Make Light Real

Neil April 30th, 2010

Five Tips For Making Ideas Happen – Smashing Magazine

To avoid this reactionary workflow, some of the most productive people I have met schedule what can be called “windows of non-stimulation” in their day. For two to three hours per day, these people avoid email and all other incoming communication. In this time, they focus on their list of big items: not routine tasks, but long-term projects that require research and deep thought.

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• Creativity , Workflow

Neil September 9th, 2009

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips » Presets

An every growing list of basic image styling presets for Adobe lightroom including:

• Vintage New York Look
• Better Black and Whites
• Summer Haze 2
• Polo / Ralph Lauren Style

• Comments(7)
• Free stuff , Lightroom , Lightroom Preset , Workflow

Neil April 18th, 2009

Vintage Pinup and Boudoir Retouching

tutorial is sponsored by the generously donated pinup images of Kelly @ Bay Area Pinups

This is some of the fun vintage effects achieved with the Vintage packages, video guide after the jump:

• Comments(12)
• Creativity , Curves Power , How To: , Inspiration , Mind Like Water , ONE Action , Photoshop Retouching , Textures , Tutorials , Video , Workflow

Neil April 3rd, 2009

Here’s a nice conversation about where I’m coming from:

• Comments(0)
• Lightroom , LIGHTSPEED , Workflow

Neil January 15th, 2009

A quick comparative set using LAB color mode and the ONE ACTION set: starting with the original file just out of raw conversion….

First we retouch the skin to taste, consider the light when you do (opensextensive skin retouch tutorial)!

After skin retouch we have a richer and more directional feel to the light.

A Black and white conversion using L*A*B* color mode for luminosity.  A very classy B+W conversion.  Once we’ve shown the client the expected results we can easily proof them something more artistic, and unexpected using Beautiful Blurs, or Lighting Overlays.

Here a basic texture file from the Bleautiful Blur Overlays – Volume 2 gives the picture a little blue juice which contrasts the warmth of the skin with a Photoshop layer mode of soft light.

the Lighting Overlays Disk 1 streaky image, gives the image a funky modern splash on the left side when I used a Photoshop Layer mode of screen.

There are two answers to why to be creative – one is from your own motivation, the other is to sell more to your clients.  With the ONE ACTION workflow you could complete this whole series in less than 3min simply saving out a JPEG at each stage.

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• Comments(0)
• Inspiration , learning , ONE Action , Photoshop Retouching , Real-light Overlays , Textures , Workflow

Neil November 5th, 2008

Blue Skies – Lightroom Preset – $9.00 – Buy and download instantly

Have some images from the summer that you’d like to prepare for an upcoming competion?

Get the most out of your blue colors in Adobe Lightroom presets available for immediate download.

Speed up your workflow keeping everything in Lightroom

If you’ve got a really hard image – or just want to stand out from other photographers by actually winning that contest you’re entering – get the deepest knowledge I can give you on manipulating your blue tones:

• Comments(0)
• Action download , Color Theory , Lightroom , Workflow

Neil October 23rd, 2008

Before:

After:

I used textures that I designed to provide a gentle and organic vignette feel to an image to darken the edges and focus the attention on the focal point of my composition. Those textures are available for purchase as the Veritas Vignette texture pack from the create store.  

I then added a little edge border to fancy it up just a little further….  I work in LAB color mode using my ONE action that allows me better control over burning down unruly highlights, and bringing out the colors with saturation control!

The ONE ACTION set is a professional grade retouching workflow for creative expression. 

• Comments(1)
• How To: , Inspiration , ONE Action , Photoshop Retouching , Textures , Workflow

Neil October 9th, 2008

AutoLoader from MikeD’s Photoshop Workflow Tools

NEW! Turbo mode improves loading speed by up to 10X over version 2.

NEW! Bridge integration lets you AutoLoad files selected in Bridge.

NEW! Run actions right after the image is loaded and right before the image is saved.

Remembers it’s position for any number of runs, allowing you to switch between edits.

Loads and saves PSD (flattened or not), TIFF (flattened or not) and JPEG (any compression level).

Take an additional 5% off your order from hearing ’bout it at Make Light Real!

use the additional bonus code

SPREADTHEWORD

If you purchased AutoLoader before July 8 2008, don’t fret: you are entitled to get the new version at a discount of $15! Just go to the brand-new site and add AutoLoader to your cart. To get your upgrade discount, use the code

AL3UP7112

• Comments(0)
• Action download , Gear , Photoshop Retouching , Workflow

Neil September 27th, 2008

Free Lightroom Brush Presets by Seim; Brush Preset collection

Did you know that in Lightroom2 You can use a brush to make precise corrections, and even have brush presets ready to go to make those corrections easy.

Well I knew about LR  brushes, but I had not given enough attention to them until Matt Kloskowski posted up some darken brushes, and got my mind in gear on a great workflow asset.

Here’s a collection of brush presets I made for… Burn, Dodge, Color Boost, Color Drain, Skin Soft, and Detail Boost. Remember that these don’t work the same as my Develop presets. These are for “Brush” settings. If you need to learn how to install them take a look at my Installing Lightroom Brush Presets article. The download is above. Just download unzip and follow the directions.

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• Action download , Exposure , Free stuff , Lightroom , Workflow