Photoshop Retouching | Make Light Real

Light Touch Textures : Beginner’s set – may your first step be guided by a master

Neil September 2nd, 2008

Light Touch Textures : Beginner’s set – $19.00 – Click here to purchase now

What is the Light touch texture set? Let me ask Lao Tsu:

Tao 46

There is no greater calamity

Than not knowing what is enough.

Have you ever applied a texture to your image(s)?

Have you no idea where to start or how?

Then this set is designed for you

How can one become a master without taking the first step? But with this set you can be guided by a master on your first step…

You will find these textures/tones an easy and rewarding first step into altering your images for deeper creative effect. To start, paste, place or apply one of these images to your photograph using the soft light, overlay, or multiply layer blend mode in your favorite image editing application. The images are in two general categories: TEXTURES, have fine grains and sharper details to add another dimension of grit and abstract texture to your images. TONES, have only soft effects, but can be very useful for applying a natural lighting effect like a vignette, or adding a touch of color variation to enhance the perception of your image.

Beginner’s bonus! There are two photoshop tutorial documents included in this set.

The first is a layered photoshop file for you to learn the effects of combining border edges to give you a richer or antique/vintage feel to your images as if they were printed in the chemical darkroom. http://makelightreal.com/realistic-border-tutorial/ has more information. The second photoshop document with tutorial layers is a “Through The Viewfinder” (TTV) tutorial. A popular alternative digital process is to shoot through the focusing screen of a Twin Lens Reflex camera. You can duplicate this effect using a layer mask, border and your own normally captured image. The key is how to blur it, and it’s shown in the photoshop layers. Enjoy your new creativity!!

Here are thumbnails of what’s included:

Question: Answer – I’m looking for a filter set to

Neil August 21st, 2008

Hi Neil, I am a wedding photographer based in Tunbridge Wells, England and have just had the pleasure of looking through some of your amazing photography! I really loved the images from the above wedding and was interested to find out what software you use to get that unique look on some of your images. I am looking for a good ‘filters’ package to give my images some individuality and so would really appreciate your feedback.

I’m grateful for you interest in my work. I was teaching in the UK back in June and joined the BPPA. I hope my work continues to take me around the world. I’m disappointed to tell you that no filter set will help you achieve a unique look – in fact quite the opposite will occur….I’ve a strong opinion on this, so sorry if I come off well – opinionated!

You can listen to some of my theories from my creative journal, try out: http://makelightreal.com/blue-photoshop-tutorial/ as a start.

You’ll find that my philosophy is to approach each image as a blank canvas, respond to the elements and develop the picture to the highest emotional state I feel possible. Some images receive careful raw conversion for color and contrast, but no more alteration: raw wedding photojournalist image

Some receive a greater amount of attention, usually to help get at the emotion/effect I’m feeling:

Much of it simply has to do with basic doge and burn, which accomplish with a simple workflow that operates in lab color mode: http://makelightreal.com/one-action-photoshop-workflow-tutorial/ So the premise of my action set is to make the basics of art theory/color theory as close to possible to my fingertips to be able to reach for the tool, and have it as close to my subconscious artistic mind as possible.

The trouble with filters are they encourage you to push a button instead of stretch your inner vision abilities

The goal I reach for in my photoshop workflow actions, is the quickness to achieve the look that resonates with my heart – but also avoid the pitfall of escaping from true artistic resonance. Let me just type out the inner dialog that might occur when I open an image into my workflow. First off as I open an image, I’m often distracted from the focal point and emotional resonance by some feature in the photo, most often the response is to doge down (darken that element) – this is one of the biggest reasons I work in L*A*B* as you need to dodge to color. Removing a distracting element is a negative action, so I will often look next at what needs to come out – or be highlighted – in positive response. The automated adjustment layers in the ONE Actionset are not the solution, they are a starting point that is at my fingertip to customize. As I open the layer I seek the specific curve that blends with the rest of the picture and resonates with the artistic vibe in that picture. Or I do one of a number of advanced curve adjustments that do everything from smoothing freckles to polarizing areas of the tonal scale. This pause is not bad, it’s cause for careful reflection. The adjustment layers can interact with texture layers, vignette layers, and be re-ordered to refine and define your intended result.

The goal for the ONE Actionset is to put reflection without distraction at your fingertips.

Tao 46
There is no greater calamity

Than not knowing what is enough.

Comments(0)
How To: , learning , Motivation , ONE Action , Photoshop Retouching , Technical , Tutorials

Catching the color blue, photoshop tutorial

Neil May 16th, 2008

I realized again how much I love the color blue when VFXY had a blue theme week.

Ever wonder why blue is such a wonderful color?

Blue is the hardest color for camera sensors to capture, and the hardest color for CMYK printers to print.

So how we deal with it in Photoshop is of utmost importance.

We’re sitting here on this beautiful blue jewel hanging in the galaxy, wouldn’t it be great if you captured some of that uniqueness in your images?

If you’d like to continue learning about the possibilities to accentuate and control the blue channel, purchase the Beautiful Blues Screen cast Training video.

Comments(6)
Color Theory , How To: , ONE Action , Photoshop Retouching , Tutorials , Video

Adding a realistic handmade border with PhotoShop tutorial

Neil February 19th, 2008

Final image result:

Download the fiberglass insulation texture used in this tutorial. Visit Texture King.com

This photoshop tutorial attempts to mimic the traditional printing processes such as Daguerreotype, wet plate collodion, hand painted emulsion and filing the negative carrier for full frame prints. These traditional photographic processes created printing effect that were generated as light passed through the negative, or print material leaving artifacts of hand made imperfection. Modern printing papers such as Innova, Hahnemuhle Paper, and Moab offer the digital artist a fast and tactile solution for creating wonderfully warm pieces in Photoshop.

So the object in Photoshop is to use layers and blending modes to create the effect of light passing through an imperfect emulsion. To do this you will need at least two layers, one in a darkening type mode such as Darken, Multiply, Hard light, or normal mode with light pixels erased. To finish the effect realistically, a second border must be applied over the darkening border so that the two borders interact three dimensionally.

Other shot’s I’ve created borders for: