Tips in Photoshop?

[Starwars4J]

I'm taking a digital photography course this year in my university, and a large part of the course will be using Photoshop to enhance out pictures. Today we 'shopped out first pictures, and I wondered if anyone has any tips?

Here's my first picture before

and after

Tips where I could improve? Techniques that those more knowledgable with photoshop would like to share? ;-)

Keep in mind, today was the first time I used photoshop for anything other than resizing, so I'm a complete newb to it.

Thanks guys!

[Brick Miner]

well you did a good job of using highly saturated colors to create mood. so good start *y*

however, the horizon doesn't look believable, because your darkened areas now break the natural horizontal line that should continue in a straight line from one side of the image to the other.

i would use the polygonal selection tool to select the areas you want to darken. and you would want to darken the sky separate from the ocean. this would help you avoid loosing the natural horizon look.

id' say that is your first fix ;-)

hope that makes sense - BrickMiner

[Starwars4J]

well you did a good job of using highly saturated colors to create mood. so good start *y*

however, the horizon doesn't look believable, because your darkened areas now break the natural horizontal line that should continue in a straight line from one side of the image to the other.

i would use the polygonal selection tool to select the areas you want to darken. and you would want to darken the sky separate from the ocean. this would help you avoid loosing the natural horizon look.

id' say that is your first fix ;-)

hope that makes sense - BrickMiner

It definitely does, I saved the picture at each step, so I have it before the shadows were added. However when it was just the horizon, it looked too...fake. Too separate. I'll upload so you can see what I'm talking about, maybe you know a better way to make it look believable (and thanks for your help) X-D

Edit:

[Commander Wolf]

Well, I use PSP and Open Canvas for my art, but...

In general, it looks to me like you're trying to go for a high contrast piece with the darkened sky and sea. The horizon line in your second picture looks "fake" because though it's an edited piece, it is deviating from "real" physics.

I think you should darken the area not closer to the horizon, but further from it, that is, the area in the foreground, as light dissipates exponentially from the source.

That's just my two cents, I don't do photo manip, so I wouldn't have a clue as to what I'm talking about X-D

[Starwars4J]

Well, what I was going for was the shadows the clouds would cast on the sea from the sun being so close to them, but then again I don't know anything either :-P

[Commander Wolf]

Oh... huh. Good call!

In that case you might want to try and fine a way to mirror the part of the image above the horizon onto the part below it and see if you could draw out some more exacting shadows.

[JINZONINGEN73]

Dark clouds not scary enough. Needs a little more danger.

[Brick Miner]

for some reason i can't view your second image SW4J... otherwise i'd try to give some more feedback ;-)

- BrickMiner

[Starwars4J]

Damn you, Jinzo, making my crappy Photoshopping skills look like crap :'-( :-P

And BM...that's weird. It's what Jinzo based his pic off of, so if you can see his...

And I'm already redoing it, I'll post the results

[oo7]

Damn you, Jinzo, making my crappy Photoshopping skills look like crap :'-( :-P

And BM...that's weird. It's what Jinzo based his pic off of, so if you can see his...

And I'm already redoing it, I'll post the results

Yeah, I'm seeing Jinzo's but not yours.

[Jipay]

Ray tracing is missing. You obviiously have a problem because the orange/yellow/red colors of the sun don't reflect enough on the sea surface !

Plus as the other says, something is sort of wrong with the clouds. Tip of the day : try using pastel pink colors in the sky, like on this picture I took last week :

As you can see, it's sort of the opposite of your picture, the sky is quite clear, and earth's surface is somehow dark. But still that's only my advice and I'm not sure what you are supposed to accomplish with this image

[JINZONINGEN73]

Damn you, Jinzo, making my crappy Photoshopping skills look like crap :'-( :-P

It gets better. I'm only using regular old Paint lol.

I don't even USE photoshop! :-D

[Starwars4J]

It gets better. I'm only using regular old Paint lol.

I don't even USE photoshop! :-D

Ouch. That was low :-P

[Brick Miner]

SW4J... i am seeing a strange conrast in the color of the water... there is a straight line just under the horizon where the water is dark, and above that line, the water has much more hue.

what it looks like to me is that your gradient layer has shifted down ;-)

but this is all based off of jinzo's version.

one problem i see is that there is no definition underneith the dark clouds. no detail... just looks like a black blob... i do have one suggestion for that layer... you might try some "layer blending options" like "hue" or "color burn", etc... they always produce some interesting results fo rme :-D

you could also render a lense flare... they look good, but anyone who knows anything about photoshop will just think it's just cheesy ;-)

- BrickMiner

[Kahgarak]

It gets better. I'm only using regular old Paint lol.

So do i.I only use PhotoShop if i REALLY need special effects.If not,Paint is fine for me.

By the way,i learned how to make pics transparent,so that i can place them on real photo's without a white square around it!

Like this.

[Jipay]

you could also render a lense flare... they look good, but anyone who knows anything about photoshop will just think it's just cheesy ;-)

- BrickMiner

Don't, I second the cheesy effect. It's the kind of stuff you find cool because it looks good itself. In fact the flare should only be used on specific occasions ! Your picture is one of those, but if the flare is put on the wrong location with the wrong color, it will just look bad ! ;-)

[JINZONINGEN73]

SW4J... i am seeing a strange conrast in the color of the water... there is a straight line just under the horizon where the water is dark, and above that line, the water has much more hue.

what it looks like to me is that your gradient layer has shifted down ;-)

but this is all based off of jinzo's version.

That was accidental, but I kept it because I liked it better.

The clouds rolling in on his altered version looked fake, so I stole from the original, also to give a flat horizon for the Cyberman. X-D

So do i.I only use PhotoShop if i REALLY need special effects.If not,Paint is fine for me.

Smart. Everyone should learn the simplicity of Paint's functions before ever even touching more technical editors.

I ONLY use:

-Paint

-Alam DV2 ( for lightsaber and gunfire / explosion effects )

-Jasc animationshop 2

No matter what I use, there's ALWAYS Paint open during editing in any other program. SO much faster.

By the way,i learned how to make pics transparent,

God, that took me forever to find out lol. I never knew it was even there. X D

Just remember... if you spend an hour cutting out an image to get it's transparent background version, ALWAYS save it as a 24bit bitmap. Like, if I'm making a photo of a cat with a laser eye, I save the cat's cutout as like "catlaserPROTOTYPE" just so I can use him again wherever I want to.

If you accidentally save as jpg ...BOOM! ...you just lost that transparent effect and have to do it all over again.

>__<

[Brick Miner]

there is way too much MS talk going on this this thread *wacko* :-X

[Starwars4J]

Well, I re-did it, toning it down some

[JINZONINGEN73]

Hmm. The horizon is VERY forced, far too defined.

If I remember correctly, when one looks out across the ocean, the horizon they see is around 11 miles away.

In your picture, one is seeing straight to that line on the horizon without having any air molecules in between obscuring it's view.

Kind of like rougher Playstation 1 games, where the only way to accurately determine distance from objects is the order in which the computer lagged in drawing them in the background. X-D

Well, what I was going for was the shadows the clouds would cast on the sea from the sun being so close to them, but then again I don't know anything either tong.gif

Is this still your goal? If so, it's still not ominous enough.

Compared to the first 2 pics you posted, the light now illuminates the water in a way that it could almost be passed off as an icy plain, that image helped along by the hyper-defined horizon which likely wouldn't be 11 miles off.

It's a strange perspective, but it clicks in if you stare at it long enough.

[JINZONINGEN73]

(I'm too unlearn-ed to add transparent shadows to implanted objects yet.)