Photoshop Assignments???

cletus · April 5, 2004

The weekly assignments have been a lot of fun. I thought it might be fun to have Photoshop assignments as well. The assignments would have to be set up so that they could be accomplished with a variety of image editing programs (i.e. Photoshop, PS Elements, Paintshop, GIMP, etc.). Some ideas I had for assignments:

Correcting a specific problem in a photo (for example correcting an underexposed photo). A problem photo could be posted along with the assignment so everyone would have the same starting point.
Creative use of a tool. People could take their own pictures and use the specified tool (for example the hue/saturation adjustment) to create an abstract version of their original image.

I've got a couple more ideas I might post later.

Does anyone else like this idea???

fish · April 5, 2004

I think that's a great idea, cletus!

wxwax · April 5, 2004

Excellent idea!

Made even better if we could enslave a proficient Photoshopper to give us a tutorial at the end of the challenge period... you know, to show us the right way to do it so we could learn from them.

hutchman · April 5, 2004

A splendid idea!

I went to a Photo Shop training camp 2 weeks ago and really got some good ideas. I spent $200 on a program on DVD that should be here this week. Hope it's worth the money.

One of the guys I work with and I sit down and discuss PS tricks from time to time. It is really amazing how many different ways there are to arrive at the same end product.

What's the first project going to be?

Hutch

hutchman · April 5, 2004

I am going to jump in here and use the picture of Rutt's dog that he posted some time ago. I thought at the time that was a good candidate for tweaking, but I had no better luck than anyone else. During the presentation I attended there were several different experts and subjects presented. One was color correction.

Open your document.
Create a duplicate layer.
Create an adjustment layer for threshold.
Name it Bob if you want to because we are going to cancel it shortly.
Note the blackest and whitest spots in the image.
When the threshold slider comes up, move the slider to the left until the only spot left is a black spot in the picture. (we are going to set the black and white for color correction).
When you find it, number less than 25 or so, shift click on the spot.
Go back to the slider and drag it to the right until you have a white spot.
Shift click on the spot. The number should be at least 225 -230.
Sometimes the white is not white, so you may not use this selection later.
When both are selected, cancel the threshold layer.
Create another adjustment layer, this time for levels.
When the layer opens, you will note the 3 eye droppers in the lower left corner of the box. The one on the left is for black.
Select the one on the left by clicking, then click on the spot selcted for black in the previous layer. The selected spot will be highlighted with a number 1.
Do the same for the one on the far right and select #2.
When I did this with this picture, there was no real white so I canceled and used the black adjustment only.
Next, I selected the area of the picture that was not the dog by drawing around the dog with the lasso tool and selecting inverse under selection.
Using Control J I brought this selection into its own layer, which allowed me to adust this section of the imager without changing the dog, which I was satisfied with.
Using levels, I really brought this area down to a point where it was not so washed out.
The last bit of change was in the dogs mouth, which was also washed out to some degree.
I again used the lasso tool and Control J to adjust only this area in a separate layer.

This sounds much more complicated than it is. Once you do it a few times, you will breeze right through it for all your images.

Results?

Before...

After..

I think the results are better. After trying this technique, you will most likely have a slightly different result, but it should please you. I hope this helps someone else. It really opened my eyes as to what some of my images should look like.

Hutch

cletus · April 6, 2004

hutchman wrote:

It is really amazing how many different ways there are to arrive at the same end product.

That is very true. I always use levels adjustments to correct underexposure in my images. I just picked up a copy of Photoshop CS for Digital Photographers. Scott provides an example of how to use layer blending modes to enhance an underexposed image. I've seen a similar technique to create special effects, but I hadn't seen it used to correct a problem with an image. The beauty of Scott's technique is that there are no histograms and sliders involved... nice and unintimidating for those with a fear of all things numeric.

wxwax wrote:

Made even better if we could enslave a proficient Photoshopper to give us a tutorial at the end of the challenge period... you know, to show us the right way to do it so we could learn from them.

I am by no means a Photoshop expert, but I would love to take a shot at writing up some tutorials (especially if the assignments are kept fairly simple). There are some other folks around here (Cough... Andy) who might be persuaded to write tutorials.

-Eric

wxwax · April 6, 2004

cletus wrote:

That is very true. I always use levels adjustments to correct underexposure in my images. I just picked up a copy of Photoshop CS for Digital Photographers. Scott provides an example of how to use layer blending modes to enhance an underexposed image. I've seen a similar technique to create special effects, but I hadn't seen it used to correct a problem with an image. The beauty of Scott's technique is that there are no histograms and sliders involved... nice and unintimidating for those with a fear of all things numeric.

I am by no means a Photoshop expert, but I would love to take a shot at writing up some tutorials (especially if the assignments are kept fairly simple). There are some other folks around here (Cough... Andy) who might be persuaded to write tutorials.

-Eric

Thanks for reminding me about Scott's technique. I'll have to go back and reread it.

I think you and I are thinking alike about the Photoshop challenge. It's a lot of work for one person, methinks. The more tutors with experience with all the imaging programs, the better, IMHO. Sure sounds like a fun way to learn. There's something rewarding about posting your material for others to see.

hutchman · April 7, 2004

This little trick was presented at the Photo Shop Training camp I attended. It is very simple, but can be used to really improve a picture.

The original taken from a moving boat, so it was hard to get a steady footing. The result, these 2 subject boats were pointing uphill.

After a little color correction and sharpening...

I used the Free Transform tool to select the entire image.
I then rotated the image to make the river horizontal.
All that remains is to crop the picture as per your desire.

Maybe not a great picture but much better than the original.

Hutch

AltPro · April 7, 2004

cletus wrote:

The weekly assignments have been a lot of fun. I thought it might be fun to have Photoshop assignments as well. The assignments would have to be set up so that they could be accomplished with a variety of image editing programs (i.e. Photoshop, PS Elements, Paintshop, GIMP, etc.). Some ideas I had for assignments:

Does anyone else like this idea???

Bring on the assignments!!!
If I can help at all... I have taken 2 full semesters of Photoshop, and Digital. Will be taking another semester on CS this fall... By no means a Pro with regard to PS etc, but might be able to help in some areas?

Would love a challenge.

peachmaan · April 8, 2004

I'm in

rutt · April 8, 2004

Here is an assignment

peachmaan wrote:

I'm in

Improve this image. Make the berries look more three dimensional, more round.

Work with the original, which is here.

If you like, use a different image, but the idea should be the same, make the subject seem to have three dimensional depth.

Entries should include not only the resulting image, but also the recipe.

Hint: More saturated colors appear closer. Of course, this excercise is suggested by the work of Dan Margulis and is based on an example in his book and on an excercise with a different image that I Dan assigned in his class, which I attended. Nevertheless, I have found this particularly hard to master.

cletus · April 8, 2004

rutt wrote:

Improve this image. Make the berries look more three dimensional, more round.

Work with the original, which is here.

If you like, use a different image, but the idea should be the same, make the subject seem to have three dimensional depth.

Entries should include not only the resulting image, but also the recipe.

Hint: More saturated colors appear closer. Of course, this excercise is suggested by the work of Dan Margulis and is based on an example in his book and on an excercise with a different image that I Dan assigned in his class, which I attended. Nevertheless, I have found this particularly hard to master.

Thanks rutt! I'll give it a try.

Although this is a good assignment, when I was originally thinking about this topic I thought it would be good to start off very simple. I get the impression that a lot of the folks here at dgrin are fairly comfortable with PS (or some other image editing program) but it seems like there are quite a few folks that have a good program but aren't quite sure how to use it. If we start the assignments off slow some of those people could still take part. Hopefully with each assignment they would learn a little bit more and gradually the assignments could get more complex.

Another benefit of starting off slow is that the more experienced users might learn alternate ways of doing simple tasks and find a more efficient way of working.

As wxwax pointed out it would be nice to have a step-by-step tutorial available at the end of the assignment. Along with that, providing hints as rutt has is a great idea. Maybe the hints should go in a seperate thread so that someone reading the assignment doesn't see the hints unless they go looking for them???

I guess a lot of this is up to Baldy

. After all this is his house.

-Eric

rutt · April 8, 2004

cletus wrote:

I guess a lot of this is up to Baldy . After all this is his house.

-Eric

Let 1000 flowers bloom. Anybody can propose an assignment and anybody can choose to work on it or not.

Why not start a thread for each assignment with a title like:

ASSIGNMENT: Saturation and depth

or:

ASSIGNMENT: Attaching the president's head to the body of an elephant

AltPro · April 8, 2004

hutchman wrote:

I am going to jump in here and use the picture of Rutt's dog that he posted some time ago. I thought at the time that was a good candidate for tweaking, but I had no better luck than anyone else. During the presentation I attended there were several different experts and subjects presented. One was color correction.
Hey all....

After a very long night, (my husband, Terry, flipped and then rolled his truck last evening -less than 1/2 mile from our driveway- just as I was finishing up my dog... Has slowed me down a bit...) I am finally sending off my thoughts and ideas for "tweaking" the dog.

If anyone is interested in walk-thru info, let me know.

My daughter thinks I got carried away, but it's my release, and I had fun for the hour... Should have really worked the background in a bit longer to have it appear with more subtlety, but need to get ready to head out for Dr's appointments with Terry and our son, too.

as always,
ginette

AltPro · April 8, 2004

cletus wrote:

Thanks rutt! I'll give it a try.

Although this is a good assignment, when I was originally thinking about this topic I thought it would be good to start off very simple. I get the impression that a lot of the folks here at dgrin are fairly comfortable with PS (or some other image editing program) but it seems like there are quite a few folks that have a good program but aren't quite sure how to use it. If we start the assignments off slow some of those people could still take part. Hopefully with each assignment they would learn a little bit more and gradually the assignments could get more complex.

Another benefit of starting off slow is that the more experienced users might learn alternate ways of doing simple tasks and find a more efficient way of working.

As wxwax pointed out it would be nice to have a step-by-step tutorial available at the end of the assignment. Along with that, providing hints as rutt has is a great idea. Maybe the hints should go in a seperate thread so that someone reading the assignment doesn't see the hints unless they go looking for them???

I guess a lot of this is up to Baldy . After all this is his house.

-Eric

Eric:

You're right, though, simple would be the best way to begin. One of the early assignments I would suggest would be to change the color of a car. When using photoshop or such, we are supposed to remember that the final image should look natural and unretouched. (This being said after I presented my dog...) I would have to look in a box or two, but if Baldy would like, I would be glad to post some of the early "challenges" we were presented.

Just my fifty cents...

ginette

cletus · April 8, 2004

rutt wrote:

Improve this image. Make the berries look more three dimensional, more round.

I started playing with rutt's assignment and came upon this by accident:

What's amazing is how simple this was:

Sample a shade of red off one of the berries using the eyedropper tool (this sets the foreground color to red)
Add a solid color fill layer (using the red foreground color)
Change the new layer's mode to Color Burn

rutt · April 8, 2004

AltPro wrote:

hutchman wrote:

I am going to jump in here and use the picture of Rutt's dog that he posted some time ago.

Very nice. Vickie is happy to have been pasted into such a pleasant summer day and to have her tounge returned to her.

I would be interested in the details of what you did. Did you work with the full sized original? Did you start with the underexposed original, or one of the improved images?

rutt · April 8, 2004

cletus wrote:

I started playing with rutt's assignment and came upon this by accident:

As long as people want simple cool photoshop tricks, you can amaze your friends with this:

Image->Mode->LAB
Curves->Channel A
Invert the curve -- move the right side point to the top and the left side point to the bottom.
Viola

The real trick is understanding why.

wxwax · April 8, 2004

Ginette, I hope your hubby's OK. That's a heck of a thing to have happen.

AltPro · April 8, 2004

rutt wrote:

Very nice. Vickie is happy to have been pasted into such a pleasant summer day and to have her tounge returned to her.

I would be interested in the details of what you did. Did you work with the full sized original? Did you start with the underexposed original, or one of the improved images?

Rutt:
Glad that "Vickie" is happy... But please note that I did not paste her into the "pleasant summer day." I built the background...

This is a long process of instructions.... I will beging it tonight, and complete it in the morning.... So when you get to the bottom of these instructions, Save it as a Working Copy PSD if you want to be able to pick up from there and finish.

Also be aware for those who may not know. The working HISTORY is LOST when saved then CLOSED. When you re-open, the HISTORY will start fresh as a NEW Slate!

First I started with the "underexposed original."
Going to File
Save as: Changing it to a PSD
Next Select all: (If using PC-- Substitute the Control key for Mac) Mac A
Then: Mac C to Copy
And Paste Mac V 3 times
This will give you 3 New Layers.
Double clicking in the Layer palette will allow you to rename the Layer[/L]Name each layer- I always make it simple. Also, I instantly hide (make invisible) the Background Layer, by clicking on the EYE. This will allow you to have an Original Untouched Layer that You can Easily refer to, or Copy again should you need to.
1. Working Layer
2. Working Background
3. Spare
On the Working Layer:
Now, Using the Magic Wand and the Shift Key, Select the background. Continuing as needed to get as close to the Dogs head without capturing his head with the marching ants of the Magic Wand.
Note: That you can adjust the "Tolerance" at the top of the tool bar. Setting your Magic Wand Tolerance will allow you to determine how much of an area is selected each time you Click on the Mouse. Holding the Shift Key will add to the selection, Holding the Option/Alt Key will subtract from the selection.
When working with the Layer Magnify the Area so that you can get a clear view of what you are selecting.

Continue with the Magic Wand until all of the background is selected. If, (which there will be) there are areas that need more precision, You can use the Lasso Tool Add or Subtract by using the Shift to maintain selection and Add, and the Option/Alt to Subtract as you click.

Once Selection is Complete: Copy and paste as new Layer - Name as BackgroundScene
Select INVERSE: Copy & Paste as New Layer, Name as Dog Head

ADVANCED: Once entire Selection is complete, go to Path, create "Working Path," Save it with Name, ie. First "BackGround" then Repeat with New Saved Path for "Dog Head."

SAVE as DogWorkingCopy.PSD

Now You are ready to begin adjusting Each Layer.
I recommend begining with the Working Layere again, and using it as long as you can.
But that's all I can write for tonight. Hope this helps... I will go on if the interest is ther and you can follow what I am writing, to explain the building of the background and adjustments to correct or at least enhance the Subject, "Vickie."

Later,
ginette

AltPro · April 8, 2004

wxwax wrote:

Ginette, I hope your hubby's OK. That's a heck of a thing to have happen.

Thanks WxWax... HE will be OK... But he is stiched up, & fairly Bruised up, to say the least.... Not too mention sore as heck. He had never had an IV before, and he has never been in the hospital, or injured really.... So this came as quite a shock to him.... I'm usually the one that is in that role, if any.... He truly was Blessed to have "Walked Out" as well as he did.
But thank you so much for the well wishes... I will pass them on, along with a terrible shot of the accident... No lighting other than a quick Pop-up on the Nikon 5700 and of course No tripod last night, so they are very poor... But you'll get the idea.

I remain, as always,
ginette

rutt · April 9, 2004

AltPro wrote:

Thanks WxWax... HE will be OK... But he is stiched up, & fairly Bruised up, to say the least.... Not too mention sore as heck. He had never had an IV before, and he has never been in the hospital, or injured really.... So this came as quite a shock to him.... I'm usually the one that is in that role, if any.... He truly was Blessed to have "Walked Out" as well as he did.

Ugh, I didn't have the right picture! Pretty drammatic. You made it sound like a minor distraction from your photoshop work. It's great that you husband is going to be OK.

rutt · April 9, 2004

rutt wrote:

Improve this image. Make the berries look more three dimensional, more round.

OK, perhaps this assignment was aimed more at me than at anyone else, but I did find that I now have enough experience to get something like the effect I wanted:

The recipe follows, but the theory is more insterting. In CMYK, the berries have much very light cyan and very heavy yellow and magenta. This is what makes them bright red. It also means that small changes in cyan will produce drammatic results; as more cyan is added, the red moves towad dark grey or even black. So we'd like to find or manufacture a cyan channel that has heavy cyan on the edges of the berries and light cyan in the centers. This will give depth to the berries because the brighter color will seem to be closer. We can also sharpen in the cyan channel to bring out detail in the berries.

Recipe:

Image->Mode->CMYK
Layer->duplicate
Select duplicate layer
Image->Curves
Mercilessly stepen the cyan channel by moving the shadow point so that the most cyan point on the beries are nearly maximized.
Select duplicate layer and cyan channel.
Filters->Sharpen->Unsharp Mask
Amount >400, Radius>3, Threshold<10
Layer window; Blending options for duplicate layer
Opacity about 80%
Blend if cyan; underlying layer blending range white to slightly cyan. Almost no parts of the image except the berries are affected.
Viola

hutchman · April 11, 2004

John,

I used the color correction process (in RGB) presented in in the PS Training camp. Since there was no real white in the picture, I used the following steps:

1. Duplicate layer.
2. New adjustment layer using threshold.
3. Set adjust point #1 to a black spot on the branch.
4. Cancel threshold.
5. New adjustment layer for levels.
6. Set the black sample pen to the #1 adjust point.
7. Applied unsharp mask on the background copy with about 90% on a 4 pixel radius.
8. New adjust layer with saturation at about +8 or +9.

I think this reduces the slight hazy look and pulls the berries out of the background.

Whaddayathink?

Hutch

fish · April 11, 2004

hutchman wrote:

I think this reduces the slight hazy look and pulls the berries out of the background.

Whaddayathink?

Hutch

Wow. Nice work, Hutch. That one was beyond my capabilities.

hutchman · April 11, 2004

Thanks Fish!

I really enjoy this stuff.

Hutch

rutt · April 12, 2004

hutchman wrote:

Thanks Fish!

I really enjoy this stuff.

Hutch

Great job, Hutch! You and I seem to have acheived very similar results through very different sets of steps. This is shows how the color theory and its implementation in photoshop are different. The theory says that more saturated colors look closer than duller colors and that this can be used to acheive a three dimensional effect. The theory says that blobs of undifferentiated color lack dimensionality. Both of us used these facts, but used differnt tools to make it happen.

Dan Margulis used limes in the example in his book, In the chapter, "Plate Blending as Poetry". If you have the book, check out the end of the chapter and see the results for the model with the red dress and even cooler, the rose that is the emblem of this chapter of his book.

Now about those distracting backgrounds? I thought that was an assignment that everyone would get behind. Am I the only photographer whose shots are often spoiled by stuff in the background?

cletus · April 12, 2004

Here's what I got:

This may sound like a lot of work but it wasn't. I think it took all of five minutes:

Added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer - Saturation - 12%
Added another Hue/Saturation adjustment layer - Saturation +32%
1. Filled the layer mask with black
2. Unmasked the berries using a soft brush
Copied the background layer onto a new layer
1. Moved the new layer above the +32% saturation H/S layer
2. Made the new layer and the +32% saturation H/S a cliping group
3. Changed the new layer's mode to Screen
Made another copy of the background layer onto a new layer
1. Moved the new layer to the top of the layer stack
2. Changed the new layer's mode to Multiply
3. Added a layer mask using Layer > Add Layer Mask > Hide All
4. Unmasked the edges of the berries
Flattened the image
Made a duplicate of the flattened image onto a new layer.
1. Unsharp masked the new layer (I don't remember the settings)
2. Added a layer mask using Layer > Add Layer Mask > Hide All
3. Unmasked the edges of the berries.

hutchman · April 12, 2004

It amazes me to see how many different ways there are to skin a cat!

hutchman · April 12, 2004

I have a project that I would like any of you to try. This is a picture taken last fall on a motorcycle trip to the Oregon Coast. This DC-3 resides at the Tillamook Air Museum. The museum is located in an old blimp hanger that was built during WWII and housed blimps used for coastal patrols.

The project - Make this picture look like it was taken during the late 30s. I have tried several different ways to "age" it and have not been completely happy with the results.

Take your best shot!

Hutch

My latest........

I cloned the lady out.
I selected a new adjustment layer - Channel Mixer.
Selected monochrome and played with the sliders until I got the desired intensity.
Added a fill layer with a dark brown fill at about 16% opacity.
Placed it in the frame.

This one is better than before, but I would like some other ideas. I'm not getting the results I want from black and white.

Hutch

cletus · April 13, 2004

Hutch,

Nice work with the cloning tool!

Photoshop Assignments???

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