Fix-It Friday #18

Yet another edition of Fix-It Friday :) I love doing these, because it means the weekend is here! WOOOOHOOOO!!!! I have to shoot a wedding tomorrow, but hey....it's still the weekend! Anyway, onto the edits:

ORIGINAL

SEPIA

This first one is just a simple sepia. For those of you who don't know, I'm not a big fan of actions. Kind of like cheating to me, but to each his own. Personally, they're just not for me. I'm going to try to do little better with details of process.

1. Opened in Photoshop CS 3 and cropped

2. Changed the mode to Grayscale.

3. Did a levels adjustment to bring up the contrast without blowing out the whites of the image.

4. Used the patch tool to smooth out his skin

5. Used the paint brush (white) with a setting of 5% to brighten the eyes.

6. Increased the paintbrush size and created highlights on the tip of the nose, on the lips, cheeks, and chin.

7. Used the unsharp mask to...well, sharpen

8. Did another unsharp mask with numbers set at 15, 85, and 3 to clarify the image.

9. Did a sepia photo filter and bumped up the intensity. (by the way, you have to change the mode to RGB or CMYK to access the photo filters)

10. Added a inner shadow to focus the image on the face.

DIGITAL PAINTING

I know I said I was going to do a tutorial on digital paintings....but I've been busy (lazy). I still plan on doing a much more in depth one, but I will improve a little bit now.

1. Open image and crop

2. Increase saturation slightly

3. Surface Blur (not too much, preserve detail)

4. Use the smudge tool to soften the lines and details of the photo, especially in the background and edges.

5. Use the paintbrush tool (white) with a setting of 5% to create highlights over the entire image. A good background in art helps here. Focus on where the light naturally hits or where the cloth would be a little more worn such as the edges of the coat, the bridge and tip of the nose, lips, the rim of the hat, etc.

6. Select some of the colors from the image to highlight those areas. For instance, use the eyedropper to pull color from his eyes, make the color more intense, and then at it subtly to make the eyes pop.

7. Do the clarifying unsharp mask from the previous picture.

8. Use the Texturizer from the filter menu to add a canvas like look to the image. Looks a little grainy on screen but prints great.

BLACK & WHITE

Did I mention I was lazy? All I did for this one was take the digital painting before I added the texture and change the mode to grayscale. Then I just adjusted the levels to add contrast. Simple enough.

Have a great weekend everyone and be safe! RIP Ed McMahon, Farrrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson.