Selective Blurring in Photoshop

This is a quick and easy tutorial on keeping an area intact while blurring out the rest. I will be using the Gaussian Blur and Select Color to cut out an image from its background.

Step 1 : I will be using these two images. You can use your own images. The important thing is to know how it is done. Once you know it you can apply the technique to other suitable images.

Step 2 : With the first image selected go to Select>Color Range.

Step 3 : The Color Range dialogue box opens.

Step 5 : Press SHIFT and drag the cursor over the hands.

Step 6 : Note that as you drag over the hand, the blacks disappear, while the background which is in mono color changes to black.

Step 7 : I am dragging the cursor with SHIFT pressed over the fingers.

 

Step 8 : The fingers inside the Color Range dialogue box change to white, except for a spot of black where the arrow points to.

Step 9 : I am dragging the cursor keeping SHIFT pressed over the finger tip where a bit of black remains.

Step 10 : The spot of black on the finger tip disappears. Click OK.

 

Step 11 : As soon as you click OK, the hands are selected by marching ants.

 

Step 12 : Press CTRL+J. The selection is cut and pasted on to Layer 1. The hands have been cut out from the background.

Step 13 : Keeping SHIFT pressed I am dragging the image of the motorcylist on to the image of the hands.

You have to click the Move Tool first though. Then you can drag the image.

 

Step 14 : The image of the motorcyclist has been moved. It is now on top of the hands image. We have to make it go below the hands.

Step 15 : Press CTRL+SHIFT+[. The motorcyclist's image goes under the hands image.

Look in the Layers palette, you will find the motorcylist's image (Layer2) has gone below the hands (Layer1).

Step 16 : Press CTRL+T, then SHIFT+ALT and drag corner handles to resize the image and reposition it.

Press ENTER when you are satisfied.

Step 17 : Draw a selection around the fingers as shown with the Lasso Tool.

Step 18 :  The selection changes into marching ants.

Step 19 : Press CTRL+SHIFT+I to invert the selection.

Step 20 : Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur.

Step 21 : The Gaussian Blur dialogue box opens. I have dragged the slider to the maximum.

Click OK.

Step 22 : Press CTRL+D. The marching ants go away. There you have the completed image. Try it out. It's easy.

Other photoshop tutorials are here

Read More

Blending background into floor

A photoshop trick is to blend the background to the floor or the lower front portion of the image. This is to make the image more prominent. You will need a free stock image or any that you have. You will be able to do this in any version of Photoshop. We will also be using a Black Layer Mask. If you have never used a Black Layer Mask before, you can see how this is done in this tutorial.

Step 1 : I have opened this free stock image in Photoshop. There is a distinct 'floor' i.e. the fence in the background and the pavement in the foreground.

You can download the image here

Step 2 : Press CTRL+J. The Background duplicates into Layer 1.

Step 3 : Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur.

Step 4 : The Gaussian Blur dialogue box opens. Drag the Radius slider to the extreme right. Click OK.

Step 6 : This how the image looks. It is totally blurred.

Step 7 : Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide All.

Step 8 : The image is revealed again.

Step 9 :  Look in the Layers palette. A black layer mask has formed next to the layer thumbnail on Layer 1.

Step 10 : The Foreground Color should be set to White.

Step 11 : Click the Brush Tool.

Step 12 : Click where the arrow points to reveal the Brushes palette. Set the Hardness to 0%. Let the Master Diameter alone. To increase the size of the Brush press ] (right bracket next to the letter P on your keyboard). To make it smaller press [ (left bracket). You will constantly need to switch between a large brush tip and small brush tip. This shortcut helps immensely.

Step 13 : With a fairly large brush begin painting. The blur returns.

Step 14 : Zoom into the image to be able to see clearly what you are doing.

Step 15 : Make the Brush tip small by pressing the [ (left bracket) as you get near the image.

Step 15 : You can see here that I have accidentally painted into the boy's knee. That's not a problem.

Step 16 : Press 'x' on the keyboard. The Foreground Color changes to Black.

Step 17 : I have painted over the knee with the Foreground set to Black to correct it.

Step 18 : Zoom further into the image, otherwise you will not notice parts that were accidentally brushed away.

And here is the finished image. You can paint away the entire background if you want to.

Other photoshop tutorials are here

Read More

Auto Tone, Auto Contrast and Auto Color in Photoshop CS4

This is a follow up of the tutorial here on using Auto Tone, Auto Contrast and Auto Color. I have showed in the earlier tutorial how to use the features. Here is something more. This is to make photos pop or give it that extrta something that may be lacking.

Step 1:  I Have opened this free stock photo. Let us see if we can improve them with the auto functions.

Step 2 : Click on Levels on the right hand panel of Photoshop CS4.

Step 3 : This dialogue box appears. You can see that there is an Auto button at the left.

Step 4 : Press ALT and click Auto. This dialogue box opens. I have highlighted Highlights. I will show you in a moment what I intend to do.

Step 5 : Click on all three Algorithms at the top. If you hover your cursor on the first option you can see Auto Contrast in brackets on the  first,  Auto Tone in the second and Auto Color in the third. I had shown in the earlier tutorial how to access the 3 options by going to Image and then to Auto Tone, Contrast and Color.

This was how the Histogram looked like before I clicked on Auto.

Step 6 : This is how the histogram looks after clicking Auto. The Black slider at the left points to the dark areas in the image and the White to highlights. The Grey slider in the middle points to the greys.

Step 7 : Highlight the Clip which is set to 0.10% in Highlights by default.

Step 8 : Press SHIFT and the Up Arrow on the keyboard. The Clip in Highlights increases to 0.20%. Everytime you do so it will increase by 10%.

You will notice a change in the Histogram. There is not much change in the Histogram in this particular image as there is no empty space at the left as in the illustration below Step 5. When you have a space at the left continue to press SHIFT and Up arrow keys till it disappears. You will notice a noticeable change in the image.

Step 9 : Now highlight the Clip of Shadows. It is set by default at 0.10%.

Step 10 : With the Clip of Shadows highlighted I have pressed SHIFT+Down Arrow. Now let us look at the image.  You can check the 'Snap Neutral Tones' box depending on your image. It is not needed for this image. It might also not be necessary to increase or decrease the percentage of Shadows.

The top image is what I started with and the bottom one is with Auto Tone applied. When you are in a hurry this is an easy method to make your photos pop.

Other Photoshop tutorials are here.

Read More

Remove Color Cast in Photoshop CS4

Sometimes a photo cannot be used because of a color cast. Color cast can be very easily removed in Photoshop CS4. It has three powerful tools that can be used very effectively and with ease.

 Take this free stock image for example. The reds dominate. How can you remove them with the least amount

of bother?

Step 1 : Go to Image. You will find three options -- Auto Tone, Auto Contrast and Auto Color. These are the three powerful tools that can be used to fix color casts.

Step 2 : First I am clicking on Auto Tone.

This provides an improvement to the image, but not quite enough. Press CTRL+Z to undo Auto Tone.

Step 3 : I have clicked on Auto contrast.

This is the result. It is not satisfactory at all. Press CTRL+Z to undo Auto Contrast.

Step 4 : I have now clicked on Auto Color.

Step 5 : Look at this. The color cast has gone. The point is sometimes Auto Tone will work, sometimes Auto Contrast and sometimes Auto Color. See which suits your image. You should apply any one of these just once. You should not use them in combination.That is all.

There is a followup tutorial here

Other photoshop tutorials are here

Read More