 1’ at the top of the stack and ‘light 6’ at the bottom. top layer is going to be used to keep one consistent sky that stays
above the other layers as they are turned back on.

We need to mask out everything except the sky. Go to your toolbar With a small brush size of about 10 pixels, begin to drag across the
05 06
and choose the Quick Selection Tool (W). Make sure that the Add sky, down to the horizon and across. The selection will be added to
To Selection button is active and Auto-Enhance is checked. as you drag the tool. The ‘marching ants’ will show what is selected.
We just want the sky selected. The hills in the distance on the left Click on the Subtract From Selection button and draw your cursor
07 08
of the car have also been included in the selection. If you wish, you across the hills. As you draw across, the hills will be removed from the
can remove that area. selection. You can use the [ and ] keys to change the size of the brush.
Go to Select > Modify > Expand and make the Expand By value 1 With the ‘light 1’ layer sky selection active, click the Add Layer Mask
09 10
pixel. Click OK to increase the selection area by one pixel to help button and a mask will be added in the shape of the active selection.
avoid a bright line across the horizon when a mask is applied. The car and the ground will disappear, leaving just the sky.

For the moment, turn off the ‘light 1’ layer and turn on ‘light 2’. We Click on the ’light 2’ layer, hold Shift and then click on ‘light 6’. The
11 12
can now begin the process of combining our group of individual five layers from 2 to 6 should all be selected and highlighted, even
light painting shots into one final image. though only the ‘light 2’ layer is currently visible.
Go to the top of the layers palette and choose Lighten as your Make ‘light 3’ visible and its brightness will be combined with ‘light 2’.
13 14
blend mode from the drop down list. The Lighten blend mode will Off in the distance are some car headlights that can easily be removed
be assigned to all five selected layers. from the active ’light 3’ layer.
Go to the bottom of the layer palette and click the Add Layer Mask Go to your toolbar and choose your Brush Tool (B) and pick a
15 16
button. A mask will be added to the ‘light 3’ layer. Make sure the small, soft brush. Make sure the foreground colour is black and
mask itself is active, not the image. the Opacity is about 50 per cent.

With the soft black brush, begin to paint on the mask over the Brush the offending areas out. If you Alt + left-click on the mask,
17 18
areas where you can see car headlights. As you do, the mask will you will see the black brush strokes that have removed the
prevent that area of the ‘light 3’ layer being seen. unwanted areas. Alt + left-click the mask again to return to normal view.
Make ‘light 4’ visible and active. There are some highlights on the rear Now you need to make both ‘light 5’ and ‘light 6’ visible to finally see
19 20
panel and bumper that can be removed. As you did in step 15, add a all five layers combined. Now go to ‘light 1’ and make it visible to
mask and paint out the white highlights to remove that visual distraction. reveal the masked sky we first worked on.
You can happily make further masking tweaks. For instance, we For a couple of additional cosmetic enhancements, we added a Hue/
21 22
masked out some of the yellow light spilling into the bottom left of Saturation layer at the top of layer stack to enrich the colours a little
the shot. We also reduced the amount of blue light in the ’light 5’ layer. and altered the Hue value a touch to make the sky more blue.

Next came a Levels adjustment layer to the top of the layer stack With the ‘Levels 1’ layer mask active, we made a grad that started
23 24
that made the immediate foreground a little darker. We went to solid black just under the wheels, fading to transparent at the
the Gradient Tool (G) and selected black as our foreground colour and the bottom of the page. This area, seen as white on the mask, is the only area
gradient type was Foreground To Transparent. that will be affected by the Levels adjustment.
With that adjustment made, the combination of five images plus the
25
base sky layer above, means that our light painting is complete.
Bright ideas for

a great effect
Now you have complete control of light.

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BDM s
PGuidebook
hotoshop
Adobe
If you were to try and list all the things you can do with
Photoshop, you could be drawing up a very long list. It
is said that you may only use about 10 per cent of
what Photoshop can do. Well, we are here to help
an
You too c g
increase that percentage with a great range of
azin photo-editing projects and tutorials to take
create am h your skills in digital manipulation to new levels.
it
images w This guidebook covers many techniques used
otosh o p
Ph by graphics professionals the world over and
now it’s your turn to advance your knowledge of
Get more creative and edit like a pro

Explore the potential and A wide range of topics and
power of Photoshop projects covered
Easy-to-follow tutorials to All tutorial materials
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The key to amazing images You can follow our tutorials
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Perfect for artist, Learn, have fun and set your
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From simple adjustments to Turn your ideas into reality
photo manipulation with Photoshop
Learn techniques used by
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Our wide range of tutorials include:
Decorative Borders
Start scribbling and unleash Add a little sparkle to your
your inner artist favourite photos
Selective Colour
Black and white with a little
to your digital skills splash of colour
Sky Swapping Technique Stylised Portraits
Another cool way to replace This is how you take a
dull skies on a photo portrait to a whole new level
Enhancing Landscapes
Add a little drama to your Bring out the potential of
most cherished photos the most ordinary shots
Lego Portraits
We introduce you to Smart An unusual and fun way to
Objects and Stack Modes enhance a portrait

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Essential photo editing tutorials

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92 Lego Portraits The Dragan Effect

How to Make It Rain Selective Colour HDR Processing

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4 BDM’s: Adobe Photoshop Guidebook

18 - 23 Multiple Image Blending - Part 2

24 - 29 Pencil Sketch Effect 82 - 91 Stylised Portraits

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I t is often the case that as a digital graphic

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Part 2 - Time to add some

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Combine, adjust and

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Start scribbling and unleash

T here may have been occasions when you have

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Make your own

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T here are a few ways that you can add or create

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B lue skies are wonderful. They mean we are having

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The sky is literally

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Add a little drama to your most

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