Table of contents for No. 157 in Photoshop Creative

It’s been a fun time in the Photoshop Creative office, as we’ve been trying out some new stuff to share with you. Our big feature is – yes, you guessed it – all about photo retouching and manipulation. We’ve got no less (maybe more) than 25 expert tips on how to get the most out of Photoshop when editing photographs, from fine adjustments to dramatic alterations. Then we have a great selection of tutorials for you, and the one I’m perhaps most excited about is a first for Photoshop Creative – where we combine ArtRage with Photoshop to craft a fantastic portrait that looks hand-painted. Go to p64 to see what it’s all about. Among other cool tutorials are how to use masks and layers to transform a city into…

Jimnah Njue https://www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/jimnah Image of the issue I used a layer mask on the city between the city and the sky by painting with a soft black brush. I brought in the model, applied blue and orange solid colours and set the blend mode to Soft Light to create the overall emotional tone of the manipulation. Bill Bonaros https://www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/Billybon I took a photo of my hand holding a phone and then I put a photo of a lake on top of the phone. I added mountains with different lighting, then I added some clouds and birds. I painted with a soft orange-coloured brush to add some illumination. Lucy Liew https://www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/user/lucyliew The image was made from a few other images, which I then manipulated into a scene of a gigantic person…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Essentials Works with What you’ll learn How to create a dispersion effect using the Warp Tool Time taken 4 hours Expert Rodrigo Marinelli Mixing reality with fantasy is always a good starting point for an image. Every time we add a new element in an unexpected way into the scene, the final result will be more interesting. 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. One of the most interesting exercises to enhance your creativity is to combine different elements into the same scene. This exercise works particularly well if you pick elements you might see in your daily life, for example a woman…

Radial glows 01 Add Colour Fill layer Click the ‘Create new fill or adjustment layer’ button, choose Solid Color. Pick #ff0029. Set the blend mode to Screen. 02 Invert Because you’ll manually apply colour, click the mask and press Cmd/Ctrl+I. You can now apply white (and shades of grey) to bring in the colour. 03 Prepare Gradient Tool Select the Gradient Tool. Choose Radial and Foreground to Transparent preset. This uses the Foreground colour, so set to white. Set gradient opacity to 100% for now. 04 Now for glows Click and drag on the canvas to add radial gradients to the mask, thereby revealing colour glows. Reduce gradient opacity as needed. Repeat the process and add other colours.…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Essentials Works with What you’ll learn Paint and erase with brushes, use blend modes, and blur effects Time taken 3-5 hours Expert BÜRO UFHO Introducing blur of different amounts can create a depth of field effect and give dynamism to your artwork. Being both an artist, under the moniker kittozutto, and graphic design studio, BÜRO UFHO, we have been using Photoshop for over ten years. In 2015, we had the privilege to be invited by Adobe, together with 70 artists, to celebrate its 25th Anniversary of Photoshop. Japan – thousands of people in the creative industry pilgrimage there every year. Almost exactly a year ago, we were in the land of creative inspiration for a group show. We couldn’t help but…

01 Enhance shadows/highlights To improve the buildings, press Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+N. Clip the layers. Set the blend mode to Overlay and Fill with Overlay-Neutral colour. Grab the Dodge/ Burn Tool. 02 Dodge/Burn settings Before painting the neutral layer, go to Options, set the Range to Midtones and then set the Exposure to around 25%. 03 Add shadows Paint shadows under the giraffes. Use the Drop Shadow layer style to create shadows for the trees. Go to Layer> Layer Style> Create Layer and press Cmd/Ctrl+T to adjust perspective. 04 Make adjustments For step 21, place the images, adjust the tones using Levels and reduce the saturation or brightness for each image to match the scene.…

Essentials Time taken 4-5 hours Expert Phil Galloway I am primarily a fine artist who was thrust into the exciting world of digital art a few years ago. This has led me on a journey to create realistic and believable digital artworks that evoke my real-world style. ArtRage and its fantastic rendering of textures and brush strokes is perfect for achieving the look of traditional media. Photoshop has added a further feel of realism. I am a contemporary fine and digital artist who specialises in portraiture with a focus on expressive realism. I have a Masters degree in History of Art that has helped to shape my own style across all mediums. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through creating a believable digital portrait using only the pixels on a…

HOW CAN I CREATE COMPOSITIONS WITH DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE BETWEEN THE SUBJECTS? It’s always a fun task to create the most outlandish picture possible to test out your editing skills. Often, this comes in the form of a perspective-busting composition, whether that’s an image with extreme angles, or as in this case, one of the subjects being much bigger than the other. With this particular image, start off by taking the tiger image and cutting it out using whichever selection tool you see fit. Refine the edge and then place the tiger on one side of the composition, before doing the same with the girl, and placing her on the other side. Use adjustments such as Levels and Brightness/Contrast to blend both together. Add a layer, fill with black and…

“I’ve been using Photoshop for editing and retouching ever since I first started freelance photography work back in 2007,” says Lucy Liew, a self-taught photographer from Malaysia. In the last ten years, Lucy’s picked up all kinds of techniques to perfect her work and create imaginative nature compositions. We asked her about her artwork and how she creates it. How do you start an image? Usually, I already have the image visualised in my mind. Then I will start searching for the right stock photo to create the image. I may sometimes change the final piece, but the main idea remains the same. What are your favourite themes to work with? I would say that my favourite themes are nature and wildlife but I am also into fantasy, surreal and…

Frame mockups Choose from premium frame mockups to enhance your artwork Marble textures Give your art the golden touch with any of 25 different textures. Lighting effects Make your images stand out with a range of lighting effects. On the FileSilo this issue… • 4 Frame mockups worth $37 • 50 Lighting effects • 30 Flare & Haze overlays worth $6 • 27 Red & pink watercolour textures worth $12 • 25 Gold marble textures worth $10 • 100 Marble backgrounds • A total of 236 resources worth $65 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 Free for digital readers too! Read on your tablet, download on your computer FileSilo  The home of great downloads –…

We challenged you In issue 155, we challenged you to get creative with these four images. You were allowed to use any or all of the pictures, and whatever other resources you chose. Here's what you created. Challenge entries The best entries and overall challenge winner 1 Corine Spring Oracle All of the challenge images supplied were added into this composition for the final result. The colour palette was extremely important when it came to creating the dark mood of this entry. 2 Pamela Woerst Ray Of Light This entry was created with some of the supplied images of the challenge, plus a few others from free stock photo site Unsplash, to create a lighthouse composition. 3 Randolph Asaki Bubbly Girl All the supplied files were incorporated using layers and…

Attention to the details 01 Set the tone Let’s adjust the river’s tone. Set the foreground colour to #203d5a, use the Brush Tool (B), paint the river and change the blend mode to Colour. 02 Make a gradient mask Use the woman’s shadow layer, follow step 4 and make a gradient mask. Finally set the opacity to 70% and change the blend mode to Multiply. 03 Add the details Create a new layer, set the foreground colour to black, use a Soft Round brush (B) and make the side shadows. Finally, change the blend mode to Soft Light. 04 Apply the Cloud filter Create a new layer, reset the colour palette (press D) and apply Filter> Render> Clouds). Make a mask (step 3) to erase unnecessary parts and change the…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Essentials Works with What you’ll learn The tools and techniques needed for realistic compositions Time taken 4 hours Expert Rodrigo Marinelli Nature is always an inspiration to me. It offers infinite creative possibilities, such as this tutorial image, which challenges our imagination to think what a watch would look like if it were engulfed by nature. I’m an art director and have 12 years’ experience in advertising agencies. I learned and am still learning to use Photoshop through following tutorials. Nature is always a great inspiration for a new image – there are so many colours, animals and flowers around us that is impossible not be inspired. But to create an image that really catches the viewer’s attention, it’s sometimes necessary…

01 Purple shadows Fill a new layer with #453161. Set the layer to Lighten, opacity at 50%. This will lighten the blacks of your image to a dark purplish hue. 02 Yellow sunlight On a new layer with a Soft Round Brush, paint in light streaks with #ffc833, going from the top left to bottom right. Set layer to Soft Light to give a yellowish sunlight hue. 03 Sharpen the face Select All and copy merge your image. Go to Filter> Other> High Pass. Set Radius to 1px. Set layer to Linear Light, opacity at 50%. Mask off the unwanted areas. 04 Final adjustments Add a Curves adjustment layer. Pull down on the first quarter and pull up slightly on the third quarter to produce an S-curve. Set opacity to…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Essentials Time taken 2 hours Expert Daniel Sinoca Creating transparent objects is one of my favourite subjects and thanks to Photoshop, I can transform a simple image into a great composition. By combining features like layer styles, blend modes, adjustments, and filters with other tools enables me to experiment with different approaches to get the results I want and improve my skills in Photoshop. I always look for new ways to create different digital effects, and this curiosity keeps me in a constant state of learning. I started to get involved in the digital world over 15 years ago and have been working as a freelance artist ever since, creating all kinds of multimedia projects and tutorial guides. In this tutorial,…

About the artist Aly Bassam is a Lebanese visual artist, who studied graphic design and visual communication at the Lebanese University. He has nine years’ experience in Photoshop, has founded his own creative agency, and is an art director at DRIFT Production. He has worked on advertising campaigns and movie posters all over the world. Name of the project The Final Chapter Both gaming and digital art are thriving art forms in their own right, and when they come together, the results can be spectacular. It was this hive of creative possibility that inspired Lebanese artist, Aly Bassam, to attempt his own project blending video games with photomanipulation. Aly created the project from scratch for university, and says he spent longer on this than any other project he’s ever worked…

COLOUR WITH HALFTONE Use the Halftone filter to complete the pop-art look. Use it on the skin tone and speech bubble. When asked about pop art, it’s likely that the first names you think of are Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein. Though they were certainly masters of the genre, the term ‘pop art’ encapsulates a spectrum of art styles. The central idea of pop art is to embrace what is popular instead of snubbing it in favour of styles that are arbitrarily considered more ‘refined’. It often included the use of advertising material, everyday scenes and objects, and most famously the use of comic art, which is what we’ll concentrate on here. The comic art style was most prevalent in the 1950s and ’60s, with heavy use of spot blacks,…

GRAIN If you want your images to truly look natural and like they exist in the real world, add some grain to give them APERTURE SHAPE Choose the shape of the blur in the background to create a bokeh effect using the Aperture shape and size settings. BATCH EDIT Batch edit a selection of projects you wish to apply depth of field to, decide on the output filename and run altogether Price £77.50 / $99.99 Web http://richardrosenman.com/shop/dof-pro/ Creating believable and realistic depth of field can be tricky to get right. Enter DOF PRO, a Photoshop plug-in aimed at doing precisely this. It can be used on CG renders and also for enhancing photographs. The plug-in works by using a depth map to create the depth of field. CG renders often…

Make a selection I used two stock images, of a deer and a forest. I started with making a selection of the deer shape using the Quick Selection Tool. Adjust the layers Next I opened the forest image and placed it on top of the deer layer, before changing the opacity so I could see where I wanted to place it. Create the layer mask I changed the forest layer opacity setting back to 100%. Then I selected the deer layer and Cmd/ Ctrl-clicked on the layer preview of the deer to select it. Next I selected the forest layer and then created a layer mask. Blend it I started blending the whole image using masks. To make the entire image look interesting, I altered the colour tones using a…

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. Ori Toor http://oritoor.com/ Every illustration or animation I do is improvised on the spot. This one is no exception. I like using Photoshop with the Lazy Nezumi Pro plug-in, which helps me to get smooth lines and the feeling of friction that comes with drawing on real paper. Denis Pakhaliuk https://dribbble.com/RAMOTION This piece of work was completed as a team. The illustration was made in Adobe Photoshop with only a round brush. We drew it in black and white first to find the right proportions and…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Essentials Works with What you’ll learn How to combine a photo, shapes, and graphics into a colourful composition Time taken 2 hours Expert Andre Villanueva I love playing around with a handful of semi-random objects and uniting them in some way. Starting these types of compositions is usually easy enough. The hard part comes when it’s time to complete the image. I can endlessly tinker and tweak the configurations. In fact, I have many pieces stuck in creation limbo, awaiting the salvation of completion. Need an eye-catching visual to promote a new product or service? Have an exciting editorial requiring a colourful illustration? Just want to produce something creative and cool? Here you’ll learn how to forge such an image, coordinating…

The artist Steve Simpson With over 30 years’ experience, Steve Simpson is renowned for his hand-lettered packaging design, whimsical characters and illustrated barcodes. His distinctive www thepix style lprositess , inspired by m the @thepi arts & crafts ro tes movement, ’50s advertising and folk art, has appeared on everything from a 1” postage stamp to a 200ft screen in Times Square. His work has adorned whiskey bottles and cough bottles, board games and boardrooms, hot sauces and ceramic saucers. Essentials Time taken 36 hours Steve Simpson is no stranger to creating with Photoshop, and has designed work for a range of clients all around the world. But it was a commission for the Irish Tourism Board that brought him right back to Dublin, where he now resides. “The brief…

01 Add a shadow Set the foreground colour to black, use the Brush Tool, set opacity to 80%, change the blend mode to Soft Light and make a shadow in front of the watch. 02 Use filters Duplicate the pointer layer (Cmd/ Ctrl+J) and apply the Glass Filter with Distortion: 8, Smoothness: 12, Texture: Foosted and Scaling: 100%. Repeat with the numbers layer. 03 Create the lens flare Create a new layer, set the foreground colour to black and paint the entire scene (Alt+Del). Then apply a lens flare (Filter> Render> Lens Flare) and change the blend mode to Screen. 04 Some texture To give a foggy look to the scene, add ‘texture_01.psd’, place it in front of the watch and change the blend mode to Screen with 70% opacity.…

01 Smart Objects After cutting the image in step 1, convert to a Smart Object. Double-click to open it. Use the Clone Stamp Tool to clean up the image, then Save. 02 Stronger highlights In step 15 you can easily increase the intensity of the highlight just by duplicating the layer. Press Cmd/Ctrl+J and clip the layers (Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+G). 03 Brush presets Add new brush presets to your Preset Manager. Go to Edit> Presets> Preset Manager. Click Load and locate the file ‘fo_brushes157.abr’, then click Load and hit Done. 04 Edit the brush Create a new layer, grab the Brush Tool. Select the new droplets brushes, press F5, tweak the Shape Dynamics and Scattering, then paint the droplets over the image.…

Price £9 (approx) / $12 US Web www.grutbrushes.com/ Clouds are a nightmare to work with in Photoshop. If you’re trying to mask them in, you need images of clouds on black backgrounds; if not, you’ll have to try and cut them out. A good solution is to use cloud brushes, and this collection from GrutBrushes is not only fantastic quality, but they’re easy to apply. There are plenty of styles to experiment with, from trail-like brushes to more clustered clouds, and they look just as realistic in photos as they do in digital art. You also have the benefit of being able to resize them, change the opacity and alter the settings, too. Good-quality brushes can be hard to find, and the nebulous nature of clouds makes them difficult to…

When did you first discover Photoshop? I was at university. I had saved enough money to buy my first computer and some basic software and luckily as a student, I was able to get Photoshop at a preferential price. Unlike today where Photoshop is affordable, the cost of Photoshop in Poland back then was greater than the total cost of the computer and monitor! Unfortunately, I did not have enough money for the graphics tablet then, so for some time, I worked using only the mouse, which is not the best tool for drawing and painting. Did this technique improve your art style? Over the years, I have constantly been challenging myself to expand my skills. For almost 15 years, working in the entertainment industry, I tried many different styles,…