Advanced photo retouching

Introduction

This is part 1 of a set of tutorials I am writing, which will basically take you through the process of converting a man’s head into a garden. The first part will be showing you how to prepare the image then add a waterfall coming out of his head with a pool at the bottom, like the image below. All the tutorials in this set will be fairly advanced but worth giving a go, they will also require you to work rather than just match up layer styles and settings. You are guaranteed to learn a bit no matter what level you are at and you will see what Photoshop is capable of producing when you have a bit of imagination.

Written by Ross at http://psdlearning.com/2008/06/the-garden-part-1/

This is part 1 of a set of tutorials here on PSD learning which will
take you through the process of changing a head into a garden. This
part will show you some great photo manipulation techniques which will
create a waterfall coming out of the mans head. This will explore
important manipulation techniques like masking, composition and color
adjustments.

Photoshop’s Filters

Using Filters from the Filter Gallery

Photoshop’s Filter Gallery is basically a one-stop place for working with filters in your documents. In the Filter Gallery, you can browse through many different types of filters, apply them individually to your image, or even stack them on top of one another like you would with layers. You can get to the Filter Gallery by going to Filter > Filter Gallery.

Here’s a quick overview of the Filter Gallery:

Filter Gallery Interface

A. Filter Preview

B. Filter List (Note: You can show or hide this list by clicking the arrow icon to the top right of it)

C. Currently Selected Filter

D. Filter Options

E. Effect Layers

F. New / Delete Effect Layer

The Filter Effect Layers work just like ordinary filters in Photoshop, and can be dragged and dropped on top of one another for desired results.

Applying a filter from the gallery is very easy to do. Simply Click on a filter, adjust it’s options to your liking, and click OK to apply. To stack multiple filters on top of one another, just hit the New Effect Layer (’F’ in diagram above), and select another filter. You can expand filter types by clicking the folders in the filter list.

The Cutout Filter quickly transforms a photograph into an abstract piece of art.

Quicker Access to Filters

The Filter Gallery is really just a browser of sorts. If you know exactly what kind of filter you want to use, you can access it directly from the Filter menu in Photoshop to speed things up.

Using Other Filters

Not all filters in Photoshop are available through the Filter Gallery. Many of them must be accessed directly through the Filter Menu, and have unique interfaces and options of their own.

We’re not going to go over every individual filter in this tutorial (doing so would take a very long time), but I highly suggest doing some experimentation on your part with different filters to get an idea of what some of them do.

Let’s look at some of the more common filters used frequently in design.

Blur Filters (Filter > Blur)

The Blur Filters are useful in lots of situations. We’ve actually written several popular tutorials on Tutorial9 that depend on the Blur Filters, such as our article on Adding Depth of Field in Photoshop, and our Windows Vista Aurora Effect Tutorial.

The Lens Blur Filter makes it very easy to create a realistic lens blur effect in Photoshop.

Noise Filters (Filter > Noise)

Noise Filters are great for adding, or reducing noise and grain in photographs. You may find filters such as the Reduce Noise Filter extremely useful if you work with old, damaged, or dusty photographs that need repair work done to them. The Add Noise Filter can also come in handy, and has some creative applications of its own.

Noise can easily be reduced with the Reduce Noise Filter in Photoshop.

Sharpen Filters (Filter > Sharpen)

The Sharpen Filters are also great for correcting imperfections in photographs, as well as putting emphasis on important elements in a design. When working with blurred images, a sharpen filter can be used to clarify and better define edges by increasing contrast between pixels.

The Smart Sharpen Filter used to sharpen a photograph of a statue.

Filters Disabled?

While all filters are available to be used on 8-bit RGB images, many will be unavailable if working with other color spaces, 16-bit, or 32-bit documents. Filters will also be unavailable for use in Bitmap and Indexed-color documents.

If you’re not able to use filters, you may need to go to Image > Mode, and make sure you’re set to RGB, and 8 Bits/Channel, although some image data may be lost.

Hulk Eyes Effect

This is the result we must achieve.

STEP 1

We start selecting that cool eye picture… if you want both eyes to become Hulk eyes, that’s double work. For this tutorial, I’m gonna use only one eye. This is a personal picture.

Using the pen tool, select the eye. For those who are not familiar with the pen tool, you can hold and drag the pen to get curves. After doing that, right click inside it and click in “make selection”. Go to Select > Modify > Feather > 5. Ok.

STEP 2

Don’t loose that selection yet. Create a new layer and name it “GREEN”, select it and paint inside the previous eyes selection, painting it all with just 1 click. Don’t click several times, Just once. Now, invert the selection and delete… it will make our feather effect smoother. Se the GREEN Layer blending mode to Dodge Color.

STEP 3

Invert the selection once more, and after doing that, click in the Original pic layer, and click CTRL + C and then CTRL + V. That will make an eye copy… name it “EYE”.

STEP 4

Now, hold CTRL and click the EYE layer we’ve made earlier. Go to Create new fill or adjustment layer > Hue/Saturation. For the Hue, use a value proper to your picture… make the eye gamma green.

STEP 5

We’re going to use the Dodge and Burn tools. Both of them will have the same values. Range: Midtones, Exposure: 30%. Size the brush as you wish. Use these tools to enhance the areas as shown.

STEP 6

And the Hulk Eye effect is ready. Now we gotta do that greenish feel to the skin. Make a new layer right above the Original layer, fill it with black, set Blending Mode: Hue, Opacity: 40%. Name it “BLACK HUE”.

STEP 7

Repeat the same step, but this time, instead of filling this layer with black, use a really dark green. I’m using #030b00 here. Blending Mode: Hue, Opacity: 30%. Name it “GREEN HUE”.

STEP 8

Now we must sharp the picture a little bit. Select the ORIGINAL layer, and go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Set the values as shown. Do the same for the EYE layer, but instead of using 5 for Radius, use 3.

STEP 9

We also gotta set the mood. If your pictures lacks lighting, this is a important step. Click the ORIGINAL Layer, and select the eyes area. Go to Select > Modify > Feather > 40. Invert the selection and go to Image > Adjustments > Levels > 0,50 (for the middle value).

STEP 10

Without losing this selection, create a new layer called “SHADOW” and fill it with black. Set the Blending mode to Overlay, Opacity: 50%.

FINAL RESULT

And we’re done! Now we got the awesome Hulk Eyes effect. I hope I made myself clear, and that all of you got the same effect. Enjoy, and cheers!

You may download the Sample PSD file HERE.