BlogWatts » Photography

Enhancing a Photo with Gradients and Filters

Anthony — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:29:06 +0000

Gradients and filters can be used for many things in Photoshop, but my personal favorite is to use them on photos. This tutorial will teach you some basic techniques to use when applying gradients and filters to a photo or image.

As always experimentation is key, so feel free to try different colors and filter settings when trying this on your own work.

Step 1: Find an image that you would like to use. I found this photo on Stock.xchng. (Unfortunately I lost the link, if someone finds it please feel free to post it under comments)

Step 2: Create a new layer. Choose the gradient tool and set your foreground color to #FFFFFF and your background color to #D59832, and then create a gradient across the whole image as shown below.

Step 3: Set the layer style to color burn

Step 4: Create a new layer again, but this time fill it with #D59832 using the paint bucket tool. Set this layer to color burn as well.

Step 5: Copy your original photo layer and move it above all of the other layers that we have created so far. Set the layer mode to color.

Step 6: We are now going to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image. To do this go to Image>>Adjustments>>Brightness/Contrast. For this photo I decided to go +33 on the brightness and +39 on the contrast but this will vary depending on the image itself. The best way to do this is to simply experiment. Make sure you have the preview box checked so that you can see your changes as they are made.

Step 7: Select all by pressing “Ctrl+A” and then press “Shift+Ctrl+C“. This will copy merged which means that everything that you see will be copied together and not in separate layers. Now paste it on the top of all of the layers.

Now go to Filter>>Blur>>Gaussian Blur and use a radius of about 0.6 (Again this will depend on your image, you want the image to look slightly blurry).

Set the layer mode to Overlay. This enhances the colors of the image and leaves us with a photo that looks amazing. But we need to still work on the sky.

Step 8: To give the sky some life I selected the brush tool and set the Hardness to 0. Then use #56a4da (or any other “sky” color) and painted over the sky. Then set the layer mode to Overlay.

We are done : Quite a huge difference!!

9 Great HDR Car Photos

Anthony — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:59:06 +0000

Car photos taken with high dynamic range (HDR) shots are a great way to get started if you are a beginner are experienced in taking great HDR photos. Why you might ask? Well with all of the reflections and shine that a car has, as well as plenty of shadows and darker areas in the wheel wells, grills etc, it becomes a great subject for HDR photos.

Just look at these 9 examples of great HDR car photos that I found on flickr. Each photo is linked to the original photo’s URL so if you wish to comment on their photo you can do so, also feel free to post a comment or post your own HDR car photos at the comment box below.

Intermediate Photo Effect

Anthony — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 18:59:34 +0000

This is a Intermediate tutorial on how to make your pictures have a very proffesional look. In this tutorial you will learn about sharpening techniques, and some coloring techniques, to make your photos more vibrant. I personally use this on many photos and they come out great! Check back soon as there is another photo tutorial coming soon.

In this tutorial I will show you some unique effects to try on your photos. For this tutorial I am using an image from sxc.hu, you can access the photo directly by clicking this link.

First open the picture you would like to use.

Duplicate the layer by pressing Ctrl J or by going to layer then duplicate layer on the menu bar.

Next go to Filter > Other > High Pass . Use a setting of about 0.8 if you are using the sample photo, otherwise the golden rule is to make it so that just enough of the image is showing so that you don’t see a lot of colors, but rather different shades of gray.

Now change the layer mode to overlay, Notice the added sharpness to the edges of the towers.

We are now going to adjust the color of the image by going to Image > Adjustments > Curves. Drag the two points as shown in the image below.

We are now going to adjust the color of the image by going to Image > Adjustments > Levels Drag the two points as shown in the image below.

Now we are going to select all Ctrl + A then press Shift + Ctr + C to copy the entire image. Now press Ctrl + V to paste the image as the top layer. Change this new layers mode to Overlay and opacity to 23%.

What this does is emphasize the color of the image.

Now we are going to do the same thing we did in the last step press Ctrl + A then press Shift + Ctr + C to copy the entire image. Now press Ctrl + V to paste the image as the top layer.

Next go to Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlight set the Shadow value to about 28% and leave the Highlights value at 0%

This makes the shadows not as overpowering so we can see more defined trees and we can get a bit more detail that is normally to dark to see.
Now to add some Color Balance, click on the icon below at the bottom of the layers pattlete then click on Color Balance… Add the following settings

As you might have noticed the sky is a bit washed out, to fix this we are going to use the color balance technique again. This time however we just want the sky. So go to Select > Color Range then set the fuzziness to about 80, and while the color range window is still open click the sky, and then press ok. You should now see that you have selected the sky.

Click on the icon below at the bottom of the layers pattlete then click on Color Balance… Add the following settings

You are now left with a great looking photo!!