Pixelated Portrait Effect

In this quick tutorial you'll learn how to add a subtle and stylish pixelated effect to portrait photographs.

With your photo open in Photoshop, first duplicate it's layer by dragging it to the new layer button at the bottom of the layer's panel.

 

Select the copied layer and go to Filter>Pixelate>Mosaic.

The Cell Size you use will depend on the size of your photo, for this one I've used 25.

Next give the layer a layer mask by clicking on the layer mask button.

Select the Gradient Tool and use a black to white Linear Gradient.

With the layer mask thumbnail selected, draw the gradient horizontally across a small part of the front of the face, or wherever you want the pixels to begin.

Finally set the Layer's blending mode to Hard Light, and take it's Opacity down to 70%.

Here's the Final Result..

Three Ways to Select Your Image in Photoshop

This tutorial will introduce you to three very different and very simple ways to help select your image. Selection is the basis to running it all in Photoshop.

Method No.1. "Edit in Quick Mask Mode"

1. Open an image in Photoshop.

2. Select brush tool and set its size according to what you select on your image. For example, set the brush size to 8 pixels when you select something really tiny.

3. Foreground color must be black.

4. Before applying the brush to your image for selection, click on Edit in Quick Mask Mode. Now your brush is ready for selection. Notice that the areas you apply your brush to turn pink. If your selection goes out, you can fix it by first setting the foreground to white, and then using your brush tool to ‘erase off’ the unwanted selection. To continue your work, ensure that you reset the foreground color to black. To make it easier on your nerves, you might want to try zooming in and out on your image. It really helps.

5. To zoom in press CTRL +

6. To zoom out press CTRL -

  
7. When you’re satisfied with the selection you’ve made, click on Edit in Quick Mask Mode again.

8. Press CTRL+SHIFT+ I

  
9. Now press CTRL + J. A new layer consisting of only what you’d selected will be created.

That’s method 1.

Method No. 2. "Quick Selection Tool"

1. Open an image in Photoshop.

2. Select Quick Selection Tool.

3. You can change the size of the selection tool according to what you select on your image. Also, you must take note of two more important features. These are the angle and the roundness of the selection tool. You can change these depending on your selection needs.


4. To fix a selection, or to deselect a selection, use the Subtract from selection tool.

5. Press CTRL + J

That’s method 2.

Method No. 3. "Color Range"


1. Open an image in Photoshop.
Now I am going to select all flowers. For this image the best way of selection is Color Range.

2. Go to Select > Color Range.

3.  Pick the Eyedropper tool and click on the red color on your image. To select the different shades of red on your image, make use of the Add to Sample tool.

When you’re done, just click OK.

4. Press CTRL + J.

That’s method 3.

Now, to change the background of your layer with another image, you can simply load a new image and drag and drop it onto the selection layer.

Taking Memorable Photos of Children

By Nancy Hill

Children are a favorite subject for many photographers. Advertisers know a photo of an adorable child will grab people’s attention. Fundraisers know an image of a sick, wounded, or sad child will bring in donations. And parents cannot imagine a better subject than their child. Parents take cameras to sporting events, school functions, and parties. It seems like every moment of a child’s life is documented either in a still photograph or in a video. But how many photos of children are truly memorable?
Here are some tips on getting shots that draw total strangers into your photographs of children.

Take Time to Get to Know the Child
Most children let you into their world quickly. Before you start taking a picture, spend at least 10 minutes talking to the child. Ask questions about things that interest the child. Good openers include:
“Do you like bugs?”
“Would you rather be a giraffe or a butterfly?”
“What’s your favorite game?
Pay attention to how the child responds. Does he/she make eye contact? Capture that confidence when you take his/her picture. Does the child laugh at the questions or seriously contemplate them? Look for that sense of whimsy or pensive side when you take the picture. Does the child doodle when he/she responds? Then look for ways to show the child is creative. Does the child twist her hair while she’s thinking? Great. Include that in a photo.
If you’re taking photos of your own child, you already know your child’s personality traits, his/her habits, his/her facial expressions. Capture those instead of (or in addition to) a posed in-front-of-the-camera smile.

Observe, Observe, Observe
After you talk to the child, explain you’re going to get your camera ready and back away. The child will soon lose interest in you, giving you a chance to observe the child relating to the world. Inquisitive? Intent? Distracted? Capture that in your images.
If you’re taking photos of your own child, try observing your child as if you don’t know him/her at all. You’ll probably see some things you haven’t noticed before.

Be Unobtrusive
Use a telephoto lens. The best photographs of children are those when a kid is acting like a kid. To capture that and all the emotions that go with it, you need to be an unobtrusive as possible. Use a telephoto lens so you can have some real distance between you and the child. This will help the child tune you out and do whatever he or she does best, whether it’s play, dream, run around, make up stories. Capture that.
Alternately, move in close to the child to capture a curve of the cheek, curls tumbling down a forehead, eyes deep in thought.

Show the Child’s Environment
Try to take your photographs in a place that means something to the child. A bedroom, playroom, playground, field – all of these say something about how the child relates to the world. Does the child run freely across the open field or sit quietly reading a book? Does the child see how high he or she can climb a tree or does he/she prefer to lean against it and pet his/her dog? Is the child’s room spotless, showing the child’s organizational bent, or is it a wild jumble of clothes and toys?

Look for the Extraordinary in the Ordinary
Take photos of the child doing everyday things like eating breakfast, elbows on the table, hair not yet combed; sleeping, curled up with a favorite animals or spread eagle, blankets off, bold even in sleep; doing homework, scowling over a difficult problem or with one eye on the TV. These say a whole lot about who the child is, which is way more moving than a posed photo with perfectly combed hair and a brand new outfit.

Try Shooting in Black and White
This really adds drama. Check it out. You can have black and white prints made from color negatives. You can also turn digital prints into black and white either in your camera (depending on which camera you use) or in a photo software program.

Above all, respect the child’s world. It is complex, compelling, and very, very deep.

How to design Blog Calendar Icon in Photoshop

In this Photoshop tutorial you will learn how to design Blog Calendar Icon. We will be using some tools like Rectangle Tool, Marquee Selection Tool, Horizontal Type tool etc. We will also learn some Layer Styles techniques like, Gradient Overlay, Inner Glow, Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow etc. Nice tutorial for those who are new to Photoshop and wanted to learn Icon Design technique. Lets start.

Step 1:

Let’s start out by creating a new file. I used a 200×200 pixels canvas set at 72dpi, and I filled my background with #D0E8EA color shade. In a new layer, draw a gray rectangle with #A7A7A7 color shade and 96 x 63 px dimensions.

Step 2:

Under Layer add a Gradient Overlay blending option to your gray rectangle layer.

Result:

Step 3:

In a new layer, draw a white rectangle with 92 x 45 px dimensions. Then cut the bottom left corner as shown below.

Step 4:

Under Layer Style (Layer > Layer Style) add a Gradient Overlay blending option to your white rectangle layer.

Result:

Step 5:

In a new layer, draw a light gray right triangle on the cut out corner of the white rectangle. Then in another layer, draw a red rectangle with #FF0000 color shade and 92 x 17 px dimensions.

Step 6:

Under Layer Style (Layer > Layer Style) add an Inner Glow blending option to the red rectangle layer.

Result:

Step 7:

In a new layer, draw a small gray rectangle with #D2D2D2 color shade and 6 x 12 px dimensions as shown below.

Step 8:

Under Layer Style (Layer > Layer Style) add a Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, and Gradient Overlay blending options to the small gray rectangle layer.

Result:

Step 9:

Duplicate the small gray rectangle design and place it as shown below. Now select the Horizontal Type Tool then set the font family to Arial, regular, 12 pt, none and white color shade. In a new text layer type the month on the middle of the small gray rectangle designs.

Step 10:

In a new text layer add the day using font Arial, bold, 20 pt, smooth, and #6D6D6D color shade. Then in another text layer add the month below the day with smaller fonts.

Results:

So here is our Final Clean Blog Calendar Icon Design which we just made in Photoshop, hopefully you like working on it and learn something by following this tutorial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boost Color Contrast With A Black & White Adjustment

I'll be using Photoshop CS5 for this tutorial. Since the Black & White adjustment was first added in Photoshop CS3, you'll need CS3 or higher to follow along.

Here's the photo I'll be working with:

 Let's get started!

Step 1: Add A Black & White Adjustment Layer

Before we can do anything with a Black & White adjustment layer, we first need to add one. There's a couple of ways we can do that. One is by clicking on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel:

Then choosing Black & White from the list of adjustment layers that appears:

Or, if you're using Photoshop CS4 or higher, an easier way to add a Black & White adjustment layer is by simply clicking on the Black & White icon in the Adjustments panel:

Either way adds a new Black & White adjustment layer above the image in the Layers panel:

The adjustment layer will go ahead and do what it was originally designed for and convert your photo to black and white. We'll bring the color back in the next step:

Step 2: Change The Blend Mode To Soft Light

To bring color back to the image, change the blend mode of the adjustment layer from Normal to Soft Light. The Blend Mode option is found in the top left corner of the Layers panel:

The color returns to the photo. You may already notice a change in the overall contrast of the image, but we'll make our own adjustments in the next step:

Step 3: Drag The Color Sliders To Adjust The Contrast

If you're using Photoshop CS3, the controls and options for the Black & White adjustment layer will appear in a dialog box. In Photoshop CS4 and higher, they appear in the Adjustments panel. In either case, you'll see six sliders, each controlling a different color in the image (from top to bottom - Reds, Yellows, Greens, Cyans, Blues, and Magentas):

We can use these sliders to adjust the brightness of different areas of the image based on their color. Dragging a slider towards the left will darken all areas in the image that contain that color, while dragging the slider towards the right will brighten those same areas.

For example, let's say I want to darken the sky in my photo. The sky is blue, so all I need to do is click on the Blues slider and drag it to the left:

And just like that, the sky now appears darker, changing the overall contrast of the image:

If I want to brighten the grass and the trees, it's as easy as dragging a different slider in the opposite direction. There's actually more yellow than green in the grass and trees, so I'll click on the Yellows slider and drag it towards the right. Photoshop gives us a live preview of the results as we're dragging the sliders, so keep an eye on your image in the document window to judge the results:

After dragging the Yellows slider, the grass and trees in my image are now lighter, again changing the overall contrast:

Clicking And Dragging On The Image Itself

If you're using Photoshop CS4 or higher, it's even easier to make changes to the image. In fact, there's no need to use the sliders at all! Just click on the slider icon (the hand with the left and right-pointing arrows) in the top left of the Adjustments panel:

With this slider option enabled, you can click directly on whatever area of your image you want to adjust, then just keep your mouse button held down and drag left or right to darken or lighten that area (along with any other areas of the image that share the same color).

For example, to make the horses in my photo appear brighter, with the slider option enabled, I'll move my mouse cursor over one of the horses (I'll use the one on the right). Since both horses are the same color, brightening one of them will brighten the other at the same time. As soon as you move your mouse cursor over the image, it will turn into an eyedropper icon, ready to sample whatever color you click on:

I'll click on the horse and, with my mouse button held down, I'll drag towards the right to lighten the horse, as well as any other areas of the image that share the same color (the other horse on the left, plus the red barn in the background). If you watch the sliders in the Adjustments panel, you'll see the corresponding color slider moving as you drag your mouse (in my case here, the Reds slider would be moving to the right):

Since we're using an adjustment layer, all of the changes we're making here are non-destructive, which means we can safely experiment with the color sliders, or by clicking and dragging directly on the image itself, until we're happy with the results. Earlier I lightened the grass and trees, but if I want to see how the image would look with the grass and trees darker instead of lighter, I can just click anywhere on the grass or trees in the image and drag my mouse towards the left:

Before And After

If, at any time, you want to compare the original and edited versions of the image, simply click on the adjustment layer's visibility icon (the eyeball icon). This will temporarily turn the Black & White layer off:

With the adjustment layer turned off, the original image re-appears in the document window:

Click on the visibility icon again (the empty box) to turn the Black & White adjustment layer back on:

The edited version re-appears:

For Photoshop CS3 users, click OK in the top right corner of the Black & White dialog box when you're done to close out of it and accept your changes. Photoshop CS4 (and higher) users can leave the Adjustments panel open.

Step 4: Lower The Layer Opacity (Optional)

As a final step, if you think the image contrast is now a bit too strong, you can reduce it and fine-tune the results simply by lowering the opacity of the Black & White adjustment layer. You'll find the Opacity option directly across from the Blend Mode option at the top of the Layers panel. The further you lower the opacity value, the more the original image below the adjustment layer will show through. I'm going to lower my opacity value down to 75% or so:

Here's my final result:

 And there we have it! That's how to quickly and easily make specific brightness and contrast changes to a full color image using a Black & White adjustment layer!