Focus with Light

Sometimes you may have too much light in an image, but you wish to focus on a particular part of the image. It can be easily done with a couple of Adjustment Layers. No particular expertise is required.

I have opened this free stock image. It is brilliantly lit all around.

The same  image with the focus on light solely on the girl. You will be able to do it too and the process will work with most images. The tutorial is here

Other photoshop tutorials are here

If you have a photoshop question or wish for a particular tutorial please email me at pradip.chowdhury@gmail.com

Enriching Tones

You can improve tones of bland looking photographs and make them more warm with just a couple of Adjustment Layers in Photoshop.

This is a free stock image.

The same image with the tones changed with Adjustment Layers.

The tutorial is here

Other photoshop tutorials are here

If you have a photoshop question or wish for a tutorial please email me at pradip.chowdhury@gmail.com

Focus correction in Photoshop with common tools

Sometimes the background in an image may distract from the main figure or figures in an image. You can correct this easily in Photoshop. No special expertise is necessary, nor much time required. 

This is a free stock image.

The image is now in better focus.

The tutorial is here

Other photoshop tutorials are here

If you have a photoshop related question or wish for a particular tutorial please email me at pradip.chowdhury@gmail.com

Paste Into in Photoshop

The Paste Into command allows you to paste images inside Custom Shapes that are found in Photoshop. It is not difficult to do. 

I have taken these three free stock images

Used a free stock Texture

And pasted them into a Custom Shape. You can use most shapes.

The tutorial is here

Other tutorials are here

Remove wires, rods, poles with Content Aware Fill in Photoshop CS 5

Sometimes wires spoil an otherwise perfect image. It may also be rods. Sometimes hanging wires are not stright either. Removing them with Content Aware fill in Photoshop CS 5 makes it a breeze saving enormous time.

This is a free stock image. The rod passing diagonally across the image spoils it.

The rod has been removed magically as also one of the strands of barbed wire at the bottom.

The tutorial is here

Other photoshop tutorials are here

Light Focussing in Photoshop

The lights in an image are very important. The lights are the focus of the an image. Sometimes the lights may not be properly focused. This can be corrected in all versions of photoshop with a couple of adjustment layers.

This is a free stock image.

The same image with the lights tweaked.

The tutorial is here

Other photoshop tutorials are here

Channel Mixer Adjustment - Making Colors Pop

This is a simple tutorial on how you can make colors in an image pop with a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer in photoshop. You can do it in any version.. You can boost  the colors  in places you want, leaving the rest untouched.

Step 1 : I will be using this free stock image for the tutorial. You will find it here

It belongs to senturk

Step 2 :  Click the New Fill or Adjustment Layer button.

Step 3 : Click on Channel Mixer from the pop up.

Step 4 : The Color Mixer channel opens. It is set at Red at +100 and Green and Blue at 0.

Step 5 : Change the value of  the Red channel to 150 and -25 for Green and Blue channels. (Red+Green+Blue channel should total 100).

The image looks like this.

Step 6 : Select the Green Channel.

Step 7 : Increase the Value of the Green Channel to 150 and Red and Blue to -25.

Step 8 : Lastly select the Blue channel. Increase the Blue to 150 and decrease the Reds and Greens to -25.

The image looks like this. The colors have 'popped'. But the effect has been applied to the entire image, something that is not wanted.

Step 9 : Examine the Mask on Channel Mixer 1 layer. There is a thin border around it. It indicates that it is selected.

Step 10 : Press CTRL+I to invert the Mask. The Mask changes to Black.

The Black Layer mask hides the effects achieved so far. You see the original image again.

Step 11 Click the Brush Tool.

Step 12 : Click in the top panel to reveal the Brush Controls and select a soft brush. I have selected a particular brush.

Step 13 : Switch the Foreground Color to White by clicking the bent arrow or pressing x on the keyboard.

Step 14 : paint on the areas you want to reveal. I am painting the face.

Step 15 : I have painted just the face and the dress and left the hair and  the background alone. If you make a mistake while painting, switch the Foreground color to Black and paint it out. Resume painting with White.
That is all. Other photoshop tutorials are here

Adding highlights in Photoshop

Sometimes an image looks too bland and could do with some highlights, but it  is not in the image. You can add subtle highlights to your image in Photoshop. This can be done in any version of Photoshop. 

This is a free stock image. There are no highlights in it.

The highlights added artificially in Photoshop.

The tutorial is here

Other photoshop tutorials are here

Focus correction in Photoshop

Sometimes your subject is quite clear in the an image, but the background detracts from it. In such cases you can bring more focus on the subject with photoshop. It is quite simple to do and can be done in any version of photoshop, including Photoshop 7.

Here is a free stock image. I wish to shift the focus more on the girl than the bus.

The girl is more in focus now than the bus.

The tutorial is here

Other tutorials are here

Removing Color cast and Noise with Camera Raw

Some photos turn out with a color cast and worse noise. What do you do with them except reject them. But Photoshop can help you out.You can remove the color cast and fix the noise too in Photoshop CS5.

This was a photo email to me for removing the color cast as well as the noise.

The same image with the yellow color cast removed as also the noise. You can do it too.

The tutorial is here

Other photoshop tutorials are here

Cross Processing -- Lightening images

Cross processing can be of various kinds in Photoshop. There are paid filters which do it in a jiffy. But I think doing it on your own can be just as good or even better depending on the time you devote. Some images have a deliberate washed out look which seems to be quite a fashion. This is what the tutorial is about.

This is a free stock image.

This is the cross processed image.

This is the cross processed image with a tweak.

The center of the image retains the original color, while the remaining portion looks faded.

The tutorial is here

Other photoshop tutorials are here

Content Aware Fill in Photoshop CS5

Contest Aware Fill in Photoshop Cs5 dispenses with laborious cloning and gives a very realistic effect. What do you use it for? Suppose you wish to move a figure without affecting the rest of the image you should use Content Aware Fill.

Here is a free stock image of a saffron clad sadhu on the Kolkata Maidan. The problem is he is at the extreme left of the image. It would have looked better if he had been somewhere around the middle.

The sadhu has been moved to the middle of the image without affecting the rest of the background in any way.

The tutorial is here

Other photoshop tutorials are here

Spherize Filter with a tweak

The Spherize Filter is found in all versions of photoshop. It is used to spherize a selection. You can also apply it to an image without a selection for some weird effects. But I will be using a selection. It is quite easy to do.

I have opened this free stock image of a flower.

The flowers look much bigger than they actually are after tweaking with the Spherize filter.

You can use it on other images too.

Here is a free stock image.

The same image after applying the Spherize filter.

The tutorial is here

Other photoshop tutorials are here

Twirl Filter

Most Filters in Photoshop are the same say for example  the Twirl Filter. It is a very common filter, but it can be used in an uncommon way to create a special effect. It is quite easy to do and can be done in any version of Photoshop.

This is the effect you can create. The tutorial is here

Other tutorials are here