Ghostly Possibilities

This is a bit new to me and I'm already seeing that I will have to devote more time to perfecting this.  This technique involved working with inner and outer glow.  Unfortunately while I could not follow along with the instructions because the menus that were available to them were NOT available to me - but I was able to do enough in order to create this effect.  I'm getting MUCH better at selections and in this lesson learned the
"Control T" option which adds a little box around an object you have added to your photo so that you can re-size that alone.

Here are the photos that I started with:

I had to first rotate the photo and then make a selection of the person shown above and then dragged them to the other photo where I worked on making it ghost-like.

Again, I have a lot of working to do with this one but here are some of the results I was able to achieve.

In this photo, I adjusted the hue/saturation to make it look fall-like and to hopefully give the appearance of a sun setting on the trees...

Covering Skin Using Different Textures

I was a photo in a text book where a person's skin was completely swapped out by with another texture and I decided to take what I learned and see if I could duplicate it.  This goes right along with selections and is actually great practice considering this is one of the hardest things to do for me.

The photo I decided to start out with was this:

Once I was able to make the right selections (because thus far I have only made selections around landscape or windows) I followed the same instructions for swapping out backgrounds and instead swapped out the skin.  My first attempt did the trick but wasn't very interesting - jut merely a plain swap out.

But I soon learned that by changing the modes out of normal that I was able to get a much different effect.

This is shown in "Difference" 

This is shown in "Overlay"

This is shown in "Soft Light"

Filters and Hue / Saturation

While I'm still trying to master lighting and giving new textures to photos I did a very simple filter change on this photo.  I'm hoping to master the art of softening complexions.

Before:

After:

A Multitude of Techniques

This was quite difficult as I had to do a lot of trial and error with selections however in the process I learned about "Refine Edges".  This is a feature found as an option after using the quick select tool.  Once selected I changed the background to black and was able to "color" over the edges and get rid of the choppy edges that tend to exist when you are attempting to place a selection on a different background.

Another great trick I discovered after you have finished refining edges was to look at your photo for those unwanted edges that transferred from the original photo.  You can actually get rid of these much easier by creating a layer mask, selecting that layer mask, choosing the brush tool (with black selected) you are able to create the transparency!!!  This came in handy as you will see because my subject's glasses held a background that I couldn't get rid of from her original background.  It was by using this tool that I was able to get rid of this.

Now while my creation isn't perfect by any means, I learned so much from this.  I was able to give her a more interesting background, retouch the photo and played with the lighting to see which would look more realistic.  

Believe it or not.. I think this one looks the most realistic.  What do you think?

Salted Paper Prints Technique

Upon perusing the Photoshop magazine, I found a technique that was particularly complicated but especially intriguing.  This technique, the "Salted Paper" This involved adding many different layers and filters.  Here are the photos at their different layers.

This photo looks amazing and if you look closely you will see something that looks like water spots.

Selections

Because I needed so much more with selections, I decided to re-visit them.  This is a very challenging technique and I'm determine to get it right.

This was the photo I began with:

Here is the first background selection I chose:

I added some effects to the background before swapping it out but here is the final photo.

Here is another view with a different background

Color Swapping with Curves

The photo I selected below I envisioned being found in a furniture ad but I felt that it was a bit too weak to be featured as is.  While the focal point was certainly the furniture, so is the amazing widow behind it and I felt that it along with the drab color brought the "ad" down.  Doing some minor changes using some licorice as a sample, I reinvented this scent.

The beginning photo:

By changing the color of the furniture and using curves I was able to romanticize this scene a bit as well as to bring out some of the details in the backdrop out of the window that was originally shown washed out.  While the first photo looks staged, the below photo actually looks like it could be a home.  

Color Swapping 3

Here is an example of color swapping working a little better.  Again, sampling some grapes, I was able to turn a red couch into a color purple that is closer to the grapes that I used.

I used a different little trick with this photo.  I was a little worried about the straight edges because my brush tends to spill over the edges.  Under the limits, I changed it from "Contiguous" to "Find Edges"  and it seemed to detect the edges itself and not spill so much.  

Color Swapping Part 2

Here was another attempt at color swapping which I tried on model Eva Pigford.  I assumed that because her hair color was not white that I'd be able to color over it.  I used a chocolate chip color, thinking I could turn it into a rich brown color and while I was slightly disappointed at the outcome I was pleasantly surprised at how regal it made her look once I was finished - giving her an older look.

This is the original photo of her.

Here is her photo after using the chocolate chip color.  Remarkable isn't it!!  But after I had already finished I saw that I accidentally smudged some of this "gray" color on her face and was a little a little upset because this is something I'd normally just "undo" but remembering the healing brush tool I was able to fix this in seconds.

Here is Eva without the smudge. 

Here is the color that was sampled to get this color for Eva's new hairstyle.  If you think it may be possible that I sampled some of the reflected parts, you'll be surprised to know that I actually selected one of the darkest areas on the chip featured below.  

Color Swapping

Color Swapping is something similar to what I have done in previous posts however I've done some more  work with it.  One thing that I have noticed is that when painting over white or other light colors, the chosen colors do not come out the same but rather many hues lighter.  It's very difficult to understand which colors to use to achieve the exact look that I wanted.

Here is an example of what I started with.

After applying the color swapping technique I was able to change the couch to the color show below.  

Oddly enough, I sampled this color from a photo of some grapes and you will see as mentioned above, this was NOT the hue that I was going for.  

Not what you expected was it?

The one thing that I really appreciate about this technique is that it does not color over highlighting or reflections!

Selecting Objects

Here is another example of selecting objects within a photo.  The difference here is I was able to select TWO completely different objects.  This can be accomplished by using the polygonal lasso and then hitting "shift" to then select the elliptical marquee tool.  By hitting shift in between objects, you can choose more than one object in a photo.

Here is how it looked after.

Selecting Geometric Shapes

One thing I find very interesting is the ability select different parts of the photo and just change those.  Here in this photo, I was able to select the street sign and then invert my selection to choose the area around it to change.  My goal below was to ensure the that sign kept its color and the background changed.  As an example, I started out with the following photo and decided that I'd like to have everything in the photo to be black and white and to keep the sign in brilliant color.

Here is the photo that I began with.

Here is the same photo with the addition of a curves layer to alter the contrast.

Here is another one using different curves.

More Wrinkle Removal

This time I decided to try something that needed more extensive work.

Before

and

Wrinkles Be Gone!!!

Who doesn't want to look younger???  Furthermore, why pay to have photos re-touched when you can do it yourself.  I used the spot healing tool option to help me to achieve this amazing touch-up!!!

While this guy looks great, why not shave some years off of his life!  The one important lesson that I learned was to do different sections on different layers.  In other words, ordinarily, I would be using one layer to do all of my related corrections but since we cannot use the opacity while we are working and instead need to apply it to the entire layer.  This was key to keep in mind.

Here is the same gentleman minus the smile lines.

Want to apply some of the previous features back into the photo to make him look a little more natural?    You can do this per layer.

Notice how I brought a tad few more crows feet back in around the eyes.  (Just a tad).

Special Effects

Have you ever wondered how special effects are applied to photos besides those links that say, "turn your photo into a sketch" requiring you to give them your email address to be further spammed.

After looking at further simple lessons and further applying things that I have already learned, I was able to apply some great effects to pictures.

Let's take this photo of my son and I for instance.

By duplicating the layer and applying certain filters, I was able to create these below changes.

Crayon

Negative

In the process, I also found another way to increase lighting and to "spotlight" certain aspects of the photo faster by going to Filter, Render and Lighting Effects.  This allows you to move the light around your photo instantly.  This beats cropping any day!