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Monday, February 25, 2008

Messin' Around-edited


Chris' version Jessica Sprague version


Original photo

(So i redid this photo with the tips Chris gave me, but I still don't think I did it right...clearly I just need to REALLY practice!)

Trying out a few tutorials at Jessica Sprague...kinda hard...not having a clue about much in photoshop. But I tried the "dreamy" effect with a grunge border. Not sure if I did the effect right. Pretty sure this wasn't the best photo to try it on. But I just took it of Jack today and thought it was cute. Is he supposed to be that white with a dreamy effect? Any thoughts people??? I also tried her "eye" popping tutorial...but no luck with that. When I got to the brush step it didn't do anything. Pretty sure I messed up somewhere, obviously.

Got registered for her class that starts next week...can't wait. Actually following through with something I wanted to accomplish for this year...yay for me!

6 comments:

chris jenkins said...

i will admit when i first saw that tutorial that something was off because i think doing it the way she exactly does it will make the subject look kind of freaky ghostly.

i think what she fails to mention is that you need to play with the opacity levels on each of the layers in order to get a better effect. what is happening in the example you posted is that the highlights are getting way blown out and so you lose the little details in your little guy's face.

here is what i would do:

1. open your picture.
2. make a duplicate layer.
3. set mode to screen on duplicate layer and slide your opacity slider to around 30-40% (this fixes exposure and midtones)
4. flatten layers
5. duplicate layer again.
6. desaturate the duplicate layer by removing color or if you have the hue/saturation box open dragging your saturation slider all the way left. now if you play with the opacity of this desaturated layer you add back how much color you would like.
7. duplicate the desaturated layer.
apply gaussian blur at 10-15% change mode to hard light or overlay.
8. duplicate the gaussian blur layer and change mode to screen.

your layers should be from top to bottom:

layer 1 copy 2 (gaussian blur, screen mode)

layer 1 copy (gaussian blur, hard light or overlay mode)

layer 1 (initial desaturate layer)

background layer

9. the trick is to play with the opacity of each of the layers.

layer 1 will control how much color you want left in the photo

layer 1 copy 1 and 2 will affect the dreamy effect

you kind of have to play around to see what works for you.

i played with a picture and i had

layer 1 - 50%
layer 1 copy - 25%
layer 1 copy 2 - 40%

hope my explanation makes sense. i've never tried her technique for eye popping because i have my own so i can't comment on that.

hope this helps! have fun with your class!

VivaLasFloyds said...

What a cute face!

Heather said...

Wow Chris gave you some good information. I was going to also say that on the screen layer especially you might try lowering the opacity. But looks like she covered it! Go Chris!

Now I wanna sign up! I think I will.

Jen@eighteen25 said...

isn't photoshop fun!!

i'm still thinking about taking that class too.

Stephanie said...

cute boy.

Kathy Jo said...

I think I like the original best, although, I like black and white photos. He's so cute.