Tutorial & DIY: High Contrast Colour Pop (Photoshop)

Today’s tutorial is yet another one about photo editing. It seems that’s all I’ve been thinking about this month, so next week we’ll be back on cameras, swearsies!

In the meantime, this is for Photoshop users to apply with layers. Again, I’ll reiterate in Photoshop there are a million different ways to arrive at the same result. I received a few emails asking why I did *this* and not *that* - there are no right or wrong ways to do something so long as you get the effect you’re looking for. I’m just showing a few tricks from my Mary Poppins-esque bag that I use, and it wasn’t meant to cause doubt on what techniques others use.

This trick in particular has been my go-to for quick (and I mean quick) and easy colour pops since I first started working on layout and designs at a magazine ten years ago. I still turn to it because a) I’m a creature of habit and b) have I mentioned it’s easy? And quick?

Av (Aperture Priority Mode) | f/3.2 @ 1/200, ISO 400, 17-55mm lens @ 35mm

This is a portion of the original image as opened up in Photoshop. I’ve had a few questions about what version of PS I use; I’m on CS5 but previous versions will definitely do the same work we’re about to examine here. As for light, it was a bright sunny day and the windows and back door were all open and behind me.

So, you’re going to go to the window that shows your layers and right click on ‘Background’ to reveal this menu. Select ‘Duplicate Layer…’

Je suis lazy bones and I don’t rename the layer, and so mine is called ‘Background copy’. Anywhoodles, you’re then going to click on the dropdown menu that is just under that ‘LAYERS’ tab. At the get-go, it should say ‘Normal’ but you’re going to ultimately select ‘Soft Light.’

Then, flatten the layers together and it should look a little something like this. All of those layer merging methods are worth playing around with, as well. This one just happens to be my default.

And, of course, it’s a method not without it’s faults. The skin tones can get oversaturated and need adjusting, and the colours may need fiddled with. But it’s a great starting point and an instant eye catcher.

Have fun!

xo, Tamara

If you’d like to see more examples, there’s a whole post devoted to this series on my baby blog here.

14 September 7 Permalink

Question a Day | Raw to JPEG to Photoshop

Q: Anonymous asked:

ok, i take my pictures in RAW, then upload them to iphoto in order to sort through and delete, and then when i open in photoshop they’re all jpeg…what am i doing wrong, how do i maintain RAW, can you walk me through your process?

A: I’m going to enter this is the caveat that I only really know what I do, and somewhat was others do. I realize that is limited and… er, unhelpful here, so if there is another way around this, please someone let us know so I can pass it along!

In my experience, you’ll need this plug-in which will allow you to open RAW files in Photoshop rather than elsewhere (iPhoto, etc.) and have them automatically converted into JPEGs. You would convert them yourself, eventually, to print them or post on the web. It’s my opinion, though, to do the majority of your handiwork to the JPEG files and leave RAW be so that you always have the original ‘negative’ preserved as a back-up. 

I went a’hunting for a workflow technique that may help you more specifically, but all I found was a tutorial using snake photos as examples and… I won’t lie. I hadz the skeevies willie nillie creepy crawlies, so I bailed. 

Personally, I upload into Lightroom for cataloguing and selection, and then export to Photoshop as JPEGs. But finding the right workflow for you depends on your style, time, equipment and desired technique. In a lot of ways, the plug-in intrigues me… I’m always up for a workflow shake up in the name of efficiency. If you try it, let us know how it goes!

15 July 1 Permalink