Today's Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3 video tutorial shows how to create the attractive high key, high contrast, bright colour portrait style that's so fashionable at the moment with companies like Venture. In this one chapter tutorial I used Photoshop CS5 to produce the effect and then show how to do the same thing using Lightroom 3. These steps work equally well in earlier versions of Photoshop as far back as CS and Lightroom 2.
Download the source image and try this yourself.
Read MorePhotoshop CS2
PW7 - Tutorial 1 Chapter 7 - Weston at Low Tide
In this final chapter of Tutorial 1 we finish off our image of Weston-super-mare with a vignette, some extra steps to even up the light in the sky and add some final brightness and contrast adjustments.
Read MorePW6 - Tutorial 1 Chapter 6 - Weston at Low Tide
In today's episode we get down to the fun part of dodging and burning our image to add shape and direct the eye of the viewer. So far we've been giving ourselves the solid foundation we need to bring the image together. Now we add expression by painting with light.
Read MorePW5 - Tutorial 1 Chapter 5 - Weston at Low Tide
This time on Tutorial 1 we take the same approach we did to the ground portion and apply it to the sky. Once again we're bringing the levels closer together by using lightening and darkening layers with layer masks.
Read MorePW4 - Tutorial 1 Chapter 4 - Weston at Low Tide
In chapter 4 of Tutorial 1 we take a look at how the ground portion of the image was edited to bring the tones together with the sky and add focus and detail using darkening and lightening layers with layer masks.
Read MorePW3 - Tutorial 1 Chapter 3 - Weston at Low Tide
Chapter 3 of our re-encoded and re-released Tutorial 1. This episode covers black and white conversion with a number of techniques for bringing out the details in your picture then finishes up with the best B&W conversion technique (at the time), the channel mixer. Please remember this tutorial was recorded when Photoshop CS2 was the latest version. This was before Lightroom and Photoshop's black and white adjustment filter existed.
Read MorePW2 - Tutorial 1 Chapter 2 - Weston at Low Tide
Chapter 2 of the re-encoding and re-release of Tutorial 1. In today's show we look at darkening layers and lightening layers. We use them to bring the sky and ground levels closer together. We also use light to start to prioritize and emphasize the elements of the shot that are going to be most important for guiding the viewer's eye.
Read MorePW1 - Tutorial 1 Chapter 1 - Weston at Low Tide
This is a re-encoding and re-release of our first ever PhotoWalkthrough tutorial. Since first starting the show your number 1 request has been to make Tutorial 1 available for download. Well I'm happy to deliver on that at long last. I'll release a show every day throughout tutorial 1 and then we'll be back to our regular shows. In this show we cover noise reduction, spot editing and layer masking.
Read MoreTutorial 12, Chapter 4 - Singer Island Sunrise
This week we finish the Singer Island Sunrise image with more colour and light work, loads more layer masks, some dodge and burn and a vignette. Also this week we launch our newest competition in association with Wacom.
Read MoreTutorial 12, Chapter 3 - Singer Island Sunrise
This week we do some more brush work on beefing up the colours in our photograph and improve the structure of the picture by strengthening the leading lines. We also pre-announce our upcoming competition and show off last week's entries to the Creativity Exercise assignment. And boy oh boy what a lot of pictures that was!
Read MoreTutorial 12, Chapter 2 - Singer Island Sunrise
This week we get into editing the photo proper with a little spot editing, some colour adjustement and masking and then a little brush work. Also this week we take a slight departure from our usual composition segment in order to talk about a creativity exercise.
Read MoreTutorial 12, Chapter 1 - Singer Island Sunrise
Starting a new tutorial and getting back in the saddle for the new year. This week we look at another collection of images and talk about how I chose the target image in Adobe Bridge then open and export it in Adobe Camera Raw. We also talk about Leading Lines in our composition segment, Martin Bailey's competition and a couple of new podcasts.
Read MoreTutorial 11, Chapter 5 - Wheelbarrow
The final chapter in our Wheelbarrow series and some big new announcements including the release of Adobe Photoshop CS3 Beta.
Read MoreTutorial 11, Chapter 4 - Wheelbarrow
A little late but this week we look at vanishing points in our composition segment and then work on our wheelbarrow image to reproduce the same look as we did before using LAB but this time using RGB and non destructive layers. In depth coverage of layer groups, levels and curves with a smattering of B&W conversion.
Read MoreTutorial 11, Chapter 3 - Wheelbarrow
Yay! We got a show out this week despite the fact that I'm still struggling with that dead server and the fallout from it. This week we apply what we learned last week about LAB colour mode as well as covering Negative Space in our composition segment.
Read MoreTutorial 11, Chapter 2 - Wheelbarrow
Today we look at some new concepts that I've not covered before, namely colour modes and channels. Then I start messing around with some of the ways LAB colour mode can help us to improve our images. Also this week we look at repetition in our composition segment and there's news of the next Tips From The Top Floor Photography Workshop in Germany next May where I'll once again be co-hosting with Chris Marquardt.
Read MoreTutorial 11, Chapter 1 - Wheelbarrow
At last - back to some normality. I hope you enjoyed our two unusual shows for the last couple of weeks. Today we start another proper image tutorial and this time I'm covering how to produce this very gritty style. To begin with, though, we spend quite a bit of time on composition and composition exercises. And just for added spice there's a little update on the Lightroom review as well. Enjoy!
Read MoreTutorial 10, Chapter 3 - Mow Cop Castle
This week we start with a new section on composition and then complete our colour image with a final dodge/burn layer and work on the three dimensionality of the castle. Next we convert the colour version to black and white with a channel mixer. And finally we add a tritone gradient to make our sepia toned version.
Read MoreTutorial 10, Chapter 2 - Mow Cop Castle
Tutorial 2 basically finishes the colour version of the Mow Cop Castle image and makes ready for the sepia duo-toned version. We cover some work on adding contrast and punch by darkening and masking and then do some dodging and burning and add a vignette. Plus all the usual explanation of why I'm doing what I'm doing.
Read MoreTutorial 10, Chapter 1 - Mow Cop Castle
The start of a new month sees the start of a new tutorial. This time I'll show you how to produce two very different images from a single source. This attractive landmark is local to me and much photographed. I was particularly drawn to the line in the ground and the clouds and how they both led to my subject. It was a beautiful day and I was lucky with the light which did nearly all the work for me.
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