In the previous Photoshop Workbench, we used Vanishing Point to add a second Taj Mahal with correct perspective further in the distance. Since recording that Workbench, I’ve added a reflection. Today, we’re going to make the composite look more believable by adding atmospheric distortion to these distant subjects. We’ll explore three techniques…one using white paint, [...]
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I recently sat in on a compositing seminar with Ben Willmore and learned several clever techniques for working with perspective in a photo composite. In today’s Photoshop Workbench, I’m excited to share the best of what I learned. Special Note: For those who have been following my Workbench posts via Google Reader, I have sad [...]
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In today’s Photoshop Workbench, we’re going to embark on an entertaining retouching project that requires a little creative thinking. I was recently asked by my friend, Luke Seaward, if it’s possible to replace a silhouette in one photo with a silhouette from another photo. Of course, thanks to Photoshop, my answer was a resounding “YES!” [...]
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When Google recently purchased Nik Software and lowered the price of the entire Nik Collection from $499 to $149, hundreds of my audience members made the leap…and rightfully so…Nik makes absolutely awesome plug-ins. Now that so many of you own the Collection, it seems like a fitting moment to share a tutorial that comprehensively covers [...]
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Today, I’m going to depart from my usual format. Rather than sharing a step-by-step video tutorial, I’d like to share a personal story about giving yourself permission to listen deeply to your creative soul. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a passion for compositing. In recent years, thanks in part to Matt [...]
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Photomatix Pro and Nik HDR Efex Pro are awesome pieces of software for creating richly detailed HDR scenes, yet they both tend to produce haloes where dark edges meet bright edges. Although there are ways to reduce the haloes in Photomatix and HDR Efex, a brand new Photoshop-only method is now available. I recently read [...]
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If you enjoy photo compositing, you know that you can never have too many background resources. And sometimes, especially in the case of creative projects (such as book cover and movie poster composites), this means building your own backgrounds from existing photos or stock images. In today’s Photoshop Workbench, we’ll use atmosphere to realistically fuse [...]
View PostCompositing with photos is one of my all-time favorite endeavors. I relish the opportunity to exercise my creative muscles while crafting a scene with cinematic qualities that might not be possible to create with only a camera. In today’s Photoshop Workbench, we’ll examine one of the techniques that is most essential to making a composite [...]
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I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to enhance or create beautiful lighting in scenes. After all, when you boil it all down, photography is really all about the light. The quality of light can make or break a photograph. In today’s Photoshop Workbench, I’d like to share a technique for adding [...]
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If you’re unfamiliar with the term “shoot through,” it refers to shooting through a colorful foreground subject, such as a rose bush, that is extremely close to the lens using a shallow depth-of-field aperture, such as f/2.8, to produce an effect with a blurred foreground and a sharp background subject. When the effect works, it [...]
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If you’ve watched even a few of my Photoshop Workbench tutorials, you know that adjustment layers are a great way to alter mood and lighting. But what you might not know is that there is a powerful, fun, and simple alternative to adjustment layers…blend modes. That’s right folks, blend modes are good for a whole [...]
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In last week’s Photoshop Workbench, we learned how to record a series of steps into an action that we can play back on other images. In this week’s edition, we’ll go a step further and use Photoshop’s powerful Batch command to apply the action to a folder full of images. Additionally, we’ll create a droplet [...]
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