Its a pleasure and a delight to welcome another new ‘Nut’ to TipSquirrel. One of my favourite courses on line is without doubt Dave Cuerdon’s Portrait and Retouching Kit at Kelby training. So when Dave agreed to contribute to our humble little site you can imagine my delight!
Here Dave shows us his skin smoothing technique, comparing it to more traditional methods. Stayed tuned for a special offer on his DVD.
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In some ways, this week’s article is a continuation of last week’s look at Content Aware Fill, because the Content Aware Healing Brush is sort of the same thing…um…right? Right. And wrong.
In a way, Content Aware Healing brush is Content Aware Fill’s little brother. Not the brainier, scrawny little brother, just smaller. If Content Aware Fill is the Army, taking out unwanted big areas in a single (or double, or triple) bound, the Content Aware Healing Brush (CAHB) is Special Forces, conducting specialized operations in tight places where Content Aware Fill (CAF) might not work so well.
Even in more concentrated areas that CAF works in just fine, CAHB is just easier simply because instead of repeatedly selecting and bringing up the fill dialog is replaced by marking the area you wish to heal – cutting down the amount of steps you repeat to complete a process saves you what? It saves you time. Again with the time! But, remember, time savings is my #1 reason for loving Photoshop CS5! Sometimes, on the other hand, CAHB might take a couple more steps, but the result is worth it.
In the example below, which, by the way is what happens when good photographs meet bad tape, the two tools do a fairly good job for a first pass. Most of the time, you aren’t going to see the magic that happens on some of the tutorials you’ve been seeing, but what you will see is an improvement in the area you’re working on, a better area to work on in a shorter amount of time. I actually think the one pass of the CAHB did a better, cleaner job, in this case, but that may not be the case in the next area I attempt. That’s why I’m trying both of these tools on everything I do, at least for a while!
But, just for a minute, let’s not compare the CAHB to CAF, and see what it can do for us on its own. I took two different photos, damaged in different ways, and timed what I could do in one minute. I wasn’t looking for perfection; I was looking for what I could do in the least amount of time using the least amount of strokes or steps. Both were done entirely with the CAHB. This is what I came up with:
Not bad for 60 seconds each! I don’t think I could have gotten that far in that amount of time with the Clone Stamp Tool, or even the CAF, since I’d have to take the time to select areas.
Another reason I like the CAHB: It’s actually kinda fun! The ideal photo for fun is one where there’s tons of little damage; spots, little cracks, speckles. This photo is a perfect example, again, all work done in CAHB:
I’m not claiming to know everything there is to know about the Content Aware Healing Tools, but I have picked up a few things while working with them for the past seven months:
I’m very excited about the Content Aware Healing Tools in Photoshop CS5, and the possibilities in my own, personal work flow. There’s so much more I could have written about them, and so much more, I’m sure, that I’ll discover, many more mini-epiphanies will occur over time with these excellent tools, I’m certain. I look forward to sharing them with you!
Well, today’s the big day, the day Adobe officially launch CS5 and we’re all ready to show you the new features.
Over the next two weeks, Five TipSquirrel authors will be showing us all the cool new stuff and the amazing updates you can find in Photoshop CS5. Our Schedule of tutorials look like this:
TUE 13 Bridge Improvements (Mike Hoffman)
WED 14 Content Aware Fill (Janine Smith)
THU 15 Refine Edge Improvements & HDR Improvements (AJ Wood)
FRI 16 Bristle Brushes, Mixer Brushes (Tim Shelbourne)
MON 19 Scrubby Zoom & CS Review (AJ Wood)
TUE 20 Lens Correction & ACR Improvements (Justin Seeley)
WED 21 Content Aware Healing (Janine Smith)
THU 22 Puppet Warp (Justin Seeley)
FRI 23 Layer Management (Mike Hoffman)
TipSquirrel.com prides itself on being a site where you can learn what Photoshop can do, rather than what you can do with Photoshop. By that, I mean, we don’t have any ‘Create this …. Using Photoshop’ type tutorials, instead, we like to take you through a feature and shows you how it can be used in a real world situation. And that is our approach to our CS5 review too.
You may be visiting here today to see a post by Dave Cuerdon. Sadly Dave’s post has had to be postponed for a little while but will appear here very soon. As soon as I know the exact date you can rest assured I’ll be telling the world!
Don’t forget we’re still after any Photoshop, photography or design news for our Podcast ‘The Nut Cluster’. Just drop us a line somewhere to let us know and we’ll include it. Recording is on Monday so please get the info to us as soon as possible.
Speaking of getting in touch, here’s a few ways you can do it;
TipSquirrel has a Fan Page which I’m trying to get into the habit of updating regularly with what’s happening with the site, as well as what and who is coming up.
I also have a Facebook personal account where I pop up from time to time. Again, I hope to be there a little more often than I am at present.
I do like Twitter, and this is where you’ll find me most. As well as anything Photoshop, Photography or design related I like to pass on my day to day ramblings about biscuits, good tea and the weather.
If you’d prefer to just have good links and no inane chatter then Photoshop_Nut is what you’re after. Its TipSquirrel without the nonsense.
All the links I post are checked, and are all direct links.
I don’t profess to use LinkedIn to its full potential, but I’m there and always respond to any contact.
Feel free to join with me and tell me how I can use it better!
Of course you can always email too blog[at]TipSquirrel[dot]com or use the contact form above.
Thank you for your support, I look forward to hearing from you!
There are tons of digital photo restoration tutorials online these days, on fixing torn pieces on old photos, and matching colors when adding things to the photo.
One recent tutorial put torn pieces back and then matched the color because the tones were different. The two pieces matched perfectly, with very little effort, even though these two halves had been apart long enough, and far enough apart that they were two completely different colors / tones.
All I can say about that is that this particular photo has to be the luckiest piece of paper on the planet. The harsh reality is that very, very few old photos that have pieces torn completely off will still be complete, as in all the pieces still around. If they do happen to all survive, the pieces won’t have all nice, clean edges – I don’t mean knife sharp edges, clean as in fitting together perfectly with the edge it was torn from. The paper will have torn, cracked, peeled, and split over time, on all the pieces, in different areas.
The tones, though, those will be fairly the same on all the pieces if they’re all kept together. They are all the same composition of paper and chemicals and the atmosphere they’re kept in will be the same. If these pieces are kept that far apart to result in completely different tones, you will truly be among the charmed ones to still not only have them but to be able to figure out exactly which photo belongs to the missing pieces. Granted, if the photo is torn in half, with two large pieces, there’s more of a chance the pieces, at least will still be around, but the chances of a clean fit between pieces and two completely different tones are still slim to none.
However, there are certain things that happen to photos of a certain age, those 70-somethings and older, all the time. Missing pieces – I mean really missing, as in gone, “age spots” those nasty little specks and blemishes, scratches, cracks, faded areas, disappearing sky’s and fingerprints. Let’s start with something easy: “Age spots”.
Age spots, not an official name, mind you, just what I call them (yet another Janine-ism), can be caused by little chips in the top layer of a photo or by rust, acid or dust. They can be light, dark, black, brown, red or white. They can be – will be – on old photos, but can and do show up on photos of any age. What they’re made up from matters, of course, in the further preservation of the photo (for instance, if it’s being eaten by acid, best you find out the source of the acid. If it’s an external source, such as what the photo is stored in, you need to find alternative storage solutions, fast!), it doesn’t matter much in terms of digital photo restoration. Yes, you’ll need to find different ways of repairing different damage – what works for tiny little specks isn’t going to work the same for large patches of black mold, but for our purposes, today, we’re going to call a spot a spot. No matter what caused it, what color it is, or how small it is, it needs to be fixed.
Did I really mean to say that? Seriously, some of those spots are so tiny! Why in the world would something that you can’t even see except on a monitor at 300% zoom need to be fixed? Well, that is the clincher, here, folks! If it’s important enough to do, it’s important enough to do right!
This is a photo a client brought to me to fix the color, and to take care of the rather obvious piece missing on the baby’s forehead. That and the bend at the top left is all the client thought was wrong with this. After seeing the photo magnified with an 8X loupe, they were shocked and they didn’t even see the whole picture, so to speak.
This is an area with all (I know, I missed a few!) the spots that should be fixed, if you’re doing a really good restoration. To give you an idea of the context, here’s the same area taken back a little.
I said it was one of the easy fixes, and it is. I never said it would be quick! It takes patience and maybe more than a few breaks, especially when your eyes start going all fuzzy, but it will be very much worth it when it’s done, because it will be done right! Good tools to use for this are the Healing Brush and the Clone stamp tools. The Patch Tool might be alright for some of the larger areas, but all that making selections would get really old, really fast. Even the Clone Tool could get fairly monotonous, so I’d use the Healing Brush as much as I could. Remember, the Healing Brush, as well as the Patch Tool, only work on a ‘filled’ layer, one that actually contains pixels, so make a copy of your original to work on (CMD or Ctrl + J). Keep your selection brush on the small size, just a tiny bit larger than the area you’re ‘healing’.
Work on the bigger spots first, zooming in to about 200%. Next, go up to 300%. Maybe even 400% on your next pass. No magic fix-it tutorial, just time and patience! Fixing ‘age spots on your old photos really is easy! It’s the patience that’s hard! Below is a non-finished ‘after’ shot. It’s a brand new project I just got Monday (2 days before this runs) so I haven’t had the time, yet, to finish! Like I said, it’s not fast work, but doing it the right way is imminently the most rewarding work!
One the most common problems I find myself fixing in Photoshop are over exaggerated lines under eyes. This problem is the result of strong light above the subject, something that is almost unavoidable at most weddings and outdoor portrait shoot, even if you have some shade. Luckily there is a simple remedy.
Step 1
Duplicate the background layer (Layer > Duplicate layer or Cmd J [Mac], Ctrl J [PC])
lick to Enlarge
Step 2
Select the Patch Tool, which located under the Spot Healing Brush (J)
Click to Enlarge
Step 3
Zoom into the eye area
Step 4
Draw a rough selection around the lines under the eye. You don’t have to be too accurate, but make sure you get most of the severe lines and don’t select any of the eye itself.
Click to Enlarge
Step 5
Drag and drop the selection onto a clear piece of skin, usually a piece of the cheek below the eye. This fills the selection under the eye to blend in with the surrounding skin.
Click to Enlarge
Step 6
Repeat on the second eye
Click to Enlarge
Step 7
Double click the Hand Tool (H) to go back to a full view of the image.
Click to Enlarge
Step 8
At the moment the selection look a bit unrealistic and we need to adjust the opacity of the layer. There are several ways to do this but as we are using a tool without an opacity setting of its own (the Hand Tool) we can use the keyboard to do it for us. Simply type the first number of the opacity you want e.g. 6 for 60%.
Opacity levels will vary with subjects age and gender: for women I will use an opacity between 50% & 80% and men 40% to 70%.
If I have a male & female subject in a photograph I will usually adjust them separately, flattening the image between subjects
Click to Enlarge
Step 9
You’re done
Click to Enlarge
I’m diverting from the restoration tutorials because, well, it’s Winter and I want to build a snowman! The only problem with that is that I live in North Central Texas and if we ever do get snow, which we don’t very often, the ratio of snow to dead grass is most often sorely lacking! When we do get a little snowfall, schools shut down, accidents abound and everyone rushes out to make snowmen! Quite an feat in a quarter inch of snow! Needless to say, even if we could gather enough snow to make a nice, fat snowman, he’d look a little… different next to all the normal snowmen of the world! So, since there’s no chance of snow here for Christmas, I’m going to build a snowman today, with you – a Texas snowman!
First, start with a new document. I made mine 800×800 pixels. With the Elliptical Marquee tool, on a new layer, make a nice fat round shape and fill it with white.
Repeat on a new layer, making a smaller circle, placing it above the first shape. Fill with white.
Now we’ll give Snowey some depth. On the first layer, the body, choose the Inner Shadow layer style. Change the default black to a medium grey and bring the size slider up to around 75%.
Repeat on the second layer, the head, by copying and pasting the layer style, or just use the same settings. Next, make a simple nose – and I mean simple. Changing the foreground color to a nice, carrot like orange, use your brush tool to make a elongated triangle shape. Place in the general area a nose might go.
Make a new blank layer above the nose. Changing the foreground color to black, use the brush tool to make a smudge of black along the bottom edge of the nose, as shown below:
Use a Gaussian blur on it, between 7.0 and 7.5 pixels, and bring the opacity down to about 40%. Make a new blank layer and, again using the brush tool, foreground black, make a shape to the right of the nose, as shown below:
Gaussian blur, about 7.5 pixels and bring the opacity down to about 25%. On a new, blank layer, make two black dots for eyes. Add a couple layer styles, Bevel and Emboss, Inner Bevel, default settings and Drop Shadow, lower the distance to 1 pixel.
Now, for a quick scarf, and maybe some earmuffs. Of, course, you can dress him up however you like (a knit cap? A cowboy hat?), but he’s going casual today! Change the foreground to whatever color you like and draw his accessories on a new, blank layer.
Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Set the Distribution to Gaussian and check “Monochromatic”. Put the Amount slider at somewhere around 60%.
To give the earmuffs and scarf some texture, take the Blur tool and move it from the center out to give a furry look.
Now, to give him that “Texas” look – from my part of Texas, anyway!
Make a new, blank layer above the Snowey’s body and below the nose, eyes, etc. Set your foreground color to something that might resemble, oh, I don’t know…dead grass. Something like #dbcb9e. Select the brush tool and go to the Brushes engine. In Brush Tip Shape, pick and oblong oval shape. In Shape Dynamics, take the Size Jitter up to around 85%, Minimum Diameter around 25%, Angel Jitter, about 65%, Roundness Jitter, 45%. In Scattering, check “Both Axes” and take the Scatter slider up between 60 and 65%. Lower the size of the brush itself to something in keeping with the size of your snowman – remember, it’s winter and hopefully the grass was cut short at the end of Summer! “Paint” the grass in all over Snowey and clean up around the outside edges.
At least that’s how the snowmen I’ve seen look! Merry Christmas everyone!
As this is my last post of the year, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas.
It’s been an incredible year, what started as a simple website for me and a friend, has become a resource I couldn’t be more proud of. When I began writing 10 months ago I never envisaged a website where some of the world’s best Photoshop trainers would be posting alongside first timers, all of whom have done so with the same high amount of enthusiasm.
I am indebted to everyone who has helped with the website and offer my heartfelt gratitude. Everyone who has written for the website, helped with the technology or re-tweeted a post tweet, I thank you from the very bottom of my heart.
I’m excited about next year, how TipSquirrel can move forward and what new things we can do. If you have any ideas please don’t hesitate to let us know!
A special thank you to Simon, who was one of the first regular writers for TipSquirrel and eased the workload. Simon is taking a well earned rest in the new year and I take this opportunity to thank him for all the excellent posts he has contributed over the months. Simon’s Monday slot will be filled by Mike Hoffman. Regular readers may remember Mike from his excellent hallowe’en pumpkin tutorial.
Special mention too to my friend John. John very kindly offered to proofread for the site despite knowing nothing about, nor having an interest in, Photoshop. Thank you John.
Finally, thank you to Janine Smith. Like Simon Janine has been with the site for many months. Each week she produces an incredible tutorial which I can find nothing similar to anywhere else on the Internet. Her enthusiasm for the site has been unwavering.
But it is her support that I am most grateful for. In the times that I am not able to get to the computer Janine has organized things for me. When I’ve asked for help it would be greeted with a “of course”.
Happy christmas everyone. We’ll be back on Monday 4th January with Mike’s post. Guest host that week none other than Gavin Hoey!
It was another great month for TipSquirrel.com and I am, as always,grateful to everyone that contributed to the site.
Keep visiting in November for all the regulars, plus we’ll be welcoming back Andie Smith, AJ Wood and Chad Perkins. We’ll also be welcoming photographer Richard Hales for his first post at TipSquirrel.com.
Richard Harrington – Guest Post
Color Grading with Gradient MapsA brilliant tutorial on creating color effects with Photoshop “with little effort”
A. J. Wood- Guest Post
Ask AJ About Photoshop The first in a regular post where AJ answers our questions. He surprised everyone by doing it as a movie. Questions for the next edition are now being taken.
Mike Hoffman – Guest Post
Creating a Jack-O’Lantern Carving with Layer Styles – A great Halloween tutorial.
TipSquirrel
Magazine Wrap Around A redo of an earlier tutorial faking a wrap on a magazine cover
Simple Border Effects A simple, yet effective border effect using the shape tool
Make a Layer From Layer Effects Separating effects from the layer.
Masking Layer Effects The first video Top Tip Tuesday
Janine Smith
Texture Matching – When restoring a photograph you may need to match a particular texture, here’s one solution.
Smoothing Texture Removing a texture from a scanned photograph
Combo Color Correction How to adjust the color of a photograph Part 1 of 2
Color Wheel Correction How to adjust the color of a photograph Part 2 of 2
Halloweenie Brushes29 vintage Halloween brushes
Rebecca Fryer
The Magnifying Glass Effect Creating the effect of magnifying a layer, while keeping it’s versatility.
3D Glass Ball This tutorial uses Layer Effects to achieve a glass effect
Simon Rudd
Filling In With the Pen Tool Part 2 of ‘Making Line Art from A Photograph’
Shading Vectors on Photoshop Part 3 of ‘Making Line Art from A Photograph’
photoshop (v.)”to edit an image using a computer program,” 1992, originally in ref. to Photoshop, a bitmap graphics editor trademarked and published by Adobe, released in 1990.”
I don’t blame Adobe, far from it, their advertising and position in the market has led to their product becoming a verb, like Google, Hoover or Sellotape. Here’s the rub though, if I get asked to Hoover, Google or Sellotape I’m quite confident that I will manage (yes even as a male I know how to vacuum, don’t be sexist).
Because ‘Photoshop’ has become such a common word it is widely believed that it’s an easy thing to do – well, it is a computer thing so the machine does most of the work right? Ahh, dear reader, we know better. You’ll know that to truly use Photoshop you’re going to need to put in some serious learning time.
Odd then that I keep coming across advertisements offering “Master Photoshop in Two Hours” or “Learn Photoshop in a Weekend”. Coincidently, Deke McClelland’s course “Photoshop CS4 – Getting Started” runs for two hours and his entire CS4 One on One is 48 hours, so I guess the latter could be true so long as you eat at the computer and don’t sleep.
If you’re just starting on your Photoshop journey you’ll see these adverts but the reality is somewhat different, which can be a bit disheartening. I’m honest with people that ask me about learning Photoshop and I tell them that I’ve honestly lost count of the hours I’ve watched tutorials, altered images (ahhh Claire Grogan) or masked something for no reason other than for practice.
I’ll leave you now with a little story:
An 81 year old lady recently asked if I could look at a photograph of herself when she was a young lady, sadly it had got some sort of damage to it and she’d love to pass it on to her granddaughter. Of course I agreed to do what I could.
I collected the photo and soon realised this was going to be quite a tricky job, but a challenge and practice. So I got to it. A couple of evenings and much swearing later I took the finished picture round. The tears of delight on this lady’s face were worth every pixel-push, every thrown away level adjustment layer.
I told her how fascinated I was by the photo and she told me she had others in a collage type thing in a frame upstairs, I was welcome to have a look. Up I went and found the collage. In the middle was a perfect, undamaged copy of the photo I had been working on.
The morals of this tale?
1. Always ask if there is an original or at least another copy of a photo you can use for reference.
2. Make sure you enjoy what you do
3. When you think that all that learning and pixel-pushing is too much, remember, people could be moved to tears by what you do.
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