February 2013

How to Cut Images Out of Background

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A Much Easier Way to Draw

If you have ever had a really hard time making a layer mask or retouching someone’s skin, this cool tip will really help you.

This seems like a really silly tool, but it actually does make painting in Photoshop much easier. I know that when I draw on a normal piece of paper, I am always rotating it around to make my lines better and to make it more comfortable. This is basically the same thing.

We all have a natural motion that our hands move in, this is consistent whether you are using a mouse or a tablet. Trying to make well controlled strokes that go against that motion often results in failure.

Or you are like me, and twist your head and neck around every time you do something to the point of near injury.

OpenGL

I make it pretty obvious in this video that I don’t really know what this means. I know one of you brilliant Phamily members does though. Help us out!

Your Tricks

Have you learned any cool tips or trick when it comes to Photoshop or photography lately?
Let us know what they are – The coolest tip will get a Phlearn PRO.

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Secret To Creating Shadows In Photoshop – A Phlearn Video Tutorial

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How to calculate light in shadows

Creating realistic shadows in Photoshop really is about the hardest thing you can do. The reason for this, is that there is so much more going on than what most people think about. In today’s episode, I am going to shed some light on what needs to be done to create perfect composites.

Today’s Episode Timeline

0:32 – Announcing Amelia’s Move & what that means for you
1:00 – Announcing the winners from last week’s contest!
3:00 – The secret that no one thinks about when doing composites
4:20 – Showing light bouncing back and forth
6:20 – Why this contest is going to benefit you
7:30 – Adding a bit more to the mushroom
8:50 – Fixing exposure and color
10:10 – Taking the light and color from the mushroom
16:20 – Adding depth to the shadow
19:30 – EPISODE PUMP UP .

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The Secret Behind Levels Vs Curves In Photoshop – A Phlearn Video Tutorial

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Why Curves and Levels Are Important

Curves and Levels are the bread and butter of photo editing, but it can be difficult to know which one to use. Today we analyze both, and give the strengths and weakness of each. I also cover when I use levels and when I use curves, and how to make the process more simple.

Today’s Episode Timeline

0:03 – Adjustment layers are like Jelly Beans
1:30 – What Curves and Levels have to do with editing.
2:40 – Overview of when I use Curves
3:15 – Overview of when I use Levels
4:40 – Explaining input and output levels
7:00 – Showing the parallels between levels and curves
8:20 – Drastic changes with Curves
9:30 – How to make Curves very user friendly
13:30 – Choosing your black point, grey point and white point.
14:00 – A great tip for people who shoot with a grey card
13:30 – Choosing your black point, grey point and white point.
16:30 – Teach me something about Curves and Levels
What to use if you don’t like graphs

There is a hand tool in the curves adjustment layer that will allow you to click directly in your image and change your values and colors based on where you click. It takes all the technical stuff out of editing, and just leaves the fun. Highly suggested.

Curves

In general, curves are a bit more user friendly, and will allow you to make more dramatic changes than levels. With the ability to change things drastically comes the ability to either really mess an image up, or make it great.
Here is when I will use Curves

Adjusting the colors of highlights, mid-tones and shadows
Adjusting very specific values (Using the Hand)
Creating Vignettes (Pull RGB up in center slightly)
In compositing, often you will need to change colors, lights and darks to make an image fit. Curves handle this very well
Making drastic changes
Levels

Levels are perfect for large global adjustments such as making the lights of an entire image a little less bright. They are a bit more subtle than curves.
Here is when I use Levels

Making subtle changes
Adding slight color to highlights and shadows (as depicted in the image be Annie Leibovitz below)
Making white leves slightly darker so things don’t look blown out
In this amazing image of the White Stripes, Annie’s retoucher Pascal Dangin uses levels to add the perfect amount of cyan into the shadows. This is a perfect application for Levels. .

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For more tutorials and how to videos check out our extensive Photoshop and photography video channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/PhlearnLLC
We cover everything from Photoshop tutorials, photography tutorials, how to videos and more!