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Special thanks to Schultz for helping me with making this list!

Parrot art

Hey guys, I made something new, inspired on this:
http://tiny.cc/sedzp

So here it is:

Anyway, let me know what you think about it.

Changing the Layout

Hey guys, I think you saw that I changed the layout.  What do you think of it?


You can contact me here:
Brent_je@live.nl


And I think its great that you people watch my blog :) You can expet some big things soon ^^

Photoshop Tutorial - Smoothen Skin

In this tutorial I'll be teaching you how to smoothen the skin of a picture.




Photo from http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1027409
Original picture:

























Lets go!


Step 1:
Retouching skin is rarely an easy task. There are no absolutes when it comes to making skin look the “right” color, smoothing out wrinkles, or reducing blemishes and blotchiness. This tip will take you through one popular technique for smoothing skin texture for a younger, smoother look.




Duplicate the background layer.

The Surface Blur filter was introduced in Photoshop CS2. Rather than blurring your entire image, the Surface Blur filter provides a “smart” smoothing effect that protects areas of contrast or detail. Notice in our example how the skin is smoothed, yet the pupil edges in our subject’s eyes remains crisp.

Choose Filter > Blur > Surface Blur

Blur the new layer to the point where the skin imperfections are no longer noticeable, but no further than that. The Radius option specifies the size of the area sampled for the blur. The Threshold option controls how much the tonal values of neighboring pixels must diverge from the center pixel value before being part of the blur.

Step 3:

Add a layer mask to your upper layer.

This way we can use the blurred layer to smooth out skin blemishes while allowing the crisp details from our model’s eyes, lips and hair to show through. 

Just go painting black with a hard brush on the places where you want more detail.

Now put this layer to 50-80% opacity, because you will get a more realistic effect.

Sorry for not posting pictures along with this tutorial!

Photoshop Cs5 Images

 Okay guys, I have gotten Cs5 and its awesome!
Check this out:

Nothing weird uh? But now look at the original one:





















Is it me or are people missing there? In Photoshop Cs5 its d*mn easy to delete things, even people off a picture!


I'll write a longer report (maybe today) if I have time.

Photoshop Tutorial - High Key

In this tutorial we will give your picture a High Key effect. Enjoy reading ^^

Step 1:

High key effect looks good mainly with portraits. It enhances the emphasis of the subject’s gaze while leaves the rest of the features less powerful. It is also suitable for facial skin smoothing. In order to emphasize the eyes, we’ll leave their color, or even enhance it.

Step 2:

Now go to Image>>Adjustment>>Curves, now make it a bit like the picture. 

You can fine-tune the picture by dragging the handles to very small distances. Lighten the image until fine details get whitened out but the main features of the face still remain recognizable.

Step 3:

...color usually gets bleached along with other facial parts, or it may already lack saturation in the beginning, so you might need some post-coloring. This way, you can lend the eyes any color you like. We’ll keep the greenish-grey tint but boldly over-emphasize the greens. This won’t look natural, but we don’t want it to, anyway.

First, select the eyes with the elliptical selection tool. After selecting the first one, hold SHIFT and select the other, so that both will be selected and you can work with them at the same time. After the selection, right-click one of the eyes and click Feather in the context menu. Set Feather value to 3 to 5 pixels. By doing so, you soften the edges of the selection.

Step 4:

Make a new layer, this layer will be for the eye color. Now choose a suitable foreground color. In this case, it will be a green hue. Click a selected area with the paint bucket tool to fill it with this color. For the time being, the subject looks like that "green-ey'd monster", so select the Overlay blending mode on the Layerspalette and decrease Opacity to make the green filling fit into the picture.

Step 5:

Press Ctrl + D to deselect. Now delete the places were the skin turns green with your eraser tool.

Step 6:

To end select the layer containing the original picture on the Layerspalette and click Image>>Adjustments>>Desaturate to make the colors of the image vanish, except for the greens on the upper layer, which will provide a startling—and effective, albeit excessive—eye color in the high key image.

Please post your outcome in a comment!

Cinema 4D - Cascading text

Okay, a few days ago I discovered a new program called: 'Cinema 4D'. I watched a tutorial on making a cool text effect, and I started experimenting. Its a great program! You guys should try it too.


When I was done I started editing in AE *After Effects , wich has the same options as Photoshop, but then for video's.  Enough talking, here is my final result.


Watch on higher quality!

Photoshop Tutorial - Creating a Cloud brush

I have gone around the net and came by a few people asking:

"How do I make those cloud brushes?" Well, the answer is simple: Follow this tutorial ;)

Step 1:

Take a photo of a cloud, or just grab one from the net. Im going to use this one .

Nowwe are going to desaturate the image (Because brushes can't have color). Press Ctrl + Shift + U.

Step 2:

Now we are going to invert the image by pressing Ctrl + I.

Step 3:

In photoshop, brushes work by a black to white transparancy gradient. This means that everything that is black will be opaque, but white will be transparent. Greys become transparent in relation to their darkness – so a darker grey will be less transparent than a light grey.

In our image so far we can see that the background is a dull grey colour, which means it will not be fully transparent. To help remedy this, we will adjust the levels. Go to Image>Adjustments>Levels, or press ctrl+L

You can see how I’ve changed my settings below. If you’re lazy, you can move the right slider more to the left so that the background is completely white and you can skip straight to making it into a brush. However, doing this will lose some of the detail, and you will end up with a harsher, less natural looking cloud. So I recommend that you do it like I did, or close to that.

After doing so you will get something like this.

Step 4:

As you can see, the background is still a light grey, which will stop it from being fully transparent. To fix this, we will use the dodge tool to lighten the areas around the cloud, without affecting the actual ‘wisps’ and detail in the cloud.

Set the dodge tool to work on the ‘highlights’ (the lighter areas) of the image, or it will just wash out the black colours. It is also a good idea to set the opacity down to 20-40% so that you can get more detail with the dodge.

Now that the cloud is surrounded by white, we can finally make it into a brush. However, there is still a piece of cloud visible in the bottom right of the image. We want to choose just the central cloud to make into a brush, so we use the lasso tool to select it.

Step 5:

We then go to Edit>Create Brush to create the brush. Remember that in photoshop 7 and higher, the maximum brush size is 2500×2500px. In photoshop 7 and below it is 999px. If your image is a higher resolution than this, you will need to resize it.

Give your brush a clever or witty name like ‘Cloud Brush’ so that it can be organized later if you wish.

Now go on, and start using it! If you want it be more beautiful, make more brushes.

Original post: http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Creating-A-Cloud-Brush/50973

Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual review

Sorry I haven't updated lately, I was busy with school and stuff. Now that I'm back, I'll start with a rather different type of post

I bought Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual! I have already gone through it, and I thought that you guys would like to know more about it too, so I'm going to post a few comments from people, and my own opinion on them. But first, a quick description of the book:

Photoshop is the world's most widely used photo-editing and graphics program. But with all its fantastic new features and options, the CS4 version can bewilder even the most seasoned professional. That's where Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual comes in: packed with tips, tricks, and lots of practical advice, this visually rich four-color guidebook teaches you everything you need to know to edit photos and create beautiful documents in Photoshop.

Whether you're an absolute beginner or a power user ready to try some advanced techniques, author and graphics pro Lesa Snider King offers crystal-clear, jargon-free instructions to help you take advantage of these powerful tools--not only how they work, but when you should use them. You'll quickly get up to speed on new CS4 features such as:

• Photoshop's completely revamped workspace
• Smoother image display and quick zoom, including the new pixel grid view
• New Masks and Adjustments panels
• The Vibrance adjustment layer
• Hand-painting adjustments and using graduated filters in Camera Raw
• Enhanced Adobe Bridge

And much more. You'll also find out which features work well, and which aren't worth your time. Written with the clarity, humor, and objective scrutiny that are hallmarks of the Missing Manual series, Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual is the friendly, thorough resource you need. Why settle for anything less?

"I just saw Photoshop World instructor Lesa Snider's new book, Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual, and it so reminded me of when Deke McClellend used to writeThe Photoshop Bible, (which I loved) because it literally covers everything about Photoshop (it's nearly 900 pages!). Lesa did a great job on the book, and in my mind, it is the new Photoshop Bible. Way to go Lesa!"
--Scott Kelby, Photoshop Insider

You're right, I think I'm not atheist anymore.

To say that there are a number of Photoshop help books on the market has got to be one of the great understatements of all time. So, what makes you want to pick up "Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual"? There are a few reasons: 1) Being part of the O'Reilly Missing Manual Series. Past personal history with these titles have been good. 2) The author. Having seen Lesa speak personally, she probably has forgotten more about Photoshop than I know, and 3) The Goldilocks theory of book size. There are PS books that are much bigger (and actually can hurt to lift after a while) or smaller (and don't really cover enough).

Weighing in at 750 pages (not counting the index) PS CS4: TMM (sounds like a Star Trek series) is broken down into 5 areas: Basics, Editing, Artistic, Printing/Web Output, and PS Power, making it very easy to find what you are looking for.

Now, normally in a PS book or manual, trying to read the copy makes my eyes start to glaze over and start to drift, but that is not the case with this book. Her writing has an easy humorous style about it, keeping you reading. Add to that plenty of COLOR photos to guide you, and this is one book that will have a prominent place on the bookshelf until it gets worn out and replaced with an exact duplicate

BOTTOM LINE Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

-Mark Mindlin

True, I would recommend this book too. Nothing wrong with it, its just superb.

I am a novice to Photoshop and I became aware of a feature called Curves. Not really knowing what curves does, I bought 2 Adobe books that just briefly touched on the subject. The Missing Manual totally explained the feature and provided me with a better understanding of said feature. This is an excellent book it has so much information and so well written. Easy to read and I highly recommend the Missing Manual to Novices like myself. Thanks!

-Fullerlois

The book explains it, but you could also find out how to use curves on he internet. But still a book is more personal , and explains things better to me than a computer.

I hope you all enjoyed reading the comments on this great book, and I hope that you will buy this book. It's worth it. Really. (link below)

CLICK HERE FOR THE BOOK

Photoshop Tutorial - Text

We will be creating something like the image above.

Step 1:

Open a new document, the size I used was 200 x 410. Fill everything with black. Now, take out your Text Tool, and write the text that you want in white. I used Lithos Pro 60 px. Move it to the right, or the left.

Step 2:

We are now going to edit the Blending Options of this layer. Right click the layer >> Blending Options .

Outer Glow

Inner Glow

Gradient Overlay

Step 3:

Hide all the layers exept for the text layer, and go to Image>> Apply Image. Put that layer to Pin Light.

After you have done that, take your Custom Shape tool (Right next to the pen tool) and search for a nice shape. I chose this shape:

Hold Shift and hold your mouse from the point where you want the shape. Don't lose shift or your mouse click. Now go down , right , left or up. You will figure out how it works.

When you have the right form , go to the Pen tool, and right click on the picture >> Fill Path. Make sure your first color is white. Now go to brushes and take a 13 px brush with 41 hardness.

When you are ready, right mouse click again >> Stroke Path. Make sure simulate pressure is on.

Step 4:

Put the layer with the stroke to 70% Opacity. Now right click the text layer >> Copy Layer Style. Now right click the Stroke layer >> Paste layer style. Paste your layer style also on the Shape Layer.

Step 5:

Now just for the finishing touch, make a new layer and go to Image>>Apply Image. Now go to Filter>>Other>>High Pass set to 6,7 px. Put that layer to Overlay or Soft Light.

Doneee =D