If you’re due for a new look, but don’t want to drop a pretty penny at the salon, check out this video tutorial on how to change eye and hair color for some dramatic portrait results using Photoshop.

Creative photography editing

Photoshop Video Tutorial – Easy Photo Frames and Borders from Yanik Chauvin on Vimeo.

Well it seems many of you are impressed with the silhouette effects I posted at http://www.intofotos.com/photography/2008/05/11/creating-custom-silhouettes … I’m delighted!!!

I’ve seen a number of you having a go and the results are fantastic .. I’ve also had quite a number of folk ask for assistance on how they can achieve this effect too so without further ado here goes …

1. Shoot your silhouette images with the instructions here
2. Open your chosen silhouette image in Photoshop
3. Open your chosen texture image in Photoshop.
4. Select the entire picture by clicking on the move tool (located at the top of the main vertical menu [see pic. A]) + shift key and dragging onto the top of the silhouette image. Resize or rotate the texture if need be to the same size as the silhouette image canvas.
5. This should put the texture on top of the photo you’re applying the texture to. At this time you should not be able to see the photo, only the texture on top.
6. Open up the layers menu on the right side. If you can’t find it, go to Windows and then down at the bottom select Layers. If the box is already checked, uncheck it, and then go back to recheck it again (this will open the windows box automatically to Layers).
7. In the layers box you need to right click on the layer with the texture. Next, select Blending Options (or simply click on the box [see pic B]).
8. You will now be at a large menu. Highlighted on the left side should be Blending Options: Default. We are going to use both the Opacity and Blend Mode under General Blending at the top. Click the drop-down menu under Blend Mode and select Overlay (towards the middle of the menu). This will now make the texture over the photo more transparent. The default Opacity should be 100% but you can adjust this if necessary – [see pic C]
9. Now you can either leave the image here as is if you’re happy with it or depending on the texture you have used you may need to to some more work.  If so, read on.
10. Click on the silhouette image layer and then select levels adjustment layer by selecting the adjustment layer tool [see pic D].  This will create a new layer above the silhouette layer where you can adjust the levels of your original silhouette for more or less impact.
11. If you wish to, you can also add another texture layer using the same steps outlined above.  My second image you will see that I used two layers to achieve the final effect.

I think that about covers it .. if not, leave a comment below.

There are plenty of free textures available on Flickr and around the internet so collect a few you think might be suitable and have fun!

I came across this great tip from MCP that I have found very useful and wanted to share.

The easiest way to mess up color in a photo is when using levels and curves improperly.  Levels to an extent, and curves to an even greater extent, affect both luminosity (brightness) and color when you adjust them.

Many photographers love the look of high contrast, high definition, and vivid color.  You can use levels and curves to get great color.  I will not be discussing that today.  What I will be addressing is how you can add contrast and punch to an image without shifting colors.  If your image has nice color but needs a lift, you may add an s-curve or play in curves or with sliders in levels.

Once you are done, if you see the skin and overall color is too warm/orange, just change your blending mode to luminosity.  Yep – that is all you need to do.  It tell that adjustment layer to only affect luminosity NOT color. Done!!! Wasn’t that easy?

I’ve just returned from a lengthy, much needed holiday with my family and now I’m slowly trying to catch up! I came across this article from Smashing Magazine which I thought you might find useful on “beauty retouching” using Adobe Photoshop tutorials.

Beauty retouching is probably one of the most popular application areas in which Photoshop is used extensively. There are two simple reasons for that. First, Photoshop offers a variety of advanced tools to smooth out skin and hair, optimize body proportions and emphasize some beautiful details. And second, if you have some experience with Photoshop it is easy to learn the basics and quickly produce very impressive and beautiful results … after all, we want our photos to look the best and our clients want their photos to look the best!

On to the tutorials ….  click here!

Speak to you soon friends.

This is actually a fairly simple task — although many of the Photoshop authors make it seem more difficult than it really is. Using logic, the portion of the image to be popped out of the frame must be separated from the original image and raised to a higher level, in front of the frame, while leaving the original photo in tact. This technique works in any image software which has layers.

1. Cut out the image: Using any of the software’s selection tools you wish, make an accurate selection of the portion of the image you wish to pop.
In this example we used a combination of the Lasso and Magnetic Lasso to carve out the front of the car. Tip: to save time, cut only the part that will pop out.

Lift the image: Once your selection is accurate, and ready to go, duplicate it onto its own layer by using the “float” command (Cmd/J or Ctrl/J)

You can see the nose of the Jaguar is now on its own layer. (#1 in the layers palette) Note that it’s just the nose — no use to select more than you have to. It will match perfectly with the original image on the background layer and provide a seamless pop-out.

2. Create the Frame: Now, in a new layer, you can create the frame for the photo. Here we simply used a white background with the frame cut out. Layer #2 in the diagram.

At this point you can decorate or modify the frame any way you wish — textures, borders, etc.
Key Concept: Layer Sequencing. Always remember that the stacking order of your layers affects the final product. As you look at the file, you’ll understand that the layers were generated in that specific stack order to achieve the effect — even though they may not have been created in that order.

Also note that we did all the selection work on a COPY of the background, just in case we flubbed something up, or needed to go back and get more of the image. The “work” layer can be deleted, and the whole image flattened when complete.

Want to learn more great techniques like this? …

Who else wants to learn Photoshop in just 2 hours without having to look at a boring manual?

Nup! Me neither … Watch these instantly accessible videos.