Monday, August 12, 2013

Adobe Lightroom | HDR Coloring Tutorial

HDR Coloring Tutorial 
(adobe lightroom)



Example
From this:



To this:






Here are my settings: 


Basic
Exposure:  +.71
Contrast: +21
Highlights: +100
Shadows: -100
White: +12
Blacks: -90
Clarity: +100
Vibrance: +100

Tone Curves:


Lights: +22
Darks: +52

Color:


Blue: Luminance = +60

Detail:

Sharpening: +68


So this is the result. But you can also add some finishing touches with Photoshop

I added a Tilt Shift Effect





My Summer Trip to the South [In Photos ]


My Summer Trip to the South

 [In Photos ]



While i'm not a big fan of family vacation (insert, long longg family vacations), photography is always a highlight. It's refreshing to see new landscapes and scenic beauties away from the small cramped town i live in.



in st. louis 
once again, i spent my afternoon chasing after little ducklings. so predictable 

we got to feed goats at a farm, sadly the goats are probably malnourished on a daily basis judging by the way they all mob you when you try to feed one goat some milk

the most adorable thing 



a stunning view somewhere on the road in Arkansas, we were driving up in the mountains  

pretty flowers that i just wanted to steal away and bring home /sighs


Resources | 5 Free Bokeh Textures




5 Free Bokeh Textures


may be used personally AND commercially 
but if used, please remember to comment & link
i would love to see your work

(4 out of 5 are natural bokehs)



Photoshop Tutorial | How to Make Bokehs with Images

Making Bokehs with Images

( Using Field Blur)



with these bokehs you can use them as textures 
or just show them off the way they are

this tutorial depends heavily on the photo's individuality, 
so be prepared to adjust levels to your own photo's needs




Example:

From this:



To This:



Lets begin:

Here is my photo that i will use.

1) Open up your image in Photoshop

2) Filter > Blur > Field Blur

3) Go to Blur Effects

(on the bottom half of the right panel)
make sure "bokeh" is checked

4) Increase the Light Bokeh 

the higher the percentage, the closer the individual bokeh circles come together
and the brighter the bokeh becomes

mine is set at 92%, but that can always change depending on your chosen photo
& your personal preferences / taste in bokehs

5) Increase the Bokeh Color 

but make sure the color doesn't become too bright or an eyesore
mine is set at 42%, but that can always change depending on your chosen photo
& your personal preferences / taste in bokehs

6) Go to Light Range, bring the white arrow closer to the black arrow

for mine, i'm dragging the white arrow till it overlaps the black arrow

if you move the black arrow (and the white arrow that overlaps the black arrow)
towards the left hand side of the spectrum
your bokeh will become darker

7) Go to Blur Tools

(right above Blur Effects)

8) Under Field Blur, increase the Blur amount

the more you increase it, the bigger the individual bokeh circles become

mine is set at 54 px, but that can always change depending on your chosen photo
& your personal preferences / taste in bokehs

8) Hit Okay

Here is my final (rough) product



and another one, i made with the same image




personally, i think the one i made for the example looks much better
and is better suited for a texture

that is because the bokehs are bigger

and the orginal image as less variation in details  
'(something to keep in mind)

Photoshop Tutorial | How to Use Content Aware Fill (Removing unwanted objects)

Using Content Aware Fill

( To Remove Unwanted Objects)



It's much easier than you would think, trust me.

Example: 
(removing a hand from a image)

From this:

i will be using a screencap from the korean movie "Heaven's Postman" 



To this:



Lets begin:

So i'm beginning with this image:




1) Open up your image on photoshop

2) Select the Lasso Tool
3) Using the Lasso Tool, draw a shape around the "object" you want to get rid of.

 (aka make a selection)

In my case, i drew around the hand.

Make sure your selection is loose / rough.

here is my selection

Its not suppose to be perfect and that's what we want.

Make sure you include some of the background in your selection.

4) Right Click the center of your selection
(aka the "object" you want to get rid of)

then click Fill
(a small window will pop up)

Under the Content selection you will see "Use" and a bunch of scroll down options. 

Pick Content Aware
Hit okay

5) Select > Deselect

And there you have it! Simple & very useful.

Your unwanted object is gone from the image.



Momo Cookie with Photoshop

this is Momo. his nickname is Minister Mo (named after Jang Ok Jung's Minister Min, don't ask me why okay, it just kind of caught on)

Introducing Momo, my 99% devil / 1% adorable angel, puppy.

I followed this tutorial from Smashinghub.com that teaches you how to make a realistic cookie via photoshop. Go try it if you have time.

I simply added an extra step at the end: an addiction of Momo.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Photography Stock | Yellow Daisies (Flowers in Summer)

(Photography Stock) Yellow Daisies in summer


Note: If you want to download/preview a larger version of an image below, simply drag and drop into the search bar.


Rules of Stock
  • feel free to use, just remember to credit. thank you very much & enjoy!
  • if you do happen to use, please comment & link, i would love to see your work







my edited version via adobe lightroom again

Photography Stock | Parrot Close Ups

(Photography Stock) Parrot Close Ups Shots


Note: If you want to download/preview a larger version of an image below, simply drag and drop into the search bar.


Rules of Stock
  • feel free to use, just remember to credit. thank you very much & enjoy!
  • if you do happen to use, please comment & link, i would love to see your work



my edited picture via adobe lightroom

Photoshop Tutorial | How to color dull gifs (jdramas coloring)

How to color dull gifs (jdramas coloring)


Coloring jdramas and cable channel kdramas is pretty frustrating works because the gifs always come out dull and dark, a very unattractive combination. 

But brightening the gifs and giving them a more "angelic" vibe, mostly requires patience and lots of lots of gradients.


For this tutorial you will need basic gif making knowledge:

(here have some todapi. gifs of Erika Toda and Yamapi )
This are some finished products, if you want to see how dull the gifs were before, take a look at these screencaps.

Original:

Let's begin:
Start with your basic gif.
1) Add a gradient.





I am adding a blue to white gradient fill 
because i want to enchance the colors of the
ocean in the gif.

Set this gradient fill to soft light.
2) Rasterize gradient & Erase

if you don't know how to rasterize the gradient,
you can simply click the eraser
and then click the gif screen
then it will ask you to rasterize the layer
click yes

you have to rasterize or else it won't let you erase

as for the erasing part
i'm going to erase the parts where the blue touches Erika and Yamapi

make sure you are using a soft-headed brush
my brush's opacity is set to 60%, 
so i can have an easier control on eraser
and still leave some of the blue color behind

as you can see here, the blue overlaps their faces which i don't want. so i need to erase in these areas

3) Add curves
( to brighten image)
my curves are the usual upward slope shape
but make sure to adjust your curves to your gif's own needs

4) Add another gradient

This time it will be a white to transparent gradient fill
Keep its layer mode on normal, but lower its opacity to around 50%
do the same as the blue gradient fill above
and erase places you don't want it to be


5) And another gradient

i'm adding a white to brown gradient fill
(or you could do brown to white and set the angle to -90 degrees)
because i want the rock's colors to show up more

rasterize / erase the parts you don't want the fill to overlap
for example. i will erase where the brown color touches Erika & Yamapi

6) Hue and Saturation

Simply tweak the colors 
increase the lightness of the colors you want more noticed
and decrease the lightness of the colors you don't want noticed

if you want to change to hues of the some colors
go ahead

in my case
i tweaked the blue to my liking

Final Product:






Saturday, August 3, 2013

Photoshop Tutorial | How to make a Tumblr Style Graphic / Edit


 How to make a Tumblr Style Graphic / Edit


These are actually surprisingly easy and don't consume much time or thinking (meaning, yes they are pretty mindless to be honest) 


How to make something like this:
(Haesica) SNSD's Jessica + Super Junior's Donghae

Lets begin:

I'm going to start with a png of Uee (of After School)
the background of this picture has already been removed which makes editing a lot easier.

  • File > New or CTRL- N                                                                                                    and make a new file with the width of 537 and the height of 360                                        Copy and paste your picture onto the new document and delete the white background.
  • Now, using the Lasso tool (on the skinny left panel)                                                               cut off the part of the body you don't want to use

  • This is what i now have



its a slanted cut, which i purposely intended. ( you should aim for an uneven cut opposed to a straight one to give your overall image more depth)

  • Then add a background. I think nature backgrounds work really well for these type of edits so i tend to stick with them.


Here is mine after copy & pasting the background behind the image:

  • Now i'm going to play with the coloring on the girl's layer (Uee's) because the colors of her and the background clash

  • Image > Adjustments > Curves
(Channel RBG) Output: 160 Input: 123

This will make Uee lighter and blend into the background.
The difference is subtle, but in the end makes a difference.
  • Now copy & paste this ON TOP of the other two layers

Set its mode to multiply 
  • I have this