Tabla de contenidos para No. 152 en Photoshop Creative

Layers are such a humble part of Photoshop that it’s easy to take them for granted. They are absolutely essential though, and as our cover feature explains, they’re behind every great image you make on the software. Find out 10 top tips for how to exploit the power of layers on page 18. Elsewhere in the magazine this month we have some wonderful tutorials on creating surreal animal imagery by giving a giraffe a new lick of paint (page 42); learn some top tips for adding grit and machismo to male model photography (page 66); make eye-popping 3D text (page 48) and create beautifully psychedelic dramatic portraits on page 38. Plus, we have 18 packed pages of Elements guides and tutorials, reviews of new software and interviews with talented designers…

Manon Moreau www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/ manon.M Image of the issue For this image I used two contrasting colours to add magic and contrast. I worked with colour filters and textures to give the golden colour to the moon. I then painted shadows and lights on the character to integrate it. Yannis Papadimitriou www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/ Zanno I love blue, so that was the base colour of this image. The lighthouse, the dog, and the surface are photographs I took during travelling. The turtle and the deep sea are stock images. Raqee S Najmuldeen www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/Abulrook I made this image by mixing six photos. I tried to create a world that seemed novel and original; I added the sense of movement through the two surfers and then used brushes for the spatter. Estelle Chomienne www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/Stellart I…

The morning’s prep 08:15 I fire up my Mac and check my emails. An e-newsletter is needed for one of our online retailers, together with some website sliders and a banner advert. Down to business 11:00 I catch up with Lauren on some new business opportunities and any marketing that needs producing, and our newsletter, blog post and PR. Time for coffee! Idea generation and visuals 12:30 I start some ideas on new t-shirt designs. The client has sent through scamps and visual references; this could be a fun one! I start a bit of desk research into retro characters, some cool maps, and some new contemporary fonts. Face-to-face with the client 14:30 Off to Bath for an initial client meeting with a chocolate brand who are looking for some…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Essentials Works with What you’ll learn How to use layers and brushes to create a portrait full of colour Time taken 3-5 hours Expert BÜRO UFHO “The use of layers and brushes in this tutorial helps us to easily create a loose, colourful portrait. “Being both an artist, under the moniker kittozutto, and graphic design studio, BÜRO UFHO, we have been using Photoshop for over 10 years. In 2015, we had the privilege to be invited by Adobe, together with 70 artists, to celebrate its 25th Anniversary of Photoshop. There’s a saying that ‘starting is the hardest part’. Creating a portrait illustration from scratch certainly can be scary; it can be very difficult to get going when you have a big,…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Essentials Works with What you’ll learn How to add drama to a portrait with filters, blend modes and adjustments Time taken 1 hours Expert Andre Villanueva “I love processing photos with adjustments and filters, and blending in textures to make them extraordinary. I can tweak Smart Filters and adjustment layers forever! “I discovered Photoshop while studying web design. After graduating, I taught in the media arts department. I’m now art director for a tech company, soothing my inner instructor by sharing techniques with readers. Models and portraits abound in stock photo repositories. Sure, you can deploy them as-is in your projects, but how do you make them more eye-catching and special? Filters are a great way to refine your photos. Here…

About the artist Adam Bartas www.adambartas.com/ Adam Bartas is the founder of Gravy, a compact image production studio based in Prague, dedicated to delivering tasty advertising imagery without the usual fuss. He is also a lecturer at the University of Economics in Prague and Tomas Bata University, teaching commercial post-production to photography and multimedia students. In his free time, he enjoys learning languages. Name of the project Jeep “To achieve good results, two things are needed,” says Adam Bartas, founder and leader of Gravy Studio. “A plan, and enough time.” For someone who dedicates so much of his attention to the details in his work, a plan is no problem for Adam; trying to finish such an ambitious image in a set time limit, however, is a bigger challenge. This…

01 Select the skin Go to Select>Color Range. With the Eyedropper Tool, click on the red sections of the skin to select all of the problem areas that are discoloured, and then click OK. 02 Adjust the selection Go to Select>Modify>Expand and adjust Pixels to 2. Go to Select>Modify>Feather and adjust Pixels to 2. You can customise the values as necessary, and see which ones work best. 03 Magentas and yellows Now that you have a proper selection of problematic areas, go to Selective Color and click on the Reds. Pull down the Magentas. Do the same thing for the Yellows. 04 Balance skin discolouration Using these two colours, you can balance out skin discolouration. Using the Info palette, ensure Magenta is slightly higher than Yellows to keep the model…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO SMOOTH SKIN IN ELEMENTS? Getting the perfect portrait relies on two things: sharpness in some places, blurring in others. It’s important to keep some facial features detailed and others smooth, but the problem with using the Blur filters is that they’re not very precise, and applying a blur to your image often just hazes the entire picture. The Surface Blur is perfect for smoothing skin though: you can find it under Filter>Blur>Surface Blur. It has the advantage of smoothing in some areas, yet leaving the key places of your portrait untouched and detailed. Experiment with the Radius slider to choose the power of the blur, and use the Threshold slider to change the levels involved in…

Start with the sky I started by putting a planet in the background and birds flying close to the sun, then I worked with lighting to make the picture warmer in tone. Work on the sea Next I worked on the perspective of the sea. I used three different sea images for the optimal effect, and put the moon on the sea floor along with plants and fish. The character Then came the character: a girl fishing for some land. Here, the lighting was made with Inner Shadow, yellow was added with Hard Mix and I also blurred the sea slightly. Adjustments I finalised the artwork with three gradient maps. The first was with yellows set to Overlay, the second was black and white set to Multiply, and the third…

Backgrounds Check out the 70 vintage wood backgrounds Cityscapes Give your work some urban flavour with 44 Tokyo cityscapes Tutorial files The assets and start photos you need to follow our tutorials On the FileSilo this issue… • 70 vintage wood backgrounds, $36 • 10 ladies t-shirt mockups, $37 • 10 textures, $10 • 44 Tokyo aerial cityscapes, $14 • 3D text creator, $5 • 80 beautiful frosted backgrounds, $10 • Capacarica font, free • 50 5K feather overlays, $14 • 14 plastered walls textures, $8 • Plus all the files to follow the tutorials! Log in to www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Register to get instant access to this pack of must-have creative resources, how-to videos and tutorial assets FileSilo The home of great downloads – exclusive to your favourite magazines from Future…

Challenge entries The best entries and overall challenge winner 1 Trevor Budd In A Whirl For this challenge I decided to create a surreal scene using just the four images supplied. Combining them was quite difficult and required many filters, cutouts and effects. 2 Katarzyna Grzeczkowicz Balloons The main goal here was to make the image simple and colourful and achieve a dreamy vacation photo. I mainly used masks and adjustments. 3 Marcus Jones Piggy Banks This involved loads of cutting out, adjustment layers, Levels, Hue/Saturation and copying layers. I used the piggy image and the girl. 4 Sheri Emerson Beach World I made a little world out of the beach scene, spun the paint to make a vortex after changing the hue and used a Soft Light blend mode.…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Essentials Works with What you’ll learn How to make it look as though a scene inside a book is coming to life Time taken 5 hour Expert Rodrigo Marinelli “One of my biggest inspirations are books. They enable my mind to fly away into whole new worlds – each new chapter is a new story and this is the fuel that my mind needs to create images. “I’m an art director and have 12 years of experience in advertising agencies. I learned and am still learning to use Photoshop through following tutorials.” When working with Photoshop, one of the most powerful tools you have is your imagination. This is the key for how successful your work is – it’s from this…

01 Camera view On the secondary camera view window you have access to different camera angles. Click on the top-left camera icon to open the menu, then choose a new view. 02 3Daxis The 3D axis appears when you select the Move tool (V). It shows the X, Y and Z coordinates and enables you to scale, move and rotate each axis. 03 3D lights In the 3D panel, click on the Infinite Light layer to access the on-screen controller. Click and hold the mouse cursor to rotate the light. 04 3D commands In the 3D panel and the Properties panel, you have access to several options to tweak the 3D settings. Click on the icons in the top section of the panels.…

Get your background elements to work with the foreground using Photoshop’s essential layer style Digital matte painter Doug Winder (dougwinder.co.uk), shares one of his key techniques with us here, and it may not be something you’d expect. By using the Color Overlay layer style, he can adjust light in different images for extra realism: “During daylight hours, the further things recede from you, the less detail you pick up, eventually fading towards the base sky colour (and for night scenes this has the opposite effect with more distant objects getting darker). The Color Overlay tool is great, as it allows you to sample directly from your background plate and manually adjust the Opacity and blending mode. “[Here] I extracted and positioned my mountains/cliff faces and graded the individual elements so…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative RAINY BACKGROUND Filters and custom brushes transform this scene from a sunny day to a rainy night. The forecast for today’s weather; changeable. Or at least it is in our surreal image that defies the laws of nature! It involves turning day to night by adjusting Exposure, Saturation and adding a Tint. We’ll also reveal how to make rain from scratch using filters, blurs, blending modes and Levels. Experiment with adapting Elements’ brushes to create two different rain brushes and add splashes and raindrops to your image. If that’s not enough, we’ll also be showing you how to make your own rays of sunshine. We’ve provided all the images you need to follow along with this tutorial so you can jump…

Kevin Roodhorst was never particularly into art growing up. It’s only when he was in his teens that he started experimenting with Photoshop after seeing photomanipulations online, and since then, it’s been a meteoric rise from quitting his job to working with global brands. We asked Kevin what it takes to succeed in design. How would you describe your artistic style, Kevin? I think you can call it digital art, or even mixed media. In terms of style I play a lot with composition and the use of empty space. My work is most often focused on the centre of the canvas with empty space around it, so I suppose I have a specific look within the specific style that I create in! My style did not really evolve, the…

There’s nothing more inspiring than surfing the internet and seeing what other artists are creating, and we encourage you to do so. Here are some of our favourite pictures that caught our attention recently, from some of the world’s most exciting artists and designers. Patrick Seymour www.behance.net/ patrickseymour When it comes to colours and subtle retouching, I always make adjustments in Photoshop. In this case, the hair on my portrait and the interior of the glasses were managed in Photoshop; I also used a little bit of Liquify to make everything perfect. Anil Saxena www.behance.net/ anilrealism Curves, Dodge and Burn were key in bringing in depth by creating highlights and shadows. Layers play a pivotal role in my pictures as they not only create effects but keep work organised. I…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Essentials Works with What you’ll learn How to use a variety of layer styles to create some special effects Time taken 45 minutes Layers are what enable you to build a project from the early foundations to the finishing touches. It’s hard to believe it now, but they weren’t always a feature in Photoshop; it was only in the third version that they were added. These days though, layers are at the very centre of everything you do, and it’s hard to imagine any kind of project without them. They’re not just a tool to keep you organised, they help you structure your work, from the background layer up. The key to creating any amazing image isn’t necessarily in how skilled…

Essentials Time taken 5 hours The artist Vitalii Zamkovyi “My name is Vitalii Zamkovyi, but I go by the nickname Vet Orso online. I’m from the city of Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine, and I’ve loved to draw since my grandfather taught www. me pix as lp a child s e . I drew .co a lot @ when i I l was osit at school and university, but now I work as a UX/UI designer and I draw illustrations just for fun.” To see more Vitalii’s work, check out his portfolio at www.behance.net/vet. “The idea to draw this illustration came to me while I was watching the latest series of the X-Files,” explains Vitalii Zamkovyi, a Ukranian-based artist with a love of drawing intricate illustrations. “The image just came to me,…

Essentials Time taken 5 hours The artist Thibault Daumain “I’m a French art director and illustrator living and working in Paris. Since 2009, I’ve worked as freelancer on a wide range of projects including branding, packaging ww .th pixe , advertising pro s , .com web design @thepixel and rosites illustration. I work for NRJ Digital Solutions, and I am also art director and co-founder of the Léon Marcel spirit brand, created in April 2014.” See more of Thibault’s work at: www.behance.net/ thibaultdaumain Photoshop can create incredible digital art, but equally it’s a platform for traditional artists to import hand-drawn work and embellish it. The colouring, adjustment and brush tools are perfect for integrating analogue work with digital, and you can blur the lines between the two. That’s what French…

An essential technique in the film industry, matte painting has evolved from its traditional origin Matte painting is one of the oldest and most-used visual effects in filmmaking and production. Pre-digital, a matte would often be a painted glass pane that would show a landscape or set piece that would be incorporated into a live-action scene either during filming or in post-production. Mattes have been used in some of the most famous films of all time. Alfred Hitchcock used glass panes for his popular films from as early as the 1940s, and George Lucas and Industrial Light and Magic incorporated matte paintings into the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones series. Many of the original uses of matte-painted glass panes have been replaced by the introduction of green-screen technology, but…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Essentials Time taken 1 hour Expert John Ross “ www Sometimes .thepixel , the rositess best way .com to @thepixel retouch male rosites models is to keep the imperfections – after all, it’s the dramatic grittiness that adds to the masculinity of the image. All you need to do is make subtle changes that blend skin imperfections and take the edge off the skin, and with my simple techniques, you’ll be able to do just that and more. “With 20 years of professional experience, I educate photographers and retouchers by expanding their knowledge through my website www.TheArtofRetouching.com. For your burning questions and to grasp a more personal learning experience on all things Photoshop, you can also catch my comprehensive live classes…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative SIMPLE SWIRLS By using simple shapes and colours, you can build up a dynamic impression of the ocean. FINISH WITH FILTERS Filters finish off the effect, neatening up brush strokes in a couple of clicks! Realism isn’t the only way to paint. This tutorial utilises Photoshop Elements’ Solid Color layers and filters, which can be found in the Expert mode, to create a stylised and dramatic image. Starting with a reference photograph, you will build up one colour at a time, using the layer masks of the colour layers. Using this method, you can easily adjust your colours and make any changes to your brush strokes quickly and easily – without affecting any other layer! Throughout the tutorial you’ll be using…

“I work as a designer creating landing pages, newsletters and banners,” says Alexandre Perez, “but geek culture and fantasy are big inspirations for me artistically.” Alexandre’s work is often bright and colourful, but still has intrigue and mystery. We caught up with the artist to find out what makes a good composition and how he creates such surreal work. How would you describe your artwork to someone? Fantasy! I prefer to create things that do not exist in real life. I like to use children and animals in my artwork; it’s nice to start with sunlight or moonlight and work around that. I use children a lot in my work because they have the imagination to dream of the things happening in the scenes I create. Where do your ideas…