Blog Archives

Photoshop Tutorial: Using Match Color

9/24/2013

Using Match Color in photoshop is very useful when you are making a photo composite and you want the different photos to have the same color scheme. In this tutorial, I'm going to show you, in a few easy steps, how to do just that!

I decided to make this tutorial after completing a photo composite project for a client in Florida, who is creating a comic book with a Greek mythology theme. Once he finished photographing the model (who represents the Greek god Hades), he emailed me the photos, along with a background photo, and I got to work on creating the composite.

Note: Click on each image below to view larger size.

Step 1. Open an image you want to edit in photoshop (File>Open). In this image, the model was photographed outside on a sunny day, which is why a blue color cast appears on his hair, skin, and costume.

Step 2. Open up the background image you want to use. In this tutorial, I'm using the background image that my client wanted me to use for the photo composite project. Colorwise, the model and the background are completely different, but we will fix that! Make sure that the layer of the model is selected in the Layers Panel! (In this example, I labeled the layer with the model, Hades.) Next, go to the Menu Bar (see # red arrow) and select Image>Adjustments>Match Color.

Step 3. After selecting Match Color, a dialog box will appear. Go to Source (see # 1 red arrow) and select the photoshop document that you are working on. In this example, I named the photoshop document, Color Match Tutorial. Next, go to Layer (see #2 red arrow) and select the background image. In this example, I named the background layer, Cerberus Background. After completing these steps, the model should match the color scheme of the background. As you can see, the model does not have the blue color cast anymore and the colors are much warmer.

Even though this technique works very well at matching the color scheme between two different images, the image that goes through a Color Match will sometimes look a little faded, whereas some parts of the image will become highly saturated. To fix this, you will need to go to Image Options (see # 3 red arrow) and adjust the Fade, Color Integrity, and Luminance. In this example, I adjusted the Fade by moving the slider to 20 pixels. This made the image look less faded. Also, I adjusted the Color Integrity by moving the slider to 80 pixels. This corrected the overly saturated parts in the skin.

When you have finished, hit OK.

Note: Every image will be different, so you will have to use your best judgement when adjusting the sliders under Image Options.

Step 4. This is an optional step. I wasn't really happy with how matching the color scheme made the model's hair and clothes look grey, so I opened up Levels (Image>Adjustments>Levels or Ctrl-L) and adjusted the sliders. Using Levels in photoshop is a really good way to adjust the tonal range of your image!

Levels: Moving the black arrow to the right darkens the image, moving the grey arrow adjusts the midtones, and moving the white arrow to the left lightens the image.

Now let's see the Before & After:

As you can see, there is a major difference between the model in the before and after images. Just a few simple tweaks in photoshop can really enhance an image no matter the lighting conditions or color cast.

The Final Image!

After more time spent in photoshop and consulting with the client, I created an image that we were both happy with!

Thank you for reading my photoshop tutorial. If you have any questions or comments about the tutorial, please leave them in the comments section and I will get back to you as soon as I can. If you have any suggestions for other photoshop tutorials, please let me know. I am always happy to help!

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Photo Restoration Tutorial

9/16/2013

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In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to fix a badly damaged photo. The photo below was found on the internet and for good practice, I restored it myself. When people saw the before and after images, they asked me how I restored the right eye of the little girl. This prompted me to make a tutorial focusing only on restoring the damaged eye of the little girl. In this tutorial, I placed red arrows on each image below and I will refer to them as we go along.

Note: Click on each image below to view larger size.

Step 1. Find an old photo you would like to restore and open it in photoshop. With the photo open, go to the Layers Panel and click on the Drop-Down Menu (see #1 red arrow) and click Duplicate Layer. There should now be an exact duplicate of that layer. With the duplicate layer selected, go to the Tools Panel and click on the Polygonal Lasso Tool (see #2 red arrow). With that tool selected, go to the left eye and make a selection (see #3 red arrow). If you make a mistake, hit Ctrl-D to deselect. When you are done, double click your selection. There should be a dotted line around the eye. For this tutorial, I used a red circle to hi-light the selection. While the eye is selected, go to Edit>Copy and Edit>Paste or you can hit Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V on your keyboard.

Note: You don't have to use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to make a selection. It's just a personal preference of mine. You can also use the Lasso Tool, the Magnetic Lasso Tool or even the Pen Tool to make a selection.

Step 2. (See *) You should notice a new layer in the Layers Panel with just a copy of the eye. You don't want to have the eye look completely symmetrical. To make it look more natural, you will need to rotate the eye a little. (See #1 arrow) go to Edit>Transform>Rotate or hit Ctrl-T on your keyboard. When you are done, proceed to Step 3.

Step 3. Go to the Layers Panel. While holding down the Shift key, select the duplicate layer and the layer with the copy of the eye. Then click on the Drop-Down Menu (see #1 red arrow) and click Merge Layers or Ctrl-E. With the two layers merged into one, you can now start to blend the right eye in with the rest of the face. In the Tools Panel (far left), I hi-lighted several tools that I use for blending and getting rid of damage.

Spot Healing Brush Tool: Brush over a damaged area with this tool and the damage instantly disappears.

Healing Brush Tool: Hold down the Alt key (a target symbol will appear) and click on an an undamaged area of the image. After you have selected an undamaged area, go to a damaged area on the image and brush over it. This is a little similar to the Clone Stamp Tool, except that the Healing Brush Tool blends in the pixels.

Patch Tool: This tool is pretty fun to use. With this tool, you make a selection by drawing a line around the damaged area. When you are done making a selection, a dotted line will appear. Next, click and drag the selected area to an undamaged area. The damaged area is instantly fixed!

Blur Tool: This tool is helpful when I want to smooth out part of an image.

Dodge Tool: I use this tool to add highlights to a face or object or to lighten up an area on the image.

Burn Tool: I use this tool to create shadows on a face or object or to darken an area of the image.

Note: As you can see, there are many ways to remove damage on an image. If you find that one tool isn't doing the job, then try another tool. This is all about trial and error: seeing what works and what doesn't!

Here are the before and after images:
Please note that even though I only focused on the eye, you can also fix the other damaged parts of a photo using the tools I mentioned in step 3.

Thank you for reading my photoshop tutorial. If you have any questions or comments about the tutorial, please leave them in the comments section and I will get back to you as soon as I can. If you have any suggestions for other photoshop tutorials, please let me know. I am always happy to help!

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Photoshop Tutorial: Using a Layer Mask to Smooth Skin

9/11/2013

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For this photoshop tutorial, I'm going to show you how to use a layer mask to smooth rough and blemished skin. This is a very useful photoshop technique that I have used many times to retouch images. In this tutorial, I placed red arrows on each image below and I will refer to them as we go along.

Note: Click on each image below to view larger size.

Step 1. For this tutorial, find an image you want to retouch and open it in photoshop. In photoshop, go to File>Open and then look for your image to open up. Once you have the image opened, go to the Layers Panel on the far right and click on the Drop Down Menu (see red arrow). In the Drop Down Menu, click on Duplicate Layer. You should now have a duplicate of the image.

Note: It's always a good idea to duplicate the original image, so you can refer to it as you go along. Also, if you made any mistakes that you absolutely can't fix, then you will always have the original image to fall back on.

Step 2. In the Tools Panel (far left) click on the Spot Healing Brush Tool (see red arrow). You can adjust the size of the Spot Healing Brush Tool by hitting the Square Bracket keys []. [ is for decreasing the brush size and ] is for increasing the brush size. When you have the size you want, move the Spot Healing Brush Tool over the blemish and click on it. The blemish should disappear. Keep doing this until all the blemishes are gone.

Note: For this tutorial, I removed much of the major blemishes, but not all of them. The main focus is the use of the Layer Mask to smooth the skin. If you would like to spend more time removing all the blemishes with the Spot Healing Brush Tool, then please take your time. When you are done, proceed to Step 3.

Step 3. Go back to the Layers Panel (far right) and click on the Drop Down Menu. (see #1. red arrow). Click Duplicate Layer. Make sure you are only duplicating the layer you edited and not the layer with the original image. Once you duplicated the layer, go to the bottom of the Layers Panel and click on the Add a mask button (see # 2. red arrow). A white box should appear next to the layer thumbnail.

Step 4. (see #1 red arrow) Select the image thumbnail in the Layers Panel. A white bounding box will indicate that image thumbnail is selected. Go to the Menu Bar (see #2 red arrow) and click on Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. A dialog box will appear (see #3 red arrow). Move the slider to 6 Pixels and click OK. Your image will be completely blurred.

Step 5. (see #1 red arrow). Go back to the Layers Panel and click on the white box. A white bounding box will indicate that the white box is selected. In the Tools Panel (see # 2 red arrow), click on the Brush Tool or you can hit B on your keyboard and the tool will be selected. In the Tools Panel, go to the Color Boxes (see #3 red arrow). The Foreground Box should be set to black and the Background Box should be set to white.

Step 6. In the Layers Panel (see red arrow), make sure you have the white box selected. Now with the Brush Tool, paint underneath the nose and the lips. The areas you paint over will become unblurred and you should see the details of the nose and the lips (see *). If you make a mistake, don't worry. Go to the Color Boxes in the Tools Panel and click on the curved arrows to toggle between black and white. See image below. You can also hit X on your keyboard to toggle between black and white. With white selected, you can paint over the the lips and parts of the nose to blur it.

Note: The image I used only shows the lips and the nose. If you are using an image that shows the whole face, then you will also need to paint over the eyes, eyebrows, ears, hair and the entire background to deblur it. The only thing that should be kept blurred is the skin (cheeks, forehead, chin, neck, etc.)

Step 7. (see #1 red arrow). In the Layers Panel, you will notice that the white box has some black in it. This shows the areas that were masked and not masked. With the white box selected, go to Opacity (see #2 red arrow) and lower it to 40% or however you see fit.

Note: For photo retouching projects like this, I like to keep the opacity below 50%. It keeps the image from looking fake or plastic. The goal here is to make the skin look smooth, but in a realistic way. Any image where the skin has absolutely no texture or pores looks fake to me. The only time I can think of where I would want to make the skin look unusually perfect are for projects with a fantasy or sci-fi theme. If you are working on a project with a theme like that, then it is appropriate to have the opacity above 50%.

Here are the before and after images:

Thank you for reading my photoshop tutorial. If you have any questions or comments about the tutorial, please leave them in the comments section and I will get back to you as soon as I can. If you have any suggestions for other photoshop tutorials, please let me know. I am always happy to help!

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Art Street Deli & Get Up Gallery: First Friday Event

9/7/2013

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Yesterday was First Friday and the Art Street Deli and Get Up Gallery walls were alive with new work from the downtown Las Vegas artists. Check out some of the pictures from that night.

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Relax, Relate, Create: Las Vegas Artist Giving Back to the Community

9/5/2013

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"Relax, Relate, Create" in the words of Tanya Watler

Relax, Relate, Create is trying to provide a free-arts education workshop program for the underprivileged and disabled youth in our community. Started by Tanya Michelle aka Tanya Watler, an artist & local business owner of Lil Art Bodega and a resident of the downtown Las Vegas community.

Tanya was unhappy about the lack of art programs that are not giving back to underprivileged and disabled youth in our area. Over the past few years, the public schools have cut the art education out of their budgets. And some art classes or programs for youths and their families can be costly.

In turn, Tanya Watler decided to create a workshop program that gives back to the youth and their parents, caregivers or family members. This gives them an opportunity to be exposed to the arts again for free. The seed money to get this going has been planted and provided by the sales from Tanya Watler’s paintings and 5% of every sale from her store. But we still need help with funding!

This workshop program is 100% community driven through volunteer time and donations. The program is taught as a one-on-one in-store session and as a group session outside and will also be taught at community centers, parks, etc. We are trying to launch “Relax, Relate, Create” workshop this fall.

The Workshop Program Consist Of:

• Art workshops: painting, graffiti, cartooning, drawing, graphics, & mixed media.
• Having Fun & Enjoying the Arts.
• Teach techniques from basic to advanced skills.
• Special guest artists & volunteer art teachers to instruct.
• Hands-on opportunity to use different materials to create.
• Teaching them how to sell, market and distribute their art for a profit.
• Helping them become creatives and independent thinkers.
• L.A.B will hold exhibits of artwork and create a coffee table book, as well as
market and sell their artwork online, which will be a 80/20 split: 80% to the youth
and 20% to the program for expenses. Will also feature one artist-work for sale in-store.
• The program comes with an Art Kit filled with the tools that best fits their art direction.
• Group art outings with their parents or care giver.
• Promote more family time with each student and their family members or caregivers and to be exposed to the arts.

Lil Art Bodega is Located
Inside the Container Park.
707 Fremont & 7th Las Vegas, NV 89101
Suite 2230, 2nd Floor
www.lilartbodega.com

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Fonts, Fonts & More Fonts!

9/3/2013

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Today, I'm going to talk about how to find the best fonts online and the legalities of using these fonts for personal and commercial use.

Fonts are really important to print and web design. They can either make or break a design. Sometimes, I get into a rut and start using the same fonts in some of my projects. I admit that I've abused Century Gothic more times than I can remember. To break free from the Century Gothic overload, I go online to my favorite font websites to download the ones that would be a perfect fit for my work. It's important though to not get side-tracked by the pretty fonts on there. There are a lot of trendy and awesome looking fonts on these sites, but it's important to pick one that would best visually represent the kind of message you want to convey about your client's business or image.

Now let's get started on the font websites. The two best websites I go to for fonts are:
1001FreeFonts.com and UrbanFonts.com.

1001 Free Fonts is my top favorite fonts site to go to because of the excellent variety it offers. It features a list of font categories at the top of the homepage. If you needed a font that has a specific theme, then 1001 Free Fonts makes it easier to find what you are looking for. Keep in mind that even though it says it's free, you will still have to pay in order to use a font for commercial use. If you want, you can download all 10,000 fonts for commercial use for only $19.95!

Here is a link to that deal: http://www.ultimatefontdownload.com/

Urban Fonts has a good variety of unique fonts which I have used many times for my own designs, even my own logo. This site categorizes the fonts by free fonts, dingbats, and premium fonts. With the premium fonts, if you like a certain font and click on it, it will send you to another site, usually Fonts.com. Sometimes you will have to pay for these fonts. It all depends on which font you click on. On the Urban Fonts homepage, there is a description of the commercial uses of the fonts. These are categorizes as freeware, shareware, or linkware.

Commercial Uses of Fonts

Freeware means that you can use this font for free, but only for personal use. Shareware means that there are some limitations when using this font and are only free for a short amount of time. When using a shareware font, some of the character sets might be missing. This can be annoying when using a shareware font in a design and you find that certain characters are missing, but the sole purpose of a freeware font is for you to judge if the font will be useful to you for the long run before purchasing it. So if you find a shareware font that you absolutely can't live without, then keep in mind that you will have to pay for it after the trial period expires.

Linkware means that that font is copyrighted and the author of the font can determine how their font will be distributed and reproduced. So if you find a linkware font online, then it's best to contact that author. Many of these font websites will provide the author's contact information. If the contact information is not provided then please use to your own discretion.

If you have any questions about finding fonts online or the legalities of it, please let me know in the comments.

Sources: http://fontfeed.com/archives/free-fonts-free-is-not-always-free/

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My Design Process

9/2/2013

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Logo Design: from Rough Sketch to Vector Graphic!
I've often been asked what my design process is. I tell every person the same thing: Sketching! In graphic design, people think that all of us designers head straight to the computer, but that's not the case. Sketching is extremely important and I'll tell you why: Sketching allows me to visually explore different areas to a design solution.

Recently, I was commissioned to design a logo for an accounting business, Symphony Business Services. I don't know anything about accounting, so I explored my client's website. After going through her website and doing some research, I had a general idea of what I wanted the logo to look like and the kind of message I wanted it to convey.

Sketching Frenzy
Now comes the sketching frenzy! I must of filled up three pages with sketches. I tossed ideas around in my head and sketched them out on paper. Some ideas worked, some didn't, but I kept exploring with my pencil. I did so many because I wanted to come up with something unique and not so obvious. The general rule is: the first idea that comes to your mind has probably been thought up before by many other designers.

Trust me, this is never an easy task, especially when a solution doesn't come to me right away. Whenever that happens, I usually stop working and go to sleep. Usually, I'm able to sketch something good after sleeping on it.

Page of Sketches
Remember, the sketches don't have to be great. The paper is a tool to get your ideas out. Once you have a good idea, refine the sketch and then go to the computer to make it into the cool looking vector graphic.

The finished logo!
I've made many sketches and explored different ideas for the Symphony Business Services logo. The one the client approved was the golden tree graphic. I created an abstract tree graphic to symbolize growth and used a gold color to symbolizes success, achievement and wealth; important qualities for an accounting business to have and to portray to their target market.

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First Post!

9/1/2013

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Hello and welcome to my first post! This blog will feature the latest news in graphic design, tutorials, design inspiration, quotes, and so much more! Keep in touch for updates!

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Photoshop Tutorial: Using Match Color

Now let's see the Before & After:

The Final Image!

Thank you for reading my photoshop tutorial. If you have any questions or comments about the tutorial, please leave them in the comments section and I will get back to you as soon as I can. If you have any suggestions for other photoshop tutorials, please let me know. I am always happy to help!

Photo Restoration Tutorial

Thank you for reading my photoshop tutorial. If you have any questions or comments about the tutorial, please leave them in the comments section and I will get back to you as soon as I can. If you have any suggestions for other photoshop tutorials, please let me know. I am always happy to help!

Photoshop Tutorial: Using a Layer Mask to Smooth Skin

For this photoshop tutorial, I'm going to show you how to use a layer mask to smooth rough and blemished skin. This is a very useful photoshop technique that I have used many times to retouch images. In this tutorial, I placed red arrows on each image below and I will refer to them as we go along.

Thank you for reading my photoshop tutorial. If you have any questions or comments about the tutorial, please leave them in the comments section and I will get back to you as soon as I can. If you have any suggestions for other photoshop tutorials, please let me know. I am always happy to help!

Art Street Deli & Get Up Gallery: First Friday Event

Relax, Relate, Create: Las Vegas Artist Giving Back to the Community

"Relax, Relate, Create" in the words of Tanya Watler

Fonts, Fonts & More Fonts!

My Design Process

First Post!

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