# I love Photoshop



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

I don't play around with the program too much, usually just the basic photo edits, nothing crazy, and seldom do I ever alter a photo <sure your going to edit out a pile of poo next to a horse LOL>.

A friend is a writer, she doesn't get anything published, but shares stuff with me now and then. She asked me to alter a pic of a recent character she was working on, and gave me a few pics I could choose from of people that might fit the 'roll.'

So here was my try at altering a pic in photo shop of.....people....hehe...it was a fun challenge, and just thought I'd share since it's LATE, and I can't sleep!

BTW, this is just for fun basically, the image would never be used anywhere without the original owner's permission!

Original









Step 1:
Flipped the pic, got rid of the facial hair, and gave the skin a bit more olive tint
*Here's how I did it:
HAIR REMOVAL: I used the clone tool, selected an area on his chin/cheek that I wanted the hair areas to look like and then cloned out the hair. This is the hardest part in the whole edit, because your trying to keep everything even but have to respect the shadows too

SKIN COLOR: it's not a huge difference, but I selected a picture on the internet with the skin tone I wanted, saved it, opened it in photoshop, selected BRUSH tool then went onto that picture and hit the ALT + LEFT MOUSE BUTTON to select that color.
I went back onto my original picture, I DUPLICATED the LAYER, and I colored over the skin. 
At the top of the photoshop screen there is a toolbar 'WINDOW' you select 'LAYER' and a menu comes up. With the skin tone all I did was adjust the OPACITY and FILL in that new box options. The more you take away from OPACITY and FILL the more the color becomes transparent and 'natural.'

Then I flattened the layer*









Step 2:
I added blue eyes to go with the character, and changed the hair color since her character has black hair. I wasn't concerned about the lower part where the hair looks funny on the shirt <where I used a wide brush> and you'll see why...
Oh I also did smooth the skin since I did the hair removal <which wasn't easy>.
*BLUE EYES: I DUPLICATED the LAYER again after saving my last edit <just in case you want to go back and fix something differently always save your project here and there!> 
I selected a dark color blue for the eyes to do this, you click on the foreground color box on your main toolbar<it's the 5th box down on my version of photoshop>click on it, pick your color, and paint over the eyes. Next I went into the LAYER MENU and where it says 'Natural' I changed that to 'Darken' This makes the color darker, if it's NOT the color you want, then go back and change your color until you get what you want, when you find the right shade, adjust the OPACITY and FILL in the LAYER box until it looks just right, this step keeps the eye color looking realistic. If you want a beautiful dark green, play with some of the blues..yes I said blues......you'd be surprised what 'Darken' option will do to the color!

I FLATTENED THE LAYER.

HAIR:
DUPLICATE the LAYER again.
Change the color in the foreground again to the color you want for the hair. Since my guy needed black/or/very dark hair, I just chose black. I painted over the hair, the went to my LAYER MENU and adjusted the OPACITY and FILL. If you want to play around you can use the 'Darken' option instead of Natural. I found the other options will change up the rest of your picture too much...when you just want to concentrate on the hair....

SMOOTH SKIN:
Here's a really GREAT tutorial on how to smooth out the skin:

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/phot ... ooth-skin/

I saved a 2nd copy of this picture which is below:
*









Step 3:
Yes....the character has a bad scar on his cheek. I had to search for a picture I could 'borrow' that scar from....

2nd HARDEST PART: the scar.

*I did a image search on yahoo for: face burn scar , and picked a photo where the head was turned in the same manner, I saved the bigger copy of the image, and opened it in photoshop. I had to resize the new image to try and match the size of my original image. Then I used the Lasso tool and selected some of the scar, I hit the CTRL + C button to copy what I selected.

GO back to the picture your working on

DUPLICATE the LAYER again.

use the rectangle Marquee tool at the top left of the tool box, and select the area on the face you want the scar - and press CTRL + V and it will paste the scar section you selected into the picture your working on. If it's too big or too small go back to the scar picture and resize the image to a larger or smaller size depending on what you need, and then reselect the area you want and follow the steps again. Sometimes it can be frustrating...but thankfully for this I got it on the 2nd try.

Now... select Erase tool and erase the edges - for example this scar overlaped the hair, and I also had some of the skin ton from the scar picture. I erased around the scar and tried to make it look as natural as possible. You'll notice when you paste something over another picture in a Duplicate layer - when you erase more of the original picture comes back 

When I was satisfied....I FLATTENED the IMAGE>

DUPLICATE the LAYER AGAIN <this is the key to everything!!!>

you have to adjust the skin color of the scar!
So what I did was, run my mouse over the color on the face I wanted to use, and press ALT + LEFT MOUSE BUTTON to select that color as my foreground color. I painted over the scar. 
Then I went into my LAYER TOOLBAR and adjusted the OPACITY and FILL until with numbers VERY LOW so it looked as natural as possible....

FLATTEN the IMAGE.

And there's the scar!
*









Last step:
I changed up the lighting to give him more of a mysterious look

*Yep....duplicate that layer AGAIN!

Go up to FILTERS in your top toolbar
Click on RENDER and then LIGHTING EFFECTS
Play around with lighting effects to get the angle or light that you want. You can adjust the light intensity to be just a tad bit bright if you want on the center of the light area. You can also go to your LAYER TOOLBAR and adjust the OPACITY and FILL so that the lighting effect isn't too dark

With this picture I used SOFT OMNI and had it's center directly to the left of his nose under his eye. The only thing I changed was INTENSITY - +46
I went to my OPACITY and FILL in the layer toolbar, and set those to Opacity 89 and Fill 85. 
THEN....I added CONTRAST so it wasn't washed out, bringing back shadows.
I FLATTENED the IMAGE

If the bright spots are 'too bright' then press CTRL + L and it will bring up the LEVELS tool. 
OUTPUT LEVELS on the bottom of that menu bring the arrow in on the right, the further you bring it in, the more brightness it takes away, and is a GREAT RECOVERY TOOL FOR OVEREXPOSED IMAGES. This little thing has saved me time and again  You just slide it back and forth until you find the right intensity of light for the brighter parts of the picture.

Play around with LEVELS on any picture...you'll be surprised what you can do - take away or add shadows, brighten, or darken a picture...When I do regular edits this is my main tool...
You DON'T HAVE TO DUPLICATE A LAYER TO USE LEVELS ON AN ORDINARY PICTURE.

FLATTEN IMAGE
<If your image is too 'flat' and you want to bring out more sharpness, go to 
FILTERS click on SHARPEN then UNSHARPEN MASK 
Amount: aroung 50-60& is what I use.
for my images since I have large files, but am usually happy with 1.5 radius sometimes more - the more you add the sharper the pic will be but don't overdo it!
THRESHOLD --- 0

Since this pic was low quality/small image I did not sharpen it as it as it would look pixelated>

DONE!!!!
*









So.....what do you think? I hope she likes it! It was a lot of fun, and a self lerning ordeal! There is a website I use that gives directions on skin smoothing because I ALWAYS forget how to do it since I don't do it very often.

I am by no means a photoshop pro as I said, but this wasn't terribly hard to do, just a bit time consuming.

If anyone has photoshop and wants to know how I did some of it, just let me know and I'll share. If you use photoshop and have anything you want to share...please do!


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## TinyHoovesRanch (Jan 16, 2010)

WOW!!!

That was wonderful to see step by step!!

I think you did an AWESOME JOB! Theres no way she couldnt not like it!!

LOL I cant sleep either, good thing you did this!


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thanks Laura! It was fun, and sure helped pass time too! Now I want to look through my pics and find some I can play around with LOL But I really need to get some zzz's!


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## TinyHoovesRanch (Jan 16, 2010)

OH PLEASE DO MORE!!!!

Even if its not right away, I absoluty love your work! I think its truly amazing! I want to see more!

Go get some artistic sleep LOL


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## Coyote Night Acres (Dec 27, 2010)

Wow, I love your work. You are very talented, please post more if you get the chance to do some. The step by step was awesome. Oh and I love your photo's too, I always look for your goat pics cause of how awesome they are. I wish I could do photos like that, the good cameras are so $$$$$$$ :shrug:


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## GotmygoatMTJ (Apr 25, 2009)

Woah! Hes like a different person!!! LOL Great job! It was fun to see the steps!


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## lissablack (Nov 30, 2009)

That was really fun to see. Thanks for posting it. I have photoshop but never have used it for anything like that. 

Jan


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thanks so much! I've never done so much to a picture before so it was fun! 

Laura- I TOTALLY know what you mean about good cameras being a lot of $$$ I have 2 DSLR camera's and 2 lenses and you'd never believe how much I paid for them.....! Sadly I HAVE to upgrade my main camera ASAP. The camera I want to upgrade to is AWESOME, but very costly  I have to do it before April! 
I also need a longer lens! BUT thank goodness there are a few options. You can get a lens doubler/extension. A little thing you attach to y our camera then attach the lens and it makes your lens longer  Thankfully it's not too much $$!
Of course I could rent a lens too....but I am a poor photographer LOL


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

That is so cool.... :thumb: :greengrin:


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thanks Pam!

For anyone remotely interested in trying this, I edited my original post and the directions on how I did the changes is in bold. I am no pro like I said, maybe there is an easier way to do it, but this was as easy as I could come up with. 

Now there are days someone can ask me to do something to a pic, and I am like HUH? LOL 
My friend is already on to me about doing another character...oh boy....heh....


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

> Thanks Pam!


 Your welcome... :thumb:

HeHe...see that.... your a pro already.....LOL... now ..that is good... :laugh: :thumb:


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## cdtrum (Aug 25, 2008)

wow....your good! my son-in-law just sent me his software...his hobbie is photography and he just got the photoshop pro software and doesn't use his plain photoshop anymore.....I have not played with as of yet, I am a little intimidated. 

We are actually having wifi installed here at the house today as I post! Yay, we are finally joining the 21st century!


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## Coyote Night Acres (Dec 27, 2010)

What version of photoshop do you use out of curiosity. I have Photoshop elements I think.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

It's been lots of fun playing around, especially since it's too cold to spend much time outside with the goaties 

I have Photoshop 7.0, but am considering upgrading in the near future. For now I am happy with what I have since I typically don't do any kind of editing other than a bit of adjusting.
BTW, I do most of my editing on my laptop, but am using my desktop for this stuff, and my monitor STINKS...it's soooo old and dark, sometimes makes judging brightness hard....eventually it's going to get replaced too!

Okay, so while I had nothing to do earlier <yeah right my house looks like a tornado came through LOL>

The next one.....don't ask for step by step instructions, I'd never truly recall what I did LOL 
Still not sure if I like it though....

Here's the Original <this is Eva Green>









I don't want it to look like her when I am done...so...gotta lose the freckles..

I found this tutorial....I made her skin a bit paler to get rid of some freckles..
http://www.createblog.com/photoshop-tut ... pale-skin/










Cleaning the face up some more, getting rid of spots, and some color around the eyes...









Added color to the face - I duplicated the layer, picked a color, painted over the entire face, then erased the details/places where I didn't need the skin color









She has amazingly beautiful eyes...but the character has striking green eyes









I duplicated a layer picked a color, and painted her lips then adjusted the opacity and fill so the color blended in...









Problem is....character has black hair. Because of the background, duplicating and painting over with black wouldn't look right with all the 'loose' hairs, it would take hours to try to make it look right painting each little detail.

Instead, I duplicated the layer, picked the Polygonal lasso tool, and went around the face, selecting the hair and background. I went into the layer toolbar option to saturation/hue and dropped everything so it would look black and gray









Added contrast to make the hair and background darker.









I used lighting affects adding them the same way I did in the pic of the guy, but I used a cross lighting..









Cleaning up around the face/hair where red hair still shows....cleaning up some details...









And this is what I came up with.... Again I might tinker with it later unless you all think it looks fine? Is it too dark? It's so hard to judge on this monitor...
Needs to have a similar feel to the first picture but not as dark.... oh and the characters are brother and sister...heh...


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## lissablack (Nov 30, 2009)

She isn't too dark. I have a good monitor, I can't imagine how you are doing this on a monitor that is failing. I had to replace one not long ago, and the difference is unbelievable. You can get a monitor really cheap now that is pretty good. 

She is gorgeous, but of course was in the first picture too.

Do you have to get permission from people to use their pictures in a book? (Just want to keep you out of trouble)

Jan


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Jan - they won't be in a book or anything so no worries  These are just for fun, she's too personal to ever consider publishing anything if that makes sense? 
being a photographer myself, I wouldn't want anyone using my pics, BUT if they are just messing around doing something like this I don't care at all, and would love to see the edits that people do! Which some have sent me their stuff, and a painter sent me a HUGE copy of a portrait she did! I LOVE It, and gave her permission to sell it. She raises a lot of $$ for horse rescue through her paintings  

I definitely want to get the monitor replaced soon, it's okay for random stuff, that's why I do all of my important stuff on my laptop. I'm hoping to replace the monitor this summer - my next big project is a new camera, then the more inexpensive stuff can come after that. And I tell ya, I can't wait! It'll help keep the laptop from being filled up with pics if I can do some stuff on my desktop too.


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## GotmygoatMTJ (Apr 25, 2009)

Wow. She looks amazing! 

Great job! and no, its not too dark.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thanks! I might do more later, I have a few of mine I might 'play' around with unless she emails me with another one LOL


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Nice work again.... :thumb:


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## Coyote Night Acres (Dec 27, 2010)

Looking good. Just a thought maybe tweek her eyebrow color, so she looks like a natural black hair. Unless the character is not a natural black hair color. Looks amazing. Not too dark and you so could not tell your computer screen is messed up.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thanks! The only thing I didn't really mess with was the eye brows, glad you mentioned it as something looked off and I couldn't place it 

This monitor makes everything look dark, it's easy on the eyes though, and I prefer it for just browsing or messing around on the internet. 
I actually got this monitor for free from a Catholic high school that was doing upgrades.....LOL I didn't buy a monitor 2 years ago when I got my computer - I figured I didn't need it because the monitor I had was just fine. What happens? A few months pass and the monitor dies...LOL


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## Crissa (Oct 7, 2007)

Wow those are amazing, I wish I had photoshop, I just have a free program called PhotoFiltre.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thanks! It's been fun playing around when I have time. It's a really nice program to have. I typically just use it for editing - cropping, sharpening, fixing exposure, resizing and I typically put a watermark on everything I put up online. 
It's a shame these programs are so costly  My brother gets them for free - does beta testing, and he had it laying around so he gave it to me a few years ago. Yeah, makes me sick that he had it 'laying around' hehe...I wish I had that luxury!


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## Hush Hills Fainters (Oct 27, 2010)

they look sooo cool...Could be Twilight Charactors...


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## mommaB (Oct 1, 2009)

WOW!!! now we know how they make all the models in the mags look sooooo perfect! 

That is very cool! Looking forward to seeing what else you do!


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